Syracuse Football: Doug Marrone is a hot candidate, does he deserve it?

Former Syracuse football head coach, Doug Marrone, is again a hot NFL coaching candidate. But the question is, does he deserve to be?

As I have previously stated I have been a Syracuse football season ticket holder since 2008. So I understand the draw of Doug Marrone. He was the most desired candidate available by Tim Green and Floyd Little. He was also the first Syracuse alumni to be the head coach since 1948. (Reaves H. Baysinger). This seemed like a match made in heaven, a home town boy coming back to his alma mater to restore it to the Glory Days.

Things did not start or finish well however. The first campaign earned the Orange only four wins (only one win in the power house that was the Big East football). The remaining years he met with some success, going 8-5 twice, however play was not consistent. His third year with the team yielded only a 5-7 record. He also did not leave a lot in the tank for his hand picked replacement who only managed a 14-23 record the three seasons following Doug Marrone’s departure.

Along the way he failed to perform one of his primary responsibilities as a college coach, teach and develop his young players. An example of that is Mike Williams who walked away from the team as the leading receiver for the Orange due to a disagreement with the head coach. There also was not a lot of love lost between the head ball coach and his assistant coaches. Bob Casullo who worked with Doug both in the NFL and at Syracuse referred to him as self-centered and greedy.

His time in Buffalo yielded a 15-17 record. Somehow those seasons 6-10 & 9-7 (neither earning a trip to the playoffs) convinced this ego-maniac to opt out of his contract the Bills. Granted that 9-7 in Buffalo is seen as the second coming of Christ but around the rest of the league you didn’t make the playoffs and got a middle of the road draft pick.

Always coming through with class, after the news had broken of his departure he sent a group

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text to the Bills letting them know he had moved on. Reports from Buffalo revealed Doug was more interested in what type of socks players were wearing at practice and whether they could wear sweaters in a team meeting than wins and losses. The players found out on New Years Eve and several stated it enhanced their celebrations that night.

For those of you that believe in karma what happened next is beautiful. The front runner for the open Jets position tanked his interview and he ended up as an offensive line coach for the worst team in the NFL.

So back to the top; Does he deserve it? The answer is clearly NO. But with vacancies at the time of writing this article in Jacksonville, Los Angeles, San Franciso, San Diego, Denver and Buffalo he may get one. And the special team that pulls up the short bus to let him on may just get what they deserve.

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