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Message: [QUOTE="OrangePA, post: 3556122, member: 204"] A few things. First, we have not been bouncing off the bottom since the year 2000. That's not accurate. We were still very competitive through 2003 and won a share of the Big East in 2004. If you've been around since 1969, then you already know the answer to the question you have raised. Syracuse University is a relatively poor private institution. BC, NW, Duke all have larger endowments than we do - and it's not close. Except for some brief moments - Manley Field House in 1962 and the Carrier Dome in 1980 - the football program has been way - way - behind its so-called private peers in terms of football infrastructure. When Marrone was here, he complained that the Football Program was [B]dead last [/B]in the Big East in terms of facilities. He promised the Administration that if he could be funded to the point where he was in the [B]middle [/B]of the Big East pack, he would win. And he was talking about basic facilities such as physical training facilities. So, that has been the fundamental problem since the early 1990s. I have repeated this many times and I still believe it. When the Administration fired Pasqualoni in 2004, it made a fundamental miscalculation - it figured the problem with the 6-6 football Program was coaching. That was not true. The problem was funding. And so from that point we began a period of coaching moves that resulted in a great deal of instability. You can't change coaching staffs every four years and expect to develop and maintain much-needed recruiting contacts. This isn't brain surgery. You don't need a consultant to figure it out. It's money, facilities, and coaching stability - assuming you have a solid staff. At this point, I feel at least that we have a solid staff. So, again, I think we not panic about this anomalous COVID season and try to stay the course, knowing that the new Dome and the plans to rebuild the facilities will have a positive impact. [/QUOTE]

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