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Message: [QUOTE="Ottoble, post: 1443477, member: 2539"] This may be a longer answer than you were looking for but: Yes very good friends, I believe their Wives are best friends, and former college roommates if I recall. O'Brien and Doug are also close friends due prior coaching history together and this continued bond between their wives. You may recall that they were friends because they were reported to take their annual off season vacations together, even in 2009 when we were scheduled to play them. But, you probably remember this because it was also reportedly the main reasoning Marrone did not recruit any players away from Pstate during the unrestricted transfer period following the initial sanctions, which allowed other teams to openly recruit transfers until the start of the 2012 season, and did not require a player to sit out a year. This was even though our roster was heavily depleted due to transfers and injury. Specifically Running back Curtis Dukes was much of the talk for SU at the time, given that he was from the Watertown area (Indian River HS), had been recruited by SU in Marrone's first year, and there were rumblings of his concerns over playing time behind Silas Redd and his relationship with the new coaching staff. Of course that coaching staff included Marrone's good friend who I expect would have advised him. Silas Redd transferred to USC, never matching his Pstate numbers but sticking in the NFL after signing as a UDFA; we didn't recruit Dukes and he stayed at Pstate. Dukes got passed over for the starting and backup slot to his vocal distaste in 2012 and left PSU after that season. I assume he still has eligibility remaining since I don't think he ever entered the draft but he had some academic concerns the season before all this happened that may have played a factor in not transferring somewhere else after that season, which I believe would also have been unrestricted. Marrone demonstrated some class, perhaps ill advised class in this cut throat CFB world, and respect for O'Brien by doing this and by my estimation PState lost many fewer players due to similar respect from other coaches for O'Brien who was reportedly very well connected in coaching ranks, ala grabbing an NFL job a short time later. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?