Gross Targeted Pelini In 2004

[GoSU96]

TWO was well aware of the importance of a successful football program. The blowout to Purdue and bad losses to UVA, WfVU and Temple likely got her attention.

I believe that Nancy wanted him gone and that a loss in the bowl game would've led to his firing. Jake wanted no part of this and it is my belief that this led to both his decision to leave earlier than expected and possibly an expedited AD search (I know that TGD was very impressive in the interview process). The absolute embarrassing showing in the bowl game made it a no brainer. Tirico's reaction following the TGD interview was classic.

Yeah, a no brainer for those with no brain.

Stupid move that resulted in the long trail of pain since.

She's the Grob of college administrators.

 

[Scooch]

Yeah, a no brainer for those with no brain. Stupid move that resulted in the long trail of pain since. She's the Grob of college administrators.

Well. the GRob years certainly were abysmal.

But...

In the last six years of P we were 39-33.

In the six years post GRob we are 35-40.

Worse, but not catastrophically worse.

The pain was 4 years.

A half dozen years on either side have been similarly mediocre.

 

[rrlbees]

Yeah, a no brainer for those with no brain. Stupid move that resulted in the long trail of pain since. She's the Grob of college administrators.

Regardless of the hire afterwards, 16-20 including several embarrassing blowouts or losses to scrubs, warranted the firing.

 

[N.Y. Orangeman]

Did those intelligent folk reach out and negotiate with Edsal? Did they offer Holtz? Did they reach out to Gilbride and others to assess their interest in interviewing? Search committees search but it doesn't mean they have the final say. What if Holtz had said yes?

What we know also know is that TGD didn't have the final say either.

 

[GoSU96]

Regardless of the hire afterwards, 16-20 including several embarrassing blowouts or losses to scrubs, warranted the firing.

Why ignore the prior 11 years, how can you say regardless. It's a direct consequence of the decision.

Are you sure you have a path to get better has to be part of that decision. They weren't prepared to deal with the opening and the program has paid the price since.

The Grob error wasn't an accident. They weren't forced into doing what they did. It was a total management disaster.

 

[SmilinBob]

What was P's plan? To work harder and change the 24 hour day into a 30 hour day? The college game has passed him and Deleon by and it was time for a move. Maybe the extra year would have been better and more time for the new AD to evaluate but that team looked lost at times and no QB on the horizon.

 

[elimunelson]

Well. the GRob years certainly were abysmal.

But...

In the last six years of P we were 39-33.

In the six years post GRob we are 35-40.

Worse, but not catastrophically worse.

The pain was 4 years.

A half dozen years on either side have been similarly mediocre.

I'd take back the 1999-2004 years in a heartbeat right now if we are going to grade Pasqualoni on his down years.

The more down years we have the more impressed I am with Pasqualoni and the work he did with the supposed impediments to having successful football in Syracuse. Yeah we didn't have a QB, the game may have passed him by a little bit, etc. I get all that but it seems like if the high water mark with a great mastermind Doug Marrone was 7-8 wins then yeah, Pasqualoni was damn good.

The next head coach would be well served to talk to Paul and figure out what he did right back then (as well as what he did wrong).

 

[GoSU96]

What was P's plan? To work harder and change the 24 hour day into a 30 hour day? The college game has passed him and Deleon by and it was time for a move. Maybe the extra year would have been better and more time for the new AD to evaluate but that team looked lost at times and no QB on the horizon.

He went 6-6 with two first year QB's. You think what they ran wouldn't have worked with Patterson or Fields and a backfield of Rhodes, Rice, Brinkley, Fiammetta, the last three for three or four years. You had an OL with Franklin and Ojinaka coming back and Madison and Durand as underclassmen.

At least be responsible and take a year to understand the issues.

This year was probably the worst offense in SU history. If that doesn't warrant a housecleaning, not sure how two six and six seasons with one losing in 14 merited summary execution at a bowl game.

 

[SmilinBob]

He went 6-6 with two first year QB's. You think what they ran wouldn't have worked with Patterson or Fields and a backfield of Rhodes, Rice, Brinkley, Fiammetta, the last three for three or four years. You had an OL with Franklin and Ojinaka coming back and Madison and Durand as underclassmen.

At least be responsible and take a year to understand the issues.

This year was probably the worst offense in SU history. If that doesn't warrant a housecleaning, not sure how two six and six seasons with one losing in 14 merited summary execution at a bowl game.

I agree with what you are saying...I really do. But, P made that decision happen quicker than it should have been made in most part because of what direction they were going and those players you listed are a big reason why, recruiting was going bye bye slowly year by year. It wasn't just P's fault as Jake let everything else go football wise as well.

 

[GoSU96]

I agree with what you are saying...I really do. But, P made that decision happen quicker than it should have been made in most part because of what direction they were going and those players you listed are a big reason why, recruiting was going bye bye slowly year by year. It wasn't just P's fault as Jake let everything else go football wise as well.

The players listed are a big reason why?

Don't understand that at all.

 

[SmilinBob]

The players listed are a big reason why?

Don't understand that at all.

You are right it didn't make sense, I was thinking qb as a black hole.

 

[GoSU96]

You are right it didn't make sense, I was thinking qb as a black hole.

Both of those guys were good enough athletes to get invited to NFL camps, and Fields hung around for a couple of years as a DB if I'm not mistaken.

 

[SmilinBob]

Both of those guys were good enough athletes to get invited to NFL camps, and Fields hung around for a couple of years as a DB if I'm not mistaken.

Fields was not a qb which is what DeLeone needed and it seems everyone does. I wish we could have had the hindsight to see what would have happened if P stayed one more year and maybe you're right things could have changed. But, after watching the debacle a UConn and how P and Deleone did there I still see the firing as the right call but maybe a year later to get the ducks in a row.

 

[elimunelson]

Fields was not a qb which is what DeLeone needed and it seems everyone does. I wish we could have had the hindsight to see what would have happened if P stayed one more year and maybe you're right things could have changed. But, after watching the debacle a UConn and how P and Deleone did there I still see the firing as the right call but maybe a year later to get the ducks in a row.

I think this is a fair way to describe it. Every reasonable person would agree to this in some form or fashion. Pasqualoni was deserving of another year regardless of the bowl performance. It also allowed the university to start sniffing around at candidates and getting a better feel for the position and who would fill it correctly. Maybe Paul wins 9 games in 2005 and he figures out what he was doing wrong for the past few years.

Or maybe he (and Gross) figures out (like we have seen over the past 10 years) that Syracuse is now faced with major head winds like Uconn and Rutgers (no facilities, etc) and the expectations are unrealistic to win 10 games again in this new paradigm.

 

[Scooch]

I think this is a fair way to describe it. Every reasonable person would agree to this in some form or fashion. Pasqualoni was deserving of another year regardless of the bowl performance. It also allowed the university to start sniffing around at candidates and getting a better feel for the position and who would fill it correctly. Maybe Paul wins 9 games in 2005 and he figures out what he was doing wrong for the past few years.

Or maybe he (and Gross) figures out (like we have seen over the past 10 years) that Syracuse is now faced with major head winds like Uconn and Rutgers (no facilities, etc) and the expectations are unrealistic to win 10 games again in this new paradigm.

I don't know about deserving. Not for nothing, but P has no one to blame but himself for getting canned in 2004. And we were the worse off for it.

We lost to freakin' Temple. 2-9, awful, terrible, Temple.

Win that game and we would have won the conference. He's not getting fired even if Utah beat us by 100 in the Fiesta Bowl that year.

I maintain to this day that if P had simply beaten an awful Rutgers team in 2003 and a craptastic Temple team in 2004 he might be here to this day. Who knows? But he wouldn't have been fired in a luxury box in Orlando in December 2004, that's for sure.