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Message: [QUOTE="RF2044, post: 57877, member: 40"] I think that some people have lost perspective on how abysmally bad we were three years ago, and how big of a reclamation project [in every sense of the world--personnel, facilities, culture of losing, etc.] the Syracuse University football program was. There's been an upward trend every year. Year one was frustrating, but the players bought into the program and played much more competitively. We also saw an inept defense under GRob transform into an athletic, hard hitting one with most of the same personnel. Year two, we get to 7 regular season wins, actually win some road games, get to a bowl, and defeat a team that this season was undefeated [until last night] and ranked in the top 10. This year, 5-3. I'm not going to make excuses for Marrone. I think recruiting needs to improve. And I think that the offense seems inept more often than they seem productive. But I feel like last year's bowl appearance was fool's gold in a sense--not because we didn't deserve to be there [we did], but because it made a large portion of the fanbase prematurely think that we were back, and that we'd take another colossal leap forward. The discussion above about how long it will take is interesting to me. We're about at the point where we FINALLY will be working with a full roster again. Next season [barring the unforeseen], we'll be returning 9 starters on defense / 7 on offense. The recruiting class we've lined up for 2012 looks very solid, and getting back to another bowl game [no matter how minor] will help lay the foundation for the class of 2013 this offseason. I'd expect us to eke out the win or two needed to qualify for bowl participation, and that next season projects to be even better. [/QUOTE]

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