Question about the past...

[Scooch]

With all the talk of systems and talent...

This pre-dates my following of SU football, but I've heard it said by several folks that our resurgence under Coach Mac really took off when DeLeone came onboard to run the O. A few questions:

1) Is that true?
2) When did he become OC?
3) Did he radically change the offensive system we were running previous to that?
4) Did our recruiting approach change?

These are all sincere questions, and here's why I ask: I've long held that SU's success in the 80s and 90s was due to 2 things. The first being that we took a Moneyball approach to offense. Keep in mind that Moneyball is not about getting guys with high OBP, it's about exploiting undervalued players. In our case, that meant recruiting athletic, African-American QBs -- there were literally only a few programs that were recruiting those kids in the 80s and early 90s to play QB (us, WVU, Nebraska, Houston... that might be it). We also recruited for speed in an era when a lot of teams were still stuck in a Big Ten philosophy of recruiting for size. The second was that we benefitted from a relative lack of competition in the northeast. That advantage is probably gone forever, but I think the former always exists in some way, if you're innovative enough.

Now I don't know what Marrone's offensive approach is at this point, to be honest. He says he wants to run the Saints system, and I don't know what that means. I'm not saying it's good or bad, I simply don't know. Since he's a Mac guy though, I'm curious what history he's working from, hence the questions about DeLeone. Did we need a few years to get decent production in his offense? Did it take a few years of recruiting the appropriate talent for the system? Just kinda curious.

 

[StillJimPA]

As I recall, Mac came in 81 and Deleone in 84. In those days I think Holy Cross was putting up a lot of offense but DL was only there for a year.
SU always ran the option having QBs like Mike Kmetz, Todd Norley to name a couple. Solid guys but not stars.

Then came Donnie Mac. DMac put him into a season opener late in the game against Temple in venerable Franklin Field. The first play he was in you knew he had far more potential than anyone since Bill Hurley simply because of his speed and the way he moved. He was only in for few plays than he ripped up his knee putting him out for the year. I remember thinking at the time this kid is going to be the franchise.

DMac use to say they recruited option type QB's because it was easier to get them. The high profile HS kids all wanted to go to schools with pro style passing attacks.

Recruiting linemen was an issue according to Mac with him stating these were guys who wanted to roll around in the mud...not play on a carpet.

IMO, once Deleone saw what DMac could do he expanded the freeze option.

But, the success was simply about DMac. He was the trigger man but Mac recruited a bunch of other good players as well.

When DMac recovered finally getting under center it was not instant success. There were growing pains and he got better as the season progressed. Wasn't he here 6 years?

One more thing . As you have heard there was the sack Mac crowd. It took Mac 5 or 6 years to get things built. But, in that time there were many who wanted his head on a pike. Not unlike some of the overreaction you see on this board now. It is ridiculous.

I think it is valid to say there is more competition in the NE now. We use to get more, and good, recruits from NJ and New England than in recent years.

This why I hope Rutgers and UC are exiled to the the Big whatever it will be called for a very long time.

 

[StillJimPA]

Edit ...it should read ...simply not about DMac