COACH MARRONE
(I may have re-arranged the order of some of the comments based on the subject.)
Coach Marrone said he was “real excited” about the bowl game and that he and the staff “haven’t stopped since the last game” between recruiting and practice. The team will be traveling to NYC for the bowl game on Christmas Day.
Matt Park asked what it was like to be playing an old rival like West Virginia in a bowl game. “It’s unusual. You’re usually playing a team you really don’t know much about. There’s not a lot of love between these teams. It will be a hard-hitting game. We beat them twice. Coach Holgorsen set the tempo talking about that in the news conference.”
Matt noted that West Virginia had “hardly lost after last season’s game, (they won 4 of 5 while we lost 5 in a row) and then they rang up 70 points on Clemson in the bowl game. He said they’d won 10 games in row, (actually nine) before things turned around for them in mid-season this year. He read off some of their point totals: 69, 42, 31, 70, 48, 38, 34, 49, 31, 59, (he left out a couple of 14’s). Coach: “Looking at all the bowl games and the cast of characters, this might be the best quarterback match-up with Geno Smith and Ryan Nassib. There’s not much changed from last year, although we’ve changed on offense. We have tapes of all 12 of their games and that have tapes of all of ours.”
A caller later suggested that the last team to get the ball will win the game. Coach replied “That’s a possibility for sure. I won’t concede that our defense won play well. We’ll be ready. It will be a big challenge. It possibly could be a low scoring game.”
Matt: “How?”
Coach: “I just wanted to throw that out there.”
Matt: “And frogs could come out of the sod.”
Coach: “You never know. It could be wet down there.”
Coach added that the team has many players form the NYC area and that he himself will have 180 people he knows there, rooting for Syracuse.
George in Mattydale wanted to know if we will have any receivers next year, as we loose both Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales. Coach mentioned Jarrod West, Chris Clark, Becket Wales, Jeremiah Kobena, who “had a great start”. He also said we’d have Kyle Foster, who “had a heck of a spring” and Quinton Funderbruke, who has “done a great job on our scout team”. Matt said that Funderbruke had “SEC size and ability”. Coach said that we’ll have several receivers with “unbelievable size” and that they weren’t even recruiting receivers in this year’s class because of the quality of the receivers we will have next year. “Next year we’ll probably go after 2 kids.”
I called in my question about junior college recruits. Coach seemed rather put off by the idea that anyone would question the use of junior college players. “I don’t understand why people think junior college players don’t have a right to play at a four year institution. We’ve been tracking some of these players since high school. Everybody we’ve gotten from a two year school has graduated and represented the school well. We treat two year players just the same as year players. The pros of a two year player is that he’s had to prove himself twice. There’s no sense of expectation, no sense of entitlement. He’s got 3 years to play two years and can be here for spring practice.” (I would add that a JUCO player is probably closer to achieving his potential than a high school player and can be better evaluated.) “it’s my job to make this a better football team and maintain our values by getting players with ability who are outstanding students and have good character.”
Matt added that you see more JC players out west because there are more junior colleges out there, especially in California, Kansas And Mississippi. Coach said he didn’t want to get in trouble with Coach Anselmo and noted that Nassau CC and “quite a few more” junior colleges are in the East, along with a lot of prep schools.
At Red Robin, Ryan, who had asked for an autograph, asked if the coach “borrowed plays from the NFL”. Coach: “Our whole passing game is basically what we did in New Orleans. We’ve gotten our running plays from a number of teams. It’s a little bit of our own, (concept).” (The thing that excites me most about the next few years is that we’ve finally got an offensive scheme that works and will work even better with an increased talent level.)
Ed in Cazenovia is the father of an All-CNY player, (I think he said his son was a lineman so it’s probably Cameron Braathen: the other All-CNY players were linebacker Nick Bobbett and running back Jacob Wilson), and wondered how to get him noticed by the bigger schools. Coach: “The internet is a great resource. U-Tube is great. Most high schools are on ‘Huddle’. You can send letters and E-mails. Go to the camps. A lot of people go for just one day to work out. We do that around the state, looking at 7 on 7 drills, etc. We’ve finally gotten to where we want to be around recruiting. Put some tape out and people will find you. In New Orleans we had all-pro tackles from Bloomsburg and Towson State, (Jahri Evans, Jerman Bushrod).”
Matt wondered how much of the recruiting was “new business” and how much was “follow-up”. “It’s more new priorities. Get a player, lose a player. A player can be so difficult to read. The all-star games want the kids to have tight lips so they get more hits on their websites. Parents ask ‘Can you get him into the NFL’. How about making him a good college player first? They have entourages. Relatives, friends, neighbors, guys from youth leagues. They are looking for kids to make it and get out. I tell them the best way is to get a great education. The hardest jump is high school to college. I tell them the truth. It’s a great place to come to if you want to get an education, have good teammates and win games. We just lost a kid where they told him ’My two junior corners are leaving and you can start immediately’. They aren’t leaving.”
An E-mail asked if it was easier to recruit now that we were winning. “It’s more upbeat, more intriguing. Our coaching staff works harder than a lot of staffs where they have palaces. It’s unbelievable what they have. Upgrades have helped us. We’re not trying to keep up with the Jones, to be the Jones. I have to question their priorities.” Matt mentioned that the SU facilities are “not all the way there but there’s a massive upgrade in player comfort and the over-all feel.” Coach: “I don’t know if it’s the right time to talk about it. When it opens people can take a look and see it. You can press a thing and see clips of the past. We had stuff all over the place and there’d be something from the 80’s and then something from the 60’s. Nothing was in order. The Heisman Trophy used to be in glass case but now you can pose for pictures next to it. There are demos and Dome Simulator. The locker room is expansive, big league quality. We found a cleaned-up locker room reduces illness- it’s down 63% for this year.” (I wonder what a ‘Dome Simulator’ is?)
Someone asked about depth in the offensive line next year. Coach is looking to bring in 2-3 offensive linemen this year. He said that 5 players on the team have “put in for draft status” and “conversations about recruiting are year around. Things can change.”
Steve in Auburn asked about the quarterback situation next year: Is Charley Loeb the favorite? Coach: “Charley is the #2 quarterback on our team. We’ll be looking at John Kinder, Terrell Hunt and Ashton Broyld and have a mid year player coming in- I can’t mention his name yet. Right now I’m just thinking: Let’s beat West Virginia.”
Another fan wanted to know if any of the candidates had the athletic ability to switch to other positions. “They are all good enough so some of them can change positions.” (?) “Ashton is an outstanding athlete. Quarterback, running back, slot guy. We want to find out. Jerome Smith is one of those who put in for a junior year waiver. Adonis Moore really helped us in those late games. George Morris has been outstanding. We have Tyson Gully. I don’t know if you can ever have enough running backs.”
Matt brought up the rumors that NFL teams and colleges were considering Doug for job. “I haven’t been approached. If I had been, I’d report it to my boss because they have to ask permission. It feels good to be appreciated. It helps and hurts recruiting. In college football people get fired after one year. You don’t know what will happen. It’s not the money. Sometimes the bad mail makes me wonder if I wouldn’t be more happy coaching down the road at CBA. I tell people ‘If you don’t like me I’m leaving. If I don’t like it I’m leaving.” (Please stop sending the Coach “bad mail”.)
Matt mentioned that Jim Boeheim had told him that he’s in coaching because he loves it. If he weren’t the coach at Syracuse he’d be coaching Lyons High school and still be happy. Coach Marrone is in it for the happiness, too. “I have a back-up plan. I like being the head coach and inspiring people to win, etc. But I love being an offensive line coach. If it ever comes to that, I’ve told a high school coach in Tennessee, where my wife comes from, who is very successful that I’d like to be his offensive line coach,. Not offensive coordinator. Just the line coach.”
I didn’t quite get the question Matt ended the broadcast with but the Coach said “We’re not there yet. We’ll see who is there when we get there. We are expecting everyone to be there.”
