When do we get a plausible explanation?

[sufandu]

with just last years line we are 5-3

That is the improvement we need to hope for. Maybe even more than that, considering the losses we'll have on the dline. If the oline is the same next year, is there any improvement with our record that can be attributed to a change in the schedule?

 

[Cusefan95]

I wrote a letter to Coach P after he was fired. I had developed a casual friendship with him while I was a sportswriter in Connecticut He wrote back and said, well, things probably would have been different with the addition of a few players and a (better) quarterback.

That was his honest opinion.

I’m extremely doubtful that was his honest, FULL opinion. We can probably all recall the long discussions about the weird accounting Syracuse was using which put football at a huge disadvantage. The school looked at football as a cash cow, rather than as a key area to continue investing in. There’s absolutely no way Coach P was ok with that - but he was also the consummate “company man” who just played the hand he was dealt without complaint.

If “we needed a few more players” was the true answer, he could have told that to the media in a way which it was his accountability - so he wouldn’t have said “I have no idea. If the answer was “Jake and the school have been plundering the football program so we don’t have the resources we needed to compete”...well, “I have no idea” is probably the better way to go when asked by the press.

All I take from your post is that Coach P was such a company man to his core that he was still not going to speak poorly of the company after they fired him. Which, in the end, was both an admirable character trait and his fatal flaw - all at the same time.

 

[Chris02M]

That is the improvement we need to hope for. Maybe even more than that, considering the losses we'll have on the dline. If the oline is the same next year, is there any improvement with our record that can be attributed to a change in the schedule?

home schedule is easier since no clemson? Maryland> rutgers

 

[sdhall01]

Next season is pretty critical. It’s year 5. Some people will make lots of excuses, but he has to win at least 7 games. There is no “rebuild” when you’re in year 5, he owns this mess.

Thank god he won 10 games last year.

 

[SUFan44]

At some point (maybe soon) you have to question Babers future here.

I find it funny that you say this of the football coach but make every excuse in the book for the basketball coach.

Not saying either should be fired but it is just funny to me.

 

[cuseguy]

I’m extremely doubtful that was his honest, FULL opinion. We can probably all recall the long discussions about the weird accounting Syracuse was using which put football at a huge disadvantage. The school looked at football as a cash cow, rather than as a key area to continue investing in. There’s absolutely no way Coach P was ok with that - but he was also the consummate “company man” who just played the hand he was dealt without complaint.

If “we needed a few more players” was the true answer, he could have told that to the media in a way which it was his accountability - so he wouldn’t have said “I have no idea. If the answer was “Jake and the school have been plundering the football program so we don’t have the resources we needed to compete”...well, “I have no idea” is probably the better way to go when asked by the press.

All I take from your post is that Coach P was such a company man to his core that he was still not going to speak poorly of the company after they fired him. Which, in the end, was both an admirable character trait and his fatal flaw - all at the same time.

This is also true. But what’s funny is that shortly after P took over as head coach, he gave myself and a few others a tour of the SU facilities. I’ll never forget him saying, “Tell UConn this is what they’ll need” to play big time football. But as we all know, SU did almost nothing to make further upgrades to those facilities over the next 10 years or so. You’re right, he was a company man and would never complain publicly, even in a private letter, but we also know that if the torch had been properly passed from McNabb to, say, Vick, P might have been at SU for a number of years.

 

[AZOrange]

I find it funny that you say this of the football coach but make every excuse in the book for the basketball coach.

Not saying either should be fired but it is just funny to me.

I don’t know...maybe the records or career have something to do with it...

 

[hungrychuck]

This is also true. But what’s funny is that shortly after P took over as head coach, he gave myself and a few others a tour of the SU facilities. I’ll never forget him saying, “Tell UConn this is what they’ll need” to play big time football. But as we all know, SU did almost nothing to make further upgrades to those facilities over the next 10 years or so. You’re right, he was a company man and would never complain publicly, even in a private letter, but we also know that if the torch had been properly passed from McNabb to, say, Vick, P might have been at SU for a number of years.

I remember that comment.

And of course P wound up at UConn and we all know how that went.

It’s not like he got fired from SU and crushed it another college job.

 

[cuseguy]

I remember that comment.

And of course P wound up at UConn and we all know how that went.

It’s not like he got fired from SU and crushed it another college job.

I’m not sure anyone is crushing it at UConn at this point. That widow may have closed. But that’s another story for another day.