I don’t know anything about Doug Marrone other than what Donnie Webb of the Syracuse Post-Standard has written about him, but what I do know is that this Orange alum has never been a head coach.  Either, Daryl Gross didn’t figure out that his job is on the line with his next football hire, or SU has been rebuffed on not just Skip Holtz, but Turner Gill (thanks Auburn?) and Al Golden and he’s got no other choice than to hire Marrone to be the next Syracuse head coach.

So, if Marrone is the next head coach at Syracuse, I can attempt to put some sort of positive spin on this.  Both Holtz and Gill would likely have made short stops on the climb up the coaching ladder and Syracuse would be doing this again in 2011 perhaps.  Marrone is an SU alum, like basketball coach Jim Boeheim.  It’s more likely that he’d stay at Syracuse if he has success when some other coaches with no ties to the university would perhaps leave.

But it’s still hard to get excited about hiring another NFL coordinator, especially an offensive coordinator who doesn’t call his own plays (Sean Payton calls them for the Saints).  What, other than his connections to Syracuse, does Marrone bring to this job?  Can he recruit?  We don’t know, he’s never had to.  Can he lead a team?  We don’t know – he’s never had to.  A lot of questions on this hire.  Gross should be hiring someone with previous head-coaching experience.  Perhaps when Syracuse hires it’s next athletic director, it’ll hire one with previous experience at the position as well.

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