Syracuse Football

After the longest stare-down in Big East history, Commissioner John Marinatto blinked for the price of $20 million. If all reports hold true, the Mountaineers will be out the Big East door in time to play a Big 12 season with the conference's financial help.

For the Orange what does this mean? 

As of now, the Orange are locked into the Big East football until at least 2013 when the Orange could be playing Boise State, SMU and San Diego State as conference opponents. The Big East had made it clear that no team leaving the conference would be allowed out early. 

However, this deal sets the precedent. One potential option for teams that did not like this was to just leave and see what happens. The legal ramifications would have been a lawsuit at the doorstep for all three teams, but it was an option. 

Another option that is still open for the Orange is to sue the Big East over lost revenue if the West Virginia deal holds and Syracuse won't buy out. Syracuse could say that the game against the Mountaineers is a huge revenue game (likely televised on ESPN) and that the conference did not give adequate time to the Orange to fill the slot. 

However, the Big East is currently attempting to prevent this situation by scheduling a home-and-home with Syracuse rivals Rutgers. 

Ultimately, it means that if Dr. Daryl Gross can convince the alums and Syracuse board that dropping $20 million on moving two years early is a prudent move, then it happens. If it doesn't happen like that, then maybe Syracuse can win the shattered Big East conference this season.  

There has been many a critic looking to the Syracuse Orange recruiting class of 2012 and saying that it lacks the pop necessary for the big-time program athletic director Dr. Daryl Gross and coach Doug Marrone want the Orange to be. 

The class is ranked 53rd in the nation and sixth in the Big East, and some long-time fans say this is a step in the right direction while others think the lack of major improvement over Marrone's now four years is a sign of permanent mediocrity at best. 

Regardless, there is a clear sense that this will not be a great season for the Orange. There is a strong likelihood the Orange may not have any success next year, but remember, Syracuse plays in the Big East which every year manages to shake up the notion of predictability week-in and week-out. 

If Doug Marrone really wants to turn the corner with the Syracuse program, he can do it with one player: Robert Nkemdiche. 

Nkemdiche (pronounced Kim-dee-chee) is the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2013 and is already drawing comparisons to Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor. 

According to ESPN, Syracuse assistants have swung by his Georgia high school to catch a glimpse of a guy who could single-handedly dominate a game. 

So how does a player who has offers from Alabama, LSU, Florida and Auburn help the Orange?

Georgia has become a Syracuse pipeline state in recent years, thanks to the recruiting talents of Greg Adkins, and the basic recruiting rule of thumb is that a team should have a shot with great players in these pipelines.

While Syracuse may be a little late to the Nkemdiche party, Syracuse could still try to use their pitch of academics and future glory on the prized defensive end. But that's not all the Orange should do.

Bring back Dwight Freeney and the Jones brothers to help pitch the school. Bring in Mike Tirico, Bob Costas, Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison and anyone else who makes Syracuse and its football program look appealing.

The odds of Nkemdiche choosing Syracuse? Slim to none at best. It is not smart to invest all assets in one player who will probably not chose your school, but it would make a huge point for Marrone to Gross.

A D-1 school with a national championship and the pedigree Syracuse has (no matter how far removed they are from it) should be in the running for the top prospect from a pipeline state. 

Syracuse has not invested enough in the football program to keep up with the new modern era of collegiate sports. The No. 1 area where this is most painful is facilities. 

What the school did with the Melo Center has helped the Orange attract the level of talent that they have (although a Hall of Fame coach helps too). The school has devoted a new football wing of Manley Field House to the sport but as the above link shows, it is no comparison to other schools of Syracuse's stature. 

Nkemdiche will not chose the Orange, even though his addition to the team would make the Orange Big East or ACC players. Just calling it now.

However, he can be used by Marrone as the perfect example of why Syracuse Football desperately needs a face lift if it wants to return to former glory. 

With less than 48 hours before the football recruiting craziness dies down, there has been great developments for the Syracuse Orange to counteract the not-so-great developments. 

As reported last night, three-star defensive lineman Myles Hilliard swapped his commitment from Pittsburgh to Syracuse, an unexpected surprise for the Orange.

The news came hours after head coach Doug Marrone found out that defensive tackle Harold Brantley had switched his commitment from the Orange to the Missouri Tigers. 

For the Orange faithful, there are four main battles left that the Orange must fight to round out their recruiting class. 

The main fight is to sway Wayne Morgan to the Orange. The ESPN four-star defensive back recruit has narrowed his focus to Syracuse and UConn, although rumors swirled for a bit that Penn State had joined the mix. 

Linebacker Josh Glanton is also a name that the Orange hope to land, however, he is currently considering Florida International, as well. Syracuse has already lost linebacker Leroy Owens to the Golden Panthers.

Two more defensive ends round out the Orange's radar.

Julian Pinnix-Odrick is the lone Rutgers steal in the Orange's sights. He re-opened his status after the coaching turnover, however it will be tough for Syracuse to make him consider turning Orange. 

Finally, JUCO defensive end Marcus Pierce Brewster was part of the recruiting bonanza that happened a few weeks back and has yet to make his decision. There has been little chatter about his process, but the Orange are definitely strong contenders. 

Marrone will hold a press conference tomorrow at 3 p.m. to announce the list of official Syracuse commitments. 

Keep checking in on Bleacher Report for Syracuse recruiting buzz as National Signing Day approaches. 

The Syracuse secondary is need of a lot of work going into next season. With the loss of Phillip Thomas for good and Keon Lyn for at the least spring practice if not longer, more manpower and talent is needed. 

The top recruit on Syracuse's list right now could fill a hole immediately.

Defensive back Wayne Morgan of Brooklyn, NY has been considering Syracuse for a while and feels comfortable at the school.

Ranked 3 stars by Rivals and 4 Stars by ESPN, Morgan has been offered scholarships by seven schools.

Considered to be one of the top five players coming out of New York and one of the top 20 defensive backs in the country, Morgan has essentially limited his list to UConn and Syracuse. 

Current odds give Syracuse a 70 percent chance of signing the talented recruit and there is no evidence to show he has changed his tune. The deal-breaker has been Brandon Reddish, a former teammate who is also a part of the Orange football team.

Reddish helped make Morgan's visit to Syracuse successful back in December. 

I'm sure somewhere Big East commissioner Jon Marinatto is laughing as he smashes his toy Orange and Panther after having a love/hate moment with his Mountaineer. 

This season and subsequent offseason led to Big East-ACC comparisons with the news that both Pitt and Syracuse would leave the former for the latter. More damage was done when West Virginia fled the sinking ship for the Big 12. 

However, when the Big East finished its bowl season 3-2 with victories over the Big 12, SEC and a thumping of the ACC in the Orange Bowl, there were questions as to the actual quality of both conferences. 

For the sake of comparison, the ACC was 2-6 in its bowl games, losing both BCS games with its  victories coming against the Big East and Notre Dame. 

I have never been a fan of comparing conferences by how they fare in bowl games. But the Big East-ACC debate was blown open with West Virginia's 70-33 annihilation of Clemson in the Orange Bowl

Thus fans have to wonder: How will Syracuse fare in the ACC?

As I previously wrote, the Orange are hoping that they end up in the Atlantic Division rather than the Coastal for the sake of avoiding yearly contests with Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Miami. 

The move to the ACC already has helped Syracuse in recruiting, and the talent infusion that comes from this move will help the Orange contend with the other members of the ACC. 

However, the main reason that the Orange will be able to "turn the corner" in the ACC is revenue. The ACC-ESPN football deal is huge for the Orange.

When looking at Syracuse, the Orange facilities do not compare with those at similar schools and is definitely hurting recruiting. Unfortunately, unlike oranges, facilities do not grow on trees, and television money is the No. 1 way to gain revenue for an average team. 

The 12-year, ACC-ESPN deal is worth more than $1.86 billion and will surely be reworked with the addition of Syracuse and Pitt. This money will surely help the Orange in their quest to become the "top tier program" again.

Finally, the ACC brings more prestige and exposure. An average ACC team may not be as good as an average Big East team. But an ACC team will get far more media attention because of the strength of schedule within the conference, and that will lead to rankings. 

If the Orange had put on last season's performance in the ACC, maybe they would have received a few AP votes. Or maybe not.

Maybe this is all speculation and the ACC is not as good as the Big East. After all, turning the corner has as much to do with coaching and talent as the conference you play in.

The Orange need more of the latter and are still working on the former.

West Virginia's win in the Orange Bowl only shows dominance by one team. And Syracuse beat that  team in the middle of the season.

That's what makes all of this even more confusing for those trying to rank the ACC against the Big East.  

According to a Syracuse.com article this morning, the newest ACC Football schedule does not include Syracuse or Pitt, meaning the two schools will more than likely have to wait until next year to join the conference. 

Playing in the ACC would mean changing the schedule, something that is very unlikely due to the major changes that would need to be made.

Hope continues to dwindle for the Orange, Panthers and West Virginia Mountaineers, potential Big 12 members, as the Big East continues to hold strong to their 27-month waiting period for the three teams. 

As reported earlier, the Big East will not be accepting any kind of buyouts from the three schools and thus putting the three schools in a difficult position.

It is widely suspected that the reason for the 27-month, hard-line stance is the TV contract the Big East inked with ESPN which allows ESPN to opt out of the deal if any team leaves the conference. 

It would make sense for the Big East to protect the conference it has and then wait until 2013 when their new members join, thus allowing a new TV deal to be structured minus West Virginia, Syracuse and Pitt.

West Virginia, currently waiting on the results of their lawsuit against the Big East, may very well just leave the conference for the Big 12 and accept the monetary ramifications as they come. This could cost the Mountaineers upwards of the $13-15 million Texas A&M paid to leave the Big 12 as the Big East would have legal ground to stand on. 

Regardless, the Orange will be playing the Big East slate for at least one more season. 

To say that this season left a bitter taste in fans’ mouths would depend on whom you ask. Young or optimistic fans would whole-heartedly agree.

This was a season that at the beginning of October looked like the Orange were destined for their first BCS trip and a return to the top of the Big East.

Ask fans who weathered the Greg Robinson era, and this season was a sure improvement over anything Robinson put on the field. Thus, even a five-win season is considered an improvement.

However, the way the Orange climbed and fell has to make Syracuse fans think for a minute.

There was so much promise and Head Coach Doug Marrone showed that last season, he could work magic out of the talent he had. However, lightning did not strike twice as the Orange have now gone a decade without consecutive bowl appearances.

Doug Marrone has had four years to rebuild a former contender ruined, and ultimately there have been mixed results. In this world of instant gratification, there was a question posed by some regarding Doug Marrone’s future with Syracuse.

Is the first alum coach since 1948 really on the hot seat? Looking at the stats, some may say yes. The futility of Syracuse under Robinson has been well documented, but Marrone has not had an easy ride either.

In three seasons, Marrone has managed five Big East wins, only two of them coming in the Dome.

In that same span, the Orange have lost their 12 Big East games by an average of 20 points a game. Coach Marrone has yet to defeat Pitt, Louisville or Connecticut, and these games have not been pretty. Syracuse, on average, has lost by 23 each game to the Panthers, 16 points to the Huskies, and eight points to the Cardinals.

In these three seasons, the only non-Big East FBS opponents the Orange have defeated are Akron (which was done twice), Toledo, Tulane, Northwestern, Wake Forest and Kansas State.

Furthermore, as many fans will point out, some easy comparison tests for Syracuse are Northwestern, Boston College and Wake Forrest. Aside from Wake, who Syracuse defeated this season, the Orange have fallen short of the benchmarks set by other small, private FBS universities.

Northwestern has found a way into a bowl game every year since 2009, while Boston College missed a bowl just once this past season with a disappointing 4-8 mark. Moral of the story: Syracuse is still renting the basement.

However, Doug Marrone’s rebuilding has helped “restore” Syracuse football to an extent.

The most obvious statistics are that Marrone has already won more Big East games than Robinson in one less season and the Pinstripe Bowl victory from last season. Digging deeper, the Orange have consistently been more competitive in Big East play.

In Doug Marrone’s first season, the average margin of defeat was 16.5 points a game. In the magical second season, the Orange technically did not improve from that number as it jumped to 18.6 a game, but the number is inflated by a 31-point defeat to Pitt, the worst Marrone has suffered so far. Discounting that game, the average margin of defeat drops to 12.5 a game.

This past season, the number continued dropping to 11 points a game, showing that even though the wins may not be piling up, the losses are getting less and decided by two possessions or less.

Syracuse is also gaining national attention, as the Orange have played then No. 5 Penn State in 2009 and a USC team good enough to be ranked and win its Pac-12 division this season.

In all fairness, the reality is while the results may not be pretty, Doug Marrone is improving the Orange, but the ride from the very bottom of the NCAA is a long one.

The Orange is faced with an opportunity to make a resurgence as this season’s recruiting class features talent from across the country and players capable of making an immediate impact.

As this talent continues to develop, the Orange will be showcased over the next three years at MetLife Stadium against USC, Penn State and Notre Dame.

In reality, Doug Marrone’s seat is not hot yet, but continued one-win Big East seasons will surely warm his seat more and more.

Next season’s team on paper does not have as much talent as this year’s team unless young players make major improvements this offseason.

Another five-win season looks like a very legitimate possibility. This topic will probably come up a year from now and have the same answer, but Marrone will be pressured to show results with better players in the years after.

For now, Marrone has no job security worries. And while the fans may be patient, the patience will eventually wear too thin if the basement of the Big East continues to be called home. 

The 2012 football season for the Syracuse Orange was already shaping up to be a challenge for coach Doug Marrone. With only one Big East home win in the last two season, depleted talent at key positions and a five game losing streak, it is enough to make all Orange fans cringe.

Today, more bad news was released as two key players' futures for next season are in doubt. Keon Lyn made it very vocal on Twitter that he was undergoing shoulder surgery. What was not exactly known was the state of wide receiver Alec Lemon.

According to a Syracuse press release, Lyn had successful surgery in Annapolis, Md. while Lemon had successful surgery in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Lemon was voted first team All Big East while setting a team record with 68 catches for 834 yards. Lyn had 23 tackles as a cornerback.

While the successful surgery is good news, the press release goes on to say that both Lemon and Lyn will miss all of 2012 spring football practice for the Orange. This has to mean that the beginning of next season must also be in doubt. 

Having a starting corner and wide receiver miss that much practice would be an issue for any team, but for a Syracuse team needing to sure up their secondary and lacking offensive weapons, this is a huge blow. 

Both young men have shown a professionalism that should not worry fans about their production by the end of the season, but for Syracuse, the early seasons struggles may be dooming. The Orange are scheduled to play Minnesota, Northwestern and USC in the NYC to start of the season, a step up from Toledo, Tulane and Rhode Island.

Overall, next season is not looking good for Syracuse. West Virginia's convincing bowl win showed that the Big East may not be dead after and Syracuse is definitely taking a step back talent wise next season. Hopefully, some good news will come and help balance out underclassmen leaving and these injuries.  

Syracuse head football coach Doug Marrone received some good news Friday, news that was certainly needed in the worst way for Orange nation. 

On the heels of defensive end Chandler Jones' announcement that he is leaving SU early for the NFL draft was another announcement regarding an Orange player's plans. Strong safety Shamarko Thomas announced via Twitter that he will return to Syracuse for his senior season.

Thomas tweeted, "I've decided to put my NFL career on hold for another year and will remain at SU for another season to further develop myself as an athlete." The Virginia Beach native followed that tweet up with another that cited his reason for returning.

Many Orange fans were probably surprised by Thomas' decision. It was a known fact that Thomas was leaning towards leaving for the NFL. The early departures of Jones and junior receiver Dorian Graham certainly made Thomas' decision much more shocking. 

Despite several injuries, Thomas played in all 12 of Syracuse's games and tallied 59 tackles. His production will probably see an increase next season, as his free safety partner Phillip Thomas will be gone due to suspension.

Marrone, who is known for his defensive coaching prowess, will have his work cut out for him next year. But the return of Thomas and the possible addition of Brooklyn recruit Wayne Morgan should start to ease his worries about the Syracuse secondary.

Marrone can now shift his focus to improving the defensive line, where the path to recovery starts with multiple prospects that are still undecided.