OFFICIAL 2015-2016 College Football Season Thread

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Dre, my boy Jacques Patrick looking like Young Greg Jones. o My God!

Kid def looked good yesterday. Glad they called some plays in the 1st half that let him get his momentum going towards the LOS & not the usual stuff they run w/ Dalvin. Once he got warmed up he was a load.

Boy has good hands too

 

[gunna get it]

Jacques was running them tosses too!

the second Beamer hired Loeffler he effectively retired.

 

[therealrell]

Virginia Tech, USC, South Carolina, Miami, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota all P5 schools with HC vacancies. Who else joins them?

 

[Lunden]

Virginia Tech, USC, South Carolina, Miami, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota all P5 schools with HC vacancies. Who else joins them?

Georgia

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Jacques was running them tosses too!

Yup, I was waiting for them to pull out that LSU pitch /off tackle

 

[imlive365]

Duke should be ashamed?
You said that like they're some football juggernaut [emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji][emoji]128514[/emoji]

Y'all are incredulous homers right now.


Dre, my boy Jacques Patrick looking like Young Greg Jones. o My God!

How are we homers tho? Why can't it go both ways? Why are the blunders on the refs being called out only when it was against duke? There was a whole complete drive of terrible officiating that benefited duke. Don't just apologize for 1 play.

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Virginia Tech, USC, South Carolina, Miami, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota all P5 schools with HC vacancies. Who else joins them?

West Virginia, a Maybe UVA too

 

[dacomeup]

 

Virginia Tech, USC, South Carolina, Miami, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota all P5 schools with HC vacancies. Who else joins them?

West Virginia, a Maybe UVA too

UVA is for sure going to be open. A year too late. 

Maybe Purdue as well. 

Georgia 

 

[IATT]

View media item 1770569View media item 1770570

 

[therealrell]

Forgot about UVA. Dana been that much of a train wreck in Morgantown?

 

[Bobby Layne]

 
UVA is for sure going to be open. A year too late. 

Maybe Purdue as well. 

Georgia 

If KSU ends up finishing like 4-8, I could see Snyder walking away now. 

I think Brian Kelly is headed for Detroit, and Mullen is going to end up replacing him at ND. 

 

[Bobby Layne]

Has Wazzu been running that 5-2 front all season, or was that a Stanford specific wrinkle?  I wasent watching that game all that closely, but it seemed to have some success stoping Stanford's power run game.  I'm instrested to see if we'll see more teams use it against Stanford/Michigan in the future. 

It didnt appear to be a 5-2 bear.  It looked like a 4-3 under but with the SAM LB's hand in the dirt. 

 

[nako xl]

Theo Howard to UGLY.

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Theo Howard to UGLY.

Wut

 

[nako xl]

Folk knows what that means.

 

[statis22]

Forgot about UVA. Dana been that much of a train wreck in Morgantown?

Dana is done

 

[Bobby Layne]

Norm Chow got fired at Hawaii

 

[dragicon]

Pick 6 overturned after being ruled a touchdown on the play, when the replay evidence wasn't justifiable to overturn. Fumble ruled no fumble on the play, when the review clearly showed it was indeed a fumble, and still not overturned. 

They got hosed. 

I didn't see the pick 6, but as for the other play, it was pointed out in the broadcast that mccaffrey was also tocuhing the ball while he was standing out of bounds. Therefore it isn't a fumble recovered by wsu.

 

[dragicon]

Norm Chow got fired at Hawaii

Hawaii should just hire jones back... He's the only guy in the last 20 years who ever did anything at that program.

 

[gatorb807]

Whats up with Matty Mauk, suspended again.

Drug issue? Or is he a goon?

 

[gunna get it]

Forgot about UVA. Dana been that much of a train wreck in Morgantown?

Mike London?

 

[N41D]

Whats up with Matty Mauk, suspended again.

Drug issue? Or is he a goon?

Rumor is he's been slinging coke...

 

[ThaxbyChamblis]

Shoulda stuck to selling weed like DGB

 

[robotea]

Bud Foster would have been a great head coach for VaTech if Beamer retired a few years earlier. He still might get the chance.

 

[therealrell]

I'm the only person who cares about SU football in this thread, but I thought this series that documents "The Dark Days of SU Football" from the staff of the school paper was worth checking out.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Syracuse drops elite status in 1999 after Michael Vick chooses Va. Tech over SU

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Editor’s note: Syracuse football has 6 wins in its last 19 games. Facing the struggles of the present, The Daily Orange took a look back at some of hard times of the past in part one of this series.

A decision that would alter the immediate future of Syracuse football came from a man by the name of Michael Vick.

In the mid- to late ‘90s, while former SU quarterback Donovan McNabb was leading the Orange to Big East Championships, BCS bowl games and a 35-14 record over four years, Vick was making waves and turning heads in his home state of Virginia with Syracuse in pursuit of his talents.

He was the speedy quarterback with the moves of a running back and a cannon for an arm, the freak of nature who complied 4,846 yards and 43 touchdowns passing and another 1,048 yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground during his high school career.

“The flip of the wrist that you all see and everybody talks about, I saw it in the ninth grade,” Tommy Reamon, Vick’s high school coach, said. “And I said right then that he was special.”

Back in Syracuse, McNabb, the most successful quarterback in Syracuse history, had tallied a total of 35 wins in his four seasons and was the second pick in the 1999 NFL Draft.

He had also recruited Vick to be his heir-apparent in orange.

Vick, who had narrowed his list of potential colleges down to Syracuse and Virginia Tech, elected to stay close to home with the Hokies. The Orange rode a combination of Madei Williams and Troy Nunes at quarterback to a 7-5 record and a victory in the Music City Bowl in 1999.

But a 62-0 drubbing at the hands of Vick and Virginia Tech that October rekindled thoughts of what could have been. Vick’s decision left Syracuse with two capable quarterbacks, but without a true successor to McNabb.

“We just didn’t have that powerful star position where he could change the game or change the outcome of a game for you,” said former Syracuse fullback Kyle Johnson.

The date was Nov. 14, 1998. Vick was a freshman redshirting at Virginia Tech, as was Nunes for Syracuse. Williams was the backup to McNabb, and all three watched as the senior’s last-second throw across his body from the 14-yard line to tight end Stephen Brominski led Syracuse to a 28-26 victory over the No. 16 Hokies in the Carrier Dome.

“He doesn’t come along, in college football at least, very often,” Nunes said. “… With Donovan, they could call whatever they wanted sometimes and he would make a play … He just did things that, to be honest, I couldn’t do and that most people couldn’t do.”

The same could be said for Vick, whose skill set was similar to McNabb’s and would have fit well into Syracuse’s offensive scheme of drop-back passes and rollouts, Johnson said.

But Vick’s decision to stay close to home was in part because he wanted to make his own name, Reamon said.

“We always heard he just didn’t want to be the next Donovan McNabb,” Johnson said. “He wanted to separate himself and be his own man.”

So SU instead turned to its other options. Williams had sat two seasons behind McNabb with the plan of learning the offense.

In 1999, he was set to become the starter, but a compound fracture and dislocation in his left hand suffered with just two weeks remaining in fall camp opened the door for Nunes, who worked his way up the depth chart next to Williams, where the two ended up sharing snaps.

“It was his two series to my one for the first couple games,” Williams said.

Syracuse opened the season 5-1 and shot up the polls to a No. 16 ranking. On Oct. 16, Syracuse rolled into Blacksburg, Virginia to face Vick and a No. 4-ranked undefeated Virginia Tech team. After watching from the sidelines as McNabb lead the comeback one year prior, it was Nunes’ and Williams’ time to step under the lights against the Hokies.

But Vick ran circles around Syracuse.

“Michael Vick literally put on a show,” Williams said. “It was the Michael Vick experience. He did some things to our defense that I don’t think anybody else could have conceived.”

The 62-point shutout was SU’s worst loss since 1912.

The Orange went on to drop three of its last four and limped into postseason play.

“It was the worst loss I’ve ever experienced of any sport of my entire life,” Johnson said. “And the way they dominated was just awful. We lost our mojo for most of the rest of the year.”

Syracuse and then-head coach Paul Pasqualoni continued to use the two-quarterback system, alternating Nunes and Williams drive-to-drive and electing to go with the hot hand.

“It’s one of those things where you’re pressing,” Williams said, “you put the pressure on yourself to do well and sometimes you don’t perform as well as you should because sometimes you are looking over your shoulders.”

While McNabb did it all on the field — throw long, short and run — Syracuse set up different game plans for Nunes and Williams, who both had different strengths.

Williams said he had the stronger arm and was called upon when Syracuse wanted to air it out down the field. Nunes on the other hand, according to Williams, was more agile, swift and creative. He got the nod for high-percentage passes.

And all the while, Vick continued his march through college football, picking up highlight reel plays and setting conference records.

“It was more or less like both of our skills combined had to be McNabb,” Williams said.

SU’s Music City Bowl win was a step down from the two consecutive BCS bowls the Orange made in the two seasons prior.

“Obviously we had bigger goals,” Nunes said.

The skill Syracuse had in McNabb and the skill it tried to recreate with Nunes and Williams was just as similarly what the Orange recruited in Vick, and the success he and the Hokies were enjoying 569 miles away was undeniable.

The near SU commit went on to lead Virginia Tech to an undefeated regular season, a No. 2 national ranking and a berth in the BCS Championship game against Florida State. Vick finished third in the Heisman voting and led the nation in passing efficiency as a redshirt freshman.

In 2001, he would be drafted number one overall by the Atlanta Falcons.

Sixteen years later, Johnson said he wishes he didn’t think about it. But he can’t help it. The thought of Vick slicing through defenses in the Dome and vaulting Syracuse into national contenders makes him wonder what could have been.

“I think … we all do that every now and again,” he said. “Just because he was such a dominant player … I don’t know if we would have won it all but just to have Vick back there, oh my goodness … it would have been very interesting to see that.”

Greg Robinson coached Syracuse to 10 wins in 4 seasons to complete worst stretch in Orange history

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Greg Robinson stood in front of a Syracuse backdrop for the last time. His usual SU attire was replaced by a brown, plaid button-down shirt and on the podium in front of him lay a piece of paper with the synopsis of a children’s book.

“I’m going to read a little story. It’s called ‘The Little Engine That Could,’” Robinson said. It was a metaphor for his time as the Syracuse head football coach.

Two weeks earlier, Robinson was fired four years into his five-year contract with the Orange. Two games were left in the season at the time, but he finished out the year. Now, he was addressing the media for the last time.

“Well, you know what? I still think I can,” he said, appearing to tear up. “I do.”

Robinson was supposed to revitalize a declining Syracuse team, but instead guided it to rock bottom. With his first season came the worst record in Syracuse history and it hardly got better.

In his four years, spanning from 2005 to 2008, the Orange went 10-37 and 3-25 in the Big East. The five wins from his first two seasons have been vacated because of NCAA violations. Robinson oversaw the only two double-digit losing seasons in SU history and the lowest attendance in decades.

He arrived to usher in a new era of SU football, but left behind a program in pieces instead.

“Greg Robinson did everything he could to try to win football games,” former Syracuse linebacker Jake Flaherty said.

Paul Pasqualoni was the head coach for the 14 years prior to Robinson. His teams finished with a losing record just once and regularly competed in the Top 25.

Coming off three straight years without a winning season, then-Chancellor Nancy Cantor said Pasqualoni’s job was safe. But when SU lost 51-14 to Georgia Tech in the Champs Sports Bowl, newly appointed athletic director Daryl Gross, just weeks into his new job, fired Pasqualoni.

Gross set out to find a defensive-minded head coach and found that in Robinson, a defensive coordinator with two Super Bowl rings and four Rose Bowl championships.

“At the end of the day, Greg Robinson is the perfect choice for Syracuse University,” Gross said in a press conference announcing his hiring.

Robinson brought a West Coast offense, new defensive schemes and a wave of excitement with him to Syracuse. Ticket sales rose and his first game attracted 45,418 fans to the Carrier Dome — the largest home opening crowd since 1999.

But Robinson didn’t live up to the hype. His first year ended with a 1-10 record. The Orange was third worst in nation in offensive yards and fourth worst in offensive touchdowns.

After the season, Robinson said he’d critique every aspect of the team. “I’m going to do whatever I need to do to keep our program going in the direction it needs to go,” he said.

Robinson’s second season was his best. Syracuse snapped an 11-game losing streak that spanned 371 days. It won three games in a row and had bowl aspirations five weeks into the season. As the season carried on, the Orange didn’t win games, and those hopes dissipated.

“We definitely have to win these fans back over,” former defensive end Jameel McClain said after the season. “Everybody knows it. We lost the games and put ourselves in this position. We have to win to get them back.”

When the team lost the first two games of the 2007 season, Daryl Gross told The Daily Orange, “You just need to be patient with it.” Colleagues had told him it takes five years to rebuild a football program.

After another loss dropped SU to its worst start since 1986, its biggest win under Robinson finally came. The Orange shocked then-No. 18 Louisville on the road. Gross walked into the locker room with his arm around Robinson and the team celebrated.

Syracuse would win just one more game that season.

“I think my record can show that I’m a good football coach,” Robinson said after a 41-10 drubbing from South Florida, which dropped his personal record to 7-26. “Do I make every decision that’s perfect? I can’t tell you that.”

At the end of the year, Gross announced Robinson would be back for another season. The condition was that Robinson needed to make significant progress.

By the start of 2008, Robinson was on his third offensive coordinator in four years. Students sold T-shirts, which said, “Greg Robinson Farewell Tour” and high school coaches were telling players not to go to Syracuse due to speculation about a turbulent head coach situation.

Only 27,549 fans came to SU’s loss to Pittsburgh on Sept. 27 — the smallest Carrier Dome crowd in 22 years.

The significant progress that Gross had hoped for and demanded never came. On Nov. 16, 2008, Robinson was fired with two games still left in the season — his year highlighted by an embarrassing 42-28 loss to Akron and punctuated at the end with a 30-10 loss at No. 16 Cincinnati.

View media item 1771159
Three days after the final game, Robinson stood in the Iocolano-Petty Football Complex wondering what could have been.

Maybe if he had pushed administration to keep SU’s offer to Colt Brennan, the quarterback would’ve set a Division I record for touchdown passes at Syracuse instead of Hawaii.

Maybe if Robinson’s team didn’t have to face the eighth-toughest schedule without future NFL wide receivers Mike Williams and Taj Smith the on-field product would’ve been good enough for Robinson to keep his job.

“I’d like that last year. It’s just a work in progress,” Robinson said at his farewell press conference. “… It’s right there. I think I can. I do. I can show you.”

In four years, all Robinson showed was an inability to win games. And regardless of what he thought he could do, in reality, he nose-dived the Orange into its worst period in history.

Greg Paulus quarterback experiment backfires for Syracuse in 2009

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Every time Greg Paulus stepped on the field, he heard a chorus of boos. Seven games into the 2009 season against Cincinnati, those in the Carrier Dome made it clear they didn’t want Paulus at quarterback.

In the second half against the Bearcats, first-year coach Doug Marrone rotated Paulus and redshirt freshman Ryan Nassib. Marrone teared up after the game thinking of the boos despite being cheered for the switch.

Marrone stood behind Paulus, whom he brought in to play quarterback after a four-year hiatus from football when he played point guard for Duke. During those years, Paulus said, he didn’t throw a football.

“There were players who were very suspicious,” then-punter and captain Rob Long said. “… Greg walked in and it was, ‘Who’s this kid all over ESPN who thinks he’s going to just come in and change this program all of a sudden without having proven himself?’”

Long said Paulus won him over after their first conversation, and that half of the locker room wanted him to start, but the other half wanted senior Cameron Dantley or Nassib. The season, seen as a Paulus experiment by some, began with cautious optimism.

Even though Paulus started all 12 games, setting program records for completions (193) and completion percentage (67.7), he finished with a 4-8 record. Marrone’s decision to start Paulus, a local legend who won a high school football state championship near SU at Christian Brothers (New York) Academy, was criticized by players and media alike as a way to fill the Carrier Dome.



“(Paulus starting) was just a publicity stunt … to get the community back into Syracuse football to have the hometown boy come out and boost morale,” running back Delone Carter said. “And (he brought) leadership from Duke and how vocal he was to Syracuse. Other than that, Nassib should’ve been playing.”

Carter isn’t alone in that feeling. In a 2009 ESPN.com anonymous poll of Big East coaches, one suggested Paulus would struggle reading defensive schemes and another wondered how the Carrier Dome’s recent attendance woes factored in. A third forecasted “spectacular failure.”

“I look at football as business,” Marrone said Aug. 19, 2009, responding to a question about whether tickets or the media influenced him to name Paulus the starting quarterback just a week after summer practice officially started. “My job is to play the players that give us the best chance to win games right now. At the end of the day, I felt Greg gives us the best chance to win. I really do.”

Paulus’ first game brought 48,617 fans to the home opener — the highest-attended opener in over a decade — but they left disappointed. In his first game against Minnesota, Paulus scrambled out of the pocket and tried to buy time with his feet. In high school, it seemed like those plays always ended with touchdowns. At Syracuse, Paulus threw an overtime interception and the Orange lost.



Then Paulus threw five interceptions in a loss at South Florida. His 14 interceptions to end the season were tied for 13th-most in the country. The boos began when Cincinnati intercepted Paulus in the end zone, trailing by seven points in the second quarter.

Internal dissent originated at practice. On multiple occasions, as a redshirt in 2008, Nassib shredded the Syracuse starting defense, even though it knew which play was coming.

“Our whole team was like, ‘How the hell did (Nassib) throw that pass? Our starting quarterback can’t make that throw,’” former linebacker and captain Derrell Smith said. “(Then-head coach Greg) Robinson literally ran (over) and screamed at everybody because the scout team, freshman quarterback was killing his beloved defense.”

Despite Nassib’s success the year prior and being the “clear-cut best,” according to Smith, at the end of 2009 training camp, Marrone still chose Paulus. That frustrated many, Smith and Long said, because players, especially upperclassmen who didn’t have time to see if the experiment would work out, wanted to win and to end the 5-year postseason drought.

When asked how he felt in the locker room, Paulus said in an interview with The Daily Orange: “I had a great experience with my teammates. From day one when I came on campus to my last day … I loved it.”

Despite football frustrations, Long, Smith and Carter spoke highly of Paulus’ character and that he demanded respect in the huddle. The team named Paulus a captain.

Smith said he thinks of a quarterback as a team’s CEO. Hiring a person with four years of experience in high-stakes, high-pressure situations made theoretical sense to Smith.

“But, I mean, it didn’t work out,” Smith said. “Greg didn’t play football for four years and you have to expect something like that. But looking back, I see why (Marrone) did it. … (The team) thought: ‘(Marrone) thinks Paulus is the better quarterback for the job? F*ck it. We’re going to play with Paulus and act like nothing’s changed.’”

The team lost four of its last five games, including the season finale against Connecticut, 56-31. On the same day Paulus’ eligibility expired, he had his best day in an Orange uniform, completing 24-of-32 passes for 296 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

In the three seasons that followed, Nassib threw for the most passing yards in a season by an SU quarterback twice and set the record for most touchdown passes by an SU quarterback in a season in 2012 with 24. The signal-caller led SU to two Pinstripe Bowl wins in three years.

Long, Smith, Carter and Paulus all said the season was a necessary building block to later success. But that moral victory didn’t comfort Carter after the Connecticut loss.

“The 2009 season, I would describe it maybe as a step in the right direction with mentality,” Carter said. “But no, (that season was not a success). Not on the field.”

In East Hartford, Connecticut, after the game, Paulus left the pressroom for the team bus. But a moment later, he returned.

“I just want to thank all you guys. It’s been a pleasure,” he said. His words, years later, seem to be spoken not just to the media who praised and criticized, but to the cheering and jeering fans and the supporters and doubters in his own divided locker room.

And after his statement, he left. This time, Greg Paulus did not come back.

Syracuse coaching exodus leaves players shocked, Shafer scrambling for stability

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Flurries of snow pelted the Yankee Stadium grass as Doug Marrone turned to the mass of Syracuse players behind him, his index finger in the air with the 2012 Pinstripe Bowl Trophy at his back.

Some players hoisted their helmets in the air while others donned their new championship hats. Running back Prince-Tyson Gulley raised his right hand to the sky with the MVP trophy at his side. Safety Ritchy Desir, mounted on a teammate’s shoulders, tipped his cap to the crowd. In a moment of bliss, everything was right for the Orange.

A second Pinstripe Bowl win in three years. SU defeating West Virginia, 38-14. Marrone sitting at the interview table postgame, expressing excitement to enter the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013.

“I thought he was about to try to start a dynasty where he graduated from,” Gulley said Tuesday. “… And I thought that was the original goal.”

But Marrone bolted for the Buffalo Bills’ head coaching job, not telling any players and eventually taking seven Syracuse coaches with him. A team eight days removed from cementing a program turnaround was left searching for answers amid the shock.

Three remaining coaches – Scott Shafer, Rob Moore and Tim Daoust – scrambled to fill out a recruiting class that lost three verbal commits because of the coaching changes. Shafer was hired as head coach three days after Marrone left and delved into his past stops to patch together a staff for the offseason. And though a 2013 Texas Bowl win gave season one a passing grade, an era under Shafer that started with uncertainty still faces questions with Syracuse on a four-game losing streak.

“Everybody kind of thought that it was really going to be similar to what we were already doing,” Gulley said, “but then Coach Shafer switched it … which was a culture shock because obviously they don’t think anything like each other.”

On the morning of Jan. 6, 2013, the chaos began. Among those Syracuse players asleep when ESPN broke that Marrone was headed to Buffalo were center Macky MacPherson, guard Rob Trudo and linebacker Cameron Lynch. MacPherson found out via texts from friends and former coaches. Trudo from about 15 messages in a team group chat. Lynch from his mom.

Former SU safety Jeremi Wilkes, a junior in 2012, tweeted, “Ol boy dipped to the bills aint even shoot us a txt..damn.” Instead, within minutes of the Bills’ announcement that came around noon the next day, returning players and graduating seniors received a 403-word email written by Marrone mixed with apology, reflection and support.

“In terms of how the locker room felt, it was a lot of shock, a lot of disappointment I think,” MacPherson said Wednesday. “… Not at Coach Marrone or anyone involved in the move; I think it was just more understanding that there was going to be a change.”

But some weren’t as understanding. Former tackle Sean Hickey tweeted, “Everything changes. Everything. Have to redo everything that I have worked for the past three years….I’m not happy. #shocked” Former running back Jerome Smith chimed in with, “Loyalty is hard to find smh.”

Reports surfaced of Marrone interviewing with the Bills and Cleveland Browns just two days after the Pinstripe Bowl, but the move still blindsided players. Then, once the unexpected news passed, acknowledgment of reality set in.

“I think we kind of figured that Coach Marrone was going to bring some of the staff with him,” former fullback Clay Cleveland said Tuesday in an email.

That “some” became seven, starting with offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett on Jan. 8. One week later, Marrone reeled in running backs coach Tyrone Wheatley, offensive line coach Greg Adkins, secondary coach Donnie Henderson and defensive quality control coach Jason Rebrovich.

Two days after that, it was assistant head coach John Anselmo and director of strength and conditioning Hal Luther to leave for Buffalo. Linebackers coach Steve Morrison also left SU, but for “personal reasons.”

A staff that coached Syracuse to six wins in its final seven games was now a skeleton of itself, with foundations swept out from under players.

“Obviously, everybody within that running back room had their stories with Coach Wheatley about how they grew with him,” Gulley said. “Mine was pretty crazy because me and Coach Wheatley didn’t see eye-to-eye from day one … and then when he just left, it went deeper than football, it was like, ‘Dang.’”

“I can’t sit here and lie to you and say you know, ‘Oh it was simple to move on from a guy like Coach Adkins,’” MacPherson said, “ … who all of us on the offensive line would’ve run through a brick wall for.”

“Uh oh, Coach Marrone gone…Hope Coach Ad(kins) doesn’t leave…,” Trudo tweeted the morning of Jan. 6. “The two biggest reasons why I came to Syracuse.”

What remained was Shafer, with his wide receivers coach and defensive line coach. By Jan. 22, he almost had a whole staff, hiring coaches for the offense, defense, quarterbacks, running backs and linebackers. But the widespread change trickled into recruiting.

Texas quarterback Zach Allen flipped to TCU. Prized in-state running back Augustus Edwards decommitted and Florida linebacker/defensive end Malik Brown did the same. Syracuse, after losing its starting wide receivers and Allen, grabbed wideout Corey Cooper Jan. 27 and QB Mitch Kimble the next day. Neither are still with the program.

“Just looking back at it,” Shafer said, “it was a little bit of a flurry.”

Almost three years later, Syracuse needs to win three out of its final five games to avoid missing two straight postseasons. The 2012 team started 3-4, but finished 8-5. The 2015 team is 3-4, facing the same uphill battle.

Five coaches that came on after the mass exodus and nine current starters that were recruited by Marrone remain. They’re left to pick up the pieces of an era under fire by some, and an era started because of a coach who, just more than a week after facing his team with a finger to the sky, turned his back and left.