Lane Kiffin to Syracuse?

by cgb on Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 11:30 am

We all knew that Greg Robinson’s tenure as Syracuse head coach is going to be coming to an end this season. He has been nothing short of abysmal. In his 3+ years the Orange are 7-31 and haven beaten only one ranked team the overrated 2007 Louisville Cardinals. News 10 is reporting that Lane Kiffin is one potential replacement.

Add Lane Kiffin to the list of potential future candidates for the potential future coaching vacancy at Syracuse University. The coach of the Oakland Raiders, 33, is reportedly close to being fired by SU alum Al Davis, after Kiffin told the media last week that his defensive coordinator and Davis were working against him.

If Kiffin is canned, the thought is he would be free to take over at Syracuse right away if the Orange decided to make a mid-season move.

Just maybe Al Davis likes this Kifin so much he is driving him out of town to his alma mater. There is no excuse for Robinson going 7-31, but ‘Cuse fans need to realize no big time football recruits want to freeze their asses off in podunk upstate New York. If they can get a coach that gets them to 7-5 and a bowl they should be happy.

orangeman Lane Kiffin to Syracuse?

DON’T STOP ME. I’M ALREADY DEAD

12 Responses to “Lane Kiffin to Syracuse?”

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1Garrett on Sep 18, 2008 at 9:36 am:

“Podunk Upstate New York”? I’m just wondering if you’ve ever even been to Upstate New York, you ignorant piece of trash.
2cgb on Sep 18, 2008 at 10:47 am:

Yes Garrett unfortunately I have had to make my way through that part of the country. Other than colleges and state parks there is not much to do except flee to Canada.
3dk on Sep 22, 2008 at 2:44 pm:

“‘Cuse fans need to realize no big time football recruits want to freeze their asses off in podunk upstate New York. If they can get a coach that gets them to 7-5 and a bowl they should be happy.”

Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, Larry Csonka, Joe Morris, Art Monk, Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney, Donovan McNabb, Carmelo Anthony and many, many more disagree.
4cgb on Sep 22, 2008 at 2:57 pm:

@dk

That was a shot at Cuse fans going for the head of Paul Pasqualoni 4 years ago when he started struggling. Obviously that was the wrong decision and I think any of you would rather have a bowl team that was competitive in the wide open Big East than that shit that Robinson is putting on the field.

Here is your recruiting since 2002

2002 44
2003 53
2004 54
2005 56
2006 51
2007 48
2008 48

If a program is getting slightly better than average talent a coach winning 7-9 games like Pasqualoni was doing a damn good job.
5dl on Sep 22, 2008 at 3:19 pm:

Let’s take a closer look at the numbers in regard to Paul Pasqualoni. Pasqualoni took over the team in 1992, loaded with talent and with one of the top multi-purpose QBs in the nation in Marvin Graves. With this talent, he did a great job winning 10 wins his first year on the job.

Next year, the team puts up a big clunker of a year, going 6-4-1 and definitely underachieving.

The following year, he is forced to start Kevin Mason at QB and narrowly misses a bowl game at 7-4. In my opinion, should have gone to a bowl.

Following year, the best QB to ever play at Syracuse comes on board and wins 9 games his first year, including a 41-0 drubbing of Clemson in the Gator Bowl.

Over the subsequent three years, the ‘Cuse would win three Big East championships, go to two consecutive BCS games and despite losing both in convincing fashion, seemed to be heading in a direction toward being a perennial top-25 team.

But during those McNabb years, there were some “how the hell did that happen” type games where they would lose to opponents they had no business losing (at Minnesota in 1995, home opener against NC State in ‘96, and a real clunker of a game against the Wolfpack the following year on national television). There were also blown timeouts at critical junctures, stupid penalties due to poor coaching (vs. Tennessee in ‘98 there were multiple personal foul penalties for jersey violations).

Following McNabb, there was a precipitous drop in talent at the QB position, despite the talent level around the team getting better or remaining the same. The major blow was losing on the road to perennial doormat Rutgers in 1999. This was the beginning of the end, in my opinion. The next year they lost to Cincinnati and were not even competitive against Miami.

Dwight Freeney, who we all know is a freak, nearly single-handedly won 10 games the next year, but the Orange would go 4-8, 6-6 and 6-6 the next three seasons, an obvious decline cycle.

While I absolutely agree that Robinson has done a putrid job and does not deserve to see another year, nor another game, I also think Pasqualoni had seen his better days and it was time for a change.
6dk on Sep 22, 2008 at 7:43 pm:

The fans wanted an underacheiving coach to leave, you disagree. No reason to take a pot shot at Upstate NY.

dl lays out some good arguments about Pasqualoni and why he was canned. Just because Robinson didn’t pan out doesn’t mean firing Pasqualoni wasn’t the right move.
7cgb on Sep 22, 2008 at 7:51 pm:

What pot shot? There isn’t a lot to do there. build an amusement park and prove my point wrong.
8dk on Sep 23, 2008 at 9:55 am:

An amusement park? What are you, 12?
9NYNY on Sep 25, 2008 at 1:30 pm:

Hey CGB, as an SU alum who traveled everywhere that FBS teams play, most of them are in lousy areas. Who cares? You think these recruits are looking for the country’s best museums or shops in their free time? Do you have any sense of reality? The facilities at SU were sub par before the new coaches were brought in. Coach P was victim of a Univ that had a lot of money and didn’t want to spend. The upgrade was far too late (should have been in ‘98, ‘99) and now they need new coaching blood to boot. Forget the town or coaches, facilities and a chance at the BCS will sell every time.
10cgb on Sep 25, 2008 at 1:47 pm:

@NYNY – I agree with you that facilities are more important than what the area has to offer. However if you are a 5 star recruit and choosing between 3 schools where everything is equal, don’t you think being location and extra-curricular activities are going to come into play? I think so.
11NYNY on Sep 25, 2008 at 8:33 pm:

What activities are you talking about? Give me a break. What is there to do in South Bend, etc.? Get my drift? So your response is basically that you agree but you still don’t get it? That’s not gonna get ya far.

I’ll disagree any day you want about the 5 star thing. It’s nonsense and if anything is going to prove it, the last two years in college football should do so. The majority of schools with the “5 star” athletes never out perform the ones with the rest.

It’s self serving to say this but the Cuse is a perfect example. Like I said before, by the time Coach P was canned, he was in a 5 year recruiting free fall. Check out the records during his tenure, who he beat and how, and also find the quotes from other coaches about the Cuse and what they were facing. It goes something like this, “when we went there we knew we could get beat because it was a dog fight. They were always the toughest around.” Coach P, Coach Mac, knew how to prepare a team and squeeze every ounce of talent out of every 2 star player they had and beat the big boys.

Not only that, check out how many big east teams ripped off what coach P was doing. Example, starters playing special teams. If you wanted to start you played ST. Ask Frank Beamer where he got the idea. I could go on all day.
12PM on Sep 30, 2008 at 4:28 pm:

DL’s post from Sep 22, 2008 speaks the gospel. I totally agree.