I'm probably not going to say anything that hasn't been said already by the many members of the orange nation bloggers. However, I thought it was probably time to come out and add my two cents to the millions of pennies that sit in the "Wow... we suck this bad?" pile.
I was at the Penn St. game a week and a half ago. It was one of the most depressing days of my life. My father has spent the better part of the last 24 years telling me what the atmosphere of a Penn St. game was like at the Dome. He would tell me of the hatred and the passion. But, alas, the rivalry has turned into a one-sided laugher. I never pictured it would look like this:
I've seen countless football games in the Dome. I was at every single game Donovan played there. I watched Keith Bullock run wild on defense and Marvin Harrison break the schools reception record. I even remember when Donovan Darius beat up North Carolina's punter! I never imagined there would days like the one's we are going through right now... Days where we have more missed tackles than passing yards, more interceptions than sacks, and more hanging heads than post season Cubs fans.
We can spend all day, all year, and probably will have to spend most of the next decade blaming the whole line of administrators who have played a part in this debacle. The players are...
Coach P: His on the field record does not match the discipline and game-planning issues he presented to the program. Yes, as Lee Corso pointed out, he had a pretty good record. But, if you were a Syracuse fan, as nunes pointed out, you know thats not the whole story. He had a tendency to get embarrassed on national television by A LOT of points (Purdue for example). So, yes he did play a large part in this.
Doctor Gross: He hired the next guy on this list... enough said. But, I'll say more. Everything about his mentality is wrong for Syracuse University. We are not USC. We never will be USC. They have 6 or 7 Heisman winners... Syracuse has one that Gross "honored" by making him a bronzed Nike Ad. He wants to turn the Hill into the Hollywood hills, and thats not what Syracuse is about. We have a history of being overlooked and underappreciated. We're not spoiled, and we're not dynastic, but we're also not too far out of range for anyone to ignore the shade of orange on the horizon. Amongst all the things Ernie Davis represents, that point should be one of the most obvious. We're the "almost forgotten." Hollywood made 700 Rocky films, but missed out on the Jackie Robinson story of college football until 2008? (see what I mean?) SU is cold, dreary, and often forgotten amongst the powers... three things Southern Cal has never been, nor ever will be. Gross tried to change a culture that didn't need changing, and he tried to change it to the extreme. It hasn't worked... at least not for football.
G-Rob: Where to start with this guy? Worst Coach in Division I Football. Defensive genius who can't coach how to tackle. Master recruiter who doesn't get recruits. Head coach who can't motivate, game-plan, make sense, or address the media in any sort of coherent fashion. I have no doubt he's a nice guy. I met him. He took his picture with me. He's very nice. But he's a terrible football coach. 8-31 speaks for itself. 2 conference wins in 3 years is pathetic. He should NEVER have another coaching job on any level higher than high school (that's not an exaggeration, its the truth).But, through all this, there is one more player in this dreary nightmare that Orange fans are living through. That player, is the players. Jim Brown said it best on ESPN on Saturday morning... You can not have talent and still be able to tackle. You can not have talent and still be able to fight. Yes, the sad and apparent truth is that the players have fallen face first into the losing culture that Coach Robinson has created and maintained at Syracuse. They don't believe they can do it. They don't believe they can turn it around and they don't believe they can win. There's no heart, no competitiveness, and no fight.
I'm sure a lot of players are trying their hardest and playing their butts off. But for those who aren't giving their all: They should be ashamed to put on any uniform, let alone an Orange one. Losing doesn't make you losers, the way you lose, however, does. And the way the Orange are losing is embarrassing. So, while most of the blame does rest in the hands of administrators like Darryl Gross and Greg Robinson, at least some of the blame should be put in the hands of those who have forgotten how hard guys like Jim Brown and Ernie Davis worked to build a tradition they never thought would come crumbling down.
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