As Doug Marrone stood and spoke to a packed auditorium Friday, the three Syracuse players sat to his left, leaning forward and staring up at their new head coach.

The trio – from left to right, junior defensive tackle Art Jones, sophomore center Jim McKenzie and sophomore guard Ryan Bartholomew – had spent the last two weeks in limbo, desperate for any shred of evidence as to who their new head coach would be.

In Marrone, they and their SU teammates finally had an answer. Even if it wasn’t the one they expected.

‘That’s not who I thought was going to get picked,’ Jones said, referring to Marrone. ‘… I don’t know much about him, but I’m going to do my research after this.

‘It’s a big relief. Just to get away from all this stuff, and know who’s going to be your coach. It’s just a little nerve wracking.’

Marrone was introduced as the 28th head coach in Syracuse football history Friday, providing welcome closure a to a 26-day coaching search that started Nov. 16, when it was announced Greg Robinson would not return. Marrone, a former guard at Syracuse and the current offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints, inherits a group of current players that has never been part of a winning season – the Orange went a combined 10-37 in four years under Robinson.

Winning with this crop of Syracuse players would seem a tall task. But it’s one Marrone seemed determined to accomplish.

‘We need to make sure the players here understand that we are not in a rebuilding process,’ Marrone said. ‘We are not in a rebuilding process. We are in the process of rejuvenating this program with the players we have here. We are in the process of going out and getting the best players we can in and around the state. And we are in the process of winning football games.’

Marrone’s commitment to winning quickly seemed to resonate with the Syracuse players, who met with Marrone for the first time Friday morning. Several – including junior wide receiver Lavar Lobdell and sophomore defensive end Anthony Perkins – were scattered throughout the stuffed auditorium at the Iocolano-Petty Football Complex.

‘We had a quick team talk amongst ourselves just to say, ‘Yo, we got to really show this guy what we’re all about. Cause he bleeds Syracuse,” Perkins said. ‘He’s a very motivating guy.’

‘He said it’s not a rebuilding program,’ Jones said. ‘And he said we’re going to win. That’s one thing he made sure of. He didn’t say when, but he said we’re going to win.’

Among Marrone’s first tasks will be convincing Jones to hang around for his senior season. The junior defensive tackle was recently named to the All-Big East first team, and many have speculated he could depart for the NFL Draft this winter. After Syracuse’s season finale at Cincinnati Nov. 29, Jones said he would make his decision after talking with the new head coach.

Through Jones expressed satisfaction with the hire Friday, he brushed aside questions about his future.

‘It’s really not about me,’ he said. ‘It’s about him today, and him getting hired. I’m looking forward to going home and enjoying this break. … We’ll talk about it later down the road after I’ve made my decision.’

Beyond Jones, Marrone does have some returning talent. Syracuse could return as many as seven starters on both sides of the ball.

How Marrone uses what talent he inherits seems unclear. He has no prior head coaching experience at any level. He comes from an offensive background, but said Friday he would play an active role in both the offense and defense. And though he has helped mold one of the NFL’s most prolific offenses in New Orleans, he said he will wait to evaluate his players at SU before designing his offensive system.

But Friday’s meeting was about first impressions, not X’s and O’s.

‘We were unsure,’ McKenzie said. ‘But coming out of the meeting, right after he left the room, as players we kind of talked amongst ourselves, and we were very excited. We found someone we can work behind.’

The real work will have to wait. The Syracuse players won’t return to campus for a month because of winter break. Marrone will coach out the final two weeks of the NFL season with the Saints. In that time, his main prerogatives for Syracuse will be filling out his coaching staff and salvaging some sort of a recruiting class.

But the current corps of Syracuse players, at least they now have some direction.

‘We’re going to go home for the next month,’ McKenzie said, ‘but we’re going to be getting ready for something special.’

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on December 11, 2008 at 12:00 pm