Syracuse's Bowl Game prediction, who their opponent will be, and the season in review!
SU goes Bowling!
I am not bragging, but back on November 27th, I did call the Bowl, the opponent, and the Syracuse University win.
As an S.U. fan, I am very happy to announce that the hometown team is going to a bowl game after a five season exile! My prediction is that they will land in Yankee Stadium for the first ever, Pin Stripe Bowl, to face a big 12 team (I predict Kansas State, with an outside chance that it may be Teaxas Tech.). I will say however, that I am greatly disappointed in today's Boston College loss. Why? Because the Eagles proved that the Orange could not win even one home game against an NCAA Division 1A Football Team! That is a big disappointment coming from a defensive powerhouse that went 5-1 on the road and 4-0 on the road in the Big East! They were the first team in the nation to do that this year!
Rebuilding the Orange
This team has a long way to go and if they are going to get there, there are 3 things they must do. First, Coach Marone has already replaced the Special Teams Coordinator which was an important step to end the costly mistakes. However, he and his coaching staff have to do more to end the game changing turnovers! The second thing that absolutely needs to happen is they will be playing a Midwestern, "midtier", Big 12 Team team in a bowl game held in New York State. They need to win! 7-6 won't make any fan happy. The third thing that must do is when going for big recruits this year, we must find a Donovan McNabb type of quarter back or close too it! The Plain and simple truth is that Ryan Nassib was good in the first half of the season. But now, every defensive coordinator in the country knows how to shut him down by watching a few minutes of video! Our defense is solid, and our special teams will get better, but if the offense does not totally evolve it's passing game, then we are not going far!
Coach Marrone: Has he been successful?
Coach Marrone has already won 11 games, 5 against Big East opponents in his first 2 seasons. Greg Robinson (who will soon lose his job as Defensive Coordinator at Michigan) only won 10 games in 4 seasons at Syracuse. Robinson also never took any of his teams to a bowl game, or finished better than 2nd to the last place in the Big East Conference.
I will call Marrone a success story for many reasons. First the Orange is going Bowling, and next, twice this season they were ranked in the top 30 and almost got back into the Top 25 in the AP Poll. Those are huge accomplishments! SU is also in the top half of the Big East for the first time in 6 years.
What Marrone has to do now, is step up the recruiting process and nail down a great QB and a few rock solid offensive linemen. Now that the orange have established themselves as the "Road Warriors" of the Big East, and have a foundation rock to build on, they have to sell themselves to more talented players!
I believe that SU will beat K State by less than 5 points in the Pinstripe!
