Doug Marrone To Tennessee? Now That's Funny

Okay seriously, you guys.  You can stop saying Doug Marrone is a candidate for the Tennessee job now.  It was funny last night but, much like Boise State's Sad Cowbell Girl, the joke got stale quick. 

That'll do, Brent Hubbs of Volquest.com.

Enough out of you, Tom Dienhart. 

Easy does it, Will Brinson at Buster Sports (who calls the Greg Paulus Experience a "fiasco," as if Syracuse would have gone 12-1 and lost to Florida in the Sugar Bowl without him).

I get it.  The Pete Carroll and Lane Kiffin stories have both reminded us all too well that there are no loyalties in college sports when it comes to coaching.  That everyone can be gotten for a price and there's always a better job ahead.  Certainly, on paper, there's a LOT of jobs better than Syracuse at the moment.  And Marrone coached briefly at Tennessee, so there's that.  Guilty by association.

I'm sure it must be flattering to have your name thrown out there like that.  And in a way, SU fans should be flattered that their head coach is actually a valuable commodity.

But, c'mon now.  We're talkin' bout Doug Marrone.  The guy who spent the last 20 years of his life preparing to coach Syracuse, specifically.  Not Lane Kiffin, who would jump from USC to Florida tomorrow if they offered.

We're talkin' bout Doug Marrone, who has carried around with him for years something called "The Plan." A white one-inch, three-ring binder that he brought to his interview with SU to show just how much he wanted the job.

Doug Marrone opens the binder and slowly flips through the colored charts and text. The Plan, Marrone believes, will save Syracuse football.

Inside are the first 44 years of his life. The values he learned growing up in a Bronx neighborhood nestled in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge. Those grueling Dick MacPherson summertime practices in the Carrier Dome, when Marrone wasn't sure if he had another breath left in him. The methodical move up the coaching ladder, from watering fields at Cortland to being an offensive coordinator in the NFL, where those around him believe Marrone was destined for a head-coaching job.

We're talkin' bout Doug Marrone, who said this when he was hired:

"As you all know, when I started my coaching career I had a dream. And every decision that I made, I made with the thought the end result would be I'd be the head football coach at Syracuse University. And I would like to thank our chancellor, Nancy Cantor, and our athletic director, Daryl Gross, for making that dream come true"

We're not talking about Brian Kelly or Nick Saban or Lane Kiffin, guys who are coaches looking for the next stepping stone to get the elite job.  It sounds crazy but, Tennessee, Georgia and the Saints were Doug Marrone's stepping stones to get the one job in the world that's elite to him..Syracuse. 

And you honestly think he'll give it up after one season?  When the work hasn't even begun?  When he hasn't even started to accomplish the goal of rebuilding the Orange?  You think he'd leave the program he could "never repay...for what it's done for me" so soon?  Sorry...can't buy that.

There's a long way to go and Doug's story at Syracuse is still being written.  It may be over in two years.  It might still be going fifteen years from now.  There might come a time when he feels like he's accomplished what he wanted at SU and he moves on. Maybe even after only a couple years, once he's had a few recruiting classes and been able to coach his team fully.

But that time isn't here yet.  Not by a long-shot.  Sorry about Kiffin, Tennessee (or maybe congrats?).  But you can look elsewhere for your next coach.