Greg Paulus is still your starting quarterback. You might not like it, you might be fine with it or you might have already moved on to basketball season and no longer care but...what is, is. And Paulus will try to atone for the last two weeks when the Orange take on Akron this Saturday.
Akron already spent the past weekend playing football in Upstate New York. And if the end result is any indication, Syracuse should be able to secure their fourth win of the season. Notice the use of "should" there...we're not at the making promises stage just yet.
Down 14-7 with 4:34 left in the third, Akron fought back to overtake Buffalo in the fourth quarter and take a 17-14 lead late. However Buffalo's Mario Henry’s 1-yard touchdown with 5:59 left gave Buffalo a 21-17 lead that they never relinquished and the Bulls dropped the Zips to 1-5 on the year. Akron's lone win came against 1-AA Morgan State in the 2nd week of the season.
The Zips and the Orange also have a shared opponent, Penn State. The Nittany dropped Akron 31-7 in the first game of the season.
Getting back to Paulus, nothing has changed for Doug Marrone in the last week. Greg's still his guy. At least until Greg proves that he's not.
"I mean I'm evaluating, constantly evaluating, someone that plays for our football team to a point where if I think that I'm (not) putting (the team) in a position to win, I have to replace him," Marrone said. "So I know, I understand where everyone's coming from as far as when we talk about the quarterback position, but, Greg's our starting quarterback."
Doug lays off the "tremendous" and the "standpoint" but package does make a triumphant return to the proceedings:
"We go into each game with packages for both," Marrone said. "Then it's just a matter of how the game's going, whether or not they come across. Some games, Ryan, if you talk about 100 percent, he may have 5 percent, 7 percent, as high as 17 percent of what the package is. If it's working for us, if it's something we need to do to win, we'll stay with that package."
Donnie's got some quick updates on injuries and such. Center Jim McKenzie missed last week's game with a hand injury. He was seen in the stands with a humongous cast on his hand, which, confirms that. Ryan Bartholomew will get the nod at starting center for the 2nd straight game. Nick Speller and Cody Catalina should be back in action as both recovered from injuries.
E.J. Carter remains suspended for breaking an undisclosed team rule. Marrone refuses to comment on the specifics, at least not until Carter is reinstated, which Marrone alluded to happening at some point.
After the Orange take on Akron, they'll have to prepare for the mighty Cincinnati Bearcats on October 31st. The time for that game has officially been set and it's a nooner. The good news is that, thanks largly to the fact that Cincy is ranked so high, the game will be televised on ESPNU. Tony Pike remains day-to-day so the Orange will have to wait a long time before knowing if they'll line up against him by then.