Anonymous Big East Coach didn't like Greg Paulus from the start. From Donnie Webb's Big East Media Day wrap on August 5th...
One Big East Conference head coach told his own beat writer that the Greg Paulus experiment in Syracuse is destined for spectacular failure.
Later on when Greg was named the starter, Anonymous Big East Coach had no problem smirking about it.
"I wish we were opening with Syracuse."
Well, a funny thing happened on the way to Anonymous Big East Coach's upcoming game with Syracuse. Paulus actually proved he could handle himself on the field. Oops.
Sure, the Minnesota interception was bad and he's had more than a fair share of shaky moments. But at some point in his 24-36 for 346 yards, 2 passing touchdown and 1 rushing touchdown performance on Saturday, Greg Paulus confirmed everything that Syracuse fans have been hoping for since the moment he committed here.
He can do this.
Dan Kelley, a.k.a. dkelz to many of you, breaks down just how Greg Paulus is proving Anonymous Big East Coach wrong.
In more ways than just the total yardage though, Paulus’ game was a sharp contrast to the previous two performances because he was finally able to take some shots down the field. Against the Wildcats, he threw for an impressive 14.4 yards per completion compared to only 8.8 and 7.5 yards per completion against Minnesota and Penn State, respectively.
Never was this new found explosiveness more obvious than late in the first quarter when he hit a streaking Mike Williams for a 66-yard touchdown after a beautifully choreographed play fake that helped Williams get past the entire Northwestern secondary.
Kelz also rightly notes that, unless your name is Brian Kelly or Jim Leavitt, you really have nothing better to show for yourself at QB at this point. And now Leavitt finds himself worse off than SU in terms of experience at the position, so ultimately Paulus is looking like one of the better options in the conference.
We can wonder aloud who Anonymous Big East Coach is, or if he's actually a collection of Anonymous Big East Coaches. Paulus seems like a nice guy and not the type to hold a grudge or show a killer instinct. But perhaps he might want to just assume every Big East coach he faces is Anonymous Big East Coach. This way, we can rest easy in the knowledge that ABEC saw first-hand how wrong he was.