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Syracuse Athletics doesn't currently have an athletic director. We've made some recommendations, John has submitted himself for the position, and pretty soon we'll probably find out who that lucky(?) person is.
In the meantime, ESPN Syracuse's Upon Further Review took it upon themselves to interview callers for the open position yesterday. Who better to consider for the job than local Syracuse fans who call into radio shows? It's put up or shut up time.
And so, they put up. And well, most probably should have shut up.
Guy calling in to @ESPNSYRACUSE for AD gig says we need to restore rowing (which we have) and football is on its way out "in 20 years".
— NunesMagician.com (@NunesMagician) May 5, 2015
Next caller wants to schedule Alabama as the key to improving SU Football. pic.twitter.com/xLHhgXhRBV
— NunesMagician.com (@NunesMagician) May 5, 2015
Next @ESPNSYRACUSE caller's key to saving SU Athletics: Food trucks outside the Carrier Dome.
— NunesMagician.com (@NunesMagician) May 5, 2015
SU Athletics biggest problem? "Too many guys in the office pushing papers around." Got it. @ESPNSYRACUSE
— NunesMagician.com (@NunesMagician) May 5, 2015
Multiple people wanted Syracuse to start a men's hockey team so badly it was among their top priorities if they got the job. Like, first thing they'd do.
There were some good thoughts, too. One caller said that his first orders of business would be to keep Pete Sala on staff and then make a push to the local community to rebuild that connection instead of worry about building up our Northern New Jersey brand awareness. And I appreciated the caller who wanted Syracuse to employ the soft scheduling approach to rebuilding the football program.
I think the point that I took away from the whole exercise is that there's a stark difference between things that you want Syracuse Athletics to do and the things that Syracuse Athletics absolutely needs to do right now.
Yes, it would be great to have a men's hockey team and a wrestling team and getting rid of all those papers that get pushed around the office, but...those aren't things that need to happen right now in order to get the Syracuse Orange back on track.
Big picture? Fixing the football program, sorting out the future of the Carrier Dome and rebuilding the connection to the local fanbase are the most paramount issues. Those are the things the new AD is going to need to focus on. Adding Olympic sports programs is a nice thing to consider but those are issues whose time will come.
This isn't that time.
We'll get there. At least, we hope we get there. And we hope the new athletic director is the person to get us there.
(and if they see to adding some orange back into our uniforms along the way...all the better)