Ravenwood - 12/30/04 06:45 AM
Syracuse fired their head football coach, Paul Pasqualoni. The loss to Temple did keep them out of the Fiesta Bowl, but I still think his record speaks for itself. After all, Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer lost to Temple a few years back (at Homecoming no less).
In 14 years with Syracuse, Pasqualoni posted a record of 107-59-1 and had just one losing season -- a 4-8 mark in 2002. The Orange played in nine bowl games during his tenure, winning six.It's not quite as bad as when Ol' Miss fired David Cutliffe, but I still think it's a bad move.Syracuse was a consistent top-25 program in six of Pasqualoni's first eight seasons, winning at least nine games five times. After a 10-3 mark in 2001, the Orange were just 16-20 the past three seasons.
Pasqualoni finished his tenure as the second-winningest coach in school history, behind only Ben Schwartzwalder, and had one of the top graduation rates in the country.
Category: Sports
Comments (2) top link me
Coach P had a nasty habit of losing a lot of the really clutch games. (In many cases, it really was a coaching breakdown that cost them the game.) Many of the fans have wanted him gone for a long time for just that reason.
He has always had trouble getting the most from his players. They have their moments, such as beating Tech in that God-forsaken Carrier Dome, but they never seemed to really live up to expectations. I never really understood the problem though. The people that should know something, the other NCAA coaches, all say that he is one of the best. The man is the incoming President of the Coaches Association after all.
Posted by: Nick Bourbaki at December 30, 2004 9:30 AMNick beat me to my comment. Coach P had a habit of only being above average, one big win along the way might have been enough. I wonder how his graduation rate was. Syracuse may come to regret this move.
Posted by: Michael at December 30, 2004 12:43 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
