Football Orange – Who Are These Guys?

What? They beat #15 West Virginia? Not only beat them but whipped them, to the tune of 49-23? And the team is what? 5-2, tied for best record in the conference? Really?

Who are these guys? The football Orange team hasn’t had this kind of success since… well, when? The Pasqualoni era when Donovan McNabb ran this team?

To say I’m proud would be an understatement. For so long this team has struggled to even put a competitive team on the field, let alone a team that people thought could actually win games like the one last night. To put it in perspective Syracuse hadn’t beaten a top 15 team since 2002; that’s a long time.

I have to admit that it’s an easier life for me when the team is bad. When you know that the team isn’t going to win the game by halftime, as under the Robinson era, you can go on about your business and just check the score later on. Back then, this guy’s team had no offense whatsoever, and for a guy who was supposed to be a defensive genius his teams could never stop the run and got killed by the pass.

This has been a tough year emotionally. Yes, this team has heart, but that heart has sent us to 3 overtime games. And that Southern California game was still intense by halftime, so I had to watch one more quarter before I knew I could relax and not have to worry that we had a chance to win that one.

You see, that’s the thing about sports. We watch because it’s immediate excitement. We hang our hats on a dream that sometimes comes true, and when it does the euphoria is amazing. Watching the Orange thoroughly dominate a team last night, and one that was supposed to be good, felt good. It feels good this morning as well. It’s great seeing the crowd as positive as it was, and it’s great hearing an announcer saying “this Syracuse team is as good as any team I’ve seen all year”. Really? Us?

I’m big on loyalty. The day this team fired Pasqualoni and hired Robinson I felt the team was going to fail, and it did. Darryl Gross, the AD of the team, had done something grossly wrong; he’d made a promise then immediately broke it. That kind of thing will always come back to haunt you in some fashion; remember the 1-15 Dallas Cowboys after the way Tom Landry was fired from that team? There’s a karma to the universe, and there’s always a period one has to go through when ethics are violated. We’re through that period thanks to coach Doug Marrone, someone that embodies the spirit that was 80’s Orange football.

Now the Syracuse Orange football team is out from under the penalty. They’re allowed to play and flourish and win. They’re allowed to feel good and have fun. And they’re taking all of us along for the ride; yay! And to celebrate, at least in my way, the images you see on this page are products, the first things I’m selling on this blog, all dedicated to Syracuse University football. Go Orange!