Doug Marrone Reportedly Will Leave Syracuse to Coach Buffalo Bills

Nearly one week after firing Chan Gailey following a 6-10 season, the Buffalo Bills have hired Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone to be their next head coach, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.  

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Filed to ESPN: Doug Marrone has agreed to leave Syracuse and become the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2013"

Marrone has spent the last four years at Syracuse, posting a career record of 25-25. He led the program to bowl appearances in 2010 and 2012. Both times the team played in and won the Pinstripe Bowl. 

The Bills are keeping things relatively close to home, as Syracuse University is in upstate New York. The team wasted no time in moving in on Marrone; it was only reported on Friday that the two sides had met about the job, according to Bills lead journalist Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com. 

Despite the mediocre record he compiled over four seasons at Syracuse, this was actually the perfect time for Marrone to use his leverage to search for a bigger job. In addition to winning the Pinstripe Bowl, he led the team to a share of the Big East regular-season title. 

It was the first time since 2004 that Syracuse had won at least a share of the conference title. In addition to his success with the team and turning the program around, Marrone did a great job coaching individuals.

Senior quarterback Ryan Nassib had the best season of his career with the Orange. He threw for 3,749 yards, 26 touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a completion percentage of 62.4. 

The Bills have a litany of problems that need to be fixed if they want to get back into contention in the AFC East any time soon. Marrone will be tasked with not only turning around the franchise, but helping to fix it, if that's possible at this juncture. 

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