Seven Year Itch: The Struggles of Syracuse Football

September 2, 2000: the first football game of my collegiate career. Standing out front of Lawrinson Hall, a ubiquitous red Solo cup in hand, my group was approached by fans from the University of Buffalo, Syracuse’s first opponent of the 2000 season.

We laughed off their humorous attempt at hubris with the disdain that can only be dished out by half drunk freshmen rooting for a double digit favorite. Syracuse pulled out a 63-7 win that afternoon.

Flash forward to the halcyon days of 2002, when a 38 year old Barry Bonds could win a batting title and NL MVP award without widespread suspicion of impropriety, instead of Shaq asking Kobe to sample his derriere, the duo was winning another NBA title.

2002 was also the last time Syracuse University had a nationally ranked football team.

When the final AP poll for the 2001 season was released on January 4, 2002, the Syracuse Orangemen sat at No. 14, quite respectable, given the team’s struggles in the previous 2 years.

Things were looking up in the ‘Cuse, with a 10-3 season, hopes of rebuilding the school’s recently dwindling eastern (and national) recruiting base were rising, but it was not meant to be. The next seven years have been a display in mediocrity, followed by the program reaching the depths of the collegiate football abyss.

This is a school that produced a litany of All Americans, All Pros and a few Hall of Famers, a school with the 14th most wins in Division 1-A history, a school with a number of other excellent Division I athletic teams, not including the storied basketball program.

So what happened?

The regional recruiting game in the east has become much more competitive. One has to look no farther than Syracuse’s own Big East conference to confirm that notion. The rise of programs like UConn, South Florida, Rutgers, and Cincinnati have reduced the Orange’s chances at top eastern football recruits.

Syracuse used to compete for recruits with the likes of Penn State, Boston College, and Pitt, the addition of these new programs has further diluted the talent pool.

The national recruiting scene has become much more wide open as well, and with Syracuse’s recent lack of national television exposure, poor play, and the program’s lack of historic relevance to those under the age of 30, one can see why the program has been unable to recruit like it once did.

The cloudy skies and harsh winters of Central New York certainly don’t help matters, nor do the more stringent academic requirements of a competitive, private university. Given the choice of playing at USC, with the incredible weather and city of Los Angeles at your disposal, or playing at Syracuse, a small city in a small media market, surrounded by nothing, with an average of 120 inches of snowfall a year, the choice seems simple.

Can the Orange overcome these obstacles? There is no reason why they could not, given the right administrative and coaching personnel, improvements to the facilities, and a season with a modicum of success, a show of the program heading in the right direction. Many thought the 2009 season would be just that, a season that would be even a slight turn around.

Thus far, it has not. Should the Orange win out, they would not be bowl eligible, but they would be on their way back to some semblance of respectability, if not, it looks like more of the same for the Orange, and that would be a shame. I, for one, am tired of having to act like those Buffalo fans I met nine years ago.