Woo-hoo!!!-----Syracuse Fires Football Coach Pasqualoni

[Baseball Guru]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=531&e=3&u=/ap/20041229/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_syracuse_pasqualoni_fired

By JOHN KEKIS, AP Sports Writer

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Syracuse fired football coach Paul Pasqualoni on Wednesday, eight days after a 37-point loss in a bowl game — and less than a month after giving him a vote of confidence.



Chancellor Nancy Cantor announced Dec. 6 that Pasqualoni would return for his 15th season with Syracuse, but 11 days later Daryl Gross was hired as athletic director and the Orange's humbling 51-14 loss to Georgia Tech in the Champs Sports Bowl apparently sealed Pasqualoni's fate.


The decision to fire Pasqualoni was made by Gross.


Pasqualoni was 107-59-1 and 6-3 in bowl games at Syracuse. But the Orange struggled to break even the last three years after going 10-3 and finishing 14th in the nation in 2001.


Outgoing athletic director Jake Crouthamel, who hired Pasqualoni to replace Dick MacPherson, gave his coach a positive evaluation after the Orange upset then-No. 17 Boston College in the season finale. That vaulted Syracuse into a four-way tie for the Big East championship and made the Orange eligible to play in the postseason.


The Orange, 4-8 in 2002 and 6-6 each of the last two years, began this season with a 51-0 loss at Purdue on national television. It was Syracuse's most lopsided season-opening defeat in the program's 112-year history. The Orange seemed to bottom out with their second straight loss at lowly Temple, a team with a total of 13 Big East that has been booted out of the conference.


Dwindling home attendance also became a factor. For the five home games this season, the Orange averaged just over 37,000, about three-quarters of capacity in the 49,000-seat Carrier Dome and nearly 10,000 fewer than 1998, Donovan McNabb's final college season.


Since McNabb left for the NFL after the 1998 season, the Orange have an overall record of 39-33 and 21-20 in the Big East Conference and lost regular-season games to Big East also-ran Rutgers, along with Temple.


Pasqualoni departs as the second-winningest coach in school history, behind only Ben Schwartzwalder, who had 153 wins.

[Baseball Guru]

YES! YES! YES!

Finally the day has come!

Here is more info on this glorious day at one of my favorite sites: http://coachpmustgo.com/

[yagsy]

:jump: I'm glad they did it now rather than later. At least they waited til after Christmas.

Now Gross has got to get a decent coach hired NOW! I watched that first game against Purdue. :yikes: that was bad and then didn't watch another college football game until the Champs Sports bowl game. Must be me. :notme:

Too bad they didn't fire Coach P earlier, maybe they coulda have made an offer to Wadnstadt.

Funny site there James! :laff: :thumbsup:

[Baseball Guru]

12-29-2004
Mark it down! December 29th, 2004 is the day that Syracuse football has been reborn, as Daryl Gross just announced that Coach P would NOT BE BACK for the upcoming 2004 season. GREAT DAY IN SYRACUSE HISTORY! More to come...
-The Orange Alliance

[Durango53]

I wish your team luck. I hope you dont have to go though what Husker fans went though last year.....

[yagsy]

Daryl Gross just announced that Coach P would NOT BE BACK for the upcoming 2004 season. -The Orange Alliance

Is Syracuse planning on replaying their dreadful '04 season? Wow, if Gross can turn back time, there's a few things I would like to arrange!

[Timberwolf]

It's about time Coach Pasqualoni was fired. I am sure Syracuse fans are in cloud nine.

I wonder if USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow is the favorite to get the job. Chow and the new Syracuse AD are familiar with each other.

[Baseball Guru]

I wonder if USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow is the favorite to get the job. Chow and the new Syracuse AD are familiar with each other.


His name has already been named as a possible candidate:)

[Baseball Guru]

http://syracuse.scout.com/2/335814.html
By Wesley Cheng Staff Writer
Date: Dec 29, 2004

Eight days after Syracuse suffered its second worst bowl loss in school history, head coach Paul Pasqualoni was fired Wednesay afternoon.

The move came weeks after Chancellor Nancy Cantor said Pasqualoni would return for his 15th season. But 11 days later, Syracuse hired new athletics director Daryl Gross, who made the decision to fire Pasqualoni. Syracuse lost in the Champs Sports Bowl to Georgia Tech, 51-1.

“Right now it is just the logical time for us here to go in a different direction,” Gross said.

Gross said the hunt for the next head coach will begin immediately. Ideally, Syracuse would like to hire someone with coaching experience at the professional and college level.

Names that have surfaced as possible replacements are Norm Chow, currently the offensive coordinator at USC, and Randy Edsall, a former Syracuse assistant coach who currently is the head coach at Connecticut.

Edsall has built Connecticut into a solid team in just six years, while Chow is widely regarded as a top offensive mastermind who will help bring in recruits.

“We will maintain our vision of hiring a head coach that will get Syracuse football back to national prominence and will do so while never comprising our history of running a great program, graduating football student-athletes and providing them with a quality education and experience,” Gross said.

Pasqualoni leaves Syracuse as the second winningest coach in school history, amassing a 107-59-1 record, 6-3 in bowl games, in 14 years. But after going 10-3 in 2001, Syracuse has struggled in the past three years.

Although Syracuse did clinch a four-way tie for the Big East championship by beating then-No. 17 Boston College to close the season, the Orange had embarrassing defeats to Purdue in its opener (51-0) and also lost to lowly Temple, which could’ve given Syracuse the Big East outright.