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Syracuse Orange football
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The Syracuse Orange football program is a college football team that represents Syracuse University. The team is a member of the Big East Conference, which is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I conference that is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has one national championship, which was earned for play in the 1959 season. The Orange are currently coached by Doug Marrone, who is in his first year coaching at Syracuse, and home games are played at the Carrier Dome, located in .
Syracuse Orange football team plays their games at the Carrier Dome.
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Encyclopedia
The Syracuse Orange football program is a college football team that represents Syracuse University. The team is a member of the Big East Conference, which is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I conference that is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has one national championship, which was earned for play in the 1959 season. The Orange are currently coached by Doug Marrone, who is in his first year coaching at Syracuse, and home games are played at the Carrier Dome, located in .
Facilities
The Syracuse Orange football team plays their games at the Carrier Dome. The Dome, used for several sports at the university, seats 49,250 seat for football.
History
Early History
Syracuse played its first intercollegiate football game in 1889, and achieved its first success in the 1890s and 1900s. With the construction of "state-of-the-art" Archbold Stadium in 1907, Syracuse rose to national prominence under Hall of Fame coach Frank "Buck" O'Neill. The 1915 squad garnered a Rose Bowl invitation that the school declined, having already played on the West Coast that season.
The 1920s saw continued success with teams featuring star end Vic Hanson, the only individual who is a member of both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame, and who later coached the team. Through this period, Colgate University was the school's biggest rival.
The late 1930s and 1940s saw a decline in fortunes that began to reverse when Ben Schwartzwalder took over as coach in 1949. Syracuse made its first bowl appearance in the 1953 Orange Bowl, followed by appearances in the 1957 Cotton Bowl and the 1959 Orange Bowl. The 1957 Cotton Bowl team featured Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown. During this era, Penn State emerged as Syracuse's principal rival, replacing Colgate University which had not kept up to compete at a national level.
In 1959, Syracuse earned its first National Championship following an undefeated season and Cotton Bowl victory over Texas. The team featured sophomore running back Ernie Davis, who went on to become the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy in 1961. Davis was slated to play for the Cleveland Browns in the same backfield as Jim Brown, but died of leukemia before being able to play professionally.
Syracuse remained competitive through the 1960s with a series of All American running backs, including Floyd Little and Larry Csonka. The program began a gradual decline, though, in the 1970s. The construction of the Carrier Dome in 1980 began to turn the program around, as did the success of future NFL stars Joe Morris and Art Monk.
MacPherson/Pasqualoni Era
The program returned suddenly to national prominence in 1987 under coach Dick MacPherson with an undefeated 11-0 regular season record. The team featured Maxwell Award winning quarterback Don McPherson and fullback Daryl Johnston. The team missed an opportunity to play for the NCAA Division I-A national football championship, because both the University of Oklahoma and the University of Miami also finished undefeated that year and finished higher in the polls. Instead, the team faced Southeastern Conference champion Auburn University in the Sugar Bowl. The game ended in a tie when Auburn kicked a late field goal rather than trying for a game winning touchdown.
Over the next 14 seasons (1988-2001), the program enjoyed tremendous success under coach MacPherson and his successor Paul Pasqualoni, appearing in 11 bowl games (including 3 major bowls) and winning 9. The team also captured or shared 4 Big East football championships during this period. Prominent players of the period included Bill Scharr, Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney, Keith Bulluck, Rob Moore, Donovin Darius, Qadry Ismail, Kevin Johnson, Rob Konrad, Tebucky Jones and Marvin Graves. Rivalries shifted in the early 1990s as Penn State ended its series with Syracuse and joined the Big Ten. Syracuse, meanwhile, joined the newly formed Big East football conference with traditional rivals University of Pittsburgh, and West Virginia University and national programs Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech.
Several notable players played for Syracuse in this era include Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison, and Dwight Freeney.
Greg Robinson Era
In 2004, Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, followed by Boston College in 2005, threatening the stature of the Big East. Syracuse was originally supposed to leave the Big East and join the ACC, but the ACC decided to allow Virginia Tech to join the conference instead. Thus, Syracuse remained in the Big East. However, the departures coincided with a "dry" period for the football program, prompting the University to hire Greg Robinson, former defensive coordinator for the Texas Longhorns, as head coach beginning with the 2005 season. That season, the Orange went 1–10, the worst season in Syracuse history.
On November 12, 2005, Syracuse University retired the uniform number 44, to honor Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Floyd Little, and the legacy of the number itself, which has become so associated with Syracuse that the university's ZIP code, 13244, was requested by university officials to remember those who wore 44 for the Orange.
Syracuse also retired the uniform number 88 in honor of tight end John Mackey (1960–62) on Sept 15, 2007. Mackey, who is considered one of the greatest tight ends to play football, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992. He was named to the Pro Bowl five times as a member of the Baltimore Colts. He also played in two Super Bowls.
In 2008 the Orange continued to struggle and fired head coach Greg Robinson.
Doug Marrone
It was announced on December 12, 2008 that Doug Marrone, offensive coordinator for the NFL's New Orleans Saints, had been hired to replace Robinson as head coach.
College Football Hall of Famers
Pro Football Hall of Fame
External links
- Syracuse Football Page from
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