Someone out there PLEASE explain the fascination with Marrone! I do not understand it in the least. The dude has sucked in the NFL and was 25-25 at Syracuse, where is the love coming from?! This guy would be a complete disaster.
The fascination is that his name has been floated and he was a candidate previously.
Lots of guys "suck" in the NFL. Saban and Spurrier sucked in the NFL. Sherman was good in the NFL... and sucked at TAM.
The failure with Jones is that few looked at the numbers behind the numbers. His record at Cincy was distorted because he played so many bad teams and good programs in down years. He was 4-8 at Cincy in the only year when most of his opponents finished with winning records.
The same goes for Marrone at Syracuse. He took over an absolutely awful program. They were 10-37 in the 4 years prior to him taking over. They were 17-31 in the 4 years after him. During that 12 year span they had 3 winning seasons... his second and 4th seasons plus the year after he left. Looking at program trajectory his team was 8-5 in his last season at Syracuse.... his team went from losing and frequently being uncompetitive to being competitive in every game they played even when badly overmatched from a talent standpoint.
In his 4 years, a train wreck of a program lost 3 games to non-bowl qualifiers.
I'm NOT saying he's my pick or even a good pick. I am saying that he likely would not be a "complete disaster" and that there are things that make him a "good", not great, candidate.
Also... his time in those two particular NFL franchises could uniquely prepare him for a dysfunctional football program and athletic department.
One significant note. In the two years prior to his arrival, Syracuse scored 16.4 ppg and 18.1 ppg. In his last year, they scored 30 ppg. If Pruitt were making that kind of progress we wouldn't be having this conversation.