‘Marrone’s meteoric, and in my opinion, somewhat shocking rise to prominence is a terrific example of the somewhat slight difference between mediocrity and excellence, between being the chosen one and just one in the crowd. Let’s face it: Marrone was not going to have a line of NFL teams clamoring to hire him three and three-quarters through his tenure at SU. They can talk all they want about his reputation as an offensive mind, his leadership skills and his love of his alma mater. Quite honestly, nobody would have cared about that if this year ended at say, 6-7. That was a real possibility until the last game of the regular season. So no, Coach Marrone, it’s a little premature to say that you have turned the program around. You were 8-5 and won the Pinstripe Bowl two years ago (sound familiar?), only to have a losing record, five straight losses and no bowl game the next year. If your goal was to use your tenure at SU to springboard into the NFL, you are a success.’