Flashing Lights

I had heard that there was a quick little mention of this blog on WTVH the other night and for anyone who has an interest in catching it, you can view it here. Thanks to The Axeman for the link and the mention in his blog and to Kevin Maher from WTVH for getting the word out about this blog.

The more pressure we can put on the Board of Trustees and Nancy Cantor, the sooner we can restore Syracuse Athletics to our former glory.

Wins and Losses

I added the records of the three major programs since Gross was named Athletic Director on 12.17.2004 to the side bar. For a man who claims to be pursuing excellence in all sports, it is painfully obvious that we are struggling with mediocrity. Since 12.17.2004, inclusive,the three major sports are 99-74, a measly .572 winning record.

I am in the process of compiling the win-loss records of all sports since Gross took over. I'll be posting this as soon as I have it ready.

Steve Pederson East

In response to a question in his mailbag on SI.com, college football writer Stewart Mandel called Daryl Gross, "essentially the East Coast version of Steve Pederson." Stewart goes on to say that Gross "isn't likely to pull the plug on his grand hire after just three seasons." This was in response to a question about Houston Nutt trying to save his job.

Pederson, as you know, is the former Athletic Director of Nebraska who lost his job mid-season due to issues internal to the Athletics Department. Speculation is that Pederson was alienating many fans, donors, staff members, and former athletes. Not that this sounds anything like the Daryl Gross administration...

Mandel included Coach Greg Robinson in his list of coaches who are close to being in trouble but need to perform poorly over the rest of the season to actually get canned. With South Florida, UConn and Cincinnati left to play after this weekends matchup with Pitt, things don't seem to be looking that much brighter for Robinson.

Daryl Gross on the AD Hot Seat

Coacheshotseat.com now has an "Athletic Director's Hot Seat". According to Coaches Hot Seat, Daryl Gross is #9 on the list.

Remember When?

No, I'm not talking about the glory days of Syracuse football, I'm talking about when Daryl Gross announced that he was going to raise ticket prices for the 2006 football season. He had this big pronouncement, where he clearly stated:

"We put a lot of thought about it. We have to be sophisticated in our thinking. We can't wait for years to go by for us to get good to implement change as far as pricing. It's pretty modest."

Well Daryl, years have gone by. Two in fact. And yet we are a far worse team now, than when you came here prancing in on your white horse. So tell me, when exactly will that raise in ticket price be worth it? As far as I can see, it hasn't improved our facilities one bit.

Fact: Daryl Gross Hates the Fans

Listen real close around the 23 second mark. Yes, he tells the fans to "Hush up". Be careful what comes next, he may outlaw cheering at the Dome.

Fact: Daryl Gross Is Egotistical

There has been a lot of speculation about the recent "unannouncement" by Daryl Gross that any sort of deal is in place for Mike Hopkins to be the next basketball coach at Syracuse. There was an AP report last week which stated that a contract was in place and was in the final stages of being agreed on. Almost immediately after the story ran, Daryl Gross denied that this was the case. To me, you only have to look at two recent Syracuse hires to see why Daryl Gross denied this report.

I give you the official SUAhtletics.com announcements of the Women's Lacrosse and Tennis hirings:

Gross Hires Lacrosse Legend Gary Gait to Lead Syracuse Womens' Lacrosse Program

Gross Appoints ESPN Analyst Luke Jensen Head Tennis Coach

A smattering of other headlines from SUAthletics.com:

• Gross Promotes Edson to Assistant Athletics Director


• Gross Promotes Mullin to Associate Athletics Director and Announces Additional Staff Changes


• Gross Appoints Fox To Lead Syracuse Cross Country/Track & Field Program


• Gross Unveils New Athletics Logo

So what this all comes down to is that nothing happens in the athletics department unless Daryl Gross wills it to happen. Who knows what the next headline might read, but I'm pretty sure that no matter what it is, Daryl Gross will be front and center.

Lael Chealander Gross

Now I know this isn't old news, but it is something that really bothers me. The Assistant Director of Athletics for Marketing is Lael Chealander Gross. In case you didn't know, Lael is the wife of Athletic Director, Daryl Gross. I don't know what the setup is at the University, but to me, it sure seems difficult to remain impartial when it comes to the activities of the Marketing group when your wife happens to head it up.

Fact: Daryl Gross Is A Liar

I can't believe we have given the "Good Doctor" a free pass on this one. From his announcement that Greg Robinson was going to be the new head coach of the football team:

“When we picked a football coach for Syracuse University, we didn’t want someone who was just going to be competitive with the rest of the coaches in the BIG EAST. We wanted someone special. Someone that is going to be better and smarter and have great work ethic. You will see it on the football field. You are going to see great defense and exciting offense. Let me tell you if you don’t have your season tickets, you may want to get them now. This is going to be a lot of fun and we are going to have a blast doing this together.” - December 2004

Scoring Offense Ranking
2007: #115 (Through 10.20)
2006: #102
2005: #114

Total Defense Ranking
2007: #109(Through 10.20)
2006: #107
2005: #57

That's a real exciting offense and such a great defense...

Fact: Daryl Gross Hates Tradition

Syracuse University has a proud athletic history. I don't think I have to remind you of our lacrosse program which has won 9 National Championships or the basketball team which has seen 29 winning seasons under current head coach, Jim Boeheim. I'm sure you know what #44 means, not only to the football team, but to the University itself. I don't expect you to know of the days when the Syracuse Crew team won 10 National Championships in 24 years or of when Syracuse fielded strongly competitive teams in Boxing, Gymnastics and Wrestling.

But while we have a proud athletic history, we certainly don't have a lot of tradition. If you look at the SUAthletics website, and visit the SU Tradition section, you will see there isn't a whole lot that the University itself has to offer. Aside from The Saltine Warrior, Orangemen or #44 there really isn't a lot of tradition at Syracuse.

I talk with many of my friends all the time, about how Syracuse has no identity. Until the block "S" was decided on as the official logo of Syracuse Athletics, there were probably a good 20 or 30 different logos that you would see at any point in time. Take a look at any other college that actually has a proud tradition and you will see that they all use one logo all the time. This is probably the one thing that Daryl Gross has got right in his tenure at Syracuse.

I can't say the same about the uniforms which change every year. And this, my friends, brings me to my first Daryl Gross Fact. Daryl Gross hates tradition. You have to look no further than the biggest mistake that was made regarding the football program, aside from the hiring of Greg Robinson, the retirement of the Number 44. In case anyone didn't notice, the only real tradition that we had as far as Syracuse Football is concerned was that great Tailbacks wore the Number 44. When Daryl Gross retired #44, he retired Syracuse as a pipeline for great tailbacks and he killed the only tradition that we actually have.