Editor’s note: Syracuse football has six wins in its last 19 games. Facing the struggles of the present, The Daily Orange took a look back at some of hard times of the past in part three of this series.

Every time Greg Paulus stepped on the field, he heard a chorus of boos. Seven games into the 2009 season against Cincinnati, those in the Carrier Dome made it clear they didn’t want Paulus at quarterback.

In the second half against the Bearcats, first-year coach Doug Marrone rotated Paulus and redshirt freshman Ryan Nassib. Marrone teared up after the game thinking of the boos despite being cheered for the switch.

Marrone stood behind Paulus, whom he brought in to play quarterback after a four-year hiatus from football when he played point guard for Duke. During those years, Paulus said, he didn’t throw a football.

“There were players who were very suspicious,” then-punter and captain Rob Long said. “… Greg walked in and it was, ‘Who’s this kid all over ESPN who thinks he’s going to just come in and change this program all of a sudden without having proven himself?’”

Long said Paulus won him over after their first conversation, and that half of the locker room wanted him to start, but the other half wanted senior Cameron Dantley or Nassib. The season, seen as a Paulus experiment by some, began with cautious optimism.

Even though Paulus started all 12 games, setting program records for completions (193) and completion percentage (67.7), he finished with a 4-8 record. Marrone’s decision to start Paulus, a local legend who won a high school football state championship near SU at Christian Brothers (New York) Academy, was criticized by players and media alike as a way to fill the Carrier Dome.

“(Paulus starting) was just a publicity stunt … to get the community back into Syracuse football to have the hometown boy come out and boost morale,” running back Delone Carter said. “And (he brought) leadership from Duke and how vocal he was to Syracuse. Other than that, Nassib should’ve been playing.”

Carter isn’t alone in that feeling. In a 2009 ESPN.com anonymous poll of Big East coaches, one suggested Paulus would struggle reading defensive schemes and another wondered how the Carrier Dome’s recent attendance woes factored in. A third forecasted “spectacular failure.”

“I look at football as business,” Marrone said Aug. 19, 2009, responding to a question about whether tickets or the media influenced him to name Paulus the starting quarterback just a week after summer practice officially started. “My job is to play the players that give us the best chance to win games right now. At the end of the day, I felt Greg gives us the best chance to win. I really do.”

Paulus’ first game brought 48,617 fans to the home opener — the highest-attended opener in over a decade — but they left disappointed.  In his first game against Minnesota, Paulus scrambled out of the pocket and tried to buy time with his feet. In high school, it seemed like those plays always ended with touchdowns. At Syracuse, Paulus threw an overtime interception and the Orange lost.

Then Paulus threw five interceptions in a loss at South Florida. His 14 interceptions to end the season were tied for 13th-most in the country. The boos began when Cincinnati intercepted Paulus in the end zone, trailing by seven points in the second quarter.

Internal dissent originated at practice. On multiple occasions, as a redshirt in 2008, Nassib shredded the Syracuse starting defense, even though it knew which play was coming.

“Our whole team was like, ‘How the hell did (Nassib) throw that pass? Our starting quarterback can’t make that throw,’” former linebacker and captain Derrell Smith said. “(Then-head coach Greg) Robinson literally ran (over) and screamed at everybody because the scout team, freshman quarterback was killing his beloved defense.”

Despite Nassib’s success the year prior and being the “clear-cut best,” according to Smith, at the end of 2009 training camp, Marrone still chose Paulus. That frustrated many, Smith and Long said, because players, especially upperclassmen who didn’t have time to see if the experiment would work out, wanted to win and to end the 5-year postseason drought.

When asked how he felt in the locker room, Paulus said in an interview with The Daily Orange: “I had a great experience with my teammates. From day one when I came on campus to my last day … I loved it.”

Despite football frustrations, Long, Smith and Carter spoke highly of Paulus’ character and that he demanded respect in the huddle. The team named Paulus a captain.

Smith said he thinks of a quarterback as a team’s CEO. Hiring a person with four years of experience in high-stakes, high-pressure situations made theoretical sense to Smith.

“But, I mean, it didn’t work out,” Smith said. “Greg didn’t play football for four years and you have to expect something like that. But looking back, I see why (Marrone) did it. … (The team) thought: ‘(Marrone) thinks Paulus is the better quarterback for the job? F*ck it. We’re going to play with Paulus and act like nothing’s changed.’”

The team lost four of its last five games, including the season finale against Connecticut, 56-31. On the same day Paulus’ eligibility expired, he had his best day in an Orange uniform, completing 24-of-32 passes for 296 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

In the three seasons that followed, Nassib threw for the most passing yards in a season by an SU quarterback twice and set the record for most touchdown passes by an SU quarterback in a season in 2012 with 24. The signal-caller led SU to two Pinstripe Bowl wins in three years.

Long, Smith, Carter and Paulus all said the season was a necessary building block to later success. But that moral victory didn’t comfort Carter after the Connecticut loss.

“The 2009 season, I would describe it maybe as a step in the right direction with mentality,” Carter said. “But no, (that season was not a success). Not on the field.”

In East Hartford, Connecticut, after the game, Paulus left the pressroom for the team bus. But a moment later, he returned.

“I just want to thank all you guys. It’s been a pleasure,” he said. His words, years later, seem to be spoken not just to the media who praised and criticized, but to the cheering and jeering fans and the supporters and doubters in his own divided locker room.

And after his statement, he left. This time, Greg Paulus did not come back.

Published on October 27, 2015 at 11:45 pm

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