NEW YORK — Just four months ago, this was a difficult outcome to envision. Syracuse had won just 14 games in the past five seasons, with no more than four wins in any single season. There simply wasn’t enough evidence to suggest a dramatic turnaround in the head coach’s second season after returning to his alma mater.

Several key players exited during the offseason. Running back Delone Carter’s status was in limbo while dealing with off the field issues up until August. Heading into Week 1, Syracuse was a team high on question marks and low on scholarship players.

But then again, few actually saw what was brewing behind the curtain. Though Syracuse collected just four wins a season ago, a foundation was established for SU to return to prominence. Off the field, players’ ways of living were dramatically changing. On it, a winning culture was being established.

And after two years of tirelessly molding and shaping the program, Marrone’s efforts culminated in a 36-34 win over Kansas State Thursday in the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Picked to finish seventh in an eight-team Big East in the preseason, a bowl victory is a far cry from SU’s projected outcome when the season began.

This rapid turnaround — faster than anyone expected — happened because of Marrone’s endless work towards a program-changing win. A program-changing win that happened Thursday.

The scene Thursday was much different than the season finale of each of the previous eight seasons — eight seasons that ended without a bowl win to celebrate. Players that had been a part of two-win season just three years ago were now celebrating in the mounds of snow that had accumulated in New York City earlier in the week. The architect of the role reversal, Marrone, was doused with a Gatorade bucket.

Getting to this point, from just four wins a year ago, took a group effort. With nothing to lose, the players collectively took Marrone at his word and welcomed his no-nonsense approach to coaching, both on and off the field.

For senior linebacker Doug Hogue, that was the key to everything this season and beyond.

‘It’s simple,’ Hogue said. ‘We bought in.’

Once the players bought in, things began to take shape. Priorities were put into place, and the results began to show. Hogue was scheduled to be at Big East Media Day in Newport, R.I. in August, but stayed behind in Syracuse to fulfill an academic commitment.

Marrone applauded that, and established off the field commitment as equally important as the gradual successes on the field.

‘We talk about accountability, we talk about core values,’ Marrone said. ‘… We’ve won a lot of battles off the field, but now we are starting to win them on the field.’

When Syracuse put away Akron, 29-3, on Sept. 4, Carter declared, ‘This is a different team.’ The change in culture changed the approach — the attitude — to the season for SU, and each week, the Orange fought to keep that hope alive.

Tough losses along the way, Marrone’s vision remained in the minds of his players as they constantly held each other accountable. Marrone said after Thursday’s game that players thank him all the time for instilling these values in them.

Ultimately, it became the responsibility of the players to keep each other in check and that, they say, made all the difference in performance and consistency. Because Marrone can’t be there all the time to monitor individual players, he put it the duty back on them. He gave them some responsibility. He challenged them to challenge each other.

‘In the preseason we knew this was attainable,’ senior linebacker Derrell Smith said. ‘We knew we could be a special team if we would just come together be accountable, and that is what we did.’

Even this week, amidst the bright lights and week-long festivities leading up to the game, the players kept each other focused. That’s what they credit for what was arguably SU’s biggest victory in nearly a decade.

Now, the bar has been set even higher for future seasons. Smith said ten and twenty years from now he wants this squad to be remembered as the one that brought Syracuse back. The one that took that giant first step.

‘There was a lot of emotion built up because we worked so hard for this,’ Smith said. ‘Just the simple fact that we were obtain this goal was something special. It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.’

Andrew L. John is a staff writer at the Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. He can be reached at aljohn@syr.edu.

Published on December 30, 2010 at 12:00 pm