August 17th, 2010 
Tim Schlittner By Tim Schlittner
How was Delone Carter not suspended for a game by Doug Marrone? We’ve certainly had a lot of debate on this site about Marrone’s approach to player misconduct. Some like it. Some hate it. But all know where it stands.
In 2009, Marrone suspended Antwon Bailey, Andrew Tiller, and Torrey Ball for a late night trip to Turning Stone Resort and Casino. Mike Williams, faced with his own suspension for the same infraction, quit the team.
E.J. Carter was dismissed for missing a team meeting. Lamar Middleton was let go for a curfew violation.
There have been countless others. Through it all, Marrone has shown a steadfast commitment to cleaning up the culture of Syracuse football. He hasn’t wavered or apologized. The rules applied clearly and fairly to everyone. Until now.
According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Marrone says that Delone Carter has already been punished internally and will not face any further penalty. He said he suspended Carter from the team immediately after his arrest and added that there were additional team sanctions against his star running back, but would not elaborate. Quite frankly, this doesn’t pass the smell test. Carter was suspended from the university so he was ineligible to be on the team anyway. And I can’t imagine that any of the undisclosed sanctions imposed by Marrone rose to the level of Carter’s infraction. Not a single one of the suspended/dismissed players I listed above faced such serious legal action, yet all were forced to miss a game.
Sidney Cominsky, the lawyer for Carter’s accuser, told the Syracuse Post-Standard earlier this month: “If members of the team can be suspended from playing because of violating team curfews, committing a criminal assault against another student should also carry a penalty.” I find it very hard to disagree with that statement.
The university took their action, suspending Carter for the spring and summer. The legal system will soon render its own decision. But Marrone took a pass.
This is not about what happened on that February night. I wasn’t there and neither was Marrone. It’s about consistency. It’s about doing what is right even when it’s unpopular. When I travel to Akron in less than 3 weeks, I would love to see Delone Carter on the field. But I know in my heart of hearts that he should be suspended for Syracuse’s opener. Doug Marrone knows that too. It’s a shame he took the easy way out.
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I’m an incoming freshman so I probably don’t know as much about the program as most, but I have a feeling that Marrone is starting to feel the pressures of the University, and the Big East. Marrone has been called by some a savior to Syracuse football. He played under the great Dick MacPherson (a Maine native, like myself) and has been expected now to completely turn around the program. It is a tough situation because while the team DOES need discipline, it also needs talent, and Marrone understands that. Think about a prime time program and what would happen to a player with an infraction such as this, there would be an “internal punishment.” While I think this may be a double standard in some ways, I think its more of a change in the mindset of head coach Doug Marrone.
Agree – it is a double standard, but I think Marrone realizes he needs to win at the end of the day, or else he’ll be the one no longer with the program.
This is a very one-sided post, it fails to consider other things in the situation such as the fact that criminal charges were dropped and the person who claims Delone struck him and his legal team were unable to provide sufficient evidence that the incident occurred as originally reported – this should indicate that something doesn’t add up. I’m sure that Delone also handled things much differently than some of the others you list when faced with his punishment.
Also, let’s stick to accurate reporting – the entire incident is over a snowball that was thrown at his car and then another that hit one of his teammates in the face and you stated it’s not about what happened “that April night.” The incident occurred on the night of the ‘Cuse/Nova bball game 2/27, not two months later as you write. I know this is just a blog but c’mon let’s at least keep it accurate.
SUAlum-You’re right on the date. My mistake. We’ve updated the post, thanks. He was charged in April for the Feb incident. However, the charges have not been dropped. The case is still pending in city court.
You know as well as I that if this happened during the season he would have missed games. He already couldn’t complete his junior year academically, and missed the summer to make it up as well. Carter wasn’t even allowed on campus either. That’s stiffer than missing games. The simple fact is he didn’t miss games because this all happened during the off season. There isn’t a double standard in effect. This was something that was above just team rules, Judicial Affairs at SU handled it, and Marrone is now welcoming him back after being punished. Now if the District Attorney would just deal this misdemeanor already everyone can get back to watching football.
I don’t agree. I have a son who loves baseball, if he got in trouble or his grades slipped during baseball season , I would not hesitate to have him miss games and / or practices as disipline / punishment. However; if it were during the fall or winter, I would not wait until baseball season to disipline. I would find other ways to punish immediately rather than wait. Why is this different? The Bailey, Williams, Tiller, Ball incident was during the season, thus the game suspension. Carter was kicked out of school, isn’t that punishment?
Carter was barred from the end of spring practice and didn’t have acess to teammates or the University’s facilities all summer – so that’s a form of punishment right there. The fact that Marrone has suspended people for what appears to be far less also tells me that there’s a lot more to the story than we’ll ever get. Information Marrone has that we don’t. When Carter runs over his first Akron player, I won’t feel one bit of guilt.
We don’t have all the information with what went on with these players and we never will. Until someone can prove Marrone is some sort of double dealing guy, I’m going to trust his judgement on this stuff.
He already got his punishment. It was being suspended for the spring and summer! Thats good enough, the kid deserved it anyways if the story is true that he threw a snowball at him. Marrone knows he did his time!
When Marrone dished out one game suspensions, were the players banned from attending classes for a week?
Were the players kicked out of University housing for a week and forced to make living arrangements off campus?
Did the players have to perform 200 hours of community service?
Carter was punished enough.
I totally and completely disagree with this article. Furthermore, I beleive that dismissing a student/athlete from school for any period of time is a far greater penalty than the ones mentioned above.
I hope that Delone has learned his lesson and has a great year, he has paid his penalty.
Perfect post!