By Dave Cooperman

“I’m not wrong on a lot of things, especially when it comes to the team. I truly believe that. I think I have a good sense of the team. I talked about it early in the year. I don’t know if you remember, but I talked about this year being a transitional year. And I kept saying that. So, right off the bat I was worried.”

-Doug Marrone

Huh? This was the best that Doug Marrone could come up with following the final turnover, penalty and disappointment-filled finale at Pittsburgh? A finale that snapped the Orange bowl streak at one and capped a season that somehow looks and definitely feels worse than the 5-7 record.

My feelings about Doug Marrone have been documented and certainly commented upon by those who agree and many more that don’t.

Putting that aside for a moment, this transitional year talk is a bunch of nonsense designed to cover the backside of a coach who couldn’t come up with an answer for a team that dropped the final five games of their season in a disgraceful fashion.  This transitional year stuff is nothing more than an excuse and the lead talking point for Marrone when he has his end of the year wrap party with Dr. Gross.

I don’t want to belittle the contributions of Carter, Hogue, Smith, Holmes, Merkerson and Bartholomew but what I saw following 2010 was the graduation of good players and very good leaders.  Nothing more than what a typical team would experience each year.  Syracuse, while allegedly transitioning, returned:

• A Veteran QB
• A Veteran RB
• Veteran WR’s
• A Veteran TE
• A Veteran OL
• Veteran DE’s
• A Veteran LB
• Veteran S’s
• A Veteran K
• Continuity in the Coaching Staff

The point - where was the transition?  This was an experienced, bowl winning team at a lot of positions and if you want to play the transitional tag then where were the freshman and sophomores who should have been playing, learning and getting ready for the non-transitional year of 2012?  What have we transitioned to for next year?  A transition year means we will be better off next year.  Does anyone agree?

And who has heard of a 12 game transition?  Why did they need a full year to make this alleged transition?  I can see starting slow, but losing the last five?  If you can’t transition over a full season then who should get the heat for that?

It was one thing when Marrone was confident while losing.  We are big boys and girls, deal it to us straight.  But now we are starting with the excuses and quite frankly they are embarrassing.

Hey, I have an idea on who we can transition from.

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