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Starting from scratch Unproven offensive line has Syracuse going back to basicsPosted: Friday March 29, 2002 4:38 PMUpdated: Friday March 29, 2002 6:47 PM
After two consecutive mediocre seasons, Syracuse fans began last fall with even less patience than they typically have. The same Paul Pasqualoni who ranks among the top 10 active Division I-A coaches in winning percentage (125-56-1, .690), spent the first half of last season dealing with criticism from fans who wanted him ousted. The Orangemen started 0-2 last season, then finished 10-3. Pasqualoni never panicked, even though quarterback R.J. Anderson didn't assert himself as a worthy successor to Marvin Graves and Donovan McNabb until midseason. The reason Pasqualoni never panicked is he had four senior starters on the offensive line. Pasqualoni knew not to panic -- until now. With spring practice set to begin on April 1, he has a total of eight scholarship offensive linemen on the roster. "We're coming back to exactly the other extreme," said offensive coordinator George DeLeone, comparing last season's line to this spring's. In a sport in which a coach loses a quarter of his roster every season, the luxury of a veteran offensive line can't be underestimated. There is a direct correlation between experienced blockers and victories. The lazy man's way to accurate football forecasting is to add up the number of returning starters on the offensive line. If there are four or five, that team will finish in the top 25 more often than not. Conversely, a team with no returning blockers is in trouble. While Alabama had plenty of transitions to make last season, the biggest reason the Tide began 3-5 was the three freshmen who started in front of quarterbacks Andrew Zow and Tyler Watts. Once guard Justin Smiley and tackles Wes Britt and Evan Mathis got their feet under them, Alabama finished the season with four consecutive victories. Alabama's turnaround is a story that would cheer up DeLeone, if only he could stop fretting long enough to hear it. "We've started from scratch before," the offensive line coach said Friday, "but never like this." The reason the Orangemen are in a numbers bind is a combination of bad luck and poor recruiting. Two scholarship recruits have been declared medically ineligible to play, a third transferred and yet another never qualified academically. That means junior center Nick Romeo, who has started for two seasons, is one of only three offensive linemen who has ever played in a game. When spring ball commences, the newbies will be learning the basics. "We're going to start with cadences," DeLeone said. "Then we're going to line splits. Then we're going to stances. For all these guys, it's going to be new." Since eight linemen divided by five positions does not equal two, Pasqualoni brought in two walk-ons to give the offensive line a first and second string. You've heard the old joke about giving a quarterback a bodyguard? Pasqualoni has done everything but that for the returning linemen. He can't afford to have any of them sneeze, much less start limping. Instead of his customary four scrimmages for the spring, Pasqualoni has scheduled only three, and those three are penciled in. "The first group will take all the first- and second-team snaps," DeLeone said, "just to give the quarterbacks, the skill people and the defense enough work." For the patient among Orange fans -- if they can be found -- the class of recruits signed in February is chock full of prospects. If Syracuse can use enough chewing gum and baling wire to fashion an offensive line for the 2002 season, the future is promising. In the meantime, the coaching staff will be dipping into its bag of high school teaching tricks. Actually, DeLeone said, high school may be optimistic. "We're about ready to learn seventh-grade arithmetic," he said. "We can't go to calculus. By the time we play BYU on Aug. 29, we hope we can get to algebra." Sports Illustrated senior writer Ivan Maisel covers college football for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. |
