11 Syracuse

On his way to work on a cold morning in December 1996, Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni stopped at a coffee shop to pick up a bagel and a warm cup of joe. While waiting for his order, Pasqualoni exchanged pleasantries with a female customer. When he left, the woman quietly followed him out the door and trailed him in her car to the parking lot outside the coach's office. There—The Rules be damned—she asked the lifelong bachelor out to a movie. Thirteen months and many movies later, in a small ceremony on Valentine's Day, 1998, Jill Fleischman became Mrs. Paul Pasqualoni.

That event was the hot topic of conversation in the Orangemen's weight room during the off-season. "We've talked about a wedding gift for a long time, but we haven't given Coach one yet," says senior quarterback Donovan McNabb. "We've decided that the best thing we can do is have a winning season. Maybe even an undefeated season." A nice thought, but given Syracuse's murderous early schedule, together with a very green defense, well, dinnerware seems a more realistic gift.

Not only must the Orangemen replace seven defensive starters, including four All-Big East picks, but they also have a new defensive coordinator, George DeLeone, who spent the last 14 years coaching offenses in college and the NFL. Though this might not seem the standard recipe for success, Pasqualoni is not overly concerned. "He's done it before," says the Orangemen's coach, referring to DeLeone's stint as Rutgers's defensive coordinator from 1980 through '83. "With his experience in football he's well equipped to do the job for us."

How Syracuse handles the daunting early slate will be another key. In each of the last two seasons, the Orangemen were out of national title contention by late September. This year they open at home against Tennessee, which finished last season at No. 7, then go on the road the following week to play Michigan, the defending national champion. Though it's admirable that Syracuse doesn't fill its nonconference schedule with cream puffs, the only way the Orangemen will be playing for anything more than a Big East crown is if they light up the scoreboard.

That is possible. Syracuse retains most of its key starters from an offense that set school records in 1997 for yards and points. The attack will be even more potent this season thanks to the return of fullback Rob Konrad, who missed the final three games of last year with a torn tendon in his left knee. With Konrad (6.6 yards per carry in '97), tailback Kyle McIntosh (5.0 yards per carry over the last three years) and McNabb, the Orangemen have one of the most talented backfields in the country.

The last we saw of McNabb, he was completing just 16 of 39 passes in Syracuse's 35-18 loss to Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl. Determined to avoid a repeat of that performance, McNabb—who was a backup guard on the Orangemen's basketball team for two years—focused exclusively on football this off-season. Recently he has been rivaling Pasqualoni, who routinely logs 16-hour days, in the film room. Still, the two-time Big East offensive player of the year needs to play like the Heisman Trophy candidate many believe he is if Syracuse is going to avoid the disappointments of the last two autumns. Can he lead his team to a national title? "It's not out of the question," says McNabb. "Stranger things have happened."

And at Syracuse lately, they've come to expect the unexpected. Just ask Mrs. Paul Pasqualoni.

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