Doug Marrone never found serenity.

Even while he witnessed his Syracuse team’s progression, peaking with a win over the then-No. 11 team in the country, the Orange was not in a place where relaxation ensued for the third-year head coach. And as it turns out, Marrone’s worries were warranted.

‘You can even ask some of the coaches,’ Marrone said of his mentality earlier in the season, following SU’s loss Saturday at Pittsburgh. ‘I told them, ‘We’re going to have to work our butts off. It’s going to be real difficult down the stretch.”

Syracuse’s second half of the season was more than difficult. It was painful. The Orange won on Oct. 21 over then-No. 11 West Virginia and never tasted victory again. From 5-2 to 5-7, an SU football team that was once on the verge of being ranked didn’t reach a bowl game. Syracuse regressed mightily in those final five losses, with costly turnovers and penalties that displayed immaturity. Combine that with poor special teams and Syracuse’s opportunities to pick up a sixth win were decimated.

After the final loss against Pittsburgh concluded the collapse, SU players described how shocking it was to miss a bowl game.

‘Never, never at all,’ defensive end Chandler Jones said of the thought that Syracuse’s season would be over. ‘I remember I was injured for about five games and coming back for the West Virginia game we are 5-2 (after the win). And my biggest focus was getting to a bowl game, to tell you the truth.

‘And we needed just one win, one win. And we went out and lost five in a row.’

Syracuse conceivably could have defeated any of the five teams it fell to in the longest losing skid since 2006. Not one of those teams was far and away more talented. It was just the foolish mistakes SU made that led to each loss.

In the season finale, the miscues began on the opening kickoff, when Dorian Graham dove on —but couldn’t cover up —a pooch kick. There were moments smaller than the turnovers, too.

Syracuse’s first scoring drive nearly stalled twice because of the exploits of right tackle Michael Hay. The senior, who has been hampered by penalties all season, committed a false start when the Orange was moving fast and had a second-and-1 at the Pittsburgh 30-yard line.

Syracuse still managed to convert that first down but later, facing a second-and-10 from the 26, Hay was called for a contact-to-the-helmet penalty late in the play.

Replays showed a clear penalty —leaving a Panthers player helmetless after the play. Pittsburgh committed a personal foul on second-and-25 to bail Hay out, but the two penalties were a microcosm of foolish personal fouls that ended SU drives and propelled scoring opportunities for opponents during the collapse. SU committed 62.8 yards in penalties per game, including 95 on Saturday.

‘The same story as the season,’ Marrone said after the last game. ‘Turnovers and not taking advantage of things in the red zone at the right time. Not being able to stop them at the proper time when we needed it. Penalties again played a role. So it’s something we couldn’t overcome.’

Marrone said these problems were always there for SU, but they came to the surface in the games the Orange lost.

And really, that’s true. Other than Syracuse’s shocking blowout win against WVU on a Friday night in the Carrier Dome, SU lacked a complete performance. It took a near-miracle in the fourth quarter and overtime to upend Wake Forest. And Rhode Island quarterback Steve Probst’s Hail Mary was picked off late in the game by Phillip Thomas to seal a seven-point win for SU over the Football Championship Subdivision school.

That Rhode Island team went on to go 3-8.

‘We need to mature because we are a young group of kids,’ linebacker Dan Vaughan said. ‘Next year, everyone has to know what their role is and execute it perfectly.’

Fortunately for SU, the Orange will return much of its core. Marrone said the work began Sunday, the day after the Pittsburgh game, when he hit the road recruiting.

All parts of the program —offense, defense, special teams, coaches —are evaluated. Marrone specifically said he needs to figure out how the offense can create bigger plays.

The magnificent Pinstripe Bowl memories of 2010 are well in the past. And there’s now a bitter taste left by a failed 2011 campaign.

‘I know we haven’t taken a step forward,’ Marrone said. ‘I know that. It all depends how we react to the situation. The players, the coaches and the decisions that we have to do, we have to be very critical of ourselves when we do that.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on December 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr