So far so good, Mark Coyle.
I carefully read your words of introduction carried by the writers of The Post-Standard and syracuse.com as you met the media world here Monday in your new digs as athletic director for the big university that calls its teams the Orange but sometimes dresses them in uniforms more colored more predominantly otherwise.
We'll get to that later.
First I'd like to become the latest to say welcome to Central New York, glad to have you, enjoy the nice weather while we've got it, please fix Syracuse football.
Have you heard that enough yet?
Not the part about the weather. The summers around here really are about the nicest in the world, I believe, and we don't have to get into the snow and blowing snow because, well, you are coming here from Boise, Idaho, and ...
Well, now, look what I just discovered at realidaho.com, people:
"We experience all 4 seasons here. So, if you like fall colors, or warm sunny days or colder weather, you can have them all. The region doesn’t get too cold in the winter and the summers, though sometimes hot, are tempered by the dry climate, cool nights and pleasant breeze. The high desert climate also means clear skies and sunny days! ... Like most of the Intermountain West, Boise is very dry. This is why there is so much sunshine and also why there is so little rain or snow. Of course, if you are seeking snow, the drive into the mountains is a short one."
So, AD Coyle, you won't have to drive that far to find snow here come, say, December. Like out of your garage.
Anyway, the fact that you became interested in succeeding Daryl Gross about as soon as you'd heard that Chancellor Kent Syverud had decided his 10-year reign at SU was over, that's a good thing.
As is your track record with Boise State in the Mountain West and with the NCAA rules-watchers, and with your athletes in the classroom.
We here in Syracuse are going to like that, indeed.
And your measured approach, talking with Coach Scott Shafer about the state of his football team and the legend himself, Jim Boheim and soon his successor-in-waiting-perhaps Mike Hopkins about the basketball team's NCAA sanctions, Boeheim's three-year retirement plan and so many other things, that will be met with knowledge and patience around these parts, too.
Nobody here will look up toward the AD box and boo until the first drive of the opening game Sept. 4 in the Carrier Dome, should Rhode Island happen to get the ball first and score, or maybe even if the Orange greets the season with a three-and-out.
I may be the first to tell you that the leash is that short.
As a season-ticket holders since Doug Marrone's first season, my dear wife Karen and I have heard the boos rolling around the dome too many times, seeming unbelievably loud considering how many empty seats we've spotted with our eyes as well. Last year's 3-9 record, including 1-5 in the Carrier Dome that was only a miracle overtime comeback against FCS Villanova away from oh-crap-we're-really-in-trouble, was awful, but not as bad as the Greg Robinson years that made you hide your eyes and wish you had a grocery bag. Because Shafer's kids alway played hard and looked like they had a clue.
But here's the good news.
When the team is rolling, the ball is moving, the defense is stout, the crowd is just aching to get behind the Orange.
I'm not a Syracuse native, either.
I grew up on Long Island, and got my college degree at Maryland. Yeah, I'm a Terp.
I moved here for a job in 1983, thinking I'd live in Syracuse a couple of years and then find something else somewhere else ...
But I liked the people here. A lot.
In the Carrier Dome, I was a columnist at court side and I had to cover my head when the student body stormed the court when freshman Dwayne "Pearl" Washington drained a halfcourt rainbow to beat Big East rival Boston College in January, 1984. That magic has never left the dome.
I was in the press box when Dick MacPherson's squad came out of nowhere to topple top-ranked Nebraska 17-9 in 1984, and in the stands a couple seasons later when they stomped all over Penn State on the way to that 11-0-1 doozie of a 1987 football campaign. I can close my eyes and still feel the dome shake during that 48-21 victory over Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions, only to be surpassed by the hysteria that shook the city when Michael Owens scored a two-point conversion to pull out a 32-31 win over West Virginia in the regular-season finale.
You picked a good job, AD Coyle.
Please fix Syracuse football.
If you could have Coyle's ear today, what would you say?