Syracuse had a very strong football program until the middle of the last decade, when the school hired Greg Robinson and he made the switch to a West Coast offense. <\/p>\n
Big East 2011-12 Football Previews: Syracuse Orange<\/strong> From 2004-09, Syracuse was quite pathetic, but the hiring of Marrone has the Orange headed in the right direction again.<\/p>\n Last year, the Orange were surprisingly quite good, especially on defense. <\/p>\n Several of the team\u2019s best defenders depart in 2011, however, so Marrone must have his offense pull its weight if the Orange is to continue to be a respectable Big East competitor. Positively, the offense is a more veteran unit than the \u201cD\u201d, particularly at the important skill positions. <\/p>\n Even if it takes time to amass more talent in upstate New York, Syracuse is decidedly out of the Greg Robinson Era \u2013 and that\u2019s the best news of all.<\/p>\n Team Strengths<\/strong><\/p>\n The Orange should have a more effective attack led by junior pivot Ryan Nassib. He has taken his lumps to this point and has a better wide receiver corps to utilize in \u201911. He put up 2,334 yards and a decent 19-8 ratio last season and the likelihood is that Nassib is one of the better QBs in the conference this year. <\/p>\n Upperclassmen Van Chew, Marcus Sales and Alec Lemon present a solid trio of wideouts. The passing game will be buttressed by excellent TE Nick Provo.<\/p>\n Marrone\u2019s offensive line is both experienced and talented in 2011; the unit only must replace its center. The brightest stars are LT Justin Pugh and RG Andrew Tiller. <\/p>\n Senior tackle Michael Hay, a highly-regarded junior college transfer, could really make strides as his assistant coach also coached him as a freshman in junior college.<\/p>\n Team Weaknesses<\/strong><\/p>\n Syracuse loses three of its top five tacklers from last season. Linebackers Derrell Smith and Doug Hogue were both first-team all-Big East and Hogue was a draft choice of the Detroit Lions. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Needless to say, the LB unit will take some steps back; after the duo\u2019s departure, the only player with experience is true sophomore Marquis Spruill.<\/p>\n The defense also must replace both its defensive tackles, though ends Chandler Jones and Mikhail Marinovich should provide pressure off the edge.<\/p>\n Special teams must replace punter Rob Long, who is a former semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award. Junior Shane Raupers has the first crack at the job.<\/p>\n 2011-12 Syracuse Football Prediction: 6-6<\/strong><\/p>\n Last year, Syracuse\u2019s trend was a great defense pulling along a rather limping offense; but this season the opposite may be true. Nassib should pilot a talented passing attack, and senior RB Antwon Bailey is fast, even if he doesn\u2019t have the power of the departed Delone Carter. <\/p>\n The O-line will do its job and the biggest concern truly is replacing a glut of defensive production.<\/p>\n The Orange draw USC from out-of-conference, travelling to Los Angeles in Week 3.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Marrone\u2019s men also get scrappy Wake Forest to start the season and must travel to Pittsburgh to finish the regular season. \u00a0Coach Marrone is steadily improving the roster\u2019s talent, but the losses on defense should be acute and Syracuse probably won\u2019t match 2010\u2019s eight wins. <\/p>\n If the Orange finish at .500 and can squeeze in a bowl game, that would be a fairly successful campaign.<\/p>\n 9\/1\/11\t 8:00 PM ET\tWFRST NCAA football preview guide for the 2011 Syracuse Orange NCAAF betting season. NCAA football gambling guru James Hayes weighs in with his college football picks, and BCS National champion cappers analysis\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":25652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[51235,44530,49957,51236,15908,11449,51537,51534,51535,10235,51538,51536],"class_list":["post-42180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2011-big-east-football-previews","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-big-east-football-predictions","tag-big-east-odds","tag-big-east-picks","tag-syracuse-bcs-futures","tag-syracuse-football-predictions","tag-syracuse-gambling-odds","tag-syracuse-orange","tag-syracuse-predictions","tag-syracuse-schedule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42205,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42180\/revisions\/42205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCoach: <\/strong>Doug Marrone
\n2010 Record: <\/strong>8-5
\nSyracuse Gambling Odds from Sportsbook.com to win BCS: +5000<\/strong>
\nSyracuse Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –><\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n2011 Syracuse Orange Schedule<\/h3>\n
\n9\/10\/11\t 1:00 PM ET\t RHODE
\n9\/17\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @USC
\n9\/24\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tTOL
\n10\/1\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tRUTG
\n10\/8\/11\t 8:00 PM ET\t @TULNE
\n10\/21\/11 8:00 PM ET\tWVIRG
\n10\/29\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @LOU
\n11\/5\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @CONN
\n11\/11\/11 8:00 PM ET\tSOFLA
\n11\/26\/11 12:00 PM ET\tCIN
\n12\/3\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @PITT<\/p>\nClick here to check out MORE 2011 college football previews for the 2011-2012 NCAA Football Season!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"