Syracuse overwhelmed by all the wrong changes

This football season started with a challenge to change the culture.

We heard it passed around by Syracuse quarterback Greg Paulus, coach Doug Marrone and many of the players.

And now, with two weeks left in the season, the Orange is again without a bowl berth. It is the team's five consecutive year without a bowl — the longest streak since the early 1980s.

That doesn't stop Paulus from coming full circle.

"We're trying to finish strong," he said. "We're trying to change the culture."

Things have changed, but is the culture really one of them? Marrone has weeded out around 20 scholarship players who either didn't agree with his philosophy or quit the team for personal reasons. He's had to suspend multiple players for at least one game. His policy of not talking about players no longer affiliated with the team leaves a number of questions.

Paulus, though, is immovable. And so is Marrone's stance on keeping him — a graduate student only with the Orange for a season — the starting quarterback instead of getting backup Ryan Nassib extended time to prepare for next year.

"One of the things that has gone unnoticed because we haven't won is that Greg will probably have the highest completion percentage in the history of our school," Marrone said. "We're still going out there to win games, not to give people experience for next year."

Paulus's nearly 66 completion percentage ranks first all-time, ahead of Bill Scharr's 63 percent in 1989. He's also on pace to match the school's highest completion percentage ... to the other team.

The school record is 16 interceptions in a season by Dave Warner in 1980. Paulus has 14 with two games to play.

His five-interception game against South Florida last month tied him for the most interceptions in a single game in school history. But he does have that completion percentage.

"It's all about getting better," Paulus said. "It's about finding ways to win."

Syracuse has two chances to not finish last in the Big East again. It has No. 25 Rutgers on Saturday and Connecticut on the road the following week.

"That's all I've focused on," Paulus said. "I haven't had an opportunity to do anything else."

He also has close to no one else on the team left from the opening-day starting squad. Paulus is without Mike Williams, who quit two weeks ago. He doesn't have Cody Catalina. The defense took a hit when Arthur Jones suffered a season-ending injury. He's had varying running backs behind him due to injury or suspension.

"The injuries don't stop for us," Marrone said.

So changing the culture now means getting excited to play with a depleted roster, an offense that can't find the end zone — and when it does, misses a PAT that winds up costing the game — and a defense backup quarterbacks don't have trouble passing against. There's also that little problem with giving up 22 yards per kickoff return and nearly 14 per punt return.

"We have to put players on the field who have to make plays," Marrone said. "When your roster starts to become depleted due to injuries that are occuring during games ... then people need to step up and they need to play. I don't think there's any magic scheme."

The magic — or zest, excitement and dreams — present at the start of the season is gone, as are the fans. Attendance at home games went from 48,617 on opening day to 33,802 against Cincinnati.

The school can't even get the students to show up. Perhaps they're injured, too.

Paulus doesn't seem to mind. He's focused on getting better, as he has said over and over again, week after week.

"There's a lot to accomplish for this team," he said. "We've tried to get better every week. Whatever kind of game it is — conference, nonconference, home or away — we want to go out with a couple of wins."

Nassib will be watching from the sidelines, not getting ready for next year and not getting game experience.

"(Marrone) does the right things," Paulus said. "He's trying to help us long term."

He is trying to change the culture, but is it?

Sportswriter Daniel J. Cassavaugh covers Syracuse University football for the Times. You may reach him at dcassavaugh@wdt.net.