Today's preview of the Syracuse Orange is gracefully provided by Sean Keeley from Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician.

1) What have the Syracuse Orange done this off season to boost your hopes for 2010?

Certainly the excitement generated by Marrone's recruiting efforts is night and day from his predecessor.  While the class wasn't exactly overflowing with Blue Chippers, it will full of quality players from not only the Northeast but also from recruiting hotbeds like Florida, Ohio and California. Marrone proved that he could not only regain a foothold in the New York area, grabbing some recruits from Rutgers and UConn, but he also proved he's going to look all over the nation for the best available players.

The team suffered a lot of attrition last season due to quitting and players leaving but the core that is still here looks like they've improved.  The linebacker unit, led by Derrell Smith and Doug Hogue, is among the team's strongest just a year removed from being one of its weakest.  And the RB core, with or without Delone Carter, is going to be solid.  Even the wide receivers, though mostly untested, look decent.  The question will be whether or not the QBs can get them the ball.

The big question is, of course, who will be the starting QB.  Ryan Nassib was the man last year until Greg Paulus intervened.  Nassib played a decent amount and proved himself capable though not spectacular.  He's got the top spot again but he didn't exactly separate himself too much from 2nd-stringer Charley Loeb.  Loeb put up better numbers in the spring (though against 2nd-team defenses).  And then there's two incoming freshman, highly-touted Jonny Miller and Long Island's John Kinder.  We probably won't know for sure who the starter is until well into camp.

The WR core lost a huge weapon in Mike Williams last season and none of the current players seem to be his caliber.  That said, there's plenty of good athletes in there that can make their mark.  And if the Orange are going to open it up, they'll have a lot of weapons.

Speaking of the Orange opening up the offense, Doug Marrone is taking over play-calling duties this season.  The rumor is that Marrone took over in last season's finale against UConn, which also happened to be one of SU's most productive offensive performances on the season.  He's a capable play-caller with NFL experience in the field but it remains to be seen if he can juggle play-calling with being a head coach.

Defensively, the Orange lost Arthur Jones on the DL but have younger brother Chandler ready to step in and lead.  Between the young lineman and the young defensive backs eager to step up, we don't know what to expect from the Orange defense this season and it might take a while for them to gel.

I'm not going to begrudge anyone for ranking SU low, I'm just happy we're in single digits.  SU has too many question marks for anyone to take them out of the Big East basement just yet.  That said, don't be too surprised when they're 3-1 to start the season (they open with Akron, Washington, Maine and a TBD game that is rumored to be Colgate). 

The Orange's record might improve slightly in '10 but some of that will have to do with a much easier schedule.  For the time being at least, its fair not to expect them to finish much higher than sixth in the conference.

I expect to see a much more wide-open Syracuse offense than we've seen in recent years. Possibly since the Donovan McNabb years.  I've always found it odd that we play on a turf inside a Dome and yet we don't try to air it out and stretch the field.  I expect that to start happening more and more. 

I think the defense will struggle and the Orange will find themselves in a lot of shootout situations.  If we're gonna lose, we might as well make it interesting for a change.

The Big East is slightly down and the schedule is softer than its been in a long time.  I expect Syracuse to win five games and I'm hoping and praying for six.  Doug Marrone still needs time to pull the program out of the hole Greg Robinson dug us into and we are very much a work-in-progress.

Thank you Sean for your Syracuse insight!

From more in depth information on Syracuse please visit Sean at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician.

My analysis next...

Head Coach: Doug Marrone (Second Year)
Offensive Coordinator: Bob Casullo? (Second Year)
Defensive Coordinator: Scott Shafer (Second Year)

Here are the BCS numbers

Schedule:

With two FCB opponents Syracuse would need seven wins to become bowl eligible. If the NCAA runs out of bowl eligible teams, due to the two new bowls, it might be possible for Syracuse to gain an exemption if they finish 6-6.