NEW YORK — Following last season’s seismic collapse that saw Syracuse plummet from the top of the Big East to its lowly basement, Adam Harris asked one thing of Doug Marrone. In his senior review following the conclusion of his career, Harris, a fullback on last year’s team, implored Marrone to be more emotional on the sidelines.

He wanted an animated Marrone, one whose mental investment in the game bubbled over into physical manifestations for his players to see. He wanted a Marrone whose inner feelings matched his outward displays.

Harris and the rest of his senior class moved on, leaving behind a group of players that agonized over the conclusion of the 2011 season led by a head coach who said he physically hurt as a result of his alma mater’s underperformance.

So came 2012, a season that promised an up-tempo offense with points galore and yards aplenty. And with it came a new Marrone, the one Harris wanted, and a new Syracuse that by season’s end — and Pinstripe Bowl trophy in hand after picking apart West Virginia 38-14 at Yankee Stadium — proved to be last year’s antithesis. This Syracuse won close games, won on the road and boasted a head coach that chest bumped and fist pumped during a 6-1 finish to a successful 8-5 campaign.

And most importantly, this Syracuse clutched a trophy — two of them.

“I kind of just get goosebumps when you say that, because I was here in Coach Marrone’s first year, I was his first recruiting class,” offensive tackle Justin Pugh said. “Our whole thing was kind of turn this thing around, get us going the right direction. … After two Pinstripe Bowl victories, the program is definitely heading in the right direction. Coach Marrone is the only guy for the job.”

Pugh’s sentiments seemed apparent at the midway point of the 2011 season as well. Syracuse had dismantled this same West Virginia team, which was then ranked as high as No. 11 in the country by nearly 30 points, and the Orange sat at 5-2 and controlled its own destiny.

But then came the losses, five of them in a row, with each defeat seeming more painful and inexplicable than the last. There was a letdown at Louisville the week after beating the Mountaineers. Then a loss to Connecticut where the Huskies ran and ran and ran to a 7-point win. Then three more losses to finish a 5-7 season with a 1-6 Big East record.

Flashbacks of Greg Robinson surfaced.

“He had to have faith in the players, and the kids had to have trust in the theme and have a vision that starts with Coach Marrone,” Syracuse defensive coordinator Scott Shafer said.

But by the time the 2012 season teetered on the edge of consecutive despair, when a humiliating loss to Rutgers exposed major flaws on offense and special teams, the faith kicked in.

“He taught us how to be men,” safety Shamarko Thomas said. “If you can be a man outside of the football field, you can definitely control what you do on the field.”

And suddenly Syracuse, the same team that bumbled its way to a last-place Big East finish in 2011, rose to the top. UConn was handed a 30-point defeat. A 20-point deficit was erased on the road at South Florida. Louisville, a team ranked in the top 10 in the country, left the Carrier Dome with a double-digit loss. And a last-second comeback on the road at Missouri, a school from the mighty Southeastern Conference, illuminated a grit and dedication unseen since Paul Pasqualoni ran the show.

That magic combination — a fiery Marrone with a team that refused to quit — won a share of the Big East title and carried over another month, reaching Yankee Stadium to take on a former conference rival with the potential No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft and a slew of other future pros. It oozed onto a sloppy, snowy, slushy field in the form of a smash-mouth running game that made Marrone, a former offensive lineman himself, proud.

Syracuse churned out 369 rushing yards, limited the Mountaineers to 285 total yards and relished in the 24-point lead those two things produced by the time the fourth quarter wound down.

“Our creed on our notebook every year when we report to camp has always been Attitude, Effort and Enthusiasm,” Shafer said. “And I believe in that. It’s corny, but I believe in it.”

That creed is what allowed Zian Jones and Ri’Shard Anderson the chance to literally swing for the fences in celebration during a timeout late in the game. That creed is what got Travon Burke and Josh Parris up on the bench, dancing along the sideline. That creed is what afforded Syracuse the chance to make snow angels out by the left field bleachers for the second time in three years.

So when the game was finally won, and that creed had been personified, Marrone could finally smile — beam, even — as he sat and addressed the media.

One final show of emotion to separate this year from last.

Michael Cohen is a staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at mjcohe02@syr.edu, or on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

Published on December 30, 2012 at 12:58 am