NFL coaching rumors: Syracuse's Doug Marrone could be a target

It may seem a bit farfetched but a few months from now Syracuse University could be searching for a new head coach for its football program, according to a report by NFL.com's Adam Schein.

Why? Well, that's because NFL executives, which are planning to fire their current head coach and hire a new one, could be targeting Marrone, a former offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints (2006-08) and offensive line coach for the New York Jets ('02-05).

According to Schein's report and Sports Illustrated's Peter King, Marrone is one of a handful of college coaches that NFL executives want to talk to - others are: Penn State's Bill O'Brien, Stanford's David Shaw and UConn's Paul Pasqualoni.

For the past four seasons, Marrone has been trying to rebuild SU's football program, which before his arrival had gone 10-37 under head coach Greg Robinson and sunk to the lowest level of the college football ranks.

Marrone, an alum of Syracuse who said being the head coach of the program was the job he always wanted, will becoming off the program's second winning season in 10 years, both coming under his leadership.

Of course, the interest in college coaches, especially ones that can bring a program from being worst in its mediocre conference to competing yearly for a bowl bid, could be peaking after the early success of former Rutgers University head coach Greg Schiano, who last offseason was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, its doubtful that Marrone will bolt for the professional ranks before finishing his job at SU - whatever that means - or NFL teams pick him over candidates like O'Brien, Shaw or Oregon's Chip Kelly.

However, if Syracuse's upward trend continues, especially in its new conference - the ACC - it will be interesting to see how much these rumors grow from, "this is who I want to talk to," to "this is who I want."

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