Doug Marrone is ready to put his stamp on the Syracuse offense. In lieu of two new hirings Friday, SU’s head coach will now serve as the offensive coordinator as well.

Joining Marrone’s retooled coaching staff is Nathaniel Hackett and Roger Harriott. Hackett will coach the quarterbacks with Harriott coaching the running backs. In turn, Marrone will fill the offensive coordinator void left by Rob Spence’s firing.

Relying on a short-range passing attack, Syracuse’s offense finished 94th in the nation last season. But in Syracuse’s final two games against Rutgers and Connecticut, it is widely considered that Marrone assumed a larger offensive role. In those games, the Orange rolled to 62 points, 49 first downs and 913 total yards.

Before coming to Syracuse last year, Marrone was the New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator from 2006-08 and helped head coach Sean Payton develop a potent spread offense. Marrone realizes the time commitment this dual role entails.

‘The challenge is, from a coaching aspect, game management,’ Marrone said in a video posted on the SU Athletics Web site. ‘What happens is you get involved in play-calling and you get emotionally involved. Whereas the head coach can sit outside and say, ‘We’re not going to go for this fourth-and-1,’ when you’re the playcaller you feel invincible and want to go ahead and get that done.’

Head coaches have had varying degrees of success calling plays. Current Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly pioneered one of the nation’s best offenses as Cincinnati’s playcaller, but Louisville’s Steve Kragthorpe stumbled and was ultimately fired.

Further, Marrone has a revamped support system to work with.

Hackett, the son of Oakland Raiders quarterbacks coach Paul Hackett, has spent the last two seasons as a quality control assistant with the Buffalo Bills. Before this job he was the recruiting coordinator at Stanford and the quality control coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In Tampa Bay, he worked with current SU assistant Bob Casullo.

Harriott was previously the head coach and athletic director at the University School of Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Harriott replaces Stan Drayton, who resigned to be Florida’s running backs coach.

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on January 30, 2010 at 12:00 pm