The Daily Orange

Hands on his hips, Greg Paulus shook his head slowly and coldly. His blissful complexion turned pale. That GQ-charm faded. No, Paulus did not pay attention to those verbal grenades from Big East coaches. "I don't hear or see many things," said Paulus, suffocated by recorders and cameras.

It was "early as hell," Nico Scott recalled, on that March morning after a 6 a.m. agility workout. That's when he saw fire engines in the parking lot and a blaze rising on the practice field. About 120 yards from the football wing at Manley Field House assembled a circle of football players around the flames about to experience their first shoe burning, a once-forgotten page in a once illustrious Syracuse football history book.

Art Jones' life philosophy revolves around a simple phrase: Everything happens for a reason. It's a cliché, but one that has guided Jones through life's toughest times, including the death of his sister when he was in the eighth grade. This mantra provides Jones with undying faith in the world, for he profoundly knows that an unseen higher power has a master plan.

For some time now, Derrell Smith has been eagerly anticipating the start of the 2009 football season. A season Syracuse's top returning linebacker hopes will be a fresh start for a unit that was dismal under Greg Robinson last year. Leading up to the start of August camp, every time the junior ventured to the football meeting room, he felt the same could be said about Derek Hines, a 6-foot-1 JUCO transfer from California.

Eleven teams make no sense to former Syracuse Athletic Director Jake Crouthamel. He can explain 10, because the conference is called "the Big Ten." Twelve teams make sense, too - it would be a great revenue source. But 11? That doesn't make sense. Since Crouthamel's time at Syracuse, starting in 1978 and ending in 2005 to give way for current AD Daryl Gross, he's advocated for Syracuse to join the Big Ten.

Bill Stewart still remembers those magical Thursday nights. The nationally televised wins over Pittsburgh, Maryland, Louisville and Auburn. They were a major part of the foundation for stamping West Virginia as a Big East powerhouse over the past four years.