The departed: The other side of Syracuse football's 28 player exodus

When Lamar Middleton remembers his time at Syracuse, he thinks about all of the opportunities he had. Growing up in the desolate city of Newark, N.J., they were opportunities Middleton never thought would come.

So when he thinks about it, he remembers the relationships that he built. With his friends and coaches in the Syracuse football program. With professors and teaching assistants in his classes. With students in his drama and acting minor.

Before the opportunity of coming to Syracuse was presented, Middleton never thought any of this would ever be possible. That's why he remembers when it was all taken away from him: April 18, 2009, when he was kicked off the football team and effectively out of the university.

"Everything was rolling," Middleton said in a phone interview a little more than one year later. "And my focus level was so high, I didn't think it could've been broken. And once that happened, that really sent me down because that was my life."

After being let go from the team for a curfew violation, Middleton became one of 28 players The Daily Orange has found that have vanished from the program in the past year. SU head coach Doug Marrone said he did not know the exact number, but said it was "somewhere in the numbers (The Daily Orange) mentioned."

As the departing players piled up in a turnover of massive proportions, no reason was given for their exodus. It became Marrone's policy to not discuss players who were no longer with the program. Nothing more than an e-mail from the program or a passing statement from Marrone accompanied each player's exit. A day later, each player was removed from the team's official roster.

Some turnover has come to be expected with new coaching regimes. More than 10 players left the Michigan program when Rich Rodriguez replaced Lloyd Carr as head coach following the 2007 season. At Tennessee, 11 players departed the football program by the end of spring practice during former head coach Lane Kiffin's first season on the job.

But with each passing day, the number at Syracuse flew beyond the norm. One after another they disappeared, and Marrone saw the number of scholarship players on his 2010 spring roster dip to just 49 non-specialists.

A coincidence became a trend. Marrone would vaguely address who, what and when. But he would never discuss why. And so the question became why. Why the mass exodus from the Syracuse football program?

"I don't know. You would have to get that from them," Marrone said. "I think it's important for them in life to explain what their situation was. … I think you'll find out there are a lot of reasons for each individual person."

"We're talking about curfew"

Lamar Middleton just wanted to read Doug Marrone the letter. The letter that explained why he should remain on the team. The letter that admitted he was wrong about what had happened that night at 231 Slocum Heights.

"He wouldn't let me read him my letter," Middleton said. "… Basically, Coach Marrone was treating me like I was some bum off the street asking for a dollar. He didn't want to speak to me. He told me that ‘you're done.' He said you have to move on and go play with somebody else."

Middleton penned the letter after he was let go by Marrone due to what Middleton describes as a "simple misunderstanding of one night last spring semester of the curfew situation." Marrone confirmed Middleton's dismissal but wouldn't comment on the specific case, saying only that it was a "violation of team rules."

Middleton's ex-teammates, Donte Davis and Nico Scott, similarly describe the situation. Because they were both there that one night at 231 Slocum Heights. In the four-apartment complex, they lived upstairs, and Middleton lived directly below them.

The situation arose, all three say, as they came back from a T-Pain concert in Goldstein Auditorium on April 17, 2009, the night before the spring football game.

It came one night after Middleton says he was in the hospital for what turned out to be a "stomach bug."

He ended up missing a 6 a.m. meeting the next morning, and said it added to another previous misunderstanding he had with the coach — Marrone, Middleton said, believed him to be an alcoholic.

"(Marrone) thought I was an alcoholic because I told him that I had a Long Island ice tea," Middleton said. "After that, he tried to put me on alcoholic counseling. I said, ‘OK, if that's what I need to do to gain your trust back, then I will do that.'"

Marrone would not comment on specific incidents with his former players. But he did say that if he feels a player is in "trouble or is struggling" for a variety of reasons, he will determine whether to direct those players to the appropriate counseling services.

"If I saw a player that had given me any types of signs for anything — and it's such a wide range — yes, I'm going to contact our trainers," Marrone said. "And I'm going to contact the player to encourage him to go for counseling."

That night, coming back from the concert, Middleton and Davis engaged in an argument with a graduate assistant checking their apartments at curfew time, which both said was at 10:30 p.m. Walking into his apartment, Davis said, it was 10:15.

Middleton got the call to Marrone's office the next morning, the day of the spring game. There sat Marrone, the graduate assistant and the rest of the Orange defensive staff.