Dec. 29, 2004 – Firing Syracuse’s head football coach may have been a few weeks in the works, but Daryl Gross hopes hiring a new one won’t take as long.

Paul Pasqualoni was fired Wednesday after 14 years as head coach. Gross, the incoming athletic director, said he will begin the search for a new head coach immediately.

‘I want to move very fast in the search process,’ Gross said.

Gross said he considers himself to have an advantage over others conducting similar searches around the country because he has immersed himself in the coaching field for so long. At USC, he was responsible for the hiring of new coaches, and was instrumental in hiring current Trojans coach Pete Carroll.

Gross said he currently has no list of candidates. He said he hopes to find a coach with a good amount of coaching experience at both the collegiate and professional levels.

There had been a great deal of speculation that the search would end with USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow. But Gross downplayed such a possibility.

Though Gross came from USC, he said he won’t necessarily hire someone from there. And while Gross admitted the two had joked about Chow coming to SU, he doubts Chow would want to leave.

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‘He’s going to be a Trojan,’ Gross said. ‘And that’s where he should be.’

Some things Gross will look for in a coach include a potential national championship winner, expertise and someone capable of implementing an entertaining, pro-style offense.

At the same time, Gross hopes to find a candidate who understands that the college game is supposed to be fun.

‘There are some great candidates out there, folks,’ Gross said.

Gross plans to travel to Miami to watch USC play Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, but he will continue to conduct the search while there. He is confident that he will hire someone who will be able to return SU to prominence.

‘We’re not far off,’ Gross said. ‘There’s some great potential here.’

Pasqualoni met three of the four objectives laid out after the 2002 season by outgoing Athletic Director Jake Crouthamel. He earned a bowl bid, finished in the top three in the Big East and graduated his players at a high rate, but he failed to land in the Top 25.

Still, SU dismissed him, because Gross has his own criteria.

Gross said he will follow the same criteria he used as the senior associate athletic director at Southern California.

Said Gross: ‘There’s a vision I have for the future.’

Published on December 30, 2004 at 12:00 pm