Paul Pasqualoni sat at the table yesterday with his bosses at his side and the public’s interest brimming. The calls for Pasqualoni’s job were no secret.

But as he sat beside Chancellor Nancy Cantor and Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel, the man who guided the Syracuse football team back to a bowl game this year smiled. SU won a share of the Big East Championship this season, and the Orange’s graduation rate continued to soar.

He reached three of the four coaching criteria laid out by Crouthamel, failing only to reach the Top 25.

So how can you fire this man? How can Pasqualoni, in his 14th season at Syracuse, be dismissed?

This season, Pasqualoni achieved all that, and yesterday at a press conference at the Carrier Dome, the university showed its appreciation by extending the coach’s tenure an additional year.

‘I believe in our program and our university,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘I appreciate the support of Chancellor Cantor and Jake Crouthamel. Like everything else in our lives, I know there are no guarantees. I know this is a critical moment, and that I need to make necessary adjustments to make the most of it.’

Fans have called for Pasqualoni’s head for years now, back to 2000 and up until now. It subsided in 2001 after a 10-3 record. But in the past three years, the calls have grown louder, more frequent and, most importantly, more justified.

Syracuse has recorded a 16-19 record over the past three years.

Because Pasqualoni watched over a monumental collapse, the university should have dismissed him. Pasqualoni’s time had come and gone, and the community, team and university were ready for a change.

Keep in mind, despite the robotic feel of his seemingly rehearsed answers, Pasqualoni is in fact a human being. And you should never root for someone to be fired. But this is a bottom-line business. Bottom line: Gotta win football games. Recently, Pasqualoni has failed to do that.

‘First of all,’ Pasqualoni said, ‘I want to say we’re tremendously appreciative of this opportunity.’

Appreciative is an interesting word to use, considering the past three years. After a combined .457 winning percentage over that time, Pasqualoni should be appreciative of another chance. With sagging attendance and a growing demand for his dismissal, Pasqualoni should be appreciative the university didn’t ax him as his head lay on a guillotine.

Considering other universities fired superior coaches – like Notre Dame’s Tyrone Willingham and Florida’s Ron Zook – after struggling for far less time, Pasqualoni ought to be shining Crouthamel’s shoes and kissing his feet.

Many hopeful fans thought the change would finally come. After three years, finally they’d see the spark that propelled so many other suffering programs back to the top: SU would hire a new head coach.

But yesterday’s press conference turned into something else. An optimistic outlook after three pessimistic years. A seemingly bright future after an undoubtedly gloomy past.

Those three years were forgettable. Someone needed to take the fall. Pasqualoni was the most obvious choice.

After all, this is Syracuse University, the same school that regularly reached the Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl just a half-decade ago. Syracuse was a feared national power. The program has fallen off a cliff since then, with yearly losses to Big East basement-dwellers Temple and Rutgers.

Just a few years back, that would have been unacceptable. Now it’s annual.

The blame falls on Pasqualoni. He admitted as much last night.

‘When you’re a head coach, you gotta take the blame,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘What’s the blame? The blame is we haven’t played as well as we need to on the road.’

Ultimately, that’s Pasqualoni’s fault.

‘We have to do this the way it should be done,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘We have issues we need to address.’

The only issue Pasqualoni specifically talked about was simplifying SU’s complicated offense. Pasqualoni stripped some sophistication from this year’s playbook, and he says that helped.

Next year, Pasqualoni will use an even simpler playbook in the hopes that SU’s offense will run cleaner and more efficiently.

But, clearly, the playbook is fine. SU upset Boston College on the road. It nearly defeated Florida State. It thrived with the playbook in 2001.

The responsibility is Pasqualoni’s.

He tried justifying his tenure. Hey, a win at Temple this year and Syracuse is headed to Tempe, Ariz., earning a multimillion dollar paycheck, basking in the Fiesta Bowl.

At the same time, that’s incredible and unacceptable. And it’s exactly why Pasqualoni needed to go.