Twenty-two days later, the goal remains the same.

A little more than three weeks after Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone verbalized his team’s goal to compete for the conference title at SU media day, he reiterated that once again during his opening remarks at the Wake Forest press conference Saturday.  

‘Obviously, I want to state what our goal is as a football program: to be able to compete for a Big East championship,’ Marrone said. ‘That is important that everyone realizes that.’

To do so, Marrone stressed the importance of returning to the winning ways of the past. And like he said Aug. 5, that starts with winning at home. One of the main objectives en route to competing for the Big East title is improving on a 2-4 record in the Carrier Dome last season.

Zero conference wins at home isn’t acceptable anymore.

‘One of the things we have talked about with this football team is the way we play at home,’ Marrone said. ‘We have not had a winning record at home since 2004. What I think we forget sometimes, or take for granted, is that from 1983-2004 we never had a losing record at home. That is what we want to do with this football program is get back to that consistency that we had shown in the ‘80s and ’90s with our program.’

Syracuse begins its season with back-to-back home games, beginning Thursday when the Orange hosts Wake Forest.

In preparation for that game, Marrone released his two-deep depth chart Saturday as well.

Defensive tackle, wide receiver, cornerback and punter were the positions with the most competition during camp. And Marrone said a lot of those starters were determined based on performances during the Ernie Davis scrimmage Aug. 20.

• Junior Shane Raupers won the starting punting job over freshman Jonathan Fisher.
• Senior Deon Goggins edged out senior Cory Boatman to earn the starting nose tackle position. Sophomore Jay Bromley joins him as the second interior lineman.
• Senior Dorian Graham emerged as the third wide receiver for the Orange. Sophomore Jarrod West is currently the fourth receiver.
• Junior Ri’Shard Anderson, who was listed as the top cornerback heading into spring practice, returns to a starting position opposite graduate student Kevyn Scott. Sophomore Keon Lyn, who dislocated his shoulder in camp, is listed as Anderson’s backup.

‘The competition went well,’ Marrone said. ‘I thought we went after each other.’

Marrone also announced that there is no change to the status of senior wide receiver Marcus Sales and sophomore quarterback Jonny Miller. Both players were arrested over the summer and remain suspended from the football program.

***

The Thomas ‘brothers,’ as Shamarko Thomas referred to himself and fellow safety Phillip Thomas — no relation — are finally back together.

Phillip had surgery to repair a broken jaw suffered early in camp, and Shamarko missed time with a concussion, but both players are listed as starters for the Wake Forest game.

Both of them are juniors and are by far the most experienced players in the SU secondary after starting all last season.

So when each went down with an injury in camp, it didn’t bode well for Orange faithful.

‘It was pretty difficult (to sit out), but at the same time I was teaching the young guys just in case,’ Phillip said. ‘I’m plan A. Plan B is to teach the young guys.’

Phillip said he is about 95 percent right now and on his way toward being fully healthy. He is back to wearing a helmet in practice after being restricted following surgery.

With the Thomas’ comes a sense of familiarity and friendly competition that drives the back part of the Orange defense. They compete with each other for who can rack up the better numbers and be the better player.

‘We’re going to compete with each other. We’re going to see who is going to get the most tackles, most interceptions,’ Phillip said. ‘We just want to continue to be good and take Syracuse to a higher level.’

‘I feel real comfortable with him out there,’ Shamarko added. ‘We communicate well, and we’ve been through everything together.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on August 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13