Doug Marrone is dealing with a mountain of problems going into his first bye week as a head coach -- Syracuse is 1-4 against I-A competition after Saturday's loss to West Virginia, 0-2 in the Big East and after the initial optimism of a new coach, a new quarterback, a close call against Minnesota in the opener and an upset over Northwestern, the 'Cuse faithful may be beginning to waver a bit on the first phase of this "rebuilding" thing. Still, the first issue Doug Marrone felt compelled to address after the 34-13 pasting at the hands of the Mountaineers was Greg Paulus' immediate future as the Orange quarterback.

And for now, Marrone insists, the former Duke point guard is still the Orange quarterback, despite being yanked at halftime for following up last week's five-interception catastrophe against South Florida with another pick on Syracuse's first drive against WVU, tying Paulus for the national "lead" with 10 interceptions on the year:

"I just didn't feel comfortable with the way that Greg was responding to questions that I was asking him, we were asking him, on the sidelines," Marrone said. "I don't know what the right word is. But I told Greg, he's our quarterback. He will start versus Akron. We will get him settled down in this bye week, which will be good for us."
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Marrone said he asked questions of Paulus during the first half such as, "Why would you do this? Why would you do that?" Marrone lit into Paulus on the sidelines after his quarterback was intercepted on Syracuse’s first possession. ...

"It's just not characteristic of what my experience with Greg has been in the past," Marrone said. "Therefore, I felt uncomfortable about the situation and made the switch, knowing that Greg is still our starting quarterback. We'll move on from here."

If you didn't know better, you'd think Marrone was describing a player with a concussion who couldn't remember what town he was in. But Paulus is healthy -- his coach just doesn't trust him. Or didn't trust him, at that moment, against West Virginia, after his sixth pick in just five quarters. But now everything is ... cool?

If Marrone was "uncomfortable" with putting Paulus back on the field Saturday, what's going to increase that comfort level over the next two weeks? And how could he be so certain about Paulus returning to his good graces just moments after watching backup Ryan Nassib (who has "everything you want in a quarterback," according to Marrone after naming Nassib the starter in the spring, before Paulus' high-profile transfer just before the season) throw a pair of garbage-time touchdowns?

Syracuse's performance in its first two Big East games has been all too characteristic of 'Cuse fans' experiences with the team in the past. The Orange are still residing at or near the bottom of the conference in most of the major stat categories, including total offense, total defense and scoring defense. Three of the last four visitors to the Carrier Dome have left with at least 34 points on the board, and the plague of interceptions enveloping Paulus has left him with the lowest pass efficiency rating of any regular starter in the Big East. On the field, the initial steps forward are melting into something distressingly close to the familiar jalopies of the Greg Robinson era.

The good news: At 1-4 with one of the worst offenses in the nation itself, Akron is a team the Orange can beat with ease; the Zips have been pounded in their last three by Indiana, Central Michigan and Ohio U. The bad news: An equally lame Zip team won by two touchdowns in the Carrier Dome last September, the inexcusable loss that sealed another year of misery and Robinson's imminent demise. With or without Paulus, if 'Cuse doesn't put Akron out of its misery in fairly comfortable fashion, the cautious optimism of September can pack its bags against until next year.