For 18 years, Paul Pasqualoni was at the center of Syracuse football.

He spent four seasons as the linebackers coach and 14 more as the head coach. He presided over some of the most successful seasons in program history, but his tenure ultimately ended with his firing in 2004.

On Friday night, he will walk out on the Carrier Dome turf for the first time as an opposing coach, trying to orchestrate SU’s fifth loss of the season from the Connecticut sideline.

Pasqualoni, in his second season at UConn, concedes that his time at Syracuse was special, and that he still holds his former players, coaches and administrators in high regard. Yet game day is no to time for sentimentality.

“This is a business trip and my focus and really all I can see is getting ready to play this game,” Pasuqaloni said during the Big East coaches’ teleconference on Monday.

His emotions aside, Pasqualoni’s name is synonymous with happier days for SU football. He is the second-winningest coach in the program’s history with a record of 107-59-1. He led Syracuse to four Big East titles and a 6-3 record in bowl games, which included appearances in the Fiesta, Orange and Gator Bowls.

While Pasqualoni is remembered for some of the best moments in the history of the program, his firing is a point of contention. Those he coached recall a straightforward approach that shaped their lives.

His former players and fans also remember a Top-10 Syracuse program taking on some of the nation’s best.

On Nov. 21, 1992, defending national champion Miami entered the Carrier Dome undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. They left the same way, but barely.

No. 8 SU nearly came back from a 16-0 deficit and a first half in which the Orange’s total offense amounted to minus-1 yard. In and out of the huddle, quarterback Marvin Graves vomited throughout the game. His last-second pass found tight end Chris Gedney at the Miami 3 yard line, but Casey Greer tackled him torturously close to the goal line.

Kevin Forney remembers. A season ticket-holder since the Carrier Dome opened in 1980, he was one of 49,857 in attendance.

“I just remember it was over 40,000 people and going nuts,” he said.

Representatives from the Fiesta Bowl were among the 49,857 as well. Impressed by SU’s effort, they extended an invitation to the Orange. Syracuse went on to defeat No. 10 Colorado 26-22.

Wins against the elite programs were not so rare then. The Big East was a better conference and SU was a better team, regularly finishing with nine wins while doing battle with powers like Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College.

“We weren’t playing Miami of Ohio and Northwestern and all them bulls**t teams that we play now that we can’t beat,” Forney said. “So that’s what’s frustrating about being a Syracuse fan is we can’t beat these second-stringers that we would never think about playing back in the ’90s.”

Andre Fontenette followed Pasqualoni into the coaching profession. Today, he is preparing Campbell for homecoming as their wide receivers coach.

But just a little more than 10 years ago, Pasqualoni was recruiting the wide receiver.

Pasqualoni told Fontenette about where he saw the Churchville-Chili High School star fitting into the team. Pasqualoni told Fontenette he’d be a two-year starter, and he was.

“He’s the kind of guy that looks you in the eye when he talks and he knew what he was talking about,” Fontenette said. “He made me feel like I had no choice but to go to Syracuse. I’d be stupid if I didn’t.”

The Orange went 20-17 in Fontenette’s four years of playing — he redshirted his freshman year. Those four years also marked the end of his tenure at SU.

On Dec. 29, 2004, athletic director Daryl Gross announced Pasqualoni’s firing. The team was just eight days removed from a 51-14 loss to Georgia Tech in the Champ Sports Bowl, bringing its record to 6-6.

The players were shocked, Fontenette said, and the decision was received by fans as Gross wanting to appoint his own head coach, Forney said.

Gross was not made available for comment.

“We will maintain our vision of hiring a head coach that will get Syracuse football back to national prominence,” Gross said in the press conference announcing the decision.

SU is 29-61 since Pasqualoni’s firing.

The last days of the Pasqualoni era were far from his best. In Monday’s teleconference he expressed doubt regarding how the Carrier Dome crowd would receive him.

But Forney, citing Pasqualoni’s success coaching teams led by stars Donovan McNabb, Dwight Freeney and James Mungro, looks back on his tenure fondly.

“Anybody who’s followed Syracuse football for any amount of time that knows anything about anything would stand on their two feet and give him a standing ovation,” Fontenette said. “He’s put a lot of his time and effort and pretty much his whole career into that university. I think they’d be stupid not to acknowledge that.”

Published on October 19, 2012 at 1:54 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_