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Thursday, December 18, 2008
According to Tom Dienhart of Rivals.com, "Rob Spence is in negotiations to become the offensive coordinator at Syracuse under new coach Doug Marrone". Most recently, the 50 year old Spence, served as Offensive Coordinator at Clemson under Tommy Bowden. Shortly after Dabo Swinney was named interim head coach for the Tigers, Spence was let go.
Spence has also been an offensive coordinator at Toledo, and has held other offensive coaching roles at schools such as Louisiana Tech, Hofstra, and the University of Maryland.
His reputation is one of utilizing a multi-pronged offensive system; not adhering to one offensive play-calling philosophy. His schemes have served him well in that statistically, they have been highly ranked (top 13 in total offense nationally with Toledo and top 4 in the ACC 4 years running with Clemson).
While Syracuse fans may laud Rob Spence's credentials as a play caller, they may come to feel uneasy about his recruiting acumen. According to Rivals, Spence has not been responsible for recruiting ANY of Clemson's recruits over the past four years. Having been at Clemson, Maryland, and Louisiana Tech, one might think Spence would have a reach in the southeast. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. In fact, part of the reason Dabo Swinney was hired as Clemson head coach was his incredible reputation as a tireless recruiter. It's entirely possible that Swinney parted with Spence due to his lack of recruiting success on the Tigers' behalf.
The anticipated Offensive Coordinator of the Orange played college football for Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, possibly giving him a connection to New York state high school recruiting bases. Others that were rumored to be in the running for the Syracuse Offensive Coordinator post were New England Patriots Wide Receivers Coach Bill O'Brien and former Auburn Offensive Coordinator Al Borges.
Photo courtesy of Scout.com