Paul Pasqualoni
Paul Pasqualoni (born August 16, 1949) is an American football coach. He is currently Defensive Coordinator with the NFL's Miami Dolphins. He was the head coach of the Syracuse University football team from 1991 to 2004.
NFL
Before becoming linebackers coach in 2006, Pasqualoni served as the Cowboys' coach of tight ends for the 2005 season, where he is credited for the continued development of Jason Witten leading to his second consecutive trip to the Pro Bowl. Pasqualoni was named defensive coordinator of Miami Dolphins January 22, 2008.
Syracuse University
Pasqualoni was an assistant at Syracuse from 1987 until 1991, when he was promoted to head coach after the position was vacated by Dick MacPherson, who left for the NFL to coach the New England Patriots. The Orange (then known as the Orangemen) enjoyed a number of successful years with Pasqualoni at the helm. The team won the Fiesta Bowl over Colorado in 1992 and defeated Clemson 41-0 in Gator Bowl in 1995, Donovan McNabb's freshman year. The team had a 6-3 record in bowl games under Pasqualoni. Pasqualoni's 14-year record with Syracuse was 107-59-1. His only losing season was in 2002 with a 4-8 record. Most seasons of his tenure saw Syracuse competing in the Top 25 in the country.
Fan unrest grew to the point that in the year 2002, following what many considered to be a hollow 10-3 season, a group of frustrated Orange faithful known as "The Orange Alliance" resurrected the website CoachPMustGo.com, a fan site originally created in the mid to late 1990s, but which unexpectedly and surprisingly disappeared from the web in 2001. This new call for action, and its associated fan movement, put additional pressure on the Syracuse University administration. Eventually, the slip in wins, combined with the loss of fanbase and a 54-14 loss in the 2004 Champs Sports Bowl, led new Athletic Director Daryl Gross to fire Pasqualoni on December 29, 2004 despite the fact that Syracuse's President Nancy Cantor publicly promised that Pasqualoni would be on the sidelines the next season. He was replaced by Greg Robinson, who had been serving as the defensive coordinator at the University of Texas.
Personal
Pasqualoni is a native of Cheshire, Connecticut and while coach of the Orange recruited many star players from Connecticut high schools, including Bloomfield's Dwight Freeney, New Britain's Tebucky Jones and the McIntosh brothers from Cheshire High School. He is the author, with Jim McLaughlin, of the book Coaching Youth Football, ISBN 0-07137-219-9
External links
- "After Tutoring TE's, Pasqualoni Returns To LB's", DallasCowboys.com, June 27, 2006