Daryl Gross Quotes
“Let me start by thanking Dr. Cantor. The chancellor at this school is a brilliant woman with an incredible vision. I have nothing but gratitude for this opportunity. It’s been an incredible couple of weeks. The last couple of weeks, we’ve been doing the Syracuse thing and we had the Heisman Trophy going on, and we had a press conference back in L.A. about the basketball search. It just shows you how important intercollegiate athletics is to the United States.”
“Syracuse University is, to me, an outstanding, incredible athletic figure in the history of NCAA sports. The university is wonderful. The name Syracuse brings nothing but greatness and pride. As a young kid, I was always aware of Syracuse. My father talked about it often. Most of my peers on the west coast that called and inquired about the job said, ‘Syracuse, wow!’ That’s what Syracuse brings. It brings a big wow! For me it was such an easy decision to make. Being from Los Angeles, and being at USC and then coming to Syracuse and this community, and having the State of New York and New York City and all of those things in our backyard, is just remarkable. I can’t think of a better place to get started with my own AD job then at Syracuse.”
“I’m thrilled. I’m overwhelmed. I’ve met the people here, and it’s really obvious that they have a lot of pride and a lot of passion for this school. My job here will be to carry our banner and take Syracuse as high and as far as we can take it.”
“I do want to take time to recognize Jake because he’s put his heart and soul here. He’s been here for over 25 years and has done a wonderful job. How I follow in those footsteps, I’m not sure. I’m going to need his help, and I’ve told him that. I’m not going to be one to come in and tell Syracuse people how to do Syracuse. The Syracuse people are going to tell me what they need. I’m going to lead the charge and champion the cause to make sure that Syracuse, year in and year out, is recognized as one of the great athletic institutions in the country. That’s very important to me and that’s what my charge will be.”
“It’s very important for me to recognize some people that aren’t here - my athletic director at USC, Mike Garrett, who gave me the opportunity to help restructure and restore a program. We did it together, and he gave me opportunities that normally you wouldn’t get. He had a lot of trust in me. It gave me the things that I needed to know to go on and run another athletic department. Also, the president of USC, Steve Sample, vice president Dennis Dougherty, all of my colleagues in the department, special thanks to my best friend Lael, who is not here, but will be at the bowl game. My mom is so happy and proud, and she would never want me to leave Los Angeles. Even when I went to New York to work for the Jets, she didn’t want me to go. My dad would be so proud today. My cousin, Joey, his sister’s son went to school at Syracuse. He’s a very successful lawyer working in Washington, D.C. I know he’ll be up here to see me as well. My brother and all my friends have been so supportive of this move. I just hope that I can be a role model for a lot of other people who one day will get this opportunity.”
“It is obvious to me that Syracuse already does things the right way. The football team has been in numerous bowl games. I find the program to be in terrific shape and you guys should be proud of it. From the outside looking in, from the west coast, we think of Syracuse as a great place and a great institution. There is no need to explain what Syracuse is all about because people already know. I’ve always had a fondness for this place since I was very, very young.”
“My charge here will be very simple. We have principles that we use that I’ve always believed in. It goes from winning championships, graduating all of the student-athletes, compliance to all NCAA rules and to be fiscally sound. If you can do all four of those things, I tell you, you’re rolling. We’ll be trying to achieve all of those things. It’s great to have the great the coaches here like Coach Boeheim, Coach Desko, and Coach Pasqualoni really, really strong sports that are doing wonderful jobs. I got to meet a lot of the coaches today who are really passionate about winning. I want to be a part of it. I’m going to help champion their cause to be championship teams. We have to provide the resources and do the things necessary to make sure that Syracuse is on the forefront of college athletics.”
On his evaluation of the SU football program:
“Let me say this first of all. All of the coaches here work their tails off in all of the sports. Football, obviously, is very important to the Syracuse community. You have a football coach who has won many games and been in many bowl games. He’s done a wonderful job of producing great student-athletes. You don’t have to look far when you see a Donovan McNabb and a Marvin Harrison. That’s all coming from Coach P’s program. He’s done a fabulous job of producing those types of things. Every program here is going to be evaluated just like every where else in the country. Our goal is to be the number one program in the country. We won’t be satisfied, and I’ll tell you Coach P isn’t going to be satisfied, until he reaches a BCS championship game and is in the hunt to play for it. You have wonderful people here, and I’m going to work with them to make sure our goals consistent.”
On the similarities between Syracuse and USC:
“USC is private as well and there isn’t state-wide support. The two schools have a lot of similarities. You have to fundraise, you have to develop, and you have to be really creative. You have to compete to get all the resources you can in order to give the coaches what they need, get the facilities that we need to reach all of our goals. One of the things that was attractive about this job is that is very similar to USC. It has a lot of the same infrastructure, the same systems, the same tuition costs. There’s always the question of whether you can get a great quality walk-on athlete because the tuition is so high. We’ve been faced with all of those challenges at USC before, and they’re the same challenges here at Syracuse. I feel like I have experience dealing with these situations and so maybe some of my expertise will help us out.”
On the hiring process:
“Syracuse put together a great team of representatives that was very diverse, very and very brilliant. The Board of Trustees was remarkable in their background. I got a chance to meet with those folks and to tell them the things that I believe in and hope they would think that I was a candidate who could lead the Syracuse program.”
On the speed of the hiring process:
“I think everything in life right now is happening quickly for me. My kids have grown up so fast. I have a four-year-old and an eight-year-old that were an infant and a four-year-old, and that seems like it was just two weeks ago. I’ve had other jobs come across my desk. I’ve always had a rule that if a job didn’t make me go, ‘Wow!’ then I wouldn’t go for it. This one made me go, ‘Wow!’ It was too easy for me to get into it and start competing for it.”
On his criteria for evaluating programs:
“It all stems off those four principles I talked about. We have to be able to maintain all four of those. Our goal is to win championships in all sports – now that doesn’t mean that I want every coach to win a national championship every year, but you want to have the opportunity to be in the hunt. First of all, do you have the resources to do it? Is the facility adequate? Can you recruit with those things? Obviously, we have to evaluate the entire program. I believe there is an atmosphere of coaches who really care about winning, care about their student-athletes and graduating them, and doing it within the rules and complying at the fullest. Our job is to give them the resources to make sure they do that. Jake has done a great job. Coach Boeheim won a national championship, Coach Desko has won national championships – there’s a lot of great stuff going on here. It is really sound. It’s very nice to walk in and know you’re getting 22,000-plus for a basketball game. That makes the job pretty easy. I told Coach Boeheim, ‘Just tell me where to turn the lights on and off.’ I can bring the basketballs out and all those types of things. We’ve got a lot of great things here already that we can be really proud of. We’ll just keep working from that.”
On whether his football background helped him get the job:
“I think it definitely helped. This is a big-time institution, and I come from a big-time program. I think the thing that I bring to the table is that I’ve coached before. I understand coaches. I understand coaches more than the media understands coaches. We will work with the coaches. My football background is extensive. I love working with our football staffs. I’ve coached it myself, and I understand where coaches are coming from.”
On what resources the football team needs:
“I’m not sure yet. Coach P and I will sit down and talk. We’re not going to figure it out today. I didn’t come in here to just figure out football right away. I think these guys are getting ready to play in an incredible bowl game against an incredible team in Georgia Tech. It’s a great opportunity. Syracuse and Georgia Tech will be the only teams on that day. It’ll be a time for Syracuse to showcase its team, come out and play good football, and we’ll go from there. I’m not sure how many bowl games Coach has gone to since he’s been here, but it’s significant. Obviously, he knows how to get a team to a bowl game. Now we go to the next step.”
On the differing climates of Southern California and Central New York:
“When I was scouting with the Jets, I used to fly up here often. Rob Moore was a guy I was very, very fond of, and I talked Dick Steinberg, the GM of the Jets, into taking him in the supplemental draft. I came up here in the snow. I’ve always liked the snow. As a kid from L.A., when you see snow you like it. Now after days three, four, five six, we’ll see. We work inside and its warm. When its spring time and fall, I hear this is one of the loveliest places in the world.”
On the importance of the lacrosse program at Syracuse:
“I think it’s wonderful. It is something we embrace and that we’re proud of. Out west, where there isn’t a lot of lacrosse played, we all recognize that Syracuse is the leader in lacrosse. That’s how powerful Syracuse University is. I’m used to having programs at USC where last year we won four national championships (football, women’s volleyball, men’s & women’s water polo). I love the diversity of Olympic sport and revenue sport, of student-athlete and scholar-athlete. All of those things come into play. Having lacrosse here is a huge plus. The tradition and legacy of lacrosse is really powerful. The thing here is to keep it that way and to give them the resources so it is always maintained like that.”
On the speculation of him bringing a USC assistant be SU’s head football coach:
“What I find with our beat writers in L.A., is that they’re not only beat writers, they’re detectives. If you’re a beat writer at practice out there in the sun, and the sun is hitting your head, you come up with all these theories. Those guys would really appreciate that. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. I’m just trying to figure out how to get on the flight that got to Philly that got to Syracuse. When someone presented that to me yesterday, I just started laughing. Just show me where Syracuse is and let me get into the office first. I can’t find a better word for ridiculous right now. Those thoughts aren’t in my mind at all. My thought right now is to be part of this great program, and have this staff embrace me. Then we’ll sit down and figure out which direction we need to go in.”
On his expectations and timetable for starting:
“Jake has done a marvelous job here. I can only hope that I can live up to the passion and the spirit that he’s put into the Syracuse program. He’s done a wonderful job and you all should recognize it. From the outside, we recognize it. My job is to come here and make sure that Syracuse is the anchor of the BIG EAST and an institution that, year in and year out, leads the BIG EAST in all of its athletic competition. We have a chancellor that is a mover and a shaker. She got me signed up and I’m very excited about it. I told Dr. Cantor that I need to finish up some business at USC. I made that commitment to Mike Garrett. I will be here, probably on a daily basis, late in January. I will be at the bowl game. I’ll be working with the staff over the phone. I’ll fly in every once in awhile and start to make the transition. It’ll go by really fast, and we’ll be ready to roll.”
