The Buffalo Bills named 48-year old Doug Marrone as their new head coach Monday to replace Chan Gailey, who was fired last week.
Marrone is quite familiar with New York as he was born in the Bronx, before playing and coaching for Syracuse. He was with Syracuse from 2009 to 2012.
Before becoming the Syracuse head coach, he was offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints from 2006 to 2008 and the offensive line coach of the New York Jets from 2002 to 2005. Marrone becomes the 16th coach of the 53-year-old Bills franchise.
Buffalo were looking for someone who can strengthen their offense and also turn around the team's fortunes, after going 13 straight seasons without making the playoffs.
Under Marrone, the Syracuse offense set several school records in 2012 -- for total yards (5,681) and passing yards (3,691).
"I had some opportunities to make a choice, and I've chosen to be here," the Associated Press quoted Marrone as saying. "You have to be at the place where you're most comfortable, and I'm most comfortable here in western New York.
"I'm not going to talk about the coaches that were before me, and I don't know what their philosophy was. But I do understand the responsibility that I have.
"I'm excited about this. I've done this before. I've been in this league as a player, been here as a coach. I've gone through this change. And I'm excited to work with the players in this change.
"I'm excited to get back to work soon. It's a lot of responsibility. I feel I'm the best person for this job."
Marrone revived Syracuse after it had gone 26-57 in the previous seven seasons. Under Marrone, the team finished 6-10 during the previous season and was 21st among 32 teams. He had a 25-25 overall record with Syracuse.
The Bills interviewed five candidates in four days before giving the job to Marrone. The newly promoted team president Russ Brandon believes Marrone has the talent and experience to improve Buffalo's record in the NFL.
"We wanted to identify top talent to lead this organization to where all of our fans and stakeholders deserve to be, and that's back to a championship contender," Brandon said. "And we believe we just did that."
General manager Buddy Nix said Marrone was the most suitable candidate for the job. "We could have gone another day, and we would have been starting over," Nix said. "We knew the guy we wanted when we interviewed him. And there he is. So why go further?"
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