Christmas came late for teams in need of a coach when Marrone opted out of his contract with the Bills on New Year's Eve. As I've said many times -- in this space, on the radio, on TV -- Marrone is a fantastic coach. After all, this is a guy who just won nine games in Buffalo without a legit quarterback and without Kiko Alonso playing a single down. And this kind of overachievement is nothing new for Marrone's teams. He took over a Syracuse program that the overmatched Greg Robinson had completely run into the ground (see: 10–37 record from 2005-08) and rebuilt the Orange into a winner over the span of four years.