AP

Last month, former Syracuse assistant head coach Bob Casullo ripped former Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone. On Thursday, the new Jaguars assistant head coach/offensive line coach responded during a session with the Jacksonville media.

“The former coach is somebody I had to let go of and we had worked with twice,” Marrone said, via Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union. “To say I didn’t expect something like that to happen would be naïve on my part. Sometimes, when you have to move on from people, they look to get you back. I’m not like that so I wouldn’t understand why somebody would do that.”

In other words, Marrone believes Casullo was motivated by sour grapes.

“Self-centered, selfish, greedy,” Casullo said. “You’re re-shuffling an egomaniac, less than .500 coach. . . . When he takes a job, he already has his plan in place for his next job.”

As to the latter part of Casullo’s allegation, a sentiment shared by many, Marrone says he didn’t exercise his platinum parachute (which pays him $4 million this year to not coach the Bills due to the ownership change) because he believed he had another head-coaching job in his back pocket.

“I had a three-day window in my contract, which was obviously difficult because of the time aspect of it,” Marrone said. “My family and I made a decision to leave. . . And we’re not looking back. We’re looking forward and it’s that simple.”

It’s also “that simple” to conclude that Marrone gave up the bird in the hand for something far less than two in the bush. And now the question becomes whether he’ll ever be able to beat the bushes successfully for a head-coaching job in the future.