There’s no doubt Paulus is a talented athlete. The kid hasn’t played football since his high school days, and while he hasn’t been great, he hasn’t been laugh out loud terrible. And the Orange? well they’re simply not good.

If Syracuse had any real chance at going to a bowl this season, I could see the argument against benching your starting quarterback for the stretch run. Syracuse is 2-4, and has just a single, solitary win over an FBS school, a 37-34 win over Northwestern.

Paulus is one interception away from leading the nation with 10, compared to just eight touchdowns. Again, not terrible, but not something a team looking to compete can usually survive. More importantly, Paulus is a senior.

Enter Ryan Nassib. Nassib is a red shirt freshman who has played well in limited action this season, completing 11 of 21 passes for two touchdowns and no interceptions. Nassib is the future of the Syracuse program. Paulus is a one year bridge.

It also appears the Syracuse coaches are growing tired of Paulus’ act. After five interceptions in their loss to South Florida, and an inability to get the offense going against West Virginia; Paulus was yanked in favor of Nassib.

Though the freshman came in with a 27-0 deficit that surely affected how the Mountaineers played defense, Nassib looked solid. Nassib completed 7 of 16 passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns – a 50 yarder to Mike Williams and a 24 yarder to Marcus Sales – and started at least the fans thinking about the future.

With Akron, a 1-5 MAAC team coming to the Carrier dome, what better time to see what Nassib can do? It doesn’t appear that coach Marrone shares my opinion, as there’s been very little mention of changing quarterbacks at this point in the season, but should Paulus struggle yet again, you’ve got to believe the coaching staff will begin to wonder if change is in the air.

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