ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Syracuse coach Doug Marrone spoke tonight after practice about his decision to name Greg Paulus the starting quarterback, which he announced in a brief press release late Monday night. Here are some excerpts from Marrone's chat with reporters:

On how he came to his decision:

"I just feel good. I think in the last couple days there has been some separation. I feel that Greg is the player who we can win with right now. We love the competition, we love (sophomore) Ryan (Nassib), and we love (freshman) Charley (Loeb), senior Cam (Dantley), and all the quarterbacks. I feel that it was my decision, I made it. I think Greg Paulus is going to go out there for us and win football games right now. All of our quarterbacks need to be able to learn from each other. I think it's going to give our players and receivers a chance to get used to the quarterback. We can give Greg more reps now and I'm excited about that. I've always said that as soon as you see separation you can make a decision and then you can get that player ready to play."

"I told the team it's my decision and this is the direction we're going. I think we're going to need all the help we can get from everyone on this football team, and I want to make sure that everyone on the team understands and that they know from us what they need to do to improve and what they need to do to get better. Greg isn't a polished, finished product right now. We're still working on getting him better, as we are with all our quarterbacks. That's where we are with that position, as well as the other ones.

On whether ticket sales played a role in his decision:

"One thing I've said from the beginning is I understand what my job is. My job is to win football games. Just because I went to school here, and just because people may think I have a better relationship than some of the past coaches, I don't think that's going to get me any more time.

I don't think that's going to do anything for me. My job is to win games. I think if I win games, I'm going to be in good shape. If I don't win games, my butt's going to be out of here. I understand that.

On the potential of Paulus:

"I believe that we're going to have enough for him to win games. Is he going to be able to do the whole playbook? Absolutely not. (Saints quarterback) Drew [Brees] wasn't able to do the whole playbook that we had in New Orleans. One of the things that we can do now is start tapering the offense to the strengths of our players. That's the same with our receivers, what routes they run well, and with our running backs and what plays they like to run. It is no different than the quarterback position. It gives us a chance now to start tailoring our offense to our players."

Marrone also announced that freshman kicker Shane Raupers, who was in line to be the team's starter, has left the program. He said Ryan Lichtenstein now becomes the favorite for field goals.

The Orange coach also said that freshman safety Rishard Anderson was declared eligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse and will join the program soon.