Marcus Clayton walked into the cafeteria of the Iocolano-Petty Football Wing on Tuesday in sandals and a T-shirt. If it weren’t for the additional T-shirt tied around his head, his dreadlocks would’ve fallen to his shoulders.

Clayton, a junior cornerback on the Syracuse football team, has played sparingly this season outside of special teams, but he has a new attitude. Paul Pasqualoni left with his rules requiring a short haircut and kempt facial hair. And the former head coach left with some of Clayton’s frustration.

Clayton doesn’t like sitting on the bench – no one does – but he didn’t understand the position he was in last season. After splitting time between receiver, punt returner and cornerback his freshman year, Pasqualoni asked Clayton to become SU’s lock-down coernerback full-time.

It was an appealing proposal considering Clayton was recruited as a defensive back. Clayton worked as a starter in spring and summer workouts, but he never got his chance to shine in 2004.

‘Coach P told me three days before (the 2004 opener against Purdue) DeAndre (LaCaille) was starting because they needed someone bigger in the boundary,’ said the 5-foot-7 Clayton. ‘That was really messed up. Why did you have me playing the boundary in the winter and coming into camp? That was messed up that he waited until the last minute to do that. He had me thinking I was starting.’

Clayton watched much of last season as a backup. He said he respected the players in front of him but that he didn’t understand why he was in the position he was. In retrospect, Clayton said the reasons were about more than just football.

In two years under Pasqualoni, Clayton said he was called into the coach’s office only twice. Once was when Pasqualoni informed him he wasn’t starting, the other was about his hair.

‘This is basically what he said, ‘You either cut your hair or trim it,” Clayton said. ‘He told me he would send me to (Florida A&M University in Tallahassee) if I didn’t take those (dreadlocks) out of my hair. He told me I was worried more about my hair than playing football. I had been playing good with hair on my head so I didn’t understand what he was saying.’

Clayton’s father advised him to trim it to see if Pasqualoni’s attitude changed. When Clayton didn’t get more playing time, he began to grow it again.

But nothing changed. Clayton remained a backup and Pasqualoni didn’t talk to him much. When he saw Clayton and his full head of hair in the halls of Manley Field House, Pasqualoni simply would shake his head and say nothing.

Instances like that had Clayton wishing he never came to Syracuse. Clayton had offers from Clemson, North Carolina and Iowa at one point, but he was sick of talking to coaches each week and he was afraid of plane trips. He had a serious shot at Tennessee but he skipped a flight to campus during his senior year and never received an offer.

Instead of waiting for another Atlantic Coast Conference school to scoop him up after his senior year, Clayton decided instead to commit to SU with his high school friend and college roommate, Landel Bembo.

Clayton said he wasn’t happy when Pasqualoni was fired in December of 2004, but it made him hopeful for the future.

New head coach Greg Robinson didn’t address hair issues when he came to Syracuse until SU’s bye week after a heartbreaking loss to Virginia. During a team meeting, Robinson told them how he felt about earrings and long hair.

‘(Robinson) said all that don’t make a man,’ Clayton said. ‘That doesn’t affect what you do on the field and that doesn’t affect the program. Just because you have facial hair doesn’t mean you can’t make plays. It’s about God-given talent.’

Clayton admitted it can be depressing sitting on the bench, but he’s been happy with Robinson’s approach to coaching. When Steve Gregory beat Clayton for a starting spot this season after returning to play corner, Clayton didn’t get down. He knows his chance will come.

Though Clayton believes he could help the team at receiver this season, he said he needs to commit to one side of the ball. For now, though, he is eager to play and hear the fans chant his name like they did at Amos Godby High School in Tallahassee.

‘You see people you came out with in high school and you know you’re better than them, but they’re on TV making plays,’ Clayton said. ‘I like to hear the crowd chant for you and see the posters with your name on them. That’s why I play, for the crowd.’

And now with Pasqualoni gone, Clayton wears only dreads, no frustration.

Timothy Gorman is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear frequently. E-mail him at tpgorman@gmail.com.

Published on October 26, 2005 at 12:00 pm