BC/Syracuse 1993

[elimunelson]

Great game to watch just to hear Dick Vermeil and Musberger screw up Pasqualoni's name. Oh to see an absolutely packed Carrier Dome and a legit top 25 northeast matchup (BC would beat #1 ND that year)

 

[OrgTruckPat]

Bad result this one, but great piece of nostaglia. I remember this game like yesterday. I was at this game as a 14 year old, I remember a guy walking out after game yelling fu@k you Foley. 93 team laid a big egg overall. Still haunts me all these years later lol. Thank you for the flashback to my childhood sir!

 

[anomander]

Atmosphere’s like that were definitely not appreciated at the time. A couple things:

- Why did the band stop doing that before kickoff. Everyone else has a fun chant. We have let's go orange. At least the band playing that rhythm before kickoff was fun.

- Those up stances though. Totally forget about that.

- Offense was pretty diverse. I can see how that offense could be a pain to prepare for.

- Graves years were probably peak SU football. What i would give to have that type of excitement back.

 

[Eric15]

Game right before this we were #6 on the road at Texas. Total yards were 429-199 in our favor and we tied.

Pat O'Neill just killed us. He had a 47-yarder to take the lead with 2:50 left and missed. We get an interception and have the ball again. He then has a 33-yarder to win at the horn and misses again.

Texas fans rush the field to celebrate tying Syracuse.

 

[donniesyracuse]

Game right before this we were #6 on the road at Texas. Total yards were 429-199 in our favor and we tied.

There was a close win over Cincinnati inbetween.

 

[ECE '76]

Tom Coughlin (SU '68) did a stellar job as HC at BC. He took over a program that averaged 3 wins each season over 3 years. In his 3 short years there, he showed up P, Paterno, and Lou Holtz. Then like Coach Mac and Doug Marrone, the NFL came calling with big bucks.

 

[sufandu]

I prefer the '92 game. We won and BC was ranked most of that year, as high as top 10. In '93 they weren't ranked and we lost.

 

[lincolncuse]

There was a close win over Cincinnati inbetween.

Huge rally in that game.

Recap

 

[Chip]

I remember Glen Foley was just unstoppable in this game.

I also remember thinking whoever had the ball last would win. We got the ball, felt good we’d score. Then the tipped pass at the line of scrimmage. Sigh.

 

[elimunelson]

That triple option set up would be great for this orange team too. It’s nice when you have terry and dar dar though

If we can’t throw we should have a wishbone setup for sure. I guess the other part is the incredible line play w Reagan et al

This was a boner of a season but this 93 team would beat 2023 team 45-10.

 

[Cusefan95]

- Why did the band stop doing that before kickoff. Everyone else has a fun chant. We have let's go orange. At least the band playing that rhythm before kickoff was fun.

I may be wrong here - but I thought that was viewed by the administration as potentially offensive to native Americans and they stopped it as a result. If I am wrong I’d love to know the actual reason, because I know everyone I graduated with thinks this as well.

 

[Chip]

Re-watching some of this because it's Friday and why not. Random things.

1. Vermeil was really good at his job. Of course, back then you had time to show a replay on every play.
2. I forget how everyone in Syracuse looked like Bob Casullo back then.
3. We were playing 1-2 BC, and the Dome was full and loud for a noon game. Can you imagine?
4. ABC promoting its Saturday night prime time lineup featuring Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that was 9 years old at the time. Can you imagine?
5. That 1993 defense was just atrocious after all the graduations and loss of Conley to injury. Still had Joseph and Jones in the secondary. And Mitchell, but as Vermeil said, you weakened two positions.

 

[lincolncuse]

Re-watching some of this because it's Friday and why not. Random things.

1. Vermeil was really good at his job. Of course, back then you had time to show a replay on every play.
2. I forget how everyone in Syracuse looked like Bob Casullo back then.
3. We were playing 1-2 BC, and the Dome was full and loud for a noon game. Can you imagine?
4. ABC promoting its Saturday night prime time lineup featuring Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that was 9 years old at the time. Can you imagine?
5. That 1993 defense was just atrocious after all the graduations and loss of Conley to injury. Still had Joseph and Jones in the secondary. And Mitchell, but as Vermeil said, you weakened two positions.

We had some really good young linebackers that were just not ready unfortunately - Hemsley, Ponds and Kenny Thomas who I think transferred to UCF

 

[Cusefan95]

Game right before this we were #6 on the road at Texas. Total yards were 429-199 in our favor and we tied.

Pat O'Neill just killed us. He had a 47-yarder to take the lead with 2:50 left and missed. We get an interception and have the ball again. He then has a 33-yarder to win at the horn and misses again.

Texas fans rush the field to celebrate tying Syracuse.

That '93 season was like getting kicked in the nuts repeatedly. The WVU game was the first time in my entire life I left a game before the clock ran out.

 

[lincolncuse]

We had 2 preseason AP number one votes. Seems impossible to imagine now.

1993 Preseason AP Poll

 

[Chip]

We had some really good young linebackers that were just not ready unfortunately - Hemsley, Ponds and Kenny Thomas who I think transferred to UCF

Dana Cottrell as well.

Having Conley back for a 6th year in 1994 was a good bridge for those younger guys. But the offense fell apart at the end of that year against the better defenses in BC, Miami, WVU.

Just too many eggs in the Conley basket for 1993, and the basket broke.

Big East football was a lot of fun back then.

 

[SU94]

Big East football was a lot of fun back then.

That is because not everyone (players, coaches, administrators) was auditioning for a better job in a bigger conference. More continuity year to year.

The Big East was a legit conference for a time there.
Money (or the abundance of it) changed everything (mostly for the worse).

That 1993 squad was a colossal disappointment. Preseason #6. Yet, for the first time in a long time we were outclassed on a somewhat consistent basis by top squads. The OLine was very young and inexperienced IIRC (I could be wrong about that). And the front seven was a sieve. Seemed like opposing offenses ran for 7+ yards per pop.

 

[OrgTruckPat]

I may be wrong here - but I thought that was viewed by the administration as potentially offensive to native Americans and they stopped it as a result. If I am wrong I’d love to know the actual reason, because I know everyone I graduated with thinks this as well.

Yes I too believe this was the reason behind it. I recall it being discussed at the time. I grew up with it on kickoffs, we used to do the tomahawk chop to it. Opposing teams fans at times asked why we did it, we were not FSU. It was a nod back to the Saltine Warrior days. I have always missed that on ko since, but totally do understand why they stopped.

 

[Cuseregular]

I remember Glen Foley was just unstoppable in this game.

I also remember thinking whoever had the ball last would win. We got the ball, felt good we’d score. Then the tipped pass at the line of scrimmage. Sigh.

Wasn’t a LOS tip, was a bad pass on a bad play call (we should have only been throwing out patterns or running Graves in that situation), where the LB tipped the ball, ultimately to himself

 

[elimunelson]

Re-watching some of this because it's Friday and why not. Random things.

1. Vermeil was really good at his job. Of course, back then you had time to show a replay on every play.
2. I forget how everyone in Syracuse looked like Bob Casullo back then.
3. We were playing 1-2 BC, and the Dome was full and loud for a noon game. Can you imagine?
4. ABC promoting its Saturday night prime time lineup featuring Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that was 9 years old at the time. Can you imagine?
5. That 1993 defense was just atrocious after all the graduations and loss of Conley to injury. Still had Joseph and Jones in the secondary. And Mitchell, but as Vermeil said, you weakened two positions.

I "went" to the first game of the BC season of 1993. They lost to a very good Miami team. Buddy of mine was living in Walsh at BC and I was grounded for multiple months for going to a rave in boston (long story) and getting caught. This was my senior year of HS.

I got a release from my prison sentence so to speak b/c I sweet talked my parents into the fact I was seeing the BC campus and got to see Miami play BC in game 1. A college trip to decide where I was going.

Got to Alumni and met my friend. As I walked to go into the stadium he was like "we're not going into the game, we got a party in the mods to attend". Someone had a full pig roast and I proceded to get black out drunk and never saw a minute of that BC/Miami game except to ask someone the score before i went home and worked on my alibi of never seeing the school except an apt, beers and a pig.

Somehow the sliding doors scenario of not going to BC after all signs pointed to going to BC that season (they beat Syracuse, they beat #1 ND, got wasted at BC, and they were going to be a problem with Coughlin) was pretty funny in hindsight.

Not sure the point of the story other than to say I enjoyed the 1993 college football season and more importantly, the ice style beers at Boston College!

 

[sufandu]

Re-watching some of this because it's Friday and why not. Random things.

1. Vermeil was really good at his job. Of course, back then you had time to show a replay on every play.
2. I forget how everyone in Syracuse looked like Bob Casullo back then.
3. We were playing 1-2 BC, and the Dome was full and loud for a noon game. Can you imagine?
4. ABC promoting its Saturday night prime time lineup featuring Beverly Hills Cop, a movie that was 9 years old at the time. Can you imagine?
5. That 1993 defense was just atrocious after all the graduations and loss of Conley to injury. Still had Joseph and Jones in the secondary. And Mitchell, but as Vermeil said, you weakened two positions.

Was that also the year we transitioned from a 3-4 to a 4-3 and moved Nate Hemsley from safety to LB? He got abused early on and then became great once he grew in to the position.

 

[sufandu]

Yes I too believe this was the reason behind it. I recall it being discussed at the time. I grew up with it on kickoffs, we used to do the tomahawk chop to it. Opposing teams fans at times asked why we did it, we were not FSU. It was a nod back to the Saltine Warrior days. I have always missed that on ko since, but totally do understand why they stopped.

I think it was spun as a nod to the saltine warrior days but we didn't do it until FSU made it cool, did we?

 

[FrancoPizza]

Yes I too believe this was the reason behind it. I recall it being discussed at the time. I grew up with it on kickoffs, we used to do the tomahawk chop to it. Opposing teams fans at times asked why we did it, we were not FSU. It was a nod back to the Saltine Warrior days. I have always missed that on ko since, but totally do understand why they stopped.

Did the saltine tribe complain or were we just ahead of our time making up things to be offended about? Can we invent a new Syracusefan tribe that can sponsor the war chant?

 

[elimunelson]

Definitely did the tribal chant when I was at SU from 94-98. Not sure if it survived through the 97 season but i'm pretty sure it did.

I kinda wish we played our rivalry games first game of the season more I think about it. At least the teams will be healthy and 0-0

 

[Chip]

Was that also the year we transitioned from a 3-4 to a 4-3 and moved Nate Hemsley from safety to LB? He got abused early on and then became great once he grew in to the position.

They did move Hemsley down to LB based on numbers. Which worked out later, not so much in 1993.

But my recollection was it was Ed Orgeron in 1995 that convinced Pasqualoni and Norm Gerber to officially move to a 4-3, move bigger LBs to DE, bigger safeties to LB. The Miami Hurricane model.