sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to International Day for Failure!
Without the possibility of failure there is no success, they go hand-in-hand. After all, failure means you have grabbed the opportunity to succeed. Day for Failure is the best day to show some stupidity, error estimation, awkward moments, and other fails to the world. So let’s celebrate our shortcomings and failures, share our experiences and promote the understanding of failure as a learning experience. One thing is for sure, you won’t be alone. #dayforfailure
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.
-Paulo Coelho
SU News
Syracuse vs. VT preview: Q&A with The Key Play (TNIAAM; Cassillo)
The Syracuse Orange suffered a pretty rough loss to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday. But now they need to regroup quickly. The Virginia Tech Hokies, ranked 17th in the country, come to the Carrier Dome with SU desperately in need of a victory.
Below, Alex from the Key Play (which you can also follow on Twitter) joins us to discuss all you need to know about the Hokies. We’ll answer some questions over there as well come Friday.
So how's the Justin Fuente era going so far? Seems pretty positive from this vantage point.
It's gone rather remarkably well so far. Plenty of national analysts praised named Fuente's hire as among the best of the entire offseason, but certainly there were lots of reasons to believe he might struggle initially. He was bringing in an offensive system that was light years away from what former OC Scot Loeffler installed, and the defense had serious depth concerns — of course, no one was entirely sure how Fuente and longtime DC Bud Foster might end up being able to work together either. But so far, those concerns have proven to be unfounded.
QB Jerod Evans has been superb in the offense, and it seems Fuente's figured out the best way to use some of the team's talented skill players. Foster has proven to be as inventive a coach as ever, and seems legitimately liberated knowing he has an offense that can reliably score more than 20 points a game. There was some griping after the Hokies blew an early lead against Tennessee in the Battle at Bristol (largely due to an unconscionable five fumbles) but the fact that this team is ranked right now is pretty surprising given the expectations for it coming into the year.
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Syracuse football attendance is on pace for an all-time low with 3 home games left (DO; Gutierrez)
All it took was a new head coach, offensive scheme and director of athletics for Bethann Fischer to come out of a 13-year dormancy.
“This year, we got Dino (Babers), a new team, new hope,” said Fischer, who bought Syracuse football season tickets this year for the first time since 2003. “I’m hoping there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.”
But for years, college football attendance has decreased. Syracuse, and the nation, ride a steady decline in home football attendance. This year’s Carrier Dome average is on pace for a record low while national Division I FBS attendance has fallen in six of the last seven years after peaking in 2008. Syracuse’s season and group ticket figures are up, said Anthony Di Fino, Syracuse’s associate athletics director for business development.
Among the measures athletic departments take to lure fans to games are new personnel, upgraded facilities and branding campaigns, such as Syracuse’s social media push, #OrangeIsTheNewFast. Colleges across the country face the challenge as fans seek enhanced at-home viewing experiences, winning teams they can root for and alternate entertainment options.
“Here we go again, it’s 2-2, why should I buy tickets?” said Rodney Paul, a professor of sport management in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. “So much has to do with other entertainment options. What else could you do?”
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Podcast, Ep. 73: A look ahead at Syracuse and discussing what heights the Hokies can reach this year (roanoke.com; Bitter)
It's podcastin' time!
Aaron McFarling and I are back for our mid-week edition. We briefly recap the North Carolina win in the rain, look ahead to matchup with a not-quite-ready-for-primetime Syracuse, talk about playing in a dome, allow McFarling a mulligan in his grade for Bud Foster's defense, debate who is the No. 3 player the Hokies can least afford to lose to an injury and finish it with a discussion of the kind of heights this Virginia Tech season can reach.
We had to move midway through our discussion because of drilling that's taking place on the roof at the Roanoke Times. Surprisingly, our recording quality was better in the room that wasn't our studio. Perhaps we'll continue doing it from there in the future. See if you can tell where the transition is. (The cut is kind of abrupt.)
A couple other things today:
1. I'm doing a mailbag on Thursday, so send me your questions. Email me at andy.bitter@roanoke.com or shoot me a tweet at @AndyBitterVT. Please put your hometown on there if you're doing it via email and make sure you put "Mailbag" in the subject line.
2. Here's my newspaper story on Andrew Motuapuaka and his personal transformation from a couple years ago that's helping him lead a much-improved linebacking corps.
3. Here are some more notes and quotes from Tuesday night, with an update on Tim Settle, how Jerod Evans is feeling after running it so much last Saturday and more.
As always, the podcast will be up on our iTunes feed shortly. And if you're having trouble with the embedded player below, you can go to it directly on the Roanoke Times Soundcloud page here. Enjoy.
Syracuse's Dino Babers Not Underestimating Virginia Tech Defense (sportswar.com; LaBlue)
On Wednesday’s ACC Coaches Teleconference, a reporter asked Syracuse coach Dino Babers if the Virginia Tech defense was for real, or if the team’s weak non-conference schedule has maybe inflated the unit’s numbers.
“I think it’s real,” Babers said. “I think when you look at the tradition of Bud Foster’s defenses and the things he’s been able to do over the years, I think this year, with the pass rush, probably going against a different style of offense during the spring during two-a-days and seeing some of the things Fuente brought over from Memphis and to find out the things that are good and the things that are bad versus certain styles of offense, I bet you that’s probably helped his growth, and that’s kind of hard to say about someone who’s been as good as he has for as long as he has been.”
Babers heaped praise on No. 17 Virginia Tech on Wednesday, saying that the team’s experience might give them an edge on Saturday when the Hokies travel to play Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Babers said that Virginia Tech has nine players on the roster with more than 20 starts, whereas the Orange have just three such players.
“They’ve got fantastic personnel. Coach Beamer did not leave the cupboard empty,” Babers said. “You put that combination together with good football players, you’re going to get a top-25 football team and that’s exactly what we’ve got coming to the Carrier Dome.”
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Syracuse Football: Is Dino Babers Not Being Aggressive Enough? (insidetheloudhouse.com; Butler)
We’re now at the halfway point of the season and the Syracuse football team is 2-4. Is Babers not being aggressive enough on 4th down like he said he would?
After last weekend’s loss to Wake Forest, the Syracuse football team is in danger of going winless the rest of the season. That’s not hyperbole either. The Orange just lost what was probably their most winnable game on the ACC slate (or maybe you can argue it’s Boston College). And it doesn’t get any easier with No. 17 Virginia Tech coming to the Dome on Saturday afternoon.
The struggles of this team are well-documented. The reality is that Syracuse is years away from being a legitimate contender. But some are questioning if Dino Babers has failed to live up to something he’s promised: the Orange being aggressive on 4th down.
Through six games this year, Babers and company have gone for it on 4th down just 12 times. Last year, Syracuse did so 15 times. This means they’re on pace to exceed last season’s mark by a grand total of 9, which doesn’t exactly scream aggressiveness.
When a declaration made isn’t followed by it coming to fruition, that’s a bad optic. This is especially true when you have a starving fan base in dire need of some kind of results. But the problem isn’t that Babers is somehow a liar. This issue lies in the team’s deficiencies. They’ve put him in a compromised position, one that requires he temporarily deviate from certain strategies.
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Other
Farmers in New York state feel consequences of worst drought in over a decade (DO; Benzinger)
This summer, New York state experienced its worst drought in over a decade, with 51 counties receiving a “natural disaster area” designation from the federal government.
The drought has made a number of farmers eligible for emergency loans, with farms seeing “unprecedented crop damage,” New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo said a press release.
“A strong agricultural industry is critical to this state’s economy,” Cuomo said.
In addition to a decrease in rainfall over the summer, there was also little precipitation this past winter, meaning that there was less snow melt than usual. That, coupled with higher temperatures, left evaporation high and soil dry, said Jessica Spaccio, a member of the research staff at the Northeast Regional Climate Center.
“We can’t say that any one event … would or wouldn’t have happened with climate change,” Spaccio said. “But we do expect to see these kind of short-term droughts occur more often with climate change.”
Farmers in counties with or contiguous to a disaster designation qualify for an emergency loan program offered by the federal government. Factors that determine eligibility include a loss of at least 30 percent in a primary crop or in crop quality, the farmer’s financial stability and the farmer’s ability to repay the loans.
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