sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Mardi Gras!
The origins of Mardi Gras can be traced to medieval Europe, passing through Rome and Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries to the French House of the Bourbons. From here, the traditional revelry of "Boeuf Gras," or fatted calf, followed France to her colonies.
On March 2, 1699, French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville arrived at a plot of ground 60 miles directly south of New Orleans, and named it "Pointe du Mardi Gras" when his men realized it was the eve of the festive holiday. Bienville also established "Fort Louis de la Louisiane" (which is now Mobile) in 1702. In 1703, the tiny settlement of Fort Louis de la Mobile celebrated America's very first Mardi Gras.
In 1704, Mobile established a secret society (Masque de la Mobile), similar to those that form our current Mardi Gras krewes. It lasted until 1709. In 1710, the "Boeuf Gras Society" was formed and paraded from 1711 through 1861. The procession was held with a huge bull's head pushed along on wheels by 16 men. Later, Rex would parade with an actual bull, draped in white and signaling the coming Lenten meat fast. This occurred on Fat Tuesday.
SU News
Former Manvel coach, Syracuse assistant Kirk Martin named head football coach at Colleyville Heritage (dallasnews.com; Hoyt)
Colleyville Heritage has turned to the college ranks, and to a former standout Texas high school football coach, for its next head football coach.
Kirk Martin, a 10-year head coach at Manvel, was approved at Monday’s Grapevine-Colleyville ISD board meeting as the replacement to Joe Willis at Heritage.
“I am really excited to be a Panther!” Martin said via a district press release. “I am fired up to work at such a great school and program. I can’t wait to build relationships with the students, faculty and I feel so blessed to be part of the Pride at Colleyville Heritage!”
Martin left Manvel in 2018 to be the quarterback’s coach at Syracuse and has recently been moved to a senior analyst position with the team.
“We are so excited to welcome Coach Martin as the next head coach for our Panther football program,” said GCISD Executive Director of Athletics Bryan Gerlich in a press release. “He is a proven coach at both the high school and collegiate level, and we look forward to continuing the winning tradition at Colleyville Heritage High School.”
Willis left Colleyville Heritage on Jan. 30 for a head coaching position with Tyler Lee. He replaced Kurt Traylor, who joined his brother Jeff Traylor’s staff at UT-San Antonio.
Martin went 108-25 in his 10 seasons as the head coach at Manvel, leading the Mavericks to eight-straight playoff appearances, six district titles and two state championship appearances, including a 53-49 state-championship loss to Highland Park in 2017. An onside kick recovery for Highland Park proved to be a pivotal play in a comeback win.
“It was — I guess — fate,” Martin said to Fox Sports Southwest about the onside kick. “I don’t know how else to put it. It was magical for them.”
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Get To Know New SU Football Hire Ryan Bartow – Orange Fizz – Free Syracuse Recruiting News (orangefizz.net; Shults)
On Monday morning, Syracuse football announced that it has hired Ryan Bartow as its director of high school relations.
Big #OrangeNation welcome to Ryan Bartow (@RyanBartow), our new director of high school relations!
Ryan Bartow Named Director of High School Relations - Syracuse University Athletics
Before coming to Syracuse, Bartow held the same position at Oregon in 2018, and was a West Coast scout for XOS Digital.
In his time in Oregon, Bartow helped secure the seventh best recruiting class in 2019. That class – led by Kayvon Thibodeaux who was the second best recruit per 247Sports – was also the best of the Pac-12. Bartow also had a hand in recruiting the 2020 class, before leaving to become a West Coast scout.
Oregon’s 2020 class ranked 12th in the country, and once again tops in the PAC-12. At Oregon, Bartow evaluated prospects, updated the recruiting board, and coordinated travel for in-home visits and was a campus tour guide for visiting recruits. However, since he is not an on-field coach, he is not allowed to recruit off campus.
Before working for Oregon, Bartow spent the last 12 years covering recruiting. From 2013 to 2017 Bartow worked for 247Sports as the lead college football recruiting reporter.
Before hiring Bartow, Syracuse had not had a director of high school relations since 2016, when JB Gerald served in that role.
Dino Babers has added three new positions to his football staff. Besides Bartow, Babers added Jeff LePak as offensive analyst and Kirk Martin for football strategy.
After a poor season, Babers has also changed defensive and offensive coordinators. Before this off-season, Babers was fiercely loyal to his assistants. But changes needed to be made after a 5-7 season.
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Syracuse Football NFL Combine Preview: Punter Sterling Hofrichter (itlh; Esden Jr)
Former Syracuse football punter Sterling Hofrichter is headed to Indy for the NFL Combine. Here’s a full preview of what to expect and the full details.
Former Syracuse football punter Sterling Hofrichter is one of only seven punters that was invited to the 2020 NFL Combine. This is the most Orange alum at a single NFL Combine since 2013.
Collegiate production:
Sterling Hofrichter continued the great tradition of punters at Syracuse or perhaps better put, Special Teams U.
After an outstanding 2019 season, Sterling received the “All-American” tag from seven different selectors and finished as one of the three finalists for the Ray Guy Award which is doled out annually to the nation’s best punter.
In terms of the raw numbers, Hofrichted was third in all of college football with a 43 yards per clip average in his net punting numbers and he led the conference in touchback percentage (2.9).
Sterling closed his Orange career as the all-time leader in punting yardage (11,651 yards), per Syracuse Athletics.
After his time at Syracuse, Hofrichter participated in the NFLPA Bowl which was a golden opportunity to get people buzzing about his NFL Draft stock.
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North Carolina Football: 5 Newcomers to Watch for the Tar Heels (athlonsports.com; Kinne)
Mack Brown's top-20-ranked recruiting class could feature some instant impact players
Mack Brown and the North Carolina Tar Heels' staff hit a home run this recruiting season. During his first full cycle, the Tar Heels' head coach compiled a class that ranked 19th nationally and third in the ACC by 247Sports. Plus, Brown made a strong closing push in 2019, giving Carolina a good young nucleus to build for '20 and beyond.
Led by quarterback Sam Howell, UNC returns a solid core that should improve on last year's 7-6 finish. But there are some holes that need to be filled and those talented youngsters — both true and redshirt freshmen from the two recent recruiting hauls — are in line to contribute in a major way.
Here are five Tar Heel newcomers that need to be watched this season.
Josh Downs, WR
Carolina brings back its big three at receiver in Dazz Newsome, Dyami Brown, and Beau Corrales. But Downs is a talent that may push his way into the lineup as a true freshman. The Suwanee, Georgia, product made his way to campus in January after an impressive showing at the All-American Bowl in San Antonio.
Kendall Karr, TE
Garrett Walston should continue to be the starting tight end, but a backup must be found, and there are two early enrollees that will contend for that opening. John Copenhaver is the higher-rated prospect, but he will miss the spring sessions with a shoulder injury, giving Karr the first opportunity to impress. The Cramerton, North Carolina, native chose to stay in-state despite fielding offers from Auburn, LSU, Oregon, and Penn State.
Ty Murray, C/G
Brian Anderson is projected to retain his starting center position, but it is far from a lock. There is also a bit of uncertainty at left guard, and Murray is a possibility there as well. Regardless, he will see plenty of snaps this fall as a redshirt freshman after impressing the Carolina staff during his first year on campus.
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Clemson football: Winning streaks won’t end anytime soon (rubbingtherock.com; Benedict)
For most of the Clemson football history, the Tigers was an afterthought. Sure, there were a few dominant years in the early 80s and into the 90s but by and large no one gave Clemson a second look unless they lost to the Tigers.
Times have changed and now everyone is tired of losing to Clemson football, the problem is that isn’t changing in the foreseeable future especially for the yearly opponents in and out of the ACC. In case you have forgotten, here is the current winning streak against each team they face on a yearly basis.
- North Carolina State: 8 straight
- Last loss: November 19, 2011
- Boston College: 9 straight
- Last loss: October 30, 2010
- Georgia Tech: 5 straight
- Last loss: November 15, 2014
- Florida State: 5 straight
- Last loss: September 20, 2014
- Wake Forest: 11 straight
- Last loss: October 9, 2008
- Louisville: 6 straight
- Last loss: Never lost to Louisville
- Syracuse: 2 straight
- Last loss: October 13, 2017
- South Carolina: 6 straight
- Last loss: November 30, 2013
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Lee Brice Dreamed of Playing College Football, And He Reached The Top (fanbuzz.com; Duffley)
for gbo
Before he was burning up country music playlists with songs like “A Woman Like You,” “Love Like Crazy,” and “I Don’t Dance,” Kenneth Mobley Brice — you know him as Lee Brice — was a born and bred Sumter, South Carolina native. Growing up, Brice learned to sing and play piano in church at the age of seven. In high school, Brice’s musical aptitude was obvious as he won his high school talent show three-straight years. He was destined to be a country star, but that wasn’t Brice’s only passion.
Growing up in South Carolina, there were two things Brice was passionate about — music and football. In addition to a budding music career, Brice played the game throughout high school, and standing 6-foot-3, he’s hard to miss no matter where he goes. That passion and natural ability led him to Clemson University, where Brice would realize his childhood dream to play college football for the mighty Clemson Tigers.
Lee Brice’s Clemson Football Career
Daddy, me, Lewis, Takoda… Clemson Tigers.. True Champions. Bleeding Orange.. Family.. Ultra Special.
— Lee Brice, h/t Palmetto Magazine
Lee Brice earned an athletic scholarship as a long snapper after joining the team in 1998 under head coach Tommy West, but unfortunately, a severe arm injury never gave him the opportunity to dominate on the field.
“[A]t that point when I got hurt it was like OK, and then it just wasn’t going to get better. My elbow just got completely kind of destroyed,” Brice told Taste of Country Nights in 2014.
Brice said that his injury “didn’t really break my heart” because he had already realized his dream of wearing orange and white and earned his spot on the Clemson football team. With football gone, Brice decided that finishing a civil engineering degree wasn’t his true passion. So, he packed up his things, left Clemson, and headed for Nashville, Tennessee.
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ACC Football Rx (RX; HM)
From Pick Six Previews: New Coach Impact
2019 New Coach Impact
Best/Worst 1-year changes in my Game Grader formula from 2018-2019:
+31 Louisville / Satterfield
+25.2 Ohio State / Day
+22.7 UNC / Mack Brown
+8.2 Kansas State / Klieman
— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) February 18, 2020
Good coach impact, game grader:
S. Satterfield, Louisville +31.0
M. Brown, North Carolina +22.7
Bad coach impact, game grader:
M. Diaz, U. of Miami -3.7
G. Collins, Georgia Tech -26.5
There you have it - all four of the new ACC coaches appeared to have an immediate impact - two for the good, two not so much.
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College football bowl projections: 2020 Spring edition (247sports.com; Crawford)
Who in their right mind tries predicting final records seven months prior to kickoff? If you're a college football bowl junkie like me, you've come to the right place. My favorite annual content series at 247Sports — bit of a bowl psycho y'all, and I'm not apologizing — is our weekly projections during the season, every Sunday night for your early holiday travel planning pleasure.
We start in August and go all the way to Selection Sunday, hours before the College Football Playoff committee reveals its final rankings and the official invites come pouring in. I won't include every projection for the 2020 season just yet, more like half, but I've tried to update new tie-ins and new games that won't be officially announced until May when the NCAA reveals its plan from 2020 through 2025.
According to Stadium's Brett McMurphy, here are the guaranteed minimum bowl tie-ins per conference — not including any teams that appear in the final four: ACC, SEC (11), Big Ten (9), Pac-12 (8), Big 12 (7), American (7), Conference USA (7), Mid-American (6) Mountain West (6) and Sun Belt (5). The ACC's new bowl agreement has several already announced changes including the addition of the Holiday Bowl and the newly-created bowl game in Boston.
It's too bad the inaugural Myrtle Beach Bowl is a Group of 5 game in December. As a native of North Carolina, I would've liked to have seen a lower-tier ACC school be eligible for that one. Anyway, thanks in advance for following our bowl projections at 247Sports throughout the offseason and the upcoming 2020 campaign.
Projections will update monthly until fall practice begins, reflecting personnel and coaching staff arrivals or exits as well as a heavy emphasis on where we've ranked teams in our way-too-early Top 25 and how we project final win-loss records:
Alamo Bowl (Big 12 vs. Pac-12): Iowa State vs. Utah
Liberty Bowl (Big 12 vs. SEC): Kansas State vs. Missouri
Looking ahead: Two conference title contenders in the Alamo along with two teams that will be fighting to get to bowl eligibility against upper-tier squads from their respective conferences. Iowa State took a step back last fall during Matt Campbell's fourth season partly due to four of six losses coming by a touchdown or less, three by a combined four points. The Cyclones are close to taking a major leap behind Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 and 2020 could be a special year. Back from a one-year postseason ban, there's no guarantee Missouri gets to six wins with a first-year coach, but the schedule is one of the SEC's most favorable with only three games — based on preseason projections — against Top 25 opponents.
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Other
Feet of lake effect snow this week in Upstate NY? It’s possible (PS; Coin)
Not only is winter still hanging on, it might be saving its biggest snowfall of the year for this week in Upstate New York.
If the winds and cold air come together in the right way, heavy lake effect snow could fall east of lakes Erie and Ontario later this week through Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
“This has the potential to be a major event,” according to the weather service’s Buffalo office, which forecasts for areas along the lakes. “It remains too early for specifics, but snowfall accumulations over the 3-day period from Thursday through Saturday may be measured in feet.”
The traditional lake effect snow areas are well behind normal this year. Oswego, at the east end of Lake Ontario, has a lot of catching up to do: The city has had 43 inches of snow this season, which is about 6 feet less than normal.
Today’s springlike temperatures will start fading Tuesday, and they’ll drop steadily through the week and into the weekend.
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