sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 25,563
- Like
- 110,938
Welcome to St Patrick's Day!
St. Patrick's Day takes place on the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, who is thought to have died in 461. Contrary to what many may think, St. Patrick was not Irish—he was born in Roman Britain, in what is now England, Scotland, or Wales. At the age of 16, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland to be a slave. During his time in captivity, he turned to his Christian faith. He escaped six years later, began religious training, and later returned to Ireland as a missionary. Some credit him with bringing Christianity to the country, but it is believed a bishop known as Palladius had been doing mission work there since 431. It is likely Patrick ministered to those who were already Christians, while converting others.
Many legends surround St. Patrick. One says he explained the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by using the three leaves of the native Irish clover—the shamrock. Years later, during the seventeenth century, the shamrock became a symbol of Irish nationalism and pride against British rule. There is also a legend that says St. Patrick banished snakes from Ireland. It is a snake-free island, but it had been before Patrick arrived. Some see the snake story as being an allegory for his banishment of pagan ideology.
SU News
Orange Watch: The unprecedented end of the Syracuse sports calendar - The Juice Online (the juice; Bierman)
Item: It’s now the second unexpected national shutdown of sports and other pastimes during the 2000s, with the only other similar instances of this sort of timelines being the entire 1943 Syracuse football season and 1943-44 basketball campaign being suspended due to World War II combat. Although far from the duration of Syracuse’s football game against East Carolina being pushed back two seeks following the emotional nerve struck by the 9/11/2001 attacks, we can now see how COVID-19 has halted sports, shutting down all Syracuse athletics on March 12, leaving a large number of questions concerning ongoing and still to be determined issues facing the Orange and its contemporaries.
For only the second time in his career, Jim Boeheim won the final game his Syracuse team played in a particular season.
Although a somber occasion with the realization that for the sake of health safety the season could not go on, and obviously not as significant as the other final game victory over Kansas in 2003 to win it all, the eventual lopsided ending March 11 over another Roy Williams-coached team, this time North Carolina down along Tobacco Road in the second round of the ACC Tournament, showcased a one-game scenario of an all-hands on deck among the players to revenge the Feb. 29 Dome domination by the Tar Heels, and another masterful postseason coaching victory for the longtime SU coach.
It also ended a nine-game losing streak against UNC (SU has never won against the Tar Heels at the Smith Center), and ironically got us thinking that North Carolina was the opponent in the game that originally got Boeheim and the Orangemen over the top; the 1987 Elite Eight victory at the New Jersey Meadowlands versus a Tar Heels team that Dean Smith used the rare word, for him at least, “Great,” in describing his roster full of eight future NBA players that SU toppled on route to the Final Four.
Same for the 2020 No. 1 ranked SU lacrosse team that seemed poised to improve each week as the ACC competition heated up, logically in line for a Final Four berth for the first time since 2013.
...
https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/article241256586.html (newsobserver.com; Kornblut)
Clemson has had no trouble attracting five and four star quarterbacks over the last ten years. This seasons’ room is filled with two five-star guys and a highly regarded 4-star, and with their ages, the Tigers are set at the position thru 2023. So, attracting another high level QB for the 2021 class could be a challenge. Four-star Christian Veilleux of Ontario, however, views the Clemson quarterback roster as a positive in his recruiting.
“I don’t see much as a negative,” he said. “There’s definitely pros and cons to it. But I think it’s a great thing. It demonstrates how well they’ve been doing things. Obviously, wherever you go you have to compete, and competition is always great, especially for me. I love competition. So, that part of Clemson is something that I like. I don’t shy away from it. Knowing that they get the best of the best every year shows that they are doing something right, so that’s a good thing.”
Clemson has not offered Veilleux as Dabo Swinney and Brandon Streeter wait a bit to see how things play out with their lone ’21 quarterback offer five-star Caleb Williams of Washington, DC. He just visited Oklahoma and the Sooners are perceived the favorite. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t recruited Veilleux with a lot of effort. He was in for a visit in January.
“It was a good visit,” Veilleux said. “I spent a lot of time with Coach (Brandon) Streeter and a lot of people surrounding the quarterback position. I went thru the facilities and the campus and saw the academic support. It was a great visit. The facilities stood out. Those are amazing. Something else that stood out was the academics, just how good academically Clemson is. I didn’t know that before hand. That’s really what I took away from that visit is that Clemson is real competitive in the classroom as well.”
...
WATCH: Carrier Dome roof deflates for final time - CollegeFootballTalk | NBC Sports (collegefootballtalk.com; Branett)
The coronavirus has ground all sports arena activity to a halt for the time being, but activity on sports arenas continues apace.
Syracuse is in the midst of a multi-year project to renovate the Carrier Dome, and Monday was demo day for the famous, pillowy roof. The construction site is already host to one of the world’s largest cranes.
And down it went, before 8 a.m. local time. The demolition, such that it was one, was anticlimactic by demolition standards. Here’s how onlookers observed the process, shared by the Syracuse Post-Standard:
“Is anything happening” one university employee asked another, as they emptied a truck outside Falk College around 7:30 a.m.
“I don’t know,” the other answered. “It’s getting squishee.”
WATCH: Down it goes! @SyracuseU's famed dome was deflated for the last time Monday morning.
What took 45 minutes (give or take) we bring to you in 15 seconds. #LocalSYR #OrangeNation @NewsChannel9 Cuse CuseMilitia @Syracuse1848
— Robert Hackford (@Robert_Hackford) March 16, 2020
The roof then needed to be cut down by construction workers, which was expected to take eight hours and be complete by Monday afternoon.
The roof will be replaced by another pillowy roof encircled by a railing, which appears to already be halfway complete.
...
Kansas State officially hires Steve Stanard as linebacker coach (247sports.com; Gates)
Kansas State now officially has its replacement for Scottie Hazelton on the staff.
Eleven days ago, a Yahoo! report from Pete Thamel stated that Syracuse defensive ends coach Steve Stanard had accepted the job as linebackers coach under Chris Klieman. That report is now official, as the school announced the hiring on Monday afternoon.
“We are excited to add Steve to our defensive staff,” Klieman said in a press release. “Steve and I have experience working together in the past, and I have continued to follow him throughout his career. He brings an abundance of experience tutoring linebackers and is very familiar with this area of the country. He has done a great job the last few years working with the Syracuse defensive ends, but I know that he is ready to return to coaching the linebackers and will do a phenomenal job with the group that we have here.”
Standard and Klieman’s ties go back to Fargo, North Dakota, where Stanard served as linebackers coach, until he left with Craig Bohl for a job as Wyoming’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
Following the 2013 season, Stanard left North Dakota State to follow Bohl to Wyoming and was promoted to defensive coordinator, a title he held for two years before leaving for Syracuse and the ACC in 2016 where he's been watching over defensive ends ever since.
A 54-year-old with over 30-years as a college assistant under his belt — 20 of which have been spent as a defensive coordinator — Stanard's career has taken him from his home state, where he was a GA with the Huskers for several years and also defensive coordinator and head coach at Nebraska-Wesleyan in the early 1990s, to the Dakotas, Colorado State, New Mexico State, Ohio, and Tulane.
...
ACC Football Basketball School Rankings: Hoops and Helmets 2019-2020 (CFN; Fiutak)
On the field and court – whose fans had the most fun?
Of course every school has sports outside of the big two that matter and generate revenue, but when it comes to what athletic departments need, it’s really all about college football and men’s basketball.
Which ACC schools had the best and worst seasons?
Here’s how these rankings work.
1) The top-ranked schools with teams that went to a bowl game and would’ve played in the NCAA Tournament.
2) The next group had stronger football seasons and were okay in basketball. The superstar basketball schools get credit – that’s obviously a huge deal in the ACC – but football is the bigger revenue generator.
3) One or the other. Usually there’s a disparity with one good season in one sport an a clunker in the other. It’s sort of a catch-all before …
4) The disasters. No bowl game, there wouldn’t have been a trip to the NCAA Tournament, no fun.
The worst-to-best ACC schools in 2019-2020 in college football and college basketball …
ACC Hoops and Helmets: Losers In Both Sports
These schools suffered the indignity of failing to come up with a winning season in either of the two major sports. The fans didn’t get to have any fun.
14. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
2019 Hoops & Helmets National Ranking: 85
2018 Hoops & Helmets National Ranking: 114
Football: 3-9 overall, 2-6 in conference, 7th in ACC Coastal
Basketball: 17-14 overall, 11-9 in conference, 5th in ACC
13. Syracuse Orange
2019 Hoops & Helmets National Ranking: 21
2018 Hoops & Helmets National Ranking: 75
Football: 5-7 overall, 2-6 in conference, 6th in ACC Atlantic
Basketball: 16-15 overall, 10-10 in conference, T6th in ACC
12. NC State Wolfpack
2019 Hoops & Helmets National Ranking: 37
2018 Hoops & Helmets National Ranking: 14
Football: 4-8 overall, 1-7 in conference, 7th in ACC Atlantic
Basketball: 20-12 overall, 10-10 in conference, T6th in ACC
...
Clemson AD Radakovich Says ACC Close to Officially Canceling Spring Sports (SI; Senkiw)
Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich said Monday that the ACC is on the verge of canceling all spring sports and activities.
The league representatives will hold a conference call Tuesday to expound upon their initial decision last week to suspend all athletic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of the other conferences that you’ve seen over the last few days have extended that through the remainder of the spring semester,” Radakovich said during a radio interview with The Press Box on The Roar, the Flagship station of Clemson Athletics. "Last week we did an indefinite call over these activities. I would imagine unless something very unusual happens, the ACC will follow through and cancel all spring activities.”
That would include the Clemson football’s spring game as well as the baseball and softball seasons. The NCAA announced last week that it was canceling all winter and spring championships, but Radakovich was hopeful before this past weekend that parts of the spring schedule could still be salvaged.
Much has changed nationally in a short amount of time due to the Coronavirus.
...
Links, news and rumors - 3/17/20 (RX; HM)
Links, news and rumors - 3/17/20
Coronavirus 2, college sports 0
From NBC Sports: New CDC recommendation effectively ends any chance of spring practice for college football teams starting back up
Football teams certainly have more than 50 people on them (players alone exceed that number!)
Why the fuss - I mean, can't they just test the players and keep out the sick ones? Well, I finally got an answer to that this weekend in the form of a computer simulation which takes into account that you don't test positive the first few days (so there's a low level but non-zero risk of someone being infected without testing positive). After trying several simulations which include quarantining those who test positive, it was clear that the best strategy by far is to avoid large groups - don't give the virus any new victims to infect!
...
Future Guarantee Games - 3/17/20 (RX; HM)
Future Guarantee Games - 3/17/20
According to "The 19 highest future non-conference football game guarantees" posted by FBSchedules, the Alabama Crimson Tide football team is paying a total of $11.45 million to bring in the likes of Utah State, Southern Mississippi, New Mexico State, Western Kentucky and ULM - twice! It must be great to be a season ticket holder and watch the Tide roll over that level of non-conference opponents!
| Opponent | Guarantee |
| ULM | $1.925M |
| ULM | $1.915M |
| Utah State | $1.91M |
| Southern Miss. | $1.9M |
| New Mexico St | $1.9M |
| W. Kentucky | $1.9M |
| 6-game total: | $11.45M |
OK, so I'm picking on Alabama (again). Fact is, college football has always had its less-than-fair share of non-conference "guarantee games" - only now the price has been steadily rising, approaching the $2 million mark. Here are some other up-coming games in which the visiting team will get at least $1.9 million to play:
| Opponent | Home Team |
| UConn | Ohio State |
| UMass | Auburn |
| New Mexico | Auburn |
| Kent State | Georgia |
| UAB | Georgia |
| UMass | Georgia |
| Charlotte | Georgia |
| W Kentucky | Georgia |
| Hawaii | Michigan |
| Ball State | Ohio State |
| USF | Texas |
| Kent State | Texas AM |
There is one other team mentioned in that FBSchedules article which is getting $1.9 million guaranteed: the California Golden Bears of the Pac-12 are playing a one-and-done at Notre Dame, apparently. Oh, the indignity!
...
Greatest College QBs of All Time? (RX; HM)
...
Guys who definitely deserve to be on the All-Time Greatest QB list:
I'm focusing on ACC quarterbacks here because... ACCFootballRx!
Doug Flutie, Boston College
Flutie not only threw for 10,579 yards and won the Heisman (far more convincingly than, say, Andre Ware or Danny Wuerffel), but most impressive of all: he made BC football relevant again at a time when everyone had forgotten about the Eagles.
DeShaun Watson, Clemson
All Watson did was become the first QB in Clemson history to defeat the LSU Tigers, then followed that up with back-to-back trips to the national championship game, almost beating Alabama in the first and then finishing the job in the second. No, he didn't win the Heisman - but in any year other than the Lamar Jackson Heisman year he probably would have. I mean, look at his NFL career so far!
Jim Kelly, Miami
There have been other Hurricane QBs who've put up more impressive numbers, but Kelly was the first - he was the one who made it possible for the guys to follow him. The fact that he took the Buffalo Bills to 4 consecutive Super Bowls can't be ignored, either. Yeah they lost all 4 - but without Kelly, would they have even made it that far?
Phillip Rivers, NC State
Russell Wilson, NC State
Here are a pair of Wolfpack QBs that were overlooked somehow. Both elevated their team at NC State. Both went on to take their NFL team to the Superbowl. What more do you want?
Donovan McNabb, Syracuse
Probably the best quarterback in Syracuse history. He set school records for yards per game, passing efficiency and yards per pass attempt. He took his college team to the Fiesta and Orange bowls, and his NFL team to the Superbowl.
I think you could even make an argument for some other ACC QBs like Matt "Mattie Ice" Ryan at
BC. There's also Joe Hamilton of Georgia Tech, Brian Brohm and Chris Redman of Louisville, a whole slew of Miami quarterbacks, and the list goes on and on.
Of course, I'm not even counting the great QBs who played for Maryland while the Terps were in the ACC (because I've chosen to include QBs who played for current members before they joined the league instead).
If there's one thing the ACC has had, it's great quarterbacks!
Other
Bars go dark because of coronavirus: ‘Now what am I going to do?’ (PS; Miller)
Just as Julie Steinbrecher announced last call at Swallow’s Bar & Restaurant at 7:45 p.m. Monday, Semisonic’s 1998 hit “Closing Time” started playing on the jukebox.
The four TVs that had been playing college basketball reruns all night went dark. The 14 people left took a final sip and slowly walked out the door without talking.
At 8 p.m., Swallow’s and every other bar in New York was closed.
“This breaks my heart,” Steinbrecher said as she wiped down the bar. “I hope this doesn’t last long.”
The state on Monday ordered all restaurants and bars to close due the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. On Tuesday, they can start serving food and alcohol only to go.
Swallow’s won’t be among them. Mike Ziemann, who’s been working at the Valley bar for about 40 years, said they’re not going to serve food to go. They’ll wait it out and reopen when Gov. Andrew Cuomo gives them the all-clear.
In the meantime, Ziemann gave Pizzaz Pizza next door 240 pounds of fresh chicken wings. He knew they’d use them.
“They’ve been great neighbors to us for 30 years,” Ziemann said. “They’d do the same thing for us. We all have to help each other right now.”
The word came at Nibsy’s Pub on Tipperary Hill at about 11:30 Monday. Owners Joe Mullen and John Cowin met at the end of the bar to discuss their next move.
...
