sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to National Lazy Day!
There are so many holidays throughout the year that people celebrate by doing things that take effort. Running, swimming, taking down Christmas trees, and yelling "fudge" at cobras; it all gets to be too much! Can't there just be a day to be lazy and do nothing? Yep. Today is National Lazy Day. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!
How to Observe National Lazy Day
There really is no need for us to give you ideas on how to spend the day, as you know for yourself how you best like to be lazy and suggesting that you do anything feels like telling you to do work. But, if you want a few ideas, here they are:- Take a lot of naps.
- Lay in a hammock, on the couch, or never leave your bed.
- Don't prepare any food today. Order a pizza or something else to be delivered to your house.
- Drink some ice-cold beverages.
- Shirk whatever responsibilities you have for your job, forgo any chores you should be completing, and do whatever you think is fun instead.
- Watch a bunch of television, or listen to a lot of music. Duran Duran would particularly be fitting today, as would Todd Rundgren's "Bang the Drum All Day."
The Virginia Pilot Mike Caudill
https://www.si.com/college/syracuse/recruiting/elijah-washington-discusses-syracuse-commitment (SI; McAllister)
Class of 2024 Norfolk (VA) Lake Taylor tight end Elijah Washington picked Syracuse over Rutgers, Virginia and West Virginia, among others, on Wednesday.
"I spoke to coach Perk (primary recruiter Darrell Perkins)," Washington said. "We stayed in constant contact and I broke the news to him. Proceeded to connect with coach Babers and it went from there. On to the new home."
When he broke the news to the Orange's head coach, Washington says Dino was "as excited as me." At 6-7, 210 pounds, Washington gives Syracuse an intriguing athlete with tremendous upside and the potential to be a major mismatch in the offense.
"The offense is ran by using guys like me," Washington said.
He added that the plan is to be used in the Oronde Gadsden type role. The tight end/wide receiver hybrid type who is too big for corners but too fast for linebackers.
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Syracuse, looking for its next Oronde Gadsden II, lands verbal commitment from 3-star TE Elijah Washington (PS; Carlson)
Syracuse University received a verbal commitment on Wednesday night from Elijah Washington, a three-star tight end from Virginia in the Class of 2024.
Washington announced his commitment on Twitter.
Washington is the second tight end to commit to Syracuse in the Class of 2024, as the Orange appears to be taking advantage of the success that Oronde Gadsden II is having as a mismatch and tight end/receiver combo.
Washington has the size that could make him a similar problem for defenders down the line. He is listed by 247 Sports at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds.
Washington is ranked in 247 Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 812 recruit in the country and No. 17 in the state of Virginia. The website lists Washington with offers from Virginia and West Virginia, along with an array of Group of 5 schools.
He plays high school football for Lake Taylor, a regular power in the talent-rich Tidewater portion of Virginia. Lake Taylor went 11-2 last season, advancing to the state quarterfinals in their size classification.
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Babers says his offensive staff is the ‘strongest’ he’s had at SU. What do the numbers say? (PS; Leiker)
At his first press conference of the season, eighth-year Syracuse football coach Dino Babers made what could be considered a bold statement.
This year’s offensive coaching staff — consisting of offensive coordinator Jason Beck, running backs coach Mike Lynch, offensive line coach Steve Farmer, tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile and wide receivers coach Michael Johnson — is “most likely the strongest” he’s had in his tenure leading the Orange, Babers said.
But what, exactly, does it mean to be the “strongest” offensive coaching staff? How can you measure that, especially before a game has been played?
We took a stab at trying to prove – or disprove – Babers’ claim through three avenues. Here’s what we found.
By experience
All five staff members have served as offensive coordinators in their careers.
While that’s true, it’s worth noting not all have been full-time coordinators or served in the role for a Power-Five program.
Beck’s previous OC experience was at Simon Fraser (Division II), and Farmer’s two stints were at Group of Five programs Louisiana-Monroe and FCS Illinois State.
Campanile has only served as a college offensive coordinator in an interim capacity but has nine years of experience as a high school OC and another eight as a head coach.
The average number of years of coaching experience among the five assistants comes to 23.
That’s among the highest in Babers’ time at Syracuse and is up almost 10 years worth of experience from his first season, when his offensive assistants averaged 14 years of experience.
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SU offensive line finding a groove under Steve Farmer (spectrumlocalnews.com; MacWilliam)
One of the most important position groups in all of football is the offensive line.
Syracuse is seeing some turnover at that group from a year ago. Steve Farmer is taking over as position coach as Mike Schmidt left the program in the offseason.
Syracuse also has to replace Matthew Bergeron, a guy who anchored the line for the last couple of years. But so far so good for that group through practice. The Orange are making steady improvements with a mix of fresh and familiar faces. They feel they can be one of the best in the ACC after an up and down season in 2022.
“Coach Farmer’s bought a lot of good stuff to be versatile on the line," lineman Josh Ilaoa said. "Being able to play multiple positions and getting more vertical than we usually get said on an angle brought a lot of a lot of help to offense so far this offseason. Spring too. We're looking to exceed last year's expectations as a unit scoring more and being more efficient, converting all those.”
Caleb Okechukwu "Orange Nation" 8-9-23 (ESPN; radio;l Orange Nation)
Syracuse football defensive end Caleb Okechukwu joins Steve and Paulie to speak on how new DC Rocky Long has meshed with the team, discuss the team’s goals this season, preview year 2 of the Mob Podcast, and more.
30 Minutes In Orange Nation 8-9-23 (ESPN; radio; Orange Nation)
Steve and Paulie begin the show wondering what to think about Syracuse QB Garrett Shrader’s comment that the Orange will be bowl eligible this season. Then, the guys discuss the possibility of SMU joining the ACC before SU WR Trebor Pena joins the show. Later, Paulie wants to know which historical events you would attend if you had a time machine.
Syracuse Football: ‘Cuse now has RB, QB and WR on national watch lists (itlh; Adler)
LeQuint Allen Jr., who is expected to assume the starting running-back duties for Syracuse football in the 2023 campaign, garnered some national preseason love on Wednesday.
The preseason watch list for the 2023 Doak Walker Award, which is presented annually to the country’s top running back, has gotten disclosed, and Allen is one of 75 RBs on this list, according to SU Athletics and other media reports.
The 6-foot, 195-pound Allen, a sophomore who hails from Millville, N.J., showed a lot of potential in the 2022 term in limited action as the primary backup to former Orange All-American running back Sean Tucker, who headed to the pros.
Not too long ago, it was unclear whether Allen would compete for Syracuse football in the upcoming stanza, as he had filed a lawsuit against Syracuse University earlier this summer in hopes of overturning a season-long suspension.
Allen and SU, thankfully, reached a settlement last month, and he will be donning a ‘Cuse uniform in 2023.
Syracuse football RB LeQuint Allen Jr. is on the preseason watch list for a major award.
With Allen on the preseason watch list for the 2023 Doak Walker Award, that represents the third year in a row that an Orange player has made the cut. Tucker was on the preseason watch list in 2021 and 2022, and he was also a semifinalist for the 2021 Doak Walker Award.
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Syracuse Football: Preseason accolades piling up for QB Garrett Shrader (itlh; Adler)
I think that Syracuse football starting quarterback Garrett Shrader is in store for a strong 2023 season, assuming that he can remain fully healthy.
Shrader, a transfer from Mississippi State, started several games at quarterback for the Orange in the 2021 campaign and was then the full-time starting signal caller in 2022, when the ‘Cuse went 7-6 overall and reached a bowl game.
However, Shrader has dealt with injuries during his tenure on the Hill. That included missing the recent spring practice after undergoing a procedure for an injury to his right arm, according to SU Athletics.
Garrett Shrader didn’t produce eye-popping statistics a stanza ago, but he did prove one of the more efficient passers both in the Atlantic Coast Conference and across the country.
Assuming he’s at 100 percent over the course of the 2023 term, and with talented offensive coordinator Jason Beck guiding him, Garrett Shrader can put forth a good to great senior year this fall, in my humble opinion. National pundits would seem to agree.
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ACC News
Late Kick: Latest fall camp intel out of the ACC (cbssports.com; video; Pate)
In this excerpt from Late Kick Live, Josh Pate breaks down the latest fall camp news out of Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest in the ACC.
Why Stanford & Cal Joining the ACC Would Be Great for Boston College (bcinterruption; Flannery)
If you’re just tuning into the college football realignment chaos that’s been going on these past few weeks, it’s been a doozy. In just a short amount of time, we’ve seen a number of changes that have added on to the past couple of years of realignment shifts.
How We Got Here
- In July 2021, Texas and Oklahoma announced that they would be joining the SEC by 2025, which eventually was moved up to 2024. That announcement kicked off the phase of college athletics realignment that we’re currently experiencing.
- In September 2021, the Big 12 responded by accepting BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF into the conference to replace the departing Texas and Oklahoma. Those teams will begin Big 12 play this season, in 2023.
- In June 2022, USC and UCLA made a similar announcement. They signed a deal with the Big Ten to join their conference in 2024. Suddenly the PAC-12 had become destabilized, but they did not add any new members like the Big 12 did in response.
- This summer of 2023, things got really bad. While the PAC-12 struggled to put together a TV rights deal for its 10 remaining members, schools started looking for conference membership elsewhere. Colorado bailed first, accepting an invite to the Big 12 on July 27th. Then on August 4th, Oregon and Washington were recruited to the Big Ten to join USC and UCLA in 2024.
- As a result of these moves, other schools started following Colorado to the Big 12. Arizona was first, followed by Arizona State and Utah less than 4 hours after Oregon & Washington left on August 4th. All in all, the 108-year-old conference lost 8 of its 12 members, leaving just Stanford, Cal, Washington State, and Oregon State as of the time of this writing.
- After the implosion of the PAC-12, new reporting has suggested that the ACC is considering adding Stanford and Cal to the conference, as well as SMU. The Atlantic Coast Conference presidents and chancellors held a conference call on Tuesday to discuss such a move, but no firm action has been taken yet.
What’s Next?
With Florida State openly threatening to throw the ACC into its own version of chaos (read more here on BCI), the conference would be wise to react to these recent developments. Continuing the status quo will only lead to schools like FSU, Clemson, UNC or others to make decisions like Texas, Oklahoma, USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington have made. With Stanford and Cal suddenly available as expansion targets, the pathway is there for the ACC to add them, and Boston College would stand to gain a lot....
ACC keeps Stanford, Cal in limbo as presidents choose not to vote on western expansion (apnews.com; Russo)
The Atlantic Coast Conference presidents chose not to vote Wednesday night on whether to add Stanford and California to the league, keeping the schools in limbo as they look for an escape from the crumbling Pac-12, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the neither the ACC nor the schools were speaking publicly about internal discussions.
Both people stopped short of calling the league’s exploration of westward expansion dead after three days of meetings on the subject, but added that it was clear getting the necessary 12 votes to add the Northern California schools would have been difficult.
The ACC has also been looking at SMU, the Dallas-based school from the American Athletic Conference, as an expansion target.
Cal and Stanford have been searching for a path from the Pac-12 to another Power Five conference for days, also reaching out to officials with the Big Ten, two people with knowledge of that situation said.
The Big Ten has not so far been moved toward adding two more West Coast schools to go along with Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, which are set to join in 2024.
The two people also spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because the schools’ talks with the Big Ten were also not disclosed publicly.
The ACC has 15 schools, with none farther west than Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The Fighting Irish are a football independent but compete in the ACC in most other sports. The ACC’s westernmost football school is Louisville.
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Latest on conference realignment (theathletic.com; $; Auerbach)
ACC presidents continue to discuss adding Stanford, Cal amid pushback within league: Source
ACC presidents met Wednesday night and continued to discuss Stanford and Cal expansion opportunities. There is still pushback within the league and no formal vote was taken, a league source told The Athletic. The ACC needs 12 of 15 schools to vote “yes” for the moves to happen — and it does not have that number of votes secured.
The ACC has had a number of meetings this week to discuss expansion and to sift through the financial details that could make it possible. Notre Dame is a proponent of adding the Bay Area schools, the source said.
Still, the idea of a bicoastal ACC is rather shocking — even if Stanford and Cal are willing to come in at partial shares and SMU is willing to forgo any conference revenue distribution for five years, as sources have indicated. Related travel and logistical issues are myriad, and even though the ACC had figured out ways to shift revenue to pay for travel so current members would not have to take in less than they do now, adding these three schools would not significantly improve the ACC schools’ financial situations.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is a proponent of adding the Bay Area schools and SMU, and the league initially considered adding up to seven Pac-12 schools last week after Oregon and Washington joined the Big Ten. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah then jumped to the Big 12 before discussions between the Pac-12 schools and the ACC advanced to the stage of actual offers.
Phillips, the former Northwestern athletic director, long has been a believer in the marriage between academics and athletics in college sports, and it should not be surprising that he is intrigued by the academic profile of the schools under consideration.
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Toasty Buns: 10 college football coaches on the hot seat entering 2023 (fansided.com; Buhler)
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6 DINO BABERS Head Coach Syracuse Orange
The 2018 season feels like a very long time ago for Dino Babers over at Syracuse
To me, Dino Babers will always be a Syracuse legend for beating a bedridden Hugh Freeze while he was with Liberty. I will remember you, forever and always. However, the Orange only have one 10-win season in seven years under his guidance. That’s fine, but what is even more troubling is last year’s 7-6 campaign was only the second winning season under Babers since he took over.
While getting rid of divisions in the ACC will serve a good, but not great program like Syracuse, Babers needs to have his program achieving bowl eligibility with far more regularity. Simply put, they have to take care of business better in conference play. Last year saw the Orange go a supremely Coastaly 4-4 in ACC play. Too bad they played over in the far superior Atlantic Division…
So what is it going to take for Babers to feel safe? Well, back-to-back winning seasons would be a start. Going 7-5 again during the regular season will kick the can down the road for another year. An 8-4 mark might get him a lofty raise. However, if the Orange were to go something like 4-8 and win two meaningless games during conference play, Syracuse may need to go in another direction.
Syracuse is not an easy job, but we have seen this be a top-25 program from its old Big East days.
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https://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/stanford-pac-12-realignment-acc-football-18287240.php (sfgate.com; Young)
College football’s latest round of musical chairs has left Cal and Stanford standing in the corner for now. If the Cardinal have their way, though, that won’t be the case for long. ACC leadership met to discuss expansion Tuesday, and according to ESPN, “Stanford expects some kind of resolution by the end of the week.”
There’s no question what resolution Stanford is hoping for: an invitation to the ACC, as ridiculous as that sounds. The A and the first C stand for “Atlantic Coast”; conference headquarters in Charlotte are a mere 2,600 miles away from Palo Alto. No matter. It looks like ACC or bust for the two Bay Area schools. There are only four major conferences left: The Big 12 is “done” expanding after raiding the Pac-12 last week, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey claimed Tuesday he had zero interest in adding new schools, and the Big Ten has so far not reciprocated any Cal/Stanford interest. That leaves the ACC.
One option Stanford appears pointedly not interested in is some type of merger with the Mountain West. Stanford football coach Troy Taylor spoke to reporters after Tuesday’s practice and said he had zero desire to step down to college football’s middle class.
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Frank's Winning Realignment Strategy for the ACC (RX; HM)
Frank's Winning Realignment Strategy for the ACC
A CSNBBS user who goes by "bullet" (who claims to root for Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia), posted this [LINK]:
Which prompted Frank the Tank to reply this way:
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ND, Stanford, and the ACC (RX; HM)
ND, Stanford, and the ACC
We keep hearing that Notre Dame is "pushing" for the ACC to add Stanford and Cal, but they are not willing to join for football themselves. OK, how about put your money where your mouth is: simply agree to continue playing Stanford annually, apart from the 5-game ACC commitment.
Playing what would amount to six ACC games per year - with one of them is always in Northern California - is a net neutral for Notre Dame. It is NOT a further concession at all, so please, Irish fans, stop implying that it is. You have four flexible games per year now, and you would continue to have four.
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Cal's viability if joining the ACC | Bear Insider (bearinsider; fan forum)
Cal's viability if joining the ACC
1,029 Views | 7 Replies | Last: 13 min ago by calumnusEcon141
9:56a, 8/9/23
As nice (not great) as it sounds to potentially join the ACC, how realistic is it that this saves Cal football. We would be getting paid less than every school by a mile. I no nothing about the financials of running a college football team but:
I assume we will not be able to compete for good coaches
A non-significant amount of money will go into extra travel and associated costs
Our reputation will be further tarnished (our valuation is fixed significantly below the worst ACC teams, B12 teams, etc) which will impact recruiting
So in how ever many years the contract is for, won't their be a widening in the gap between all these teams and us? So much so that in the next realignment we get an ever worse valuation and less justification for being added to the B1G?
All this is just starting to sound like a slow, but growing momentum, roll to the end of Cal football.
With the B1G the above still applies but at least cost is reduced, recruits see is as part of the B1G and will get tons of exposure etc.
golden sloth
10:35a, 8/9/23
The end goal remains either the B1G or the SEC as those are the only two longterm financially viable conferences. Everyone else, including the ACC and Big XII is not.
That said, joining the ACC is a temporary stay of execution. If Cal does not join the ACC now, they die in two or three years. If Cal does join the ACC, they live until the end of the decade. So joining the ACC gives us about 5 years.
westcoast101
10:43a, 8/9/23
I don't think that Cal joining the ACC is a long-term (10+ years) solution, but it almost assuredly would keep the program going better in the near-term. Traveling out east for 4-5 games/season would be a financial burden, but I definitely think it's doable for a handful of years. The economics of the most viable alternative (MWC) don't work and would cause a much quicker death for the program. There's going to be another big college football shakeup at some point, and we need to make sure the program is alive and in a relatively healthy state (which I believe would happen even with a reduced ACC share) when that times come.
Econ141
In reply to westcoast101 • 11:27a, 8/9/23
What I can't wrap my head around is how with 30+ million a year for the past decade we have not been able to improve our on the field product and now with significantly less and more travel we are going to to prove that in 5-10 years we are still a "healthy program."
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https://www.si.com/college/miami/fo...es-fsu-seminoles-unc-tar-heels-clemson-tigers (SI; Smith)
Time to think critically about what’s happening with four members of the Atlantic Coast Conference and realignment, as they would probably be the most likely to bolt to another conference. Or would they? To figure it out one way or another, five valuable questions are asked, with insights as well.
The four schools are ones most ACC fans would probably expect: Florida State, North Carolina, Clemson and Miami.
Any number of them could A) leave the ACC, B) all but be forced to stay put due to the grant of rights, and C) consider the possibility of adding additional members to the conference instead of leaving, among other options.
Wild times, wild times indeed.
With those opening thoughts in mind, do note that each of the Seminoles, Tigers, Tar Heels and Hurricanes will likely possess different criteria and reasons for what happens next. The following questions only scratch the surface of the varying needs.
The complexity of all the different answers for the questions below make it frustrating; it’s also why there’s so much intrigue with conference realignment, ACC or otherwise.
1) If one or both of FSU and Clemson bolt, and possibly UNC as well, what would that do for the Miami Hurricanes’ options?
SEC? Would SEC head football coaches really want to compete against the Canes – especially for South Florida recruits – with them being the local team and then also merging it with the power of being in college football’s most dominant league? Highly unlikely.
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That’s still not entirely out of the question, and there could be other options like the following one, too.
The Big 10 would seem like a league that would be more interested in adding Miami because it would add a new television market, and its member schools would actually possess more chances to head to the Sunshine State to recruit top talent in football and other sports as well. Something to consider.
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Other
Rendering shows what The Tech Garden business accelerator in downtown Syracuse will look like following a $32 million expansion. (QPK Design)
Construction starts on $32 million Tech Garden expansion in Syracuse (PS; $; Moriarty)
Construction has started on a major expansion of CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden, a business accelerator in downtown Syracuse that helps technology-based startups grow.
The $32 million expansion will include a two-story, 46,000-square-foot addition, renovations to the existing space and updates to the facility’s mechanical and security systems.
The project also will include:
- A 5,000-square-foot roof terrace for uncrewed aerial systems companies to launch and test drones
- A 3,000-square-foot meeting room with seating for up to 180
- Private tenant offices for 35 additional resident startups
- Coworking areas
- Expanded hardware space for prototype and product development
- A new entrance
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