sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to National Bird Day!
Why National Bird Day?
- The beauty, songs, and flight of birds have long been sources of human inspiration.
- Today, nearly 12 percent of the world's 9,800 bird species may face extinction within the next century, including nearly one-third of the world's 330 parrot species.
- Birds are sentinel species whose plight serves as barometer of ecosystem health and alert system for detecting global environmental ills.
- Many of the world's parrots and songbirds are threatened with extinction due to pressures from the illegal pet trade, disease, and habitat loss.
- Public awareness and education about the physical and behavioral needs of birds can go far in improving the welfare of the millions of birds kept in captivity.
- The survival and well-being of the world's birds depends upon public education and support for conservation.
SU News
Dino Babers Hires Top Recruiter Vinson Reynolds to Coach Syracuse Defensive Line (si.com; Evans)
Western Michigan defensive line coach Vinson Reynolds has accepted the same position under Syracuse coach Dino Babers, according to a source.
This past season was Reynolds’ third in his position at Western Michigan. A stellar recruiter, he was one of ’s top 10 “Non-‘Big Six’ Recruiters” in 2014.
Prior to Western Michigan, the 34-year-old Reynolds was Central Michigan’s defensive line coach for two seasons after a year at Central Oklahoma. He was a quality control assistant at Oklahoma State from 2008-09, working with the defensive line.
Reynolds also coached the defensive line in his first coaching job at Wisconsin-Platteville from 2006-07. A Detroit native, he was a defensive end at Northern Illinois from 2000-03.
Babers became Syracuse’s coach last month after an 18-9 record in his two years at Bowling Green, which includes a 10-3 mark and MAC championship this season. A disciple of Baylor’s Art Briles, Babers is considered one of college football’s best offensive minds and has a 37-16 career record.
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New Year's Resolutions for Syracuse Football (the juice; Auger)
For the second straight year, the Syracuse football team stayed home during bowl season. That means no extra practices for a team with scads of first and second year players, no extra television exposure, and no recruiting tool of playing in a bowl game to pitch to potential recruits. Coach Dino Babers has been tasked with fixing that conundrum. So with the dawning of January, it’s time to set some New Year’s Resolutions for the football team.
Note: All stats refer to ACC play only. If Syracuse is going to win more games, these are the teams it needs to beat.
Defense
What was the strength of the team under Scott Shafer’s first two seasons became an albatross this past season. If it seemed liked the defense was gashed for too many points and could never get off the field, well, that’s because it was and it couldn’t. Here are three resolutions the defense needs to make in order to hang more crooked numbers in the W column.
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Could Syracuse be Targeting Graduate Transfer QB Davis Webb? (TNIAAM; Pilatzke)
Does a Twitter follow by Co-Offensive Coordinator Sean Lewis mean Syracuse will pursue Webb?
Texas Tech Red Raiders quarterback Davis Webb is looking for somewhere to transfer where he can compete to play immediately after he graduates Tech in the Spring. Soon after announcing that he will transfer from Tech, Syracuse's co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Sean Lewis began following Webb on Twitter, a potential sign that Syracuse intends to recruit Webb.
Webb was a three-star recruit who played his high school ball at Prosper High School in Texas. At Tech, Webb ended up playing in ten games and starting five of those games his freshman year, amassing 2,718 yards passing while completing 63% of his passes and twenty touchdowns. He was also named Holiday Bowl MVP. Sophomore year, he started all eight games he played in before injuries ended his season, totaling another 2,500 yards and 24 touchdowns through the air.
This past year, sophomore QB Patrick Mahomes won the starting job at Tech and Webb only played in five games, performing back up duties. Webb is on pace to graduate from Texas Tech after the Spring semester, enabling him to use his fourth year of eligibility immediately after transferring elsewhere.
In a release, Texas Tech Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury said "Webb is the hardest working individual [he'd] ever had the privilege of coaching. He's a fierce competitor and extremely talented quarterback. Wherever Davis lands, he will immediately change the outlook of that program." Here's hoping Webb considers immediately changing the outlook of the Syracuse Orange Football program.
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Other
Polar Vortex 'On the Move Again': Expect Bitter Cold Next Week in CNY (PS; Coin)
The polar vortex "is on the move again," and that will mean bitterly cold temperatures and possibly lake effect snow for Central New York next week.
This won't be a repeat of the past two winters, when the polar vortex came and overstayed its welcome in the Northeast U.S., but it will likely be the coldest snap of the season so far.
"The polar vortex will be on the move again, but only as far south as the Hudson Bay region," said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Brett Anderson. "That will still send a new surge of Arctic air to the central and eastern parts of the country, though."
The cold air is likely to arrive in Central New York next Tuesday night (Jan. 12) and hang around for about three days, he said. High temperatures could be in the teens, with lows in the single digits. The worst of the cold air, though, will stay in the Upper Midwest, where some areas "will struggle to get above zero," Anderson said.
After a record-breaking warm December, the Great Lakes are warmer than usual and have little ice. That, Anderson said, means two things for Upstate New York:
1. Temperatures won't be as cold as they could be. "If it was like last year or the year before with ice (covering the lakes), this air mass would probably be another 5 degrees colder," he said. "The lakes being warm relative to normal is helping to ease the pain of these air masses."
2. The chances are greater for lake effect snow, which depends upon the combination warm water and cold air. "We could be dealing with significant lake effect snow downwind of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie," Anderson said. "We're looking at a more westerly wind, so I would think the heaviest snows will fall north of Syracuse to the Tug Hill, and also areas south of Buffalo."
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