SWC75
Bored Historian
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SU’s most important stats and the national ranking last season, (for comparison with the numbers in the schedule section for our opposition):
Offense: 40.2 points (11th) 464.8 yards (19th) 200.1 rushing (36th) 264.7 passing (31st) per game
Defense: 27.0 points (64th) 426.5 yards (88th) 162.5 rushing (63rd) 264.1 passing (116th) per game
Turnovers: +13 (5th) Starting Field Position: 35.0-27.4 = +7.6 (I couldn’t find a ranking for this)
Friday, October 18th 7PM vs. PITTSBURGH at the Dome
TV: ESPN RADIO: TK 99/105
Syracuse and Pittsburgh are each other’s evil twins. They are never good at the same time. The yearly series, (now our longest) dates back to 1955. Pitt won the first two but SU won 11 of the next 16, many by big scores like 35-0, 28-9, 51-13, 33-7, 50-17 and 43-13. Then Johnny Majors took the Pitt job in 1973 and was given the money to hand out 76 scholarships in that one year, (this was before the NCAA put restrictions on scholarships – and was probably why). Four years later they won the national championship. It started an 11 year run of Pittsburgh victories. They beat us 0-38 in 1975 and 6-43 in 1980 but we usually gave them a good battle, constantly coming up short. Majors and then Jackie Sherrill left Pitt and Dick MacPherson came to Syracuse and the series turned around again. SU won 16 times in 18 years from 1984-2001. The best the Panthers could get was a one touchdown win in 1989 and a tie in 1990. Meanwhile, we hammered them 24-7, 41-10, 31-7, 42-10, 55-7, 45-28 and 42-10. But then the series turned back in Pitt’s direction and they have dominated since 2002, winning 14 of the last 17 games, including 24-48, 14-34, 10-37, 14-45, and 7-30, as well as a record setting 61-76 in 2016.
I’ve always felt that the reason for these WWF-type alternate periods of dominance was that SU and Pitt were the most direct recruiting rivals on each other’s schedules. Basically, we were fighting for Penn State’s leftovers. The school that did the best job of that became dominant. I’m not sure that’s true anymore. With both teams in the ACC and Penn State in the Big Ten, I think the two school’s focus is more down the coast, to bring in southern speed players to compete with their conference brethren. SU’s current roster includes only 8 players from Pennsylvania, (of 98), and 17 from Florida. In fact, our roster includes players from 25 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces. Maybe now Syracuse and Pittsburgh can look at each other, eye to eye.
Last year’s game was reminiscent of that 1998 NC State game – for a while. Syracuse was 4-1, having just lost in the last minute at Clemson. Pitt was 2-3, having been just demolished by Central Florida 14-45. We marched down the field to score the first two times we had the ball and the rout was on, 14-0! Then everything went wrong. Qadree Ollison broke three tackles to run went 69 yards for a score. A controversial 35 yard fumble return tied the game. Their kicker, Alex Kessman, set a stadium record with a 54 yard field goal and then topped it with a 55 yarder. Andre Szmyt answered with a little ‘ol 33 yarder to make it 17-20 at the half. But Pitt opened the second half with a 68 yard pass play from Kenny Pickett to Rafael Araujo-Lopes to complete a 3-27 run.
Then there was a weather delay and the 2018 Syracuse team did something the 1998 Syracuse team did not do: they came back. Dungey hit two long passes to Taj Harris to set up a Jarveon Howard TD run. Then Dungey did the same to Harris and Custis to set up his own 21 yard run and SU was back on top, 31-27. Then Alton Robinson forced a fumble and Szmyt kicked a 29 yard field goal to make it 34-27. Pitt responded by doing what Clemson had done: run the ball down our throats. They had two 1,000 yard rushers, Ollison and Darrin Hall and they fed the ball to them on virtually every play. They soon tied the game up at 34. Szmyt got his long field goal with a 54 yarder. I’d never heard of a game with three field goals of 54 yards or more. Pitt got the ball back and converted a fourth and three from their own 48 with a run by Ollison. Kessman hit a 48 yarder to tie it with 8 seconds left. Pitt got the ball to open the overtime and kept giving it to Ollison and Hall and scored to make it 37-44. 25 of their last 26 plays were runs by their two star running backs. Dungey wanted to answer immediately and went right to the end zone, where his pass was intercepted and the game was over. It would have been a great game to win but it was a bitter one to lose. Pitt won 5 of 6 and wound up winning the weak Coastal Division of the ACC before getting squashed by Clemson in the title game and losing a bowl game to Stanford. The Syracuse team and Dungey in particular seemed to be in a funk during much of the North Carolina game the next week. DeVito had to relieve him to pull that game out of the fire. Then Dungey got his mojo back.
Syracuse will be very motived to win this game. But the Pitt team we will face this year will be a very different team from the one we faced last year. Both Ollison and Hall are gone. The leading returning rusher is Pickett, the quarterback with 220 yards. Only one starter returns in the offensive line. They were 124th in the country in passing offense and that was with Aarujo-Lopes who graduated. They do have Maurice Ffrench, (the ‘F’ is silent), who had 35 catches for 515 yards and 6TDs and Taysir Mack who averaged a whopping 22.3 on 25 catches. Bassett completed 58 of his passes for 1,969 yards and 12TDs vs. 6 interceptions. So they can pass the ball – and they will under new OC Mark Whipple, the long-time coach at Massachusetts, where he was famous for his dynamic offenses. But the more conservative head coach, Pat Narduzzi has been quoted as saying “Don’t believe ‘Air Narduzzi’: We’re going to run the ball.” The relationship between Narduzzi and Whipple should be interesting to follow this season.
Pitt’s defense was a plus last year. Clemson got 42 points in the ACC title game but the other five of their last six opponents totaled 86 points. Their top five tacklers are gone. They should be strong in the secondary where safety Damar Hardin and cornerback Dane Jackson were All-ACC honorable mention and the other safety Paris Ford, is a blue-chip recruit. They should test DeVito’s passing game. They lost three linebackers but Elias Reynolds started seven games. End Rashad Weaver, (see injury report, below), led with 6.5 sacks and 14 TFLs. Tackle Keyshaun Camp has battled injuries but led with 18 QB pressures last year. Nunes: “They were less effective against the run (178 yards allowed per game), but did collect 85 tackles for loss on the year — good for 42nd in the country. Pitt applied decent pressure all year, ranking top-40ish in sacks, but also forced just 18 turnovers.”
Alex Kessman is back to kick field goals and punter Kirk Christodulu put 19 kicks inside the 20. Ffrench had two kick-off returns for scores. They will be one of the few teams that can match our kicking game.
Pittsburgh injury report:
www.usatoday.com
As of 8/21, starting DE Rashad Weaver is likely to miss the entire season with a torn ACL. That’s a big loss for the Panthers.
Last year’s stats:
Offense: 25.6 points (94th) 369.7 yards (98th) 227.9 rushing (18th) 141.8 passing (124th) per game
Defense: 27.8 points (75th) 387.6 yards (59th) 178.3 rushing (80th) 209.3 passing (46th) per game
Turnovers: +2 (56th) Starting Field Position: 27.0-30.8 = -3.8
Saturday October 26th TBA AT FLORIDA STATE at Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee FL
TV: TBA RADIO: TK 99/105
From my 2018 SU Football preview: “Back in 1966, Florida State came to Syracuse to play one of Ben Schwartzwalder’s best teams. They were a fancy passing team and we were a smash-mouth team with Larry Csonka and Floyd Little. We rushed for 337 yards in that game. Floyd had 193 of them and scored 3 times. We were +3 in turnovers and got a 44 yard punt return for a score by Tony Kyasky. That gave us a 20-0 second quarter lead. That was extended to 30-6 in the third quarter. Florida State got two fourth quarter scores and a two point conversion to make it respectable at 37-21 but we were knocking on the door for another score as we allowed the clock to run out, always a nice touch. Those Sunshine State boys never knew what hit them.
Not much has gone right for SU against FSU since as we’ve lost 10 games in a row to them. They “took out” Bill Hurley in 1978 on the opening drive with the “Hurley for Heisman” banners fluttering in the breeze and beat us 0-28. Walter Reyes fumbled in front of their goal line in the Dome in 2004 and we lost 17-13. Cole Murphy had a game-tying 43 yard field goal partially blocked, (they say), in a 24-27 loss last year. Those have been the high points. We got off to a 14-7 start against the #1 Seminoles in Tallahassee in 1991 and it could have been 21-7 except for a dropped pass in the end zone. The rest of the game was 0-39. The other games have been 10-41, 14-38, 3-59, (hey, we held them scoreless in the fourth quarter!), 20-38, 20-45 and 14-45. Last year’s game was a rare opportunity to beat them and we, of course, blew it. They had a disastrous season, by their standards, 7-6. They’ll snap back from that and win 10+ games and be a Top 10 team again, so how can we beat them?”
Well, they didn’t snap back from that yet and we didn’t blow the opportunity to beat them, despite one of Eric Dungey’s many injuries. SU’s defense shut down the Seminoles, holding them to 240 yards, 11 first downs and 7 points. Still, our lead was only 6-0 at halftime when Tommy DeVito took over. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 144 yards and a score and led the team on consecutive touchdown drives, then a field goal to give the Orange a commanding lead of 23-0. Then he led another touchdown drive after FSU finally scored, producing the final score of 30-7. The most amazing thing was not that we’d finally beaten the Noles after all these years but how much we dominated the game and who easy it was. They’d gone from having one of the great teams I’d ever seen when the won the 2013 national championship to be an empty shell of a program.
They are still pretty empty Quarterback DeAndre Francois, once thought to be a coming star, was dismissed from the program in February. Sophomore James Blackmon and Wisconsin transfer Alex Hornibrook will battle for his job. Running Back Cam Akers was also searching for stardom after gaining 1,025 yards at 5.3 a carry as a freshman. Last year, behind the Nole’s pathetic offensive line, he gained 706 at 4.4 ypc, actually a credible performance but far from what he expected when he signed on with Florida State. FSU is actually hoping a grad transfer from Northern Illinois, Ryan Roberts, can improve their line play. The Noles were -34 in tackles for losses, -8 in sacks and -11 in turnovers.
The defense was mediocre, meaning they were better than the offense. They lost pass rusher Brian Burns who opted for the NFL over staying in this mess. Junior nose tackle Marvin Wilson “takes over as the leader of the defensive front and FSU coaches believe he will emerge as the next great Seminole defensive tackle”. (Athlon) “Florida State’s linebacking corps has struggled for several years but senior Dontavious Jackson leads what could be a major resurgence at the positon.” The secondary last year surrendered 30TD passes, 5th worst in FBS.
The kicking game wasn’t much better. FSU was -9.3 yards in average starting positon. Placekicker Ricky Aguayo, (11 for 17), and punter Logan Tyler, (43.2), are OK. “But their coverage units were awful – only six FBS schools allowed more yards per kickoff return – and the return teams weren’t much better.” That’s really a telling statistic. The advantage a southern powerhouse like FSU normally is in the number of fast, athletic players they can recruit. And that shows up in coverage teams and the return game moreso than anywhere else. Those are plays where players have to cover and get to exploit the whole field.
They managed a 5-7 record, beating Samford, Northern Illinois, a similarly collapsing Louisville program, Wake Forest and Boston College by a total of 54 points. But they lost by 21 to Virginia Tech, 23 to Syracuse, 49 to Clemson, (at home), 29 to Notre Dame and 27 to Florida. It was almost no fun beating them because they were so bad that they weren’t really ’Florida State’ anymore. It’s going to take more than a year to turn this around. I wonder if the rise of Central and South Florida is impacting the traditional powerhouses in the state of Florida. UCF and USF are both larger schools than Miami, Florida or Florida State and they are in larger cities than Florida and Florida State, (Orlando and Tampa vs. Gainsville and Tallahasse), where there are more recruits. It may be harder than we think for Florida State to become ‘Florida State’ again.
But I still remember when their coach, Willie Taggart, was at South Florida and we went down to play his team in 2015. He had a record there of 7 wins and 21 losses and there were rumors he’d be fired right after the Syracuse game. We were 3-1, having lost only a close game to #8 LSU in the Dome. They were 1-3, having beaten only Florida A&M. I expected an easy victory and it was – for the Bulls, who rolled 24-45 and went on to win 17 of 21 games under Taggart before he moved on to Oregon. Willie had done the work and his efforts had blossomed at just the right time – the wrong time for us. It could happen that way again, but probably not this year. I just wonder if the folks at Florida State will wait that long.
Florida State’s injury report:
www.usatoday.com
That’s a long list. Second string DT Jaylon Parks is probably out for the season. Second string safety Isaiah Bolden, projected starting LG Cole Minshew and OL Christian Meadows are out for an unspecified period. DT’s Marvin Wilson and Cedric Wood, QB Jordan Travis, second string WR Warren Thompson, second string RB Khalan Laborn and WR Tamorrion Terry are all dinged up but expected to play in the opener against Boise State.
Last year’s stats:
Offense: 21.9 points (113th) 361.2 yards (103rd) 91.1 rushing (127th) 270.1 passing (28th) per game
Defense: 31.5 points (90th) 416.3 yards (80th) 147.7 rushing (48th) 268.7 passing (120th) per game
Turnovers: -11 (124th)
Saturday November 2nd TBA vs. BOSTON COLLEGE at the Dome
TV: TBA RADIO: TK 99/105
Syracuse proved vulnerable to a power running game last year and after Clemson and Pittsburgh had defeated us using it, the trip to Boston College was concerning, especially coming off the Notre Dame disaster. They’d ran all over us in the Dome the year before, gaining 333 yards on the ground in a dispiriting 14-42 SU defeat. But Eric Dungey responded with greatest game, throwing for 362 yards and 3 TDs and running for 55 more, (if you exclude a couple of sacks) and 3 more scores in a resounding 42-21 SU victory that put our train back on the rails.
Now we’re back in the Dome but Dungey is gone. Tommy DeVito will either have established himself as a star in his own right by this game or we will have already had a disappointing season. Unlike many of our opponents this year, the Eagles have their top players coming back. A.J. Dillon rushed for 1,108 yards and 10TDs and at 6-0 250 he is a load to tackle. As a freshman he carried the ball 300 times for 1,589 yards and 14 scores. He was not a dual threat, catching 8 passes in those two years but that may tell you about his coach, Steve Addazio, more than Dillon, who will have to learn to catch the ball if he is going to make it in the pros. The Eagles do fly on occasion. Quarterback Anthony Brown completed 55% of this throws, (a bit low considering the defensive attention Dillon draws), for 2,121 yards and 20TDs vs. 9 interceptions. His top receiver, Kobay White, (33r 526 yards 3TDs) returns. Addazio is another coach who likes two tight end sets. This will test our thin defensive tackle unit and our young linebackers. Our speed rushers will have to prove they can do more than rush the quarterback.
The Eagles have only one starter back on their line and in their secondary. They will miss all-American DE Zach Allen and his counterpart on the other side, Wyatt Ray. Both are in the NFL. Linebackers Isaiah McDuffie and max Richardson, who made 161 tackles between them, with be the keys to the defense.
Danny Longman was the third string placekicker last year but Grant Carlson was a decent punter, (40.2). Michael Walker, one of the best kick returners in the country, graduated.
If we’re going great, we win this game. If not….
Boston College injury report:
www.usatoday.com
As of 8/21, the Eagles are flying high with no reported injuries. There must be something in the water in Boston, (see Holy Cross).
Last year’s stats:
Offense: 32.0 points (39th) 404.3 yards (70th) 189.1 rushing (48th) 215.3 passing (81st) per game
Defense: 25.7 points (55th) 402.8 yards (70th) 154.9 rushing (53rd) 247.9 passing (96th) per game
Turnovers: +7 (23rd) Starting Field Position:32.8 – 28.8 = +4.0
Bye week
Offense: 40.2 points (11th) 464.8 yards (19th) 200.1 rushing (36th) 264.7 passing (31st) per game
Defense: 27.0 points (64th) 426.5 yards (88th) 162.5 rushing (63rd) 264.1 passing (116th) per game
Turnovers: +13 (5th) Starting Field Position: 35.0-27.4 = +7.6 (I couldn’t find a ranking for this)
Friday, October 18th 7PM vs. PITTSBURGH at the Dome
TV: ESPN RADIO: TK 99/105
Syracuse and Pittsburgh are each other’s evil twins. They are never good at the same time. The yearly series, (now our longest) dates back to 1955. Pitt won the first two but SU won 11 of the next 16, many by big scores like 35-0, 28-9, 51-13, 33-7, 50-17 and 43-13. Then Johnny Majors took the Pitt job in 1973 and was given the money to hand out 76 scholarships in that one year, (this was before the NCAA put restrictions on scholarships – and was probably why). Four years later they won the national championship. It started an 11 year run of Pittsburgh victories. They beat us 0-38 in 1975 and 6-43 in 1980 but we usually gave them a good battle, constantly coming up short. Majors and then Jackie Sherrill left Pitt and Dick MacPherson came to Syracuse and the series turned around again. SU won 16 times in 18 years from 1984-2001. The best the Panthers could get was a one touchdown win in 1989 and a tie in 1990. Meanwhile, we hammered them 24-7, 41-10, 31-7, 42-10, 55-7, 45-28 and 42-10. But then the series turned back in Pitt’s direction and they have dominated since 2002, winning 14 of the last 17 games, including 24-48, 14-34, 10-37, 14-45, and 7-30, as well as a record setting 61-76 in 2016.
I’ve always felt that the reason for these WWF-type alternate periods of dominance was that SU and Pitt were the most direct recruiting rivals on each other’s schedules. Basically, we were fighting for Penn State’s leftovers. The school that did the best job of that became dominant. I’m not sure that’s true anymore. With both teams in the ACC and Penn State in the Big Ten, I think the two school’s focus is more down the coast, to bring in southern speed players to compete with their conference brethren. SU’s current roster includes only 8 players from Pennsylvania, (of 98), and 17 from Florida. In fact, our roster includes players from 25 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces. Maybe now Syracuse and Pittsburgh can look at each other, eye to eye.
Last year’s game was reminiscent of that 1998 NC State game – for a while. Syracuse was 4-1, having just lost in the last minute at Clemson. Pitt was 2-3, having been just demolished by Central Florida 14-45. We marched down the field to score the first two times we had the ball and the rout was on, 14-0! Then everything went wrong. Qadree Ollison broke three tackles to run went 69 yards for a score. A controversial 35 yard fumble return tied the game. Their kicker, Alex Kessman, set a stadium record with a 54 yard field goal and then topped it with a 55 yarder. Andre Szmyt answered with a little ‘ol 33 yarder to make it 17-20 at the half. But Pitt opened the second half with a 68 yard pass play from Kenny Pickett to Rafael Araujo-Lopes to complete a 3-27 run.
Then there was a weather delay and the 2018 Syracuse team did something the 1998 Syracuse team did not do: they came back. Dungey hit two long passes to Taj Harris to set up a Jarveon Howard TD run. Then Dungey did the same to Harris and Custis to set up his own 21 yard run and SU was back on top, 31-27. Then Alton Robinson forced a fumble and Szmyt kicked a 29 yard field goal to make it 34-27. Pitt responded by doing what Clemson had done: run the ball down our throats. They had two 1,000 yard rushers, Ollison and Darrin Hall and they fed the ball to them on virtually every play. They soon tied the game up at 34. Szmyt got his long field goal with a 54 yarder. I’d never heard of a game with three field goals of 54 yards or more. Pitt got the ball back and converted a fourth and three from their own 48 with a run by Ollison. Kessman hit a 48 yarder to tie it with 8 seconds left. Pitt got the ball to open the overtime and kept giving it to Ollison and Hall and scored to make it 37-44. 25 of their last 26 plays were runs by their two star running backs. Dungey wanted to answer immediately and went right to the end zone, where his pass was intercepted and the game was over. It would have been a great game to win but it was a bitter one to lose. Pitt won 5 of 6 and wound up winning the weak Coastal Division of the ACC before getting squashed by Clemson in the title game and losing a bowl game to Stanford. The Syracuse team and Dungey in particular seemed to be in a funk during much of the North Carolina game the next week. DeVito had to relieve him to pull that game out of the fire. Then Dungey got his mojo back.
Syracuse will be very motived to win this game. But the Pitt team we will face this year will be a very different team from the one we faced last year. Both Ollison and Hall are gone. The leading returning rusher is Pickett, the quarterback with 220 yards. Only one starter returns in the offensive line. They were 124th in the country in passing offense and that was with Aarujo-Lopes who graduated. They do have Maurice Ffrench, (the ‘F’ is silent), who had 35 catches for 515 yards and 6TDs and Taysir Mack who averaged a whopping 22.3 on 25 catches. Bassett completed 58 of his passes for 1,969 yards and 12TDs vs. 6 interceptions. So they can pass the ball – and they will under new OC Mark Whipple, the long-time coach at Massachusetts, where he was famous for his dynamic offenses. But the more conservative head coach, Pat Narduzzi has been quoted as saying “Don’t believe ‘Air Narduzzi’: We’re going to run the ball.” The relationship between Narduzzi and Whipple should be interesting to follow this season.
Pitt’s defense was a plus last year. Clemson got 42 points in the ACC title game but the other five of their last six opponents totaled 86 points. Their top five tacklers are gone. They should be strong in the secondary where safety Damar Hardin and cornerback Dane Jackson were All-ACC honorable mention and the other safety Paris Ford, is a blue-chip recruit. They should test DeVito’s passing game. They lost three linebackers but Elias Reynolds started seven games. End Rashad Weaver, (see injury report, below), led with 6.5 sacks and 14 TFLs. Tackle Keyshaun Camp has battled injuries but led with 18 QB pressures last year. Nunes: “They were less effective against the run (178 yards allowed per game), but did collect 85 tackles for loss on the year — good for 42nd in the country. Pitt applied decent pressure all year, ranking top-40ish in sacks, but also forced just 18 turnovers.”
Alex Kessman is back to kick field goals and punter Kirk Christodulu put 19 kicks inside the 20. Ffrench had two kick-off returns for scores. They will be one of the few teams that can match our kicking game.
Pittsburgh injury report:
NCAAF Injuries - USA TODAY
Get the latest injuries, as well as full coverage of the NCAAF from USA TODAY.
www.usatoday.com
Last year’s stats:
Offense: 25.6 points (94th) 369.7 yards (98th) 227.9 rushing (18th) 141.8 passing (124th) per game
Defense: 27.8 points (75th) 387.6 yards (59th) 178.3 rushing (80th) 209.3 passing (46th) per game
Turnovers: +2 (56th) Starting Field Position: 27.0-30.8 = -3.8
Saturday October 26th TBA AT FLORIDA STATE at Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee FL
TV: TBA RADIO: TK 99/105
From my 2018 SU Football preview: “Back in 1966, Florida State came to Syracuse to play one of Ben Schwartzwalder’s best teams. They were a fancy passing team and we were a smash-mouth team with Larry Csonka and Floyd Little. We rushed for 337 yards in that game. Floyd had 193 of them and scored 3 times. We were +3 in turnovers and got a 44 yard punt return for a score by Tony Kyasky. That gave us a 20-0 second quarter lead. That was extended to 30-6 in the third quarter. Florida State got two fourth quarter scores and a two point conversion to make it respectable at 37-21 but we were knocking on the door for another score as we allowed the clock to run out, always a nice touch. Those Sunshine State boys never knew what hit them.
Not much has gone right for SU against FSU since as we’ve lost 10 games in a row to them. They “took out” Bill Hurley in 1978 on the opening drive with the “Hurley for Heisman” banners fluttering in the breeze and beat us 0-28. Walter Reyes fumbled in front of their goal line in the Dome in 2004 and we lost 17-13. Cole Murphy had a game-tying 43 yard field goal partially blocked, (they say), in a 24-27 loss last year. Those have been the high points. We got off to a 14-7 start against the #1 Seminoles in Tallahassee in 1991 and it could have been 21-7 except for a dropped pass in the end zone. The rest of the game was 0-39. The other games have been 10-41, 14-38, 3-59, (hey, we held them scoreless in the fourth quarter!), 20-38, 20-45 and 14-45. Last year’s game was a rare opportunity to beat them and we, of course, blew it. They had a disastrous season, by their standards, 7-6. They’ll snap back from that and win 10+ games and be a Top 10 team again, so how can we beat them?”
Well, they didn’t snap back from that yet and we didn’t blow the opportunity to beat them, despite one of Eric Dungey’s many injuries. SU’s defense shut down the Seminoles, holding them to 240 yards, 11 first downs and 7 points. Still, our lead was only 6-0 at halftime when Tommy DeVito took over. He completed 11 of 16 passes for 144 yards and a score and led the team on consecutive touchdown drives, then a field goal to give the Orange a commanding lead of 23-0. Then he led another touchdown drive after FSU finally scored, producing the final score of 30-7. The most amazing thing was not that we’d finally beaten the Noles after all these years but how much we dominated the game and who easy it was. They’d gone from having one of the great teams I’d ever seen when the won the 2013 national championship to be an empty shell of a program.
They are still pretty empty Quarterback DeAndre Francois, once thought to be a coming star, was dismissed from the program in February. Sophomore James Blackmon and Wisconsin transfer Alex Hornibrook will battle for his job. Running Back Cam Akers was also searching for stardom after gaining 1,025 yards at 5.3 a carry as a freshman. Last year, behind the Nole’s pathetic offensive line, he gained 706 at 4.4 ypc, actually a credible performance but far from what he expected when he signed on with Florida State. FSU is actually hoping a grad transfer from Northern Illinois, Ryan Roberts, can improve their line play. The Noles were -34 in tackles for losses, -8 in sacks and -11 in turnovers.
The defense was mediocre, meaning they were better than the offense. They lost pass rusher Brian Burns who opted for the NFL over staying in this mess. Junior nose tackle Marvin Wilson “takes over as the leader of the defensive front and FSU coaches believe he will emerge as the next great Seminole defensive tackle”. (Athlon) “Florida State’s linebacking corps has struggled for several years but senior Dontavious Jackson leads what could be a major resurgence at the positon.” The secondary last year surrendered 30TD passes, 5th worst in FBS.
The kicking game wasn’t much better. FSU was -9.3 yards in average starting positon. Placekicker Ricky Aguayo, (11 for 17), and punter Logan Tyler, (43.2), are OK. “But their coverage units were awful – only six FBS schools allowed more yards per kickoff return – and the return teams weren’t much better.” That’s really a telling statistic. The advantage a southern powerhouse like FSU normally is in the number of fast, athletic players they can recruit. And that shows up in coverage teams and the return game moreso than anywhere else. Those are plays where players have to cover and get to exploit the whole field.
They managed a 5-7 record, beating Samford, Northern Illinois, a similarly collapsing Louisville program, Wake Forest and Boston College by a total of 54 points. But they lost by 21 to Virginia Tech, 23 to Syracuse, 49 to Clemson, (at home), 29 to Notre Dame and 27 to Florida. It was almost no fun beating them because they were so bad that they weren’t really ’Florida State’ anymore. It’s going to take more than a year to turn this around. I wonder if the rise of Central and South Florida is impacting the traditional powerhouses in the state of Florida. UCF and USF are both larger schools than Miami, Florida or Florida State and they are in larger cities than Florida and Florida State, (Orlando and Tampa vs. Gainsville and Tallahasse), where there are more recruits. It may be harder than we think for Florida State to become ‘Florida State’ again.
But I still remember when their coach, Willie Taggart, was at South Florida and we went down to play his team in 2015. He had a record there of 7 wins and 21 losses and there were rumors he’d be fired right after the Syracuse game. We were 3-1, having lost only a close game to #8 LSU in the Dome. They were 1-3, having beaten only Florida A&M. I expected an easy victory and it was – for the Bulls, who rolled 24-45 and went on to win 17 of 21 games under Taggart before he moved on to Oregon. Willie had done the work and his efforts had blossomed at just the right time – the wrong time for us. It could happen that way again, but probably not this year. I just wonder if the folks at Florida State will wait that long.
Florida State’s injury report:
NCAAF Injuries - USA TODAY
Get the latest injuries, as well as full coverage of the NCAAF from USA TODAY.
www.usatoday.com
Last year’s stats:
Offense: 21.9 points (113th) 361.2 yards (103rd) 91.1 rushing (127th) 270.1 passing (28th) per game
Defense: 31.5 points (90th) 416.3 yards (80th) 147.7 rushing (48th) 268.7 passing (120th) per game
Turnovers: -11 (124th)
Saturday November 2nd TBA vs. BOSTON COLLEGE at the Dome
TV: TBA RADIO: TK 99/105
Syracuse proved vulnerable to a power running game last year and after Clemson and Pittsburgh had defeated us using it, the trip to Boston College was concerning, especially coming off the Notre Dame disaster. They’d ran all over us in the Dome the year before, gaining 333 yards on the ground in a dispiriting 14-42 SU defeat. But Eric Dungey responded with greatest game, throwing for 362 yards and 3 TDs and running for 55 more, (if you exclude a couple of sacks) and 3 more scores in a resounding 42-21 SU victory that put our train back on the rails.
Now we’re back in the Dome but Dungey is gone. Tommy DeVito will either have established himself as a star in his own right by this game or we will have already had a disappointing season. Unlike many of our opponents this year, the Eagles have their top players coming back. A.J. Dillon rushed for 1,108 yards and 10TDs and at 6-0 250 he is a load to tackle. As a freshman he carried the ball 300 times for 1,589 yards and 14 scores. He was not a dual threat, catching 8 passes in those two years but that may tell you about his coach, Steve Addazio, more than Dillon, who will have to learn to catch the ball if he is going to make it in the pros. The Eagles do fly on occasion. Quarterback Anthony Brown completed 55% of this throws, (a bit low considering the defensive attention Dillon draws), for 2,121 yards and 20TDs vs. 9 interceptions. His top receiver, Kobay White, (33r 526 yards 3TDs) returns. Addazio is another coach who likes two tight end sets. This will test our thin defensive tackle unit and our young linebackers. Our speed rushers will have to prove they can do more than rush the quarterback.
The Eagles have only one starter back on their line and in their secondary. They will miss all-American DE Zach Allen and his counterpart on the other side, Wyatt Ray. Both are in the NFL. Linebackers Isaiah McDuffie and max Richardson, who made 161 tackles between them, with be the keys to the defense.
Danny Longman was the third string placekicker last year but Grant Carlson was a decent punter, (40.2). Michael Walker, one of the best kick returners in the country, graduated.
If we’re going great, we win this game. If not….
Boston College injury report:
NCAAF Injuries - USA TODAY
Get the latest injuries, as well as full coverage of the NCAAF from USA TODAY.
www.usatoday.com
Last year’s stats:
Offense: 32.0 points (39th) 404.3 yards (70th) 189.1 rushing (48th) 215.3 passing (81st) per game
Defense: 25.7 points (55th) 402.8 yards (70th) 154.9 rushing (53rd) 247.9 passing (96th) per game
Turnovers: +7 (23rd) Starting Field Position:32.8 – 28.8 = +4.0
Bye week
