sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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It was a magnificent day. The sky was a dazzling blue, without a cloud in sight. The leaves on the trees were starting to turn, but we're still on the trees. It was warm but not hot, and there was a just a hint of that crispness to the sir that signals the onset of fall.
The crew at the Fine Lot was in top form, providing massive amounts of excellent food and drink for the tailgate. I was surprised at the turnout. Would guess we had around 125 attend. I think that has somehow become the low water mark for these tailgates these days. We were joined by a number of V Tech refugees, who were provided diplomatic immunity and not executed due to the WWW football message board convention of 2015. Props to Jeremy, Nell, Kevin, Justin, the Marks and everyone else for doing another wonderful job.
Had an opportunity to talk to a rep from the Russell Athletic Bowl, who walked down to the Fine Lot to enjoy the day and press the flesh. Turns out he was an SU alum originally from Camillus. He hopes SU will be in a position to be considered soon.
Heading up to the Dome, I noticed that the block directly east of the Fine Lot has just been leveled and appears well on its way to becoming a parking lot. Perhaps in time for basketball. Don't understand why it has taken so long for this to happen, but it is great to see. Perhaps SU has finally acquired the lot from ESF?
It was nice to enjoy a game at the Dome Where I was comfortable and not constantly wiping sweat off my forehead. That AC can't get here soon enough. I was interested to see how V Tech would travel. They did well in the days of the Big East, routinely drawing 3 or 4K, far more than closer schools like Rutgers, UConn, BC, Temple and Pitt. For some reason, they didn't get that kind of a turnout but they did fill out part of a visitor section on the xlower and upper decks. I would guess they brought at least 500, probably a little more.
Still 5 tubas in the SUMB. I remember when we had 10-12 and I was lamenting how small the number was. I betwe have the smallest band of any P5 school. Anyone have any ideas on how this can be fixed?
Unfortunately, I think the easiest answer is to win more often. The free trip to a bowl game is the biggest benefit towards participating and unfortunately, there haven't been many of those recently. They had a new routine at halftime that I really enjoyed. It involved some dancing by members of the band sans instruments and a bunch of marching into new formations. Surprisingly well done, funny and innovative.
At first, I thought the crowd was going to be in the 20K range but a lot of people arrived late and we ended up with around 30K actually there. The vast majority of them were the diehards and I want to credit them for coming out and making a lot of noise to support the team. Our fans are as loud and supportive as any fans in the country. We just don't have a lot of them.
Let's talk football. The first real challenge has been put upon the new offensive scheme in recent weeks. Teams have been blitzing us up the middle relentlessly, resulting in any RB runs getting blown up for losses or no gain. When we try to pass, we have been failing to pick up the blitz, resulting in ED being forced to hit the hot route (with little success) or run for his life. Regardless, this strategy has stopped SU from executing its passing offense and the OL and RBs showed no signs of learning how to pick up the blitzes (there was often more than one).
HCDB responded to this against V Tech by largely running sets with no one in the backfield except ED. The RB remained in the game to keep an extra LB in the game but he was usually set wide, beyond a hash mark, which coupled with the presence of 3 or 4 WRs split wide,served to open the middle of the field,
SU then attacked that weak area relentlessly with many passes, especially on key plays. To keep the V Tech defense honest and LB heavy, SU continued to run the ball regularly with ED. He did a good job. Rarely broke open big runs but consistently got 4 or 5 yards; enough to avoid clear passing situations. The staff continued to pay games with the snap count, mixing in fake handclaps from ED on occasion to prevent V Tech from jumping the count. If a Hokie jumped, Byrne would snap it immediately to get a free play. Good coaching adjustments from the staff.
They also ran a few plays to take advantage of the aggressive Hokie defense, especially their safeties, which resulted in a couple of long TDs early. Great throw by ED to Phillips on one, great execution by the team on the Strickland pass to Estime.
Great game by ED, who was hit hard many times by Hokies but kept playing, and kept producing, all game long. This was the first game where the offense played well for four quarters (I think we only punted 3 times). Good to see.
But the biggest revelation last night was the performance of the defense. Early in, it looked like V Tech felt they had a major speed advantage and they attacked the SU defense with sweep plays a lot. The defense did a fine job here. They tried to impose their will running up the middle too, and got utterly dominated with that strategy. How did SU shut down the Hokie running game?
It was a team effort. Getting Slayton and Samuels back inside helped a lot. The LBs were really good filling gaps, helped by the DL that occupied their blockers and even got penetration at times. And then there was Ellison, flying around at warp speed, knocking 230 RBs backwards with ridiculous hits. But everyone played well on this day.
Was.not impressed by the VT RBs, who were slow and not very agile. One was tackled by his hair early in the game and maybe lost interest after that. Was not impressed by their WRs. Number 1 is a nice player. Number 7 was big but awkward and looked more like a TE playing out of position. Then they had a little guy who looked like a water boy. Appeared to be about 5'6 and perhaps 150. He could run and actually had a couple of nice receptions.
Their QB was big and relatively agile but pretty slow footed. Fell on a key short yardage play, made a awful fumble that ended the game. He made good throws over the middle but could not throw the long ball and wasn't very good throwing to the sidelines either. He was, in short, no ED.
I thought Fredericks did a good job filling in for Hudson at CB. He has the size we have been looking for here. And the JUCO DE did well too, especially against the run. Williams provided deep support as needed and made a great play to get a pick in the end zone during a wild end to the first half. In short, players were where they were supposed to be consistently. What a difference it makes.
The special teams were, for the first time this season, truly special. The Hof has been much better since going rugby style with his punts. Far fewer shanks, and a lot more height and distance. The coverage teams have been terrific, led by George Morris, who is playing like a man possessed. So glad he has been able to get on the field and contribute his senior season. Cole was 1 0f 3 kicking FGs but they were all long and he made one. His kick offs were good and he also made all his PATs.
The V Tech punter was good, as was their punt coverage unit, which was all over him on almost every punt. But the one time their punter screwed up and kicked a line drive to Estime, he made perhaps the play of the game, getting 20 big yards to set up SU for a score at a crucial point in the game.
This was a big win for the program. Let's hope it was a turning point rather than just an oddball good game out of the blue. It is probably too early for this but on this morning, a Syracuse fan can dream.
War Damn Otto!
The crew at the Fine Lot was in top form, providing massive amounts of excellent food and drink for the tailgate. I was surprised at the turnout. Would guess we had around 125 attend. I think that has somehow become the low water mark for these tailgates these days. We were joined by a number of V Tech refugees, who were provided diplomatic immunity and not executed due to the WWW football message board convention of 2015. Props to Jeremy, Nell, Kevin, Justin, the Marks and everyone else for doing another wonderful job.
Had an opportunity to talk to a rep from the Russell Athletic Bowl, who walked down to the Fine Lot to enjoy the day and press the flesh. Turns out he was an SU alum originally from Camillus. He hopes SU will be in a position to be considered soon.
Heading up to the Dome, I noticed that the block directly east of the Fine Lot has just been leveled and appears well on its way to becoming a parking lot. Perhaps in time for basketball. Don't understand why it has taken so long for this to happen, but it is great to see. Perhaps SU has finally acquired the lot from ESF?
It was nice to enjoy a game at the Dome Where I was comfortable and not constantly wiping sweat off my forehead. That AC can't get here soon enough. I was interested to see how V Tech would travel. They did well in the days of the Big East, routinely drawing 3 or 4K, far more than closer schools like Rutgers, UConn, BC, Temple and Pitt. For some reason, they didn't get that kind of a turnout but they did fill out part of a visitor section on the xlower and upper decks. I would guess they brought at least 500, probably a little more.
Still 5 tubas in the SUMB. I remember when we had 10-12 and I was lamenting how small the number was. I betwe have the smallest band of any P5 school. Anyone have any ideas on how this can be fixed?
Unfortunately, I think the easiest answer is to win more often. The free trip to a bowl game is the biggest benefit towards participating and unfortunately, there haven't been many of those recently. They had a new routine at halftime that I really enjoyed. It involved some dancing by members of the band sans instruments and a bunch of marching into new formations. Surprisingly well done, funny and innovative.
At first, I thought the crowd was going to be in the 20K range but a lot of people arrived late and we ended up with around 30K actually there. The vast majority of them were the diehards and I want to credit them for coming out and making a lot of noise to support the team. Our fans are as loud and supportive as any fans in the country. We just don't have a lot of them.
Let's talk football. The first real challenge has been put upon the new offensive scheme in recent weeks. Teams have been blitzing us up the middle relentlessly, resulting in any RB runs getting blown up for losses or no gain. When we try to pass, we have been failing to pick up the blitz, resulting in ED being forced to hit the hot route (with little success) or run for his life. Regardless, this strategy has stopped SU from executing its passing offense and the OL and RBs showed no signs of learning how to pick up the blitzes (there was often more than one).
HCDB responded to this against V Tech by largely running sets with no one in the backfield except ED. The RB remained in the game to keep an extra LB in the game but he was usually set wide, beyond a hash mark, which coupled with the presence of 3 or 4 WRs split wide,served to open the middle of the field,
SU then attacked that weak area relentlessly with many passes, especially on key plays. To keep the V Tech defense honest and LB heavy, SU continued to run the ball regularly with ED. He did a good job. Rarely broke open big runs but consistently got 4 or 5 yards; enough to avoid clear passing situations. The staff continued to pay games with the snap count, mixing in fake handclaps from ED on occasion to prevent V Tech from jumping the count. If a Hokie jumped, Byrne would snap it immediately to get a free play. Good coaching adjustments from the staff.
They also ran a few plays to take advantage of the aggressive Hokie defense, especially their safeties, which resulted in a couple of long TDs early. Great throw by ED to Phillips on one, great execution by the team on the Strickland pass to Estime.
Great game by ED, who was hit hard many times by Hokies but kept playing, and kept producing, all game long. This was the first game where the offense played well for four quarters (I think we only punted 3 times). Good to see.
But the biggest revelation last night was the performance of the defense. Early in, it looked like V Tech felt they had a major speed advantage and they attacked the SU defense with sweep plays a lot. The defense did a fine job here. They tried to impose their will running up the middle too, and got utterly dominated with that strategy. How did SU shut down the Hokie running game?
It was a team effort. Getting Slayton and Samuels back inside helped a lot. The LBs were really good filling gaps, helped by the DL that occupied their blockers and even got penetration at times. And then there was Ellison, flying around at warp speed, knocking 230 RBs backwards with ridiculous hits. But everyone played well on this day.
Was.not impressed by the VT RBs, who were slow and not very agile. One was tackled by his hair early in the game and maybe lost interest after that. Was not impressed by their WRs. Number 1 is a nice player. Number 7 was big but awkward and looked more like a TE playing out of position. Then they had a little guy who looked like a water boy. Appeared to be about 5'6 and perhaps 150. He could run and actually had a couple of nice receptions.
Their QB was big and relatively agile but pretty slow footed. Fell on a key short yardage play, made a awful fumble that ended the game. He made good throws over the middle but could not throw the long ball and wasn't very good throwing to the sidelines either. He was, in short, no ED.
I thought Fredericks did a good job filling in for Hudson at CB. He has the size we have been looking for here. And the JUCO DE did well too, especially against the run. Williams provided deep support as needed and made a great play to get a pick in the end zone during a wild end to the first half. In short, players were where they were supposed to be consistently. What a difference it makes.
The special teams were, for the first time this season, truly special. The Hof has been much better since going rugby style with his punts. Far fewer shanks, and a lot more height and distance. The coverage teams have been terrific, led by George Morris, who is playing like a man possessed. So glad he has been able to get on the field and contribute his senior season. Cole was 1 0f 3 kicking FGs but they were all long and he made one. His kick offs were good and he also made all his PATs.
The V Tech punter was good, as was their punt coverage unit, which was all over him on almost every punt. But the one time their punter screwed up and kicked a line drive to Estime, he made perhaps the play of the game, getting 20 big yards to set up SU for a score at a crucial point in the game.
This was a big win for the program. Let's hope it was a turning point rather than just an oddball good game out of the blue. It is probably too early for this but on this morning, a Syracuse fan can dream.
War Damn Otto!
