sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Got to the Fine Lot tailgate about 4:30 pm. Jeremy, Nell. Consig, Nortacuse and Jambalaya had things well in hand. Lots of good food and I saw a lot of OctoberFest beer too. Props to them, we ended up with well over 100 people, which is a really impressive number for a really unattractive opponent (no offense Ram fans).
We got on TV again thanks to Niko. A lot of good talk about football before the game...good times. The rumors were true. They repaved the Fine Lot parking lot. No broken glass, no used condoms, no rotting animal bodies underfoot. It is going to take a while to adjust to the new digs.
I headed up to the Dome around 6:20. The crowd was alarmingly small when I arrived. Not a surprise given the opponent, the weather and the record last season. But sobering nonetheless. Things got before later, but I do not believe we had 25K in the seats. And that includes a big turnout by the students, buoyed by free admission for all frosh.
It was hot and humid in the nether regions of the Carrier Dome. I can confirm that heat rises. There was a lot of sweat in row YY of section 302 and things only got a little better as the outside temperature dropped and fans left in large numbers during the second half. I prefer to think of it as a free sauna; spa treatment at a football game. What a bargain!
The new video they play just before the team takes the field is well done. It pays tribute to the storied tradition of Syracuse football and it does it well. I assume it is Drew that did it. Whoever it was, nice job. Mr Excitement is still around as the PA guy. Appeared to bit a bit more restrained and professional than normal. Might have been a couple of new sponsors, including Cintas. The new turf looks nice, always good to see more orange in the Dome. The SUMB showed an ambitious half time show featuring a bunch of formations and marching. They sounded good. Unfortunately, there were only 8 tubas. Another casualty of the disastrous season of 2014. I like the traditional grouping of the blue shirt with the orange pants, but the decision to use orange for the numbers, couple with the bizarre striping effect Nike imposed on the uniform make reading the numbers extremely difficult. Put aside questions of personal taste; uniforms have to at least be functional and the amateur looking numbers we have now fall short of even that standard.
Before getting into the game , I will note that I have barely read anything on the board, so if I repeat points, I apologize. Sorry also about not posting earlier. Also want to acknowledges nought Hunt got off to a bad start, made a couple bad plays the danger of making definitive conclusions based in our play against an opponent at the level of Rhode Island. Yes, they were really bad. They were small and slow and I don't think they were even well coached. If I were a Rams fan, I would brace for a long season. This might be the worse opponent I have ever seen play in the Carrier Dome against Syracuse.
I am just going to make some general comments on each unit, starting with special teams. I was encouraged with what I saw here. Norton appears to have been assigned the role of kickoff man, and he did okay here, kicking the ball close to or into the end zone consistently. Thought that the speed and athletic ability of the kickoff and punt coverage teams was vastly improved from last year, when severe depth issues and bad coaching decisions led to too many walk-ons and slow footed lineman being on the field. We have a bunch of talented and fast young kids on these units and they looked promising in game one. I assume this is the work on Steve Gregory. I was encouraged to see these developments.
Riley Dixon looks very relaxed and confident out there, had some excellent punts inside the 20. He is capable of getting exceptional hang time on his punts. I think he is our best punter since Pat O'Neill. That goes back a long long time. He is a legit AA candidate at punter. No question in my mind about this. Estime is the most dangerous punt return guy we have had in a very long time and he and Hill? are going to be excellent returning KOs too.
Cole Murphy should be solid as our place kicker and the new snappers looked good too. There is, I think, real cause for optimism here.
Let's talk offense next. Thought Hunt got off to a bad start. Telegraphed a throw that allowed a DE to deflect it and another Ram to get a pick. Threw another pass into coverage where he shouldn't have. On the play he was hurt, he looked sluggish and confused and basically got himself hurt stumbling for no reason. I will always like Terrell fir how good he was to Dan Johnson. He is a genuine good guy and I hate seeing him suffer a season ending injury so quickly, especially as a senior, especially after missing most of last season. Get well soon Terrell.
But as Coach Shafer is wont to say, 'next man up'. I have talked about Dungey before, tagging him as the QB of the future for this program. I am a big fan, but wash oping he could redshirt this season and start for four seasons. I am a big Dungey fan. He has all the things you want from a Q B: size, speed/athletic ability, arm strength, accuracy and intelligence. For these reasons, his ceiling is high; really high.
Even though I like Dungey a lot, I don't think the Hunt injury is a good thing for this season. It is really tough to play at theP5 level as a frosh, especially with a not so stellar surrounding cast. He is going to be severely tested, is going to struggle greatly at times and have his mind blown with some of the things our opponents will throw his way. There are going to be some rough games, not unlike what we saw last season. That is the bad news. The good news is that he should be well prepared foe next season, when I think the program is positioned for a big leap forward on offense and defense. So the Hunt injury will probably cost us a couple of wins this year but result in a couple of additional wins next season. Really hope the OL proves decent enough to allow us to pass and run fairly well. Really hope we prove capable of running the ball this year. Really hope the young receivers can get open and catch the ball this season. Eric is going to need some help in order to be successful this early in his career.
Thought George Morris played okay. With McFarlane out, he got a lot of work. As with the Fort Drum scrimmage, he didn't distinguish himself, though he didn't play badly. As in Fort Drum, Jordan Fredericks looked clearly better. He cuts better, runs with a lot more power and appears to be as fast. Fun player to watch, looks like he is a threat to break a big run every time he touches the ball. He is already 205 pounds; looks like he is going to be a force for the next four years for us. Hill got a lot of work late. Looked good. Runs hard, has speed, though with his size and current weight, I think his contributions this season will mostly be on special teams.
Lester really spread the ball around to the receivers. AC dropped a catchable ball in the end zone on a really nice play from a pressured Dungey. Other than that, good catches by the group. Strickland looks to have more speed than many of the vets. Philips looked really good with limited touches, hope he is going to be okay. The overall speed and athletic ability of the receivers continues to improve. Man, Custis looks like a specimen out there. Would love to see he make a contribution this season.
Thought the OL did okay. The OTs appeared to my eyes to do a better job than the interior guys. Rhody didn't get much of a pass rush from the outside and I though most of the successfully blocked running plays were to the outside. Trudo had at least one bad shotgun snap, where Dungey somehow managed to trap the ball against the side of his helmet. Pass blocking looked solid.
Liked what I saw if Lester's offense. We called off the dogs and put in the second team most of the second half, running the ball a lot, that helped keep the number down but we moved the ball most of the time with a true frosh QB in.
The injury to Hunt is a shame. The road to a bowl game just got significantly harder. If we can slip by WF and CMU with Dungey in learning mode, it will be a beautiful thing. I expect Eric will get better as the season progresses, though his stats might not show it. The biggest thing now is to keep him healthy. If he gets hurt too, Houston, we have a problem. As we found out last season.
We got on TV again thanks to Niko. A lot of good talk about football before the game...good times. The rumors were true. They repaved the Fine Lot parking lot. No broken glass, no used condoms, no rotting animal bodies underfoot. It is going to take a while to adjust to the new digs.
I headed up to the Dome around 6:20. The crowd was alarmingly small when I arrived. Not a surprise given the opponent, the weather and the record last season. But sobering nonetheless. Things got before later, but I do not believe we had 25K in the seats. And that includes a big turnout by the students, buoyed by free admission for all frosh.
It was hot and humid in the nether regions of the Carrier Dome. I can confirm that heat rises. There was a lot of sweat in row YY of section 302 and things only got a little better as the outside temperature dropped and fans left in large numbers during the second half. I prefer to think of it as a free sauna; spa treatment at a football game. What a bargain!
The new video they play just before the team takes the field is well done. It pays tribute to the storied tradition of Syracuse football and it does it well. I assume it is Drew that did it. Whoever it was, nice job. Mr Excitement is still around as the PA guy. Appeared to bit a bit more restrained and professional than normal. Might have been a couple of new sponsors, including Cintas. The new turf looks nice, always good to see more orange in the Dome. The SUMB showed an ambitious half time show featuring a bunch of formations and marching. They sounded good. Unfortunately, there were only 8 tubas. Another casualty of the disastrous season of 2014. I like the traditional grouping of the blue shirt with the orange pants, but the decision to use orange for the numbers, couple with the bizarre striping effect Nike imposed on the uniform make reading the numbers extremely difficult. Put aside questions of personal taste; uniforms have to at least be functional and the amateur looking numbers we have now fall short of even that standard.
Before getting into the game , I will note that I have barely read anything on the board, so if I repeat points, I apologize. Sorry also about not posting earlier. Also want to acknowledges nought Hunt got off to a bad start, made a couple bad plays the danger of making definitive conclusions based in our play against an opponent at the level of Rhode Island. Yes, they were really bad. They were small and slow and I don't think they were even well coached. If I were a Rams fan, I would brace for a long season. This might be the worse opponent I have ever seen play in the Carrier Dome against Syracuse.
I am just going to make some general comments on each unit, starting with special teams. I was encouraged with what I saw here. Norton appears to have been assigned the role of kickoff man, and he did okay here, kicking the ball close to or into the end zone consistently. Thought that the speed and athletic ability of the kickoff and punt coverage teams was vastly improved from last year, when severe depth issues and bad coaching decisions led to too many walk-ons and slow footed lineman being on the field. We have a bunch of talented and fast young kids on these units and they looked promising in game one. I assume this is the work on Steve Gregory. I was encouraged to see these developments.
Riley Dixon looks very relaxed and confident out there, had some excellent punts inside the 20. He is capable of getting exceptional hang time on his punts. I think he is our best punter since Pat O'Neill. That goes back a long long time. He is a legit AA candidate at punter. No question in my mind about this. Estime is the most dangerous punt return guy we have had in a very long time and he and Hill? are going to be excellent returning KOs too.
Cole Murphy should be solid as our place kicker and the new snappers looked good too. There is, I think, real cause for optimism here.
Let's talk offense next. Thought Hunt got off to a bad start. Telegraphed a throw that allowed a DE to deflect it and another Ram to get a pick. Threw another pass into coverage where he shouldn't have. On the play he was hurt, he looked sluggish and confused and basically got himself hurt stumbling for no reason. I will always like Terrell fir how good he was to Dan Johnson. He is a genuine good guy and I hate seeing him suffer a season ending injury so quickly, especially as a senior, especially after missing most of last season. Get well soon Terrell.
But as Coach Shafer is wont to say, 'next man up'. I have talked about Dungey before, tagging him as the QB of the future for this program. I am a big fan, but wash oping he could redshirt this season and start for four seasons. I am a big Dungey fan. He has all the things you want from a Q B: size, speed/athletic ability, arm strength, accuracy and intelligence. For these reasons, his ceiling is high; really high.
Even though I like Dungey a lot, I don't think the Hunt injury is a good thing for this season. It is really tough to play at theP5 level as a frosh, especially with a not so stellar surrounding cast. He is going to be severely tested, is going to struggle greatly at times and have his mind blown with some of the things our opponents will throw his way. There are going to be some rough games, not unlike what we saw last season. That is the bad news. The good news is that he should be well prepared foe next season, when I think the program is positioned for a big leap forward on offense and defense. So the Hunt injury will probably cost us a couple of wins this year but result in a couple of additional wins next season. Really hope the OL proves decent enough to allow us to pass and run fairly well. Really hope we prove capable of running the ball this year. Really hope the young receivers can get open and catch the ball this season. Eric is going to need some help in order to be successful this early in his career.
Thought George Morris played okay. With McFarlane out, he got a lot of work. As with the Fort Drum scrimmage, he didn't distinguish himself, though he didn't play badly. As in Fort Drum, Jordan Fredericks looked clearly better. He cuts better, runs with a lot more power and appears to be as fast. Fun player to watch, looks like he is a threat to break a big run every time he touches the ball. He is already 205 pounds; looks like he is going to be a force for the next four years for us. Hill got a lot of work late. Looked good. Runs hard, has speed, though with his size and current weight, I think his contributions this season will mostly be on special teams.
Lester really spread the ball around to the receivers. AC dropped a catchable ball in the end zone on a really nice play from a pressured Dungey. Other than that, good catches by the group. Strickland looks to have more speed than many of the vets. Philips looked really good with limited touches, hope he is going to be okay. The overall speed and athletic ability of the receivers continues to improve. Man, Custis looks like a specimen out there. Would love to see he make a contribution this season.
Thought the OL did okay. The OTs appeared to my eyes to do a better job than the interior guys. Rhody didn't get much of a pass rush from the outside and I though most of the successfully blocked running plays were to the outside. Trudo had at least one bad shotgun snap, where Dungey somehow managed to trap the ball against the side of his helmet. Pass blocking looked solid.
Liked what I saw if Lester's offense. We called off the dogs and put in the second team most of the second half, running the ball a lot, that helped keep the number down but we moved the ball most of the time with a true frosh QB in.
The injury to Hunt is a shame. The road to a bowl game just got significantly harder. If we can slip by WF and CMU with Dungey in learning mode, it will be a beautiful thing. I expect Eric will get better as the season progresses, though his stats might not show it. The biggest thing now is to keep him healthy. If he gets hurt too, Houston, we have a problem. As we found out last season.
