Then and Now - Football

[SWC75]

It’s time for my annual comparison of what I said in August about the forthcoming season and what actually transpired. The Italics are my quotes from my 2016 SU Football Preview and the normal font are my comments now, (as of November 30, 2016).

About the team in general:

First, regarding my avatar change: The image is from my favorite-all-time TV series, “The Fugitive”. The man is Richard Kimble, who is looking forward but isn’t sure exactly what he sees. Is it the one-armed man, and possible salvation or is Lt. Gerard, and possible disaster? I don’t know what we are going to see this fall so this image came to mind.

The uncertainty was justified as we had a very bumpy ride and aren’t sure where we are really going at this point, although we remain hopeful.

Babers brings a system that had worked, in fact worked miracles, at his other jobs and he fully expects the same thing to happen here. And he brings key members of the coaching staff that worked those miracles so he doesn’t have to just pick-up guys form the scrap heap or promote people to positons they’ve never had before.

Babers retains his confidence, at least publically and, as long as he remains confident, we have reason to continue to believe in him. Next year will tell us a lot about what is really happening or not happening. And if it’s not happening, his confidence will either fade or ours in him will. But if things go well, our confidence will turn into belief.

I’m optimistic about the successful tenure but not about the quick-turn-around…. But this isn’t FCS and it isn’t the MAC. He’s not playing Austin Peay or Kent State. I know Baylor did very well in the Big 12 but I don’t think the Big 12 was all that strong for a Power 5 conference in the Art Briles Era- Texas and Oklahoma were down and Nebraska and Missouri were gone. And Briles went 4-8, 4-8, 7-6 before a 10-3 breakthrough. I think at the very least the Babers tenure here will follow the Briles pattern, possibly be more difficult than that. One poster said “This year our opponents will never know what hit them!” They may not know because it may not hit them yet.

I think it hit them a few times this year- in the Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh games, as well as the first quarter against South Florida and Connecticut and the first half against Notre Dame and the second quarter against Louisville. The key was moving the chains. We wore down a very good Virginia Tech team by moving the chains and tiring them out to the point where we owned them in the fourth quarter. We did the same thing to Pittsburgh. We lost the Pitt game by playing no defense whatsoever. That needs to be addressed. But the offense we played in those two games was a vison of what is to come.

In fact, let’s look at the quarterly breakdown of the scoring in this year’s games:

COLGATE…………………… 7-7 13-0 6-0 7-0
LOUISVILLE……………….. 7-28 14-7 7-7 0-20
SOUTH FLORIDA……….. 17-0 0-28 3-7 0-10
CONNECTICUT………….. 14-0 3-14 7-3 7-7
NOTRE DAME……………. 13-23 14-10 0-14 6-3
WAKE FOREST…………… 2-0 7-14 0-0 0-14
VIRGINIA TECH………….. 7-3 10-0 0-6 14-8
BOSTON COLLEGE……… 7-3 7-7 7-7 7-3
CLEMSON………………….. 0-10 0-20 0-14 0-10
NC STATE…………………… 7-0 3-14 10-14 0-7
FLORIDA STATE………….. 0-14 7-7 7-21 0-3
PITTSBURGH……………… 14-14 7-21 13-21 27-20
Totals………………………… 95-102 85-142 60-114 68-105

There’s not exactly a trend of the other team weakening as the game goes on because of our pace. I think the difference in depth, augmented by our injuries, (which is itself related to depth), accounts for that. I think next year we can look forward to more of a trend of improving as the game goes along. It would also help if we would accomplish something at the beginning of the second half. In 12 first possession of the second half we produced one touchdown, one field goal, seven punts, one failed fourth down and two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, giving us a net of three points in 12 possessions. . Dino needs to work on his half-time speeches. At least we are on Briles’ schedule with 4 wins in the first season. Can we do better than that in the second season?

 

[SWC75]

About the Offense:

The key player in the new offense will be the quarterback. The incumbent is Eric Dungey, who came in as a true freshman when Terrell Hunt went down on the ninth play of the opener. Hunt had had a shaky season in 2014 and even in those 9 plays, (against a bad FCS team, Rhode Island), was playing poorly. Dungey came in and by the end of that game it was obvious that he was an up-grade. He seemed calmer and more poised. He seemed to be able to read the defense better. He didn’t have a rifle arm but threw a very catchable pass. He was mobile and could improvise when he had to.

One downside, and I think it will be a factor this year because of all the sideline passes in Baber’s offense, is that those catchable balls were also available to be caught by the other team on sideline plays where you’d want your quarterback to fire the ball past the defender, who will have nothing in front of him but the goal line if he could get to the ball. It was a ticking time bomb all season and it finally exploded in the Louisville game when Trumaine Washington gave the Cardinals a lead they never surrendered with a 39 yard pick six.

I needn’t have worried: We threw two pick sixes this year but Dungey authored neither of them, (Wilson threw that pass that bounced around vs. Clemson and wound up in the wrong end zone and Mahoney had the second vs. Pitt.) Dungey showed a good command of the offense and made all the throws necessary, (although he wasn’t our best player: Etta Tawo was). But…

Another ticking time bomb was Dungey’s health. Like a lot of young quarterbacks he liked to get out and use his legs and challenge the defense.

The bomb went off against Clemson when, on what appeared to be a planned run, Dungey got hit from two different direction and suffered what looked something like whiplash. It was Dungey’s 125th and last carry of the season, far more carries than Babers had intended, (he says he prefers passing quarterbacks to running quarterbacks as they don’t get beat up so much.) it cost us Eric’s services the last three games and may have imperiled his career.

That left it to Zach Mahoney: He’s a dual threat quarterback with a stronger arm than Dungey’s but he doesn’t have Dungey’s touch, especially on the shorter throws and doesn’t have his accuracy. Dungey also knows the offense better. I don’t know that Mahoney is the type of QB Babers is looking for, (in his offense, they QB doesn’t run the ball much). But it’s good to know that we have a back-up quarterback who allows us to hang in there against top teams.

We didn’t exactly hang in there against Clemson, NC State and Florida State but Mahoney helped us put 61 points on the board against Pitt. There’s no reason to alter the above assessment.

The Syracuse passing records are: 471 attempts, 294 completions 3,749 yards,26 touchdowns, (all Ryan Nassib 2012). Hopefully none of those will be the record after this season. They had better not be if we are to have a good year.

I wouldn’t call what we had a good year but our final passing numbers, between Dungey, Mahoney and Austin Wilson were: 332 of 522 (63.6%), 3855 yards, 24TDs, 13 int. Dungey before his injury was 230 of 355 (64.8%) for 2,679 yards, 15TDs, 7 interceptions. He was on a pace to exceed Nassib’s numbers except in touchdowns.

Steve Ishmael has it all as a receiver: hands, moves, speed, size. He should explode in this offense, get some All-America mention and be on his way to the NFL….. A graduate transfer from Maryland, Amba Etto-Tawa, (a native of Oman - at the corner of the Arabian Peninsula- name pronounced AUM-buh EH-ta.), will be in the mix. He started 15 games for Maryland in three years and caught 61 passes for 938 yards and 3 scores, including the SU game in 2013 where he had 6 catches for a career-high 103 yards. He had fallen on the Maryland depth chart. it will be interesting how much play he gets here. He’s got good size at 6-2 202 and speed at 4.4.

Etta Tawo (the correct spelling) had the season I hoped Ismael could have and then some: 94 catches for 1,482 yards and 14TDs, including 5 in the last game. Ismael seemed lost in the shuffle but still had a productive year with 48 catches for 559 yards but only 1TD. Can he become next year’s Etta Tawo – or can we find another among the grad transfers or JUCOs?

But you need more than one guy. The idea is to flood the defense with receivers so they can’t concentrate on just one guy. The depth chart actually lists four wide receivers along with a quarterback, a tight end and five linemen. That’s 12 guys so it has a good chance to work. The primary options besides Ismael last year were Brisley Estime and Erv Phillips….(Estime) He’s not the natural receiver Ismael is but he’s a threat to break it any time he gets his hands on the ball….(Phillips) Phillips started out as a running back. He’s listed as 5-11 180 but seemed to me to be about the same size as Brisley. He doesn’t have Brisley’s speed, (4.58 in the 40) but he can turn on a dime and knows how to zig-zag through the defense. Like the SB, he’s not a natural receiver. He was a running back as a freshman and was a “slot back”, a hybrid runner-receiver last year. The question is: can he beat out guys who were recruited as wide receiver? Like Estime, once he gets the ball, he can make things happen, but does it with his moves.

Phillips proved to be a very reliable possession receiver. He had an incredible year in his own right with 90 catches for 822 yards and 6 TDs. He was particularly effective on third down and at the goal line. Brisley never became the break-away threat on passes that he is on kick returns, catching 48 balls for 518 yards and 3 scores. But together they gave Dungey and Mahoney an excellent quartet of threats the defense had to worry about.

Jordan Fredericks made it clear early last year that he was our best running back and went up the depth chart the way he ran down the field: like a bullet. He’s got the perfect body for a modern running back: 5-10, (meaning he can hide behind the linemen) and 215, (meaning he can hit with a thump). He ran a 4.46 forty. He saw the openings and made the right cuts. He ran for 607 yards on only 107 carries, (5.7 a pop). He only scored 4 times but one of them went 75 yards. He also caught 6 passes for 55 yards, one for a score. That’s just the beginning for him. He has “feature back” written all over him and must be drooling at the thought of a defense spread out by the pass.

This is the great mystery of the season. Fredericks was relegated to second string in the spring and then became third string behind freshman Moe Neal in the fall. Neal show flashes of speed but as Babers admitted, “He’s still got a high school body”. Dontae Strickland was the starter and struggled mightily to make any headway as a ball carrier, averaging 3.5 yards per carry. Fredericks, when he did carry the ball looked much the same as he had the year before, averaging 5.0 yards per carry. Babers dismissed this as being late-game heroics in games that had been decided. There was speculation that he’d shown up over-weight and thus gotten off to a bad start with the coaches, and/or that he hadn’t learned the offense and didn’t know how to call out the blocking schemes, which the back does in Baber’s offense.

Whatever the problem was, it deprived us of what was clearly our best runner and we never did get any kind of consistent running game going. This had a domino impact on the team. Because we couldn’t run the ball effectively, it became easier to defend the pass and we faced more third and long situations, which allowed the defense to take a bead on our quarterbacks, who were sacked 38 times. It also caused the staff to draw up more running plays for the quarterback in order to get some deception and versatility into the rushing attack. It was on one such play that Dungey got injured. The lack of a running attack made it harder to “move the sticks” and caused us to punt 80 times, (13 more than the previous year under the punt-happy Shafer). It also made it difficult to punch in the touchdowns once we got in the red zone and the pass defense had less territory to cover. And, in turn, these problems made it more difficult for our defense.

Coaches do things for actual reasons. If we don’t know the reason, it doesn’t mean there isn’t one. The less logical the decision seems to us, the better the reason is likely to be. Still, Babers desperately wanted a running game. He said that it’s necessary in football to run the ball and stop the run so many times, he sounded like Vince Lombardi. And it just seemed to many of us ignorant fans that the answer he was looking for was sitting right there on his bench.

The design of the running game seemed faulty as well. For much of the season we tried to establish the run with a draw play in which the ball was immediately given to the running back and the quarterback made a show of passing a phantom ball afterwards. This never fooled the defense and the plays repeatedly went nowhere. A draw play, unlike a normal running play, has to be set up by the pass first but we were trying to use it to set up the pass. I realize all teams want a balanced offense but I had assumed that Baber’s system was to come out passing and use that to spread out the defense and then run the ball in the gaps that opened up as they tried to cover all the receivers. For much of the year we were in “run first, then pass” mode and I never understood why. We had some success with this in the first quarter against USF but the other times when the offense functioned well, (Connecticut in the first quarter, Notre Dame in the first half, Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh), we came out firing and it was much more effective. We passed more and ran better because of it.

Then there is my perennial pet peeve about the number of backs in the backfield. I maintain that you can do anything the Babers offense is trying to do with two backs in the backfield because those guys can both catch passes, even running pass patterns from the backfield to do it. But they can also be available to block for the quarterback, (and our guys needed it), and for each other and to run the ball. The defense doesn’t know who you are going to pass to and that’s a good thing. Why wouldn’t it be a good thing for them not to know who would be running the ball? In fact this was acknowledged when the coaching staff started using the quarterback as the second running back, (with eventual disastrous

Results for the quarterback). They needed that second runner. The most amazing thing was when we got to the goal-line early in the season, we were still in the shotgun with one or no backs at all because we had no running package for goal line situations.

One poster suggested that it won’t matter what happens up front because we’ll get the plays off so fast and get rid the ball so fast that the blocking won’t matter. That’s as naïve a statement that has ever been uttered about the game of football.

As we found out. It doesn’t matter what offensive concept you have: you’ve to win the war up front to be really successful.

We’ve certainly got size upfront, based on the spring depth chart, (the fall one isn’t out yet). The projected starters are 6-5 318 Michael Lasker and 6-7 330 Jamar McGloster at tackles, 6-4 300 Aaron Roberts and 6-3 321 Omari Palmer at guard and ‘little’6-3 284 Jason Emerich at center. That averages 6-4 311 pounds.

But Babers wasn’t satisfied with dimensions. He wants muscular development and quickness and that will take more and better recruiting and physical training to achieve.

I suspect the younger guys on the line may eventually prove to be superior to the older guys but we’ll be going mostly with the older guys to start with. Having first time starters at both tackle positions is a concern. Those are the key guys in keeping pass rushers out of the backfield and quarterbacks healthy. Hopefully the emphasis on conditioning will give our guys an edge, as well the hurry-up offense and the quick throws. But if we have problems up front, like every other football team on the planet, we are going to have problems moving the ball with any consistency. A hurry-up offense is a grand idea but if you don’t move the chains, all you are going to do is punt quickly. And with a new punter and our defense, we need to avoid that.

This unit and the defensive backfield, (arguably the two most important units on the team) got wiped out with injuries. Emerich and Palmer went out at mid-season and never came back, prematurely ending their careers here. At one point we were down to our third string center, which is critical as we are always in the shotgun. If the snap isn’t true, the timing of the plays will be off from the beginning – as it was throughout the NC State game. The group also had awful problems with false starts. We had as many as 9 in a game. That’s critical because when you depend primarily on a short passing game, it’s all about getting first downs and when you have to get 15 rather than 10 yards to do it, the game gets hard. And we made the game harder than it needed to be many times this season.

 

[SWC75]

About the Defense:

People are abuzz about the new offense Babers and his men are putting in but he’s also putting in a new defense and that’s just as important. It will be a very different defensive concept than we’ve seen in recent years. For years before Scott Shafer got here, we were in “read and react” mode essentially letting the other team run plays like they were diagramed on the blackboard and then just trying to get in their way. I and other Syracuse fans got so sick of that. The best teams play “atomic football”- go right at ‘em on offense and defense. Get plays off fast and get the ball moving down the field fast, (which seems to be Baber’s plan) on offense. Invade the backfield and destroy plays before they get started on defense. When Shafer came in, we started playing atomic defense and it was wonderful. Sometimes you give up big plays but you make big plays and so intimidate the offense that they come apart as the game progresses.

Baber’s crew prefers the “Tampa 2” look, which uses both linebackers and D-backs in coverage and relies almost entirely on the front four to pressure the other team. The concept is to force the other team to make incremental gains and progress downfield slow, (while we score quickly). Also, it’s difficult for mediocre college teams to run 10-12 plays in a row without making a big mistake. It’s been a very successful concept against Syracuse in recent years as we’ve had mediocre or worse offensive teams. But the good teams can do that very well. The power running teams, in particular, will be more than willing to take on the 4 defensive linemen, get 5 yards a play and keep our offense off the field. Our front four will not remind anyone of the Fearsome Foursome of the Rams or the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh. We are pretty good at tackle but have nearly a void at both end positons. I’ll state this: if are weak at both offensive tackle and both defensive end positons, you aren’t going to have much of a season. You won’t be able to pressure the other team’s backfield and you won’t keep them out of yours.

The defense looked great against Colgate. It wasn’t just “read and cover”. They stayed in their lanes, kept everything in front of them and closed quickly to make gang tackles. There was an internet video at that time about how the team was learning “Hawk tackling”, the type used by that great Seattle Seahawk defense. It was about avoiding head tackles and wrapping up, right from an old-time instruction manual on how to play football- or rugby, from which American football evolved. It looked good. But when I called Baber’s show he said that we still heed to go straight in and hit people higher to push them back if it’s a short distance to the first down or the goal line.

All that optimism about the defense vanished when Louisville scored three times in their first five plays, including a 72 yard pass, a 61 yards pass and a 72 yard run. Lamar Jackson threw the passes and made the run. He did the same thing to Florida State the next week. Maybe it was just about his great talent? No. The trend all season was that if the opposition didn’t have superior offensive talent, we could stay in the game with them but if they did, we just couldn’t keep up. The defense seemed to be “improving” if we played a lesser talented team but that illusion would be destroyed when we played somebody really good. And we played a lot of really good offensive teams: Louisville, South Florida, Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida State, Pittsburgh. It became obvious the defense wasn’t going to improve enough o allow us to compete with these teams until we got better players- bigger faster, stronger. Then we can “Hawk tackle”.

A great concern was whether the front line could get sufficient pressure on the opposing backfield to allow the back 7 to make plays, since we at first seemed to be abandoning the blitzing tactics Shafer loved. As the season wore on, we sent more and more players on blitzes to make up for the deficit, which left us even more vulnerable in the backfield. As I’ve often said, any scheme works better with better players. We just don’t have enough good ones right now.

We settled for De’Jon Wilson, a graduate transfer from Colorado who had never started there but played in 22 games and recorded 2 tackles for a loss and ½ of a sack. He didn’t play last year at all. The story is the Buffs switched to a 3-4 defense and Wilson lacked the size for a DE in that set up or the mobility to be a linebacker. Now he’s back at his natural positon.

When Wilson finally got to play in mid-season he was a revelation. He made some of the biggest plays in the Virginia Tech game. In a way, he, on a much lesser scale, was like Etta Tawo: a player who had bene under-used by his former school who blossomed for Syracuse.

That leaves it to the freshman. The most touted one is Jake Pickard. Scott Shafer recruited him away from Wisconsin and Michigan and redshirted him last year. He was the #1 guy at one end positon in the spring. Last year Shafer said of Pickard: "I love his motor...There are times when his technique is absolutely horrendous. But his effort overcomes it. You can coach technique with a kid that has talent and has long arms like he does, but that effort, that high motor is something you can't." He’s now learning his role in the Tampa 2 scheme: “Learning whole new playbook is a lot. Learning the reads is a whole other step,” Pickard said. “Everyone has come into their own of learning reads and learning where the back is and determining what set you’re going to have.” He’ll need to figure it out fast.

PS: “At 6-3 252, Coleman has shown good hips and footwork early in camp.” Good hips are important. Ask Kim Kardasian.

We didn’t see that much of Pickard, who had some injury problems, as did Black, who looked more promising. Coleman appeared to be a coming star.

So the rush defense, while it got worse, didn’t collapse as far as the passing or total defense. Freshman Kayton Samuels, Stephen Clark, Chris Slayton and Anthony Giudice had been thrust into the breach. They actually did pretty well at times but everything fell apart around them. But now they are veterans and must anchor the line. Samuels has “senior size” at 6-0 314. So does Slayton at 6-4 296. Clark is 6-2 287. Guidice is 6- 273. Tyler Cross, who red-shirted is 6-2 279. Per Nunes: “During spring practice, Dino Babers commented that the defensive lineman, especially because they are all so young and inexperienced, are going to need to get stronger in the offseason.” Samuels, Slayton and Clark, at least seem to have heard him.

Brian Ward obviously felt that Samuel, Clark and Slayton were his three best linemen and tried to get them all in the game at once as much as he could, which put one of them at defensive end and eliminated any depth at tackle, Slayton was an emerging star. Clark was solid and Samuels got hurt but was able to come back. They were all sophomores and will be the nucleus of the defensive line as long as they are here. We just need to get more of them.

The one area of the defense we can feel good about are the linebackers- we didn’t lose a single player in this unit from last year’s group. They are led by the man who is the defense’s leader and best player, (with Thompson gone), Zaire Franklin. He started as a freshman in the middle He has good size at 6-0 230, good speed and outstanding intelligence and leadership capabilities. He was voted team Captain as a sophomore, the first in 70 years. He led the team by a wide margin with 81 tackles, including 11 for a loss, 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.

His big problem will be the same as the other linebackers: the Tampa 2 makes the linebackers more like additional defensive backs than, well, line backers. Franklin’s instinct has been to go forward. Now it’s got to be to go backwards. He was limited in spring practice by an injury so his adjustment has been delayed. Weakside linebacker Parris Bennett told Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com: “You definitely need a lot more patience," the junior linebacker said. "We were used to going downhill a little more often in the old defense. In this defense, you need to make sure you see things before you go. So I try to pause and take things in for a split second, then make things happen and just be quick." Can he who hesitates win? "Zaire's definitely a guy who likes to be downhill," Bennett said. "That pass coverage, that deep middle zone is something he had to do every once in a while in the old defense. Now it's a pretty big deal for him, but he's getting used to it."

The outside linebackers can be heavier, "ramrod-type guys," Babers said. Shafer wanted speed rushers. Bennett is 6-0 208. The strongside LB, Jonathan Thomas, is 6-1 209. Marquez Hodge, a starter last year, is 5-11 219. There are no less than eleven other linebackers listed on the squad but only two are listed as over 220 pounds … So we’ve got our biggest linebacker running around trying to cover people and a bunch of guys 10-20 pounds lighter are “ramrod guys”. A classic example of fitting square pegs into round holes. I would think the lighter weighs would make them more effective in coverage, but less so against the running game, so maybe the Tampa 2 will be a better defense for them.

Franklin and Bennett were like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie at the Alamo, running around trying to make plays as things collapsed around them. Both were juniors and I presume they will be back next year to do the same, hopefully under better circumstances. Thomas looked good at times. Hodge, behind Franklin, didn’t play much.

The seniors are Wayne Morgan and Joe Stanard. Morgan was considered a major recruiting coup when we got him and he has played a lot but his star has faded. He came out of the spring listed as second string behind Corey Winfield. One of Baber’s preferences is for his cornerbacks to be “longer and stronger” and Winfield is 6-1 to Morgan’s 5-11. Stanard is 5-10 and the fourth string strong safety. He’s a walk-on who has never played in a game yet.

Neither Morgan, who was injured or Stanard played so we had no seniors in the defensive backfield.

The juniors are Winfield, Scissum and Antwan Cordy. All will play a big roles this year, assume the first two aren’t impacted by their knife injuries. Winfield is probably the best athlete of the bunch, with a 40 inch vertical leap. … Cordy and Scissum are battling it out for the free safety positon. Cordy is small: 5-8 175 but plays big. He’s the team’s biggest hitter on defense. … Scissum is big: 6-2 201. …NFL Draft.com rates him 30th of 122 safeties evaluated, so he’s got what it takes to be a good player.

Winfield played all year and was probably our best corner. He’s just announced he’s going to transfer and won’t be back next year. Scissum saw limited action in 6 games. Cordy got injured against Louisvlle in the second game and never played after that.

The sophs are Rodney Williams, Juwan Dowells, Daivon Ellison, Cordell Hudson and Kielan Whitner, Whitner, Williams and Ellison were 1-2-3 at strong safety at the end of the spring. Whitner played immediately as a true freshman and “led all Orange true freshmen with 33 tackles (23 solo)”. (Cuse.com) …Williams started the first 5 games of the season before being injured. He had been injured in the second game in 2014 and was granted a medical redshirt, thus his ‘sophomore’ status. He’s actually more experienced than that. … Ellison is another Don Bosco guy. He’s on the small side at 5-9 175. He was a big hitter on special teams last year. Shafer described him thusly: "Ellison is just a good football player."

Hudson is #1 at the corner positon opposite Winfield. Like Wayne Morgan he’s only 5-11 but has good jumping ability and has gotten stronger so he can “jam” receivers… Dowells is behind Hudson. He started the last 5 games and wound up with “40 tackles (29 solo) and led the Orange in passes defended (6) and pass breakups (5)”. NFL draft At their request, this network is being blocked from this site. has ranked 45th of 176 cornerbacks evaluated.

Hudson missed 3 games, Whitner 2 and Williams 1. But they and Ellison, who seems like a clone of Cordy, were the heart of the defensive backfield unit. Since they were sophomores, we can expect, (hope?) they can get better over the next two years. Things couldn’t get much worse. Dowells, like Cordy, was injured in the Louisville game and missed the rest of the season. It will be fun next year to see the two pint-sized safeties who hit like linebackers: Cordy and Ellison but whether we can afford to have two short guys in the defensive backfield at once is a serious question.

You can see what the problem was last year: experience, not talent. We just had too many young guys who had to play immediately. Dino Babers did a radio interview I heard today in which he predicted both of the defensive line and the backfield that “in a year or two” they have a chance to be excellent units. He compared it to Novocain: it take a while to take effect. We could have used some Novocain watching them last year. A year of experience and the switch to a zone with the linebackers helping out could make a big difference. So might an attitude change. ”Secondary coach Nick Monroe has preached for every defensive back to do their “one-11th” or their “one-fourth.” Whitner constantly harped on the mantras, symbolizing a player’s need to be responsible for his individual piece of the 11-man defense or the four-man secondary. Among the defensive backs, the saying “We all we got, we all we need” fosters cohesiveness among the unit.” (Daily Orange)

We needed even more Novocain this year. I’ve never seen so many plays where the other team’s player was 50 yards from the goal line and you knew he was going to score. Babers said the offense will “get it” between the 4th and 6th games next year. When will the defense get it?

Like the offense, there’s plenty of talent- and plenty of young talent- in the backfield. It’s all about what happens up front. Both units are full of stallions but the linemen have to open up the gate to the corral so they can prance. The other concern is implementing whole new concepts on either side of the ball. I think we’re going to be inconsistent at best and I really think this defense is going to have trouble stopping teams this year.

Yup.

 

[SWC75]

About the Kicking Game:

Besides being the scene of a never-ending aerial circus, the Carrier Dome should also be heaven for kickers. We’ve had some good ones over the years, and some mediocre ones. We lost one of the very good ones in punter Riley Dixon. He’ll be replaced by redshirt freshman Sterling Hofrichter. Chris Carlson wrote in the Post Standard: “Hofrichter won’t punt the ball as high as Riley Dixon. He won’t punt it as far. He will, however replace the former Syracuse star the best he can.” There’s a ringing endorsement.

He did very well. After an up and down start, they switched him to kicking rugby style and, although I was always afraid he’d get too close to the rushers, (who had more time to get to him), he avoided blocks, (there was one but it wasn’t a full block). And he was able to really boom the ball with the running starts that gave him. He averaged 42.7 yards per punt on the season and 44.6 in the last three games. As has been the case in too many recent seasons, our punting might have been the highlight of the year.

Cole Murphy is the placekicker. He’s been pretty good but not dazzling. . He’s hit 29 of 38 field goals in two years, 76%. He made a couple of 50 yarders two years ago but was 3 for 7 from the 40 or beyond last year.

Murphy got off to a decent start in the Dome games but seemed thrown by having to kick in the outdoors, especially a windy day at Connecticut and in the edge of a hurricane at Wake Forest. He also seemed to have hurt himself at one time, although Babers denied it. He wound up missing 8 of 18 field goals and 4 extra points, a dismal year by modern standards. He’s got another year to redeem himself but Babers need to be looking to recruit a kicker to replace him, possibly before he graduates.

Brisley Estime is the primary kick returning threat. He averaged 18.2 yards per punt return and took two the distance, one from 74 yards out. He averaged 22 yards a kickoff return. With all the exciting runners and receivers we’ve collected we should have plenty of depth back there.

But Brisley proved to be easily our best kick-returner, once again. He never found the end zone but he averaged 17.7 yards a punt return, the third best average in SU history and the highest in FBS this year. The coaches, early on, wanted Brisley to concentrate on his role as a receiver and took him off return duty for a while but realized freshman Sean Riley wasn’t in the same class. Both players are 5-9 but Brisley is a solidly packed 183 pounds and Riley is supposedly 165. Brisley could break tackles that Riley could not and seemed to have more moves as well. Late in the year they realized that the more times Brisley got the ball, the better and had him returning kickoffs as well. Pitt had Quadree Henderson returning both types of kicks all year, (28 kick-offs, 14 punts) and both ran the ball, (54 carries), and caught it, (23 catches ). That’s what we needed to do with Brisley. We did some of it but not enough.

The injury to George Morris hurts our kicking units, as he was one of the most active players covering kick returns. We’ve also got a bunch of guys with the speed and toughness to be “gunners”, so we should be able to find a replacement here. Those same guys might be able to block some kicks. I wish we’d get more aggressive in that department than we have been in recent years. Let’s pull out all the stops.

Overall, I think we’ll at least see “flashes”, (to use a Greg Robinson term), of what we are going to be someday on offense, have a lot of frustration getting off the field on defense but could make some big plays in the kicking game if we choose to go after them. I hope it will be enough.

Morris came back and played well as a gunner. We managed to block 2 kicks in 12 games not enough to matter. We did show flashes on offense. We were great getting off the field on defense. Unfortunately, the other team’s band was playing.

But one thing I said when Babers was hired was that “at least our losses will be more interesting now” – and they were. Next year I want to see more interesting wins. I hope –and think- that this will have been the worst team Dino Babers has in his tenure here and that that tenure will not end any time soon.

 

[SWC75]

I'll do a similar post for basketball after that season is done.