2012 Outlook (Long)

[OrangeBlood]

I know it is very early but I love Cuse Football and already am excited for next year. Marrone needs to prove himself and I think he can with this squad. A lot of talent that is not proven and full of question marks. The offense needs to open it a bit more and hopefully can. The Defense will be 2010 good. bank on it. Please feel free to add in whatever you like. I know i made mistakes in there and am sorry in advance.

QB- The biggest question here is will Nassib be given the job or will he have to earn it? I believe that Kinder and Loeb are not good enough. Hunt is the only hope. I love the kids attitude and athletic ability. Nassib will be solid, but very unspectacular. With Hunt you at least have hope of a future star.
Freshamn: I don't think Broyld ever really gets a true shot at QB. I think he is a DE or TE. Class of 2013 will need a talented QB.

RB- I said it first, next years RB nickname: "Lightning, Thunder and Earthquake" We have Gulley the speed back, Smith the grinder, and Moore the true power back. I really like our RB stable. Bailey will be missed but I think we will be solid here.
Freshman: I would love to land Morris, I think he would contribute as a true. Smallwood i doubt will be here and if he is, I don't think he will contribute. McFarlene is the wild card. I have no clue what he will play but the kid is a playmaker. I would not mind him seeing him at WR.

FB- If you think that Moore is big, wait until you see Tre Burke. I have no clue who will play FB but Burke is my favorite. Could you imagine him and Moore in the same backfield? Nuts.

WR- Lemon will be (unless injured) all time leading receiver at SU. He is an excellent possession receiver and will start. If Sales comes back they could be a decent 1 and 2 punch but I doubt that happens. Grahm and Kobena will likely be slot options with crazy speed. I hope they continue to develop into solid receiving options. West and Foster will fight for #2 spot. Both physical but lack real athleticism. Hale is the sleeper and who i am most excited about. The coaches love him and it seems like he has the ability to be special. Flemming continues to not show much.
Freshman: I really like both freshman. Cornelius and Lewis are both character kids who will be like Lemon, solid possession receivers.

TE- The loss of Provo will hurt the most. I hope that Wales and Stevens can step up and fill the void but i doubt it. The TE will be used much less probably. Max and Louie seem to be blockers only.
Freshman: Best TE class I can remember. Thompson and Parris may both play as true. They are the most athletic TEs we have on day one.

OL- The left side will remain the exact same. Pugh will continue to be all big east and Chibane will be average. I would love to see Trudo push Macky but I doubt it happens. Coach loves Macky. On the right side I believe that Alexander will start at RG and Hickey will start at RT. Hickey will be better than Hay from day one and Alexander will be about the same as Tiller. I think the OL will struggle again to push as long as Macky is the center. Depth is scary inside as Trudo and Foy are only inside depth. On the outside, Phillips and Kurtis will back up. I'm not sure about these two but we will see.
Freshman: I think all the freshman will be good players here. Knapp, Emerich and Palmer will all start eventually. Barrett worries me but is athletic and has ability. Has to add a lot of weight.

DL- Jones will be an AA. He will dominate if healthy all year. The inside will only improve with Crume and Sloan with a full year in system. Goggins and Bromley will start and Boatman may get more time. Welsh will only play specials. On the ends beside Jones there is a lot of questions. Sharpe and Robinson will presumably battle for the starting spot. I honestly think it will be Robinson who starts. Simmons is a huge question mark. If he puts on weight, he may just up end them all and start.
Freshman: Brantley may play as a true, he is that good. Coleman is athletic but is a bit of a project. Barnwell if he qualifies will probably redshirt and is probably a project as well. I think James Washington will play DE. He may get in as a true for rushing specialty. I hope they land another big DE. Manley fits the mold perfectly.

LB- Will be the most improved unit on team. Spruil will start in middle with Lynch on strong side and Davis on weak. M. Davis will play and back up in middle with Vaughn being demoted to special teamer and back up. Diabete will do the same and move to Will. Big question mark is Vigille, what can he do? Will Coker ever see the field again? Not so sure.
Freshman: If Whitehurst stays on board, he will be a great Will here. May push Davis when matures. Owens is extremely underrated and after he puts on weight will be good. What is the deal with Parsons? anyone actually know?

DB- Shamarko will be all Big East. I love this kid. Gives his all to the program. Desir and Wilkes will fight for FS job. Desir has the higher upside no doubt. Eskridge maybe the sleeper but I see him as more of a SS. Maybe push Shamarko to FS? they all will play. I wonder what Shu has? I had very high hopes for him. At corner Anderson and Lyn will start. They will be very formidable. Extremely athletic. Reddish and George will back up and provide solid depth.
Freshman: Whigham after he puts on weight will be special. If we land Morgan, that is one helluva a corner combo. At safety I love Ford. Great kid that hopefully will become a great SS. If McFarlene plays FS, he will be a ball hawk.

Specials- They can only improve. Hopefully we are actually able to return a punt this year. Fisher will be better and Krautman will be all big east. I hope we can get a kid to be a kick-off specialists. We need one.

Who knows what this all means, We have the ability to compete for a BE title and also have the ability to be as bad as 2011. Not sure, spring will sort out a lot.

 

[cuseguy]

I'm glad you like our backs for next year. I'm worried.

 

[orange03]

"a lot of talent"

not sure if serious?

 

[OrangeCrush22]

I'm excited for next year as well.

 

[Cusee44]

Read every word. Thanks for the insight.

I'm so thankful for Krautman. He is the one consistent player we have on the team.
QB: this is undoubtedly the position that we have to worry about the most. I'm hoping that Broyld can bring something special to the table but I see your point about him being a TE. I don't recall what Hunt went for but last I saw, he looked pretty thin. I'm not sure if I want him to run very much as a QB, whereas Broyld, I'm sure he can take some pounding (and not fumble!)

RB: Smith will do wonders and if AAM can drop some weight and lean out with muscle, he'll do some good things for us as well.

WR: My second area of concern. Even with a good qb, he's still a qb and he needs to throw. But what can we do if no one can get open?

Provo: the player that we'll miss the most. No questions asked.

 

[Avatusstone28]

Nice job! How I long for the Syracuse football program to be relevant again ...

Buckle up ... It's going to be a long haul to get there.

 

[OrangeBlood]

"a lot of talent"

not sure if serious?

sarcasm...

 

[qdawgg]

I'm glad you like our backs for next year. I'm worried.

What are you worried for? Smith has shown the 2nd half of the season that he has the potential to be the #1 guy. Prince showed before the injury that he also had a lot of potential. We then have AAM as our 3rd RB with some players coming in.

 

[Scooch]

What are you worried for? Smith has shown the 2nd half of the season that he has the potential to be the #1 guy. Prince showed before the injury that he also had a lot of potential. We then have AAM as our 3rd RB with some players coming in.

I know it's not just SU fans that do it, but man do we overrate our talent. Smith seems... OK. Gulley had a few nice runs. I guess that qualifies as potential. But I see bench kids on many other programs get a carry and they look electrifying. They're only on the bench because the guy in front of them is just a smidge more talented, and usually older.

I mean how many people said even without Sales our WR corps would be good this year? And that the OL would be a strength?

Exactly.

 

[OrangeBlood]

I undoubtedly probably overrated these guys, I think most fans do. It is just that I have to have a little hope... As for the RBs, by no means are they Richardson and Ingram. But, I believe they can play. Gulley was getting better, Smith has shown excellent knee drive and potential and Moore with a year of S/C i can not wait to see how he does.

The biggest concern has to be Wide Receiver, Lemon and maybe Grahm in slot and then who? Foster? West? Hale? I really do not know. It has been Marrones biggest recruiting failure to this point. This offense will not go anywhere until we have play making receivers. I hope to God that Sales comes back and Hale is what the coaches think.

 

[rosconey]

you dont hold alot of water with your coach loves macky stuff-

he only plays because we have no one else-the others have injuries and have been redshirted-

macky will be the long snapper on special teams next year-and maybe the toughest ever because of this season-kid has brains just not alot of the physical stuff

 

[qdawgg]

I know it's not just SU fans that do it, but man do we overrate our talent. Smith seems... OK. Gulley had a few nice runs. I guess that qualifies as potential. But I see bench kids on many other programs get a carry and they look electrifying. They're only on the bench because the guy in front of them is just a smidge more talented, and usually older.

I mean how many people said even without Sales our WR corps would be good this year? And that the OL would be a strength?

Exactly.

Exactly nothing. Your trying to infuse a general summarization of the WR's and OL into my post about the RB's. This has nothing to do with overrating the talent. Smith is a young player who has shown the potential to carry the load, I didn't say he should have been starting all along nor did I imply that he could. He had a very good game and ran well in important situations when we haven't typically seen him in the game. Prince also looked good before his injury and going into next season having him as the 2nd RB is not a bad option.

Saying a player is "good" is not implying that player will win the Heisman - it implies that there won't be as big of a drop-off next year when we no longer have Bailey.

There are a lot of positions that are far more tenuous then the RB position, so there is nothing I said that is overrating anything.

 

[OrangeMuskyFish]

I never expected the year to end like this... I thought my 8-4 prediction was looking pretty good after 5-2. So it's way too early for me to make any guesses at next year's record. What I will predict is that after next year, when we look at the this campaign vs that one, we will be able to reflect on just how much more important it is to have pieces that fit together, than this very vague definition of "talent" that many on this board constantly return to.

 

[fanfanclubclub]

imo, if we are relying on Lemon next year, we are in trouble. I think there is an outside shot Graham would get drafted (believe it or not), but as long as he and Marcus are back, Sales and Graham should form the best 1/2 we've had since Mike/Taj. Lemon is clearly the guy that Nassib is comfortable throwing to, but his upside is limited.

With Lemon and Provo, I think there might be a tendency to overrate them, because their receiving stats compare well with past Syracuse players. imo, our current players have inflated stats somewhat because we moved to a modern passing offense. These guys aren't winning a ton of their matchups. Not sure we will miss Provo all that much.

Hope we can fix the right side of the OLine and run the ball. Not overwhelmed by the RB talent, but maybe a running QB would open up gaps.

I think Shafer will have a lot of talent to work with next year.

 

[orangenauburn]

lemon / sales / graham grade as B- / B / C in talent level

after that it is a whole lot of unknown

 

[lvilleorange]

I think the one guy I'm looking forward to seeing on the field next year is Eskridge. He will be great partnered with Shamarko. We need a field corner, hopefully Lyn takes the next step in his progression. I expect a year of maturity to really help the defense.

Offense is going to take alot of work, I really don't have much expectations. It's scary when your single season completion/yardage leader returns and there's not any sense of optimism.

 

[billorange44]

I know it is very early but I love Cuse Football and already am excited for next year. Marrone needs to prove himself and I think he can with this squad. A lot of talent that is not proven and full of question marks. The offense needs to open it a bit more and hopefully can. The Defense will be 2010 good. bank on it. Please feel free to add in whatever you like. I know i made mistakes in there and am sorry in advance.

QB- The biggest question here is will Nassib be given the job or will he have to earn it? I believe that Kinder and Loeb are not good enough. Hunt is the only hope. I love the kids attitude and athletic ability. Nassib will be solid, but very unspectacular. With Hunt you at least have hope of a future star.
Freshamn: I don't think Broyld ever really gets a true shot at QB. I think he is a DE or TE. Class of 2013 will need a talented QB.

RB- I said it first, next years RB nickname: "Lightning, Thunder and Earthquake" We have Gulley the speed back, Smith the grinder, and Moore the true power back. I really like our RB stable. Bailey will be missed but I think we will be solid here.
Freshman: I would love to land Morris, I think he would contribute as a true. Smallwood i doubt will be here and if he is, I don't think he will contribute. McFarlene is the wild card. I have no clue what he will play but the kid is a playmaker. I would not mind him seeing him at WR.

FB- If you think that Moore is big, wait until you see Tre Burke. I have no clue who will play FB but Burke is my favorite. Could you imagine him and Moore in the same backfield? Nuts.

WR- Lemon will be (unless injured) all time leading receiver at SU. He is an excellent possession receiver and will start. If Sales comes back they could be a decent 1 and 2 punch but I doubt that happens. Grahm and Kobena will likely be slot options with crazy speed. I hope they continue to develop into solid receiving options. West and Foster will fight for #2 spot. Both physical but lack real athleticism. Hale is the sleeper and who i am most excited about. The coaches love him and it seems like he has the ability to be special. Flemming continues to not show much.
Freshman: I really like both freshman. Cornelius and Lewis are both character kids who will be like Lemon, solid possession receivers.

TE- The loss of Provo will hurt the most. I hope that Wales and Stevens can step up and fill the void but i doubt it. The TE will be used much less probably. Max and Louie seem to be blockers only.
Freshman: Best TE class I can remember. Thompson and Parris may both play as true. They are the most athletic TEs we have on day one.

OL- The left side will remain the exact same. Pugh will continue to be all big east and Chibane will be average. I would love to see Trudo push Macky but I doubt it happens. Coach loves Macky. On the right side I believe that Alexander will start at RG and Hickey will start at RT. Hickey will be better than Hay from day one and Alexander will be about the same as Tiller. I think the OL will struggle again to push as long as Macky is the center. Depth is scary inside as Trudo and Foy are only inside depth. On the outside, Phillips and Kurtis will back up. I'm not sure about these two but we will see.
Freshman: I think all the freshman will be good players here. Knapp, Emerich and Palmer will all start eventually. Barrett worries me but is athletic and has ability. Has to add a lot of weight.

DL- Jones will be an AA. He will dominate if healthy all year. The inside will only improve with Crume and Sloan with a full year in system. Goggins and Bromley will start and Boatman may get more time. Welsh will only play specials. On the ends beside Jones there is a lot of questions. Sharpe and Robinson will presumably battle for the starting spot. I honestly think it will be Robinson who starts. Simmons is a huge question mark. If he puts on weight, he may just up end them all and start.
Freshman: Brantley may play as a true, he is that good. Coleman is athletic but is a bit of a project. Barnwell if he qualifies will probably redshirt and is probably a project as well. I think James Washington will play DE. He may get in as a true for rushing specialty. I hope they land another big DE. Manley fits the mold perfectly.

LB- Will be the most improved unit on team. Spruil will start in middle with Lynch on strong side and Davis on weak. M. Davis will play and back up in middle with Vaughn being demoted to special teamer and back up. Diabete will do the same and move to Will. Big question mark is Vigille, what can he do? Will Coker ever see the field again? Not so sure.
Freshman: If Whitehurst stays on board, he will be a great Will here. May push Davis when matures. Owens is extremely underrated and after he puts on weight will be good. What is the deal with Parsons? anyone actually know?

DB- Shamarko will be all Big East. I love this kid. Gives his all to the program. Desir and Wilkes will fight for FS job. Desir has the higher upside no doubt. Eskridge maybe the sleeper but I see him as more of a SS. Maybe push Shamarko to FS? they all will play. I wonder what Shu has? I had very high hopes for him. At corner Anderson and Lyn will start. They will be very formidable. Extremely athletic. Reddish and George will back up and provide solid depth.
Freshman: Whigham after he puts on weight will be special. If we land Morgan, that is one helluva a corner combo. At safety I love Ford. Great kid that hopefully will become a great SS. If McFarlene plays FS, he will be a ball hawk.

Specials- They can only improve. Hopefully we are actually able to return a punt this year. Fisher will be better and Krautman will be all big east. I hope we can get a kid to be a kick-off specialists. We need one.

Who knows what this all means, We have the ability to compete for a BE title and also have the ability to be as bad as 2011. Not sure, spring will sort out a lot.

We will be no better next year. I just can't believe we will be given the talent we have. Kind of like a tootsie roll. It tastes the same now as it does next year.

 

[SoBristol]

We will be no better next year. I just can't believe we will be given the talent we have. Kind of like a tootsie roll. It tastes the same now as it does next year.

We ought to be better on defense, especially at LB. Hard to imagine the specials won't improve.
I go for the tootsie roll theory on the offense as the replacements aren't better than Provo, Bailey & Chew; and the OL might be a wash (except for fewer penalties).

 

[RoysRunts]

Line was Bad... after yesterday Marrone should be ashamed. After the 1st Ilegal Procedure Penalty to cause a 3rd and 10 vs a 3rd and 3 Marrone should have called a timeout and ran on the field,huddled them up and Blasted them. This type of penalty crap has gone on all year and Hay is the Biggest offender...... 2 Coachs on the team who were Offensive Lineman /Coached offensive Line and this foolishness. Same thing happened last year and has carried over to this year.

 

[SoBristol]

Line was Bad... after yesterday Marrone should be ashamed. After the 1st Ilegal Procedure Penalty to cause a 3rd and 10 vs a 3rd and 3 Marrone should have called a timeout and ran on the field,huddled them up and Blasted them. This type of penalty crap has gone on all year and Hay is the Biggest offender...... 2 Coachs on the team who were Offensive Lineman /Coached offensive Line and this foolishness. Same thing happened last year and has carried over to this year.

Right -- no excuses. The OL has been intact since March. No subs, 4 returning veterans. We aren't good enough to overcome all those false start penalties.

Turn-overs cost us that game yesterday, but this team has been on the plus side in turn-overs heading into the Pitt game. Not a repeating pattern or something that can be blamed on the coaches.

But OL play, and mistakes on specials, have been a bad pattern.

 

[Noexcuse]

Defense should be improved next year on an experience basis alone. The one thing that worries me though is that we seem to lose key players every year and the unit falls apart. The depth seems better though. Offense is still a question mark at every unit. Expect a lot of low scoring games.

 

[CuseJo]

What are you worried for? Smith has shown the 2nd half of the season that he has the potential to be the #1 guy. Prince showed before the injury that he also had a lot of potential. We then have AAM as our 3rd RB with some players coming in.

When you compare Jerome Smith to other RBs around the country and RBs that went through here, it is a HUGE question mark. He just finished his second year and he only has about 150 yd rushing yards in his career. He is clearly not good as Delone Carter, Walter Reyes, Diamond Ferri, Curtis Brinkley, Antown Bailey, or Damien Rhodes was after their second year. His strength is power. IMO, he seems to lack speed and vision. Everytime he gets the ball he just goes straight and gets tough yard. that's about it. I haven't seen him use his vision to find daylight to get more yards. Could he improve? Yes. Do I see a featured back who will rush for 1000 yards and help SU become a potential top 25 team? Could you picture him starting at place like VT, GT, UNC, our future opponents? Not so sure. He is a perfect change of pace back but that's about it IMO. I hope I'm wrong on this.
W/o Bailey our RBs must step up big time. I think Bailey, Moore and Smith all split carries. Our new players like McFarlene and Smallwood could unseat them if they are better. Easily a possibility.

 

[qdawgg]

When you compare Jerome Smith to other RBs around the country and RBs that went through here, it is a HUGE question mark. He just finished his second year and he only has about 150 yd rushing yards in his career. He is clearly not good as Delone Carter, Walter Reyes, Diamond Ferri, Curtis Brinkley, Antown Bailey, or Damien Rhodes was after their second year. His strength is power. IMO, he seems to lack speed and vision. Everytime he gets the ball he just goes straight and gets tough yard. that's about it. I haven't seen him use his vision to find daylight to get more yards. Could he improve? Yes. Do I see a featured back who will rush for 1000 yards and help SU become a potential top 25 team? Could you picture him starting at place like VT, GT, UNC, our future opponents? Not so sure. He is a perfect change of pace back but that's about it IMO. I hope I'm wrong on this.
W/o Bailey our RBs must step up big time. I think Bailey, Moore and Smith all split carries. Our new players like McFarlene and Smallwood could unseat them if they are better. Easily a possibility.

I guess we saw a different Pitt game. IMO, he made the right reads and ran with decent speed. He's faster through the hole then DC was and showed more moves then I've seen before. I attribute that to increased playing time in the Pitt game and having the chance to find a rhythm. I'm not saying he is better then DC just that he showed enough that there are other positions I'm more worried about.

 

[kcsu]

I guess we saw a different Pitt game. IMO, he made the right reads and ran with decent speed. He's faster through the hole then DC was and showed more moves then I've seen before. I attribute that to increased playing time in the Pitt game and having the chance to find a rhythm. I'm not saying he is better then DC just that he showed enough that there are other positions I'm more worried about.

I was very impressed with Smith yesterday actually he may be faster straight line speed than baily. He was one bright spot for next year. I really liked what i saw from our D yesterday. Young and made a ton of mistakes but you have to like the future for next year

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

When you compare Jerome Smith to other RBs around the country and RBs that went through here, it is a HUGE question mark. He just finished his second year and he only has about 150 yd rushing yards in his career. He is clearly not good as Delone Carter, Walter Reyes, Diamond Ferri, Curtis Brinkley, Antown Bailey, or Damien Rhodes was after their second year.

He improved immensely from year one to year two, even though he was plagued by injuries when he first came in (torn muscle then at least one concussion, if not two). Maybe the touches at the end of the year will help him into year three.