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Message: [QUOTE="CusefanATL, post: 2209853, member: 853"] Ha. I am no Tomcat - And I had a cocktail or 3 so my memory wont be as sharp, but here goes. This was my 1st real event since moving back north. I would peg events like these and easier access to Dome games as a solid 50% of the reason I gave the OK to move "home" reception hour was nice - they had a really nice patio overlooking a green and the weather was perfect. We bee lined to the bar (realized it was hard cash only and had to make an ATM pit stop) grabbed a Southern Tier IPA and relaxed a bit outside. Had a really nice convo with Q and his DBO Cedric. Q is really excited about the upcoming class, ranked #2 in the country. They were talking about pipelines and AAU and I pretended to know more about his program than I probably do. But he was really a great guy. Stylish as always. Just as the cocktail hour was ending, Wildhack stopped over and said hello. I thanked him for the just announced football schedule which by the way is outstanding. WHen have we even known 4 home games this early? And when have those 4 all been 3:30 or 7 pm games. He said there was a lot of negotiating going on. He did warn us of some nooners probably coming down the pipeline but we'll take what we can get. My Uncles pledged his Fraternity while he was President and he "remembered" them well. Called their class "unquestionably the best pledge class" the guy knows how to work a room. hors d’oeuvres were a shrimp tempura - too much batter but excellent dipping sauce and a Bruschetta - but not a grilled bread, more more like a flaky pastry which i wasnt keen on. Dinner: I was lucky enoguh to be assigned to a table with Jason Poles, Averin Collier (was a little surprised to see him there), The womens DBO Cedric and our very own [USER=1423]reedny[/USER] which was cool to meet him in person. Averin has a pretty cool business venture that is a recruiting website on steroids. Hope the best for him. Jason was great. I'd met him quickly once before but it was really nice to have an actual convo with him. He has a cool quality about him and is just an all around great dude. The dinner was surprisingly good. I ordered the salmon against my better judgement. Salmon is always hard to mass prep - but they did a really good job with mine. It wasnt over cooked and it was very flavorful. My wife had the chicken and didnt complain so i consider that a win :) The distinguished Alum recipient Jaime Saunders is a pretty amazing person. There arent words to justify her work and mission but here is a good article: [URL="http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/lifestyle/her/2014/10/20/woman-watch-jaime-saunders/17604185/"]Woman to watch: Jaime Saunders[/URL] Q&A: The Emcee, author Scott Pitoniak, was overall good but 1 of his first questions to Dino was regarding patience to let Dino get rolling. I took it as kind of awkward and almost obvious. Im pretty confident Wildhack isnt going to make any brash decisions and Dino has years to turn this around. This was a complete overhaul, not like Shafer who was a continuation of the regime. And Dino has been in the job for 1 year with a half of a recruiting class seeing the field. I just didnt think the question fit the mold or timing. If this event was next year and we are coming off of another 4-8 season, maybe. I thought Dino and Wildhack did a really good job of answering. Dino said that his goal is to win every game in front of him. Wildhack said he's studied tons of college, pro football and basketball teams and very few are successful constantly churning and burning coaches. Q talked about "taking their lungs away" and how it propelled them to beating South Carolina in the last 4 minutes. Dino is stealing that line. Dino referenced the Clem-Ala champ and how Bama dominated plays 1-25 and even 26-50. 51-75 was a little more even but by play 99 clemson was kneeling. I thought that was a really good way to describe was Q was talking about. Dino was embarrassed to be the only coach with a losing record in the ESPN coaches war room. Wildhack said it was just a "coincidence" that Dino was invited in. 1 of the guests (i think he may have been a former football player, but he was on oppo corner and i didnt recognize him) commented that Dino was the best sounding coach and the least "meat headed" which got some laughs. They talked about the locker room. WIldhack had to convince Dino to let the ESPN camera in. Dino claims that he forgot the camera was in there at the time but was glad with the aftermath. His daughters called to tell him he was trending. Dino had to ask if that was good or bad. Pitoniak was hammering Dino with Tommy Devito questions. Dino answered 2 - 1 about his loyalty after he blew up the recruiting charts - and then deflected, said he doesnt normally talk about just 1 player and listed all 5 QB's and said they wont be driving a hatchback pinto, rather a cadillac and they all better know how to properly drive it. The QB in his system is an extension of the coaching staff on the field. I thought Dino marvelously answered those questions. Andre Fontenette was there and asked a question about former players being more welcomed back - which kind of caught me off guard because this was a spectrum TV event and Andre is on 1 of the shows (at least he was with time warner, i assume he makes the transition) would seem weird to me if he didnt feel welcome. Anyway Dino said 1 of his concerns is that he doesnt have a Cuse family member on coaching staff but all alums are family and he wants them to feel welcome. Wildhack said something very similar. Both sounded genuine. Will be interesting to see if that improves. At dinner Collier was joking that they only way he can get a Cuse hat now is to buy it at Mannys. Someone asked about the 'taking their lungs away' concept and if they practiced differently. Dino said yes but that he wouldn't talk about it on TV. Too paranoid. Some basic chatter about Dome Reno and Facilities. Nothing Groundbreaking to report. They asked about attendance at the Dome - they want more butts in the seats. They are working on it and IMO have done a fantastic job with the new pricing model. Dino talked about how much of an advantage it can be for his Defense. Ended with about 5 or 6 band members playing the fight song and the alma mater. I got 2 or 3 min to talk to Dino after then event. Talked a bit about recruiting and attendance and how I think he is meant for this job. I would love to have a few beers with that guy. Like Jason Poles, has that special quality that you just want to hang out with him. Overall, great experience. Attendance was on the lighter side than what I would have expected. We would have had the same type of crowd in Atlanta that we did in Rochester even though the alum base is at least 5x as big here. Probably 80-100 total people and 25 were from SU. [/QUOTE]

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