2021-2022 4th Annual Cali Awards**** | Syracusefan.com

2021-2022 4th Annual Cali Awards****

Trueblue25

Cali Award Magistrate; 2023 Cali Award Rushing Yds
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Have to apologize to the Football Board. This thread’s well overdue. Happy to say though I had a timely, and positive, change in career that’s taken up a lot of my time since last Fall. Helped take my mind off the pain of just missing the bowl season again, but hey we like to look on the bright side here on the Cali Board.

The bright side is, much of what’s ailed us over the past couple seasons has been addressed aggressively. AD John Wildhack has opened the athletic programs wallet increasingly, and has continued to grant Dino his trust.

This has resulted in the additions of Coaches Anae, Beck, Ligashesky, Johnson and others into the fold.

The AD has provided the program with the means to compete with the P5. Now its time to see if Dino’s blend of herbs and spices is as delectable as the Colonels.

I won’t dwell too much on last season. It was hard to watch. I’d sum it up as a lot of missed opportunities. To me, it was clear that Syracuse’s offense lacked a true identity. Looking back on our cali predictions, it’s clear there was no cohesive plan/structure for last years offense and we really owe the wins we had to our defense and the grit of players on O like Shrader and Tucker.

Though we had the top running back in the nation, it still seemed like we kept the training wheels on for much of the season. This resulted in inexcusable losses to Rutgers, FSU and yes I’ll say it… Clemson.

We were a bowl team limited by unimaginative, vanilla, bad playcalling from the O. I don’t think it earns any sugar coating. It was bad.

With that said, lets get to the awards..

*drumroll*

First category was Yards passing. The board heavily favored the prodigal son, Tommy DeVito. Tommy, though a good teammate and gifted, never quite panned out and we witnessed his career at Syracuse fizzle out with a whimper. I wish him well at Illinois. From the end of Tommy’s time arose the soft spoken lion from North Carolina. Garret Shrader.

Shrader led our team in passing with 1,445 yards. This wont light up the stat sheet, and at times was downright painful to watch. He did hit some big throws (Tech) in big moments though.

This Cali Award goes to orangeinohio having guessed Shrader for 2,101 yards. He narrowly beat me in this category, but I will allow it since I won an iggy this year and will settle for being a genius in one sport. Congratulations sir, and may Shrader find himself on the higher side of your prediction this year.

______________

Next Category is passing touchdowns. Again, the board was just disgustingly inaccurate for the most part. Shrader led again here with just 9 passing touchdowns.

We should all feel bad and Im sure most of us do.

You know who doesn’t feel bad? orangeinohio and suorange08 . Both contributors were the closest in this category. Each having guessed Shrader for 12.

This will force us to go to the tie breaker. Neither of the two foresaw Wake being the most attended home game, both guessed Clemson. This Cali will then go to suorange08 as his figure (32,440) was closest to the actual figure (36,670) for the Clemson game. Congratulations sir!

______________________

Next category is Yards Rushing

WOOOHOOOOOO

Our lord and savior Tucker blazed over the regular season with 1,496 yards on the ground. Not one prediction had him over 1,300. Forgive us Sean, we will never underestimate you again. We are pleased with your performance.

This award will go out to JackBauer44 as he guessed 1,288 yards. Jack’s a long time contributor who has some great takes/contributions each season. Its no surprise he picks up the hardware here. Congrats!

_______________

The next three categories will not be awarded this year, as not one prediction even guessed the correct player. Not shocking as, again, our offense lacked any visible identity or cohesiveness.

Rushing Touchdowns: Shrader 14 (believe he set the record for a QB here at Syracuse)

Receiving Yards: Jackson 389

Receiving Touchdowns: Jackson 3

With a new year comes renewed hope. We pray to you Coach Anae. Please bring us some form of an acceptable air attack. Help us Obi Wan, you’re our only hope.

Cali Awards to be continued later…
 
For defense.

First category is total tackles. Though Thompson was our top rated tackler (elite rating), and Wax started the year hot, our team leader Mikel Jones finished ahead of both with a total of 109 tackles. Easily the heart and soul of the team, Jones is a leader on and off the field. We’re blessed to have him back. He’s a team guy and a winner.

One poster guessed 110, OttoinGrotto , and another guessed 108, UpstateSM .

Grotto takes home this award as his tie breaker was “closer”, though neither guessed the correct home game. Nevertheless this Cali has be :gavel’d:

Congratulations!

___________________

Next category is total sacks.

The leader was Roscoe with 8.5. Yet another transfer Dino absolutely nailed. Hopefully, like Alton, Roscoe gets his shot in the league. His height’s working against him but he’s got pro-like burst off the edge.

kirbivore takes this Cali. He guessed Roscoe for 9. Lets all hope the pass rush continues to improve, as its altogether been fairly disappointing since 2018. Last year showed great improvement with Roscoe, Marlowe, Thompson, Kingsley and others notching multiple sacks. Congrats kirbivore!

_______________________

Next is total interceptions. In the eternal spirit of Cali, several contributors predicted the frosh Duce to lead the team. Duce ended the season with 3 picks, including a highlight reel diving grab at FSU.

LeMoyneCuse
orangenauburn
FasterCuse
sutomcat

…and yours truly each guessed Duce for 5. This brought us to the tie breaker where yet again NO ONE guessed the Wake game so orangenauburn takes this cali having guessed closest to the correct Clemson figure. Dude’s mantle must be getting full of cali’s at this point. I bet Babers checks his predictions and holds it closer than Athlon’s or Steele’s.

___________________

No award will be awarded for TFL as Roscoe led the squad with 12.5 and no one predicted he’d be the leader.

_____________________

Season Record 5-7

This award goes to suorange08 as several contributors predicted this record but he won the tie breaker with the most accurate figure. Congrats sir! Hoping you predict multiple more wins this year.


_____________

Points Scored (Team) 299

Brutal. Absolutely brutal. Thank god we’ve seen some staff attrition on this side.

This award will go to SUDadx2 having amazingly predicted 300, just 1 point off for you SU grads who aren’t as adept at math as us from UB. Man I hope we get so more optimistic predictions towards 400 this year.

________________

Points Allowed 316

Not bad and this could have been even lower. Coach White rolled out an energetic, smash mouth defense that too often fell victim to short drives by our offense. This leads to owwies and defenders playing winded or at 50%. All said, 316 is not bad.

This award goes to orangenauburn again. Goodness, this guy may actually be a genius. Is that you Babers? Show yourself!


That includes this years awards ceremony! Congrats to the winners and keep your heads up everyone, there’s reason to be optimistic!
 
Courtney Jackson absolutely bamboozled us
 
Happy Best Day Ever GIF by Disney Channel
 

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