Are we better?

[Irishsecra1]

I personally think that Gill, and to some extent Cook, are not being given the respect they deserve.
Lets be honest, before Angeli went down, we led the country in passing yards.
Gill especially, and Cook, got a lot of those yards.
Gill was a star in the making in my opinion. That he got Mossed catch was superb.

But once Angeli went down, we literally had no one who could get the ball to our receivers consistently.
NO ONE AT ALL.

I truly think they should be judged on what they accomplished under Angeli, not what they did the rest of the year with the parade of unacceptable QBS in Collins and Filardi. The QBS were so bad it was laughable.

The fact that Ole Miss grabbed both of them speaks volumes.

We can only hope that the new WRS have at least one WR who is close to Gill in their ability, not to mention Cook.

 

[DBCooper]

Defense is a little better. Offense, with the exception of backup QBs< is worse.
Still on the fence if our coaching is better though on the defensive side, there is no way to go but up.

The loss of Gill is huge in my opinion. I fear it will seriously bite us in the butt.
Having a mass exodus from WR starting with Ross is very bad for our program in my opinion.
All our wide receivers are straight up rookies or very little experience.

You are on the fence if our coaching is better? You cant possibly be serious.

 

[PAcuse]

All our wide receivers are straight up rookies or very little experience.

Merriweather -15 TDs
Weaver - was having a great year to the starting QB got hurt
Moore - 2 years at FSU did some game action
Outten - was looking like he would make the two deep at PSU as a Freshman but dealt with injures (that's after PSU brought in 3 starting WRs)
Russell - top 50 prospect in the country
Williams and Russell, Tyshawn both saw a good amount of game action

To me it looks like a good blend of experience in Merriweather and Weaver then brining in a new type of WR corp in what we picked up with the others and left on the roster.
Remember Gill was the only one of the group that we wanted to keep, coaches clearly saw something that was not working in our WR.

So yes we have a few with light experience but you can not call this group "straight up rookies or very little experience"

 

[Irishsecra1]

You are on the fence if our coaching is better? You cant possibly be serious.

Defense should be better coaching wise with the Toledo DC.
But we got rid of our Special Teams Coach and have redone most of our offensive coaches (not including the DC)
On paper, the OL coach should be great but is he now past his prime? He isn't exactly a youngster.

QB coach - on paper seems good but he has bounced around a lot.

With the exception of the Toledo DC and the assistant he brought with him, none of the other coaches
exactly scream big upgrade.

Time will tell.

 

[Ttk.gman2]

Defense should be better coaching wise with the Toledo DC.
But we got rid of our Special Teams Coach and have redone most of our offensive coaches (not including the DC)
On paper, the OL coach should be great but is he now past his prime? He isn't exactly a youngster.

QB coach - on paper seems good but he has bounced around a lot.

With the exception of the Toledo DC and the assistant he brought with him, none of the other coaches
exactly scream big upgrade.

Time will tell.

A coach past his prime?

 

[XC Cuse]

A coach past his prime?

Yea, not sure I see it that way either

 

[upperdeck]

A coach can be past his prime if he needs to recruit and can't do it anymore.

But with Fran thats a lot less of a heavy lift.

 

[MikeSU02]

By the end of the year, we were arguably the worst P4 team in the country.

Our most important guy is a healthy Angeli. Our second most important guy is our backup QB at this point until Angeli is without a doubt 100%. Our third is the new DC.

OL has to be better than the sum of its parts. DL has to be competent.

Not worried about the RBs. Worried about the WRs. Not bc of Gill, but because I need to see who is our Jackson Meeks.

Our core frosh from last year like Samuels and the Canadian Terminator need to get a level better, which I think they will.

Fran has to make his rhetoric a reality this year. I think he will.

 

[buffalorange]

I thought I read that Cuban was sort of late to the IU party, but I agree we need a whale, though Cignetti helps.

I think just having the additional disposable income resulting from the Micron project will help.

 

[Archbold44]

Short Answer: who knows?

Long Answer: I think QB room is better overall. The WRs will go as far as the QBs allow them. Gill and Cook dropped more passes. But they also had more difficult throws to try to catch and much less frequency being involved in the offense.

The RBs are there to run up the middle. Not sure how much $$$ we need to devote to that. So maybe a wash.

I think the OL and defense might be better just in having better coaches.

 

[richmondcuse03]

By the end of the year, we were arguably the worst P4 team in the country.

Our most important guy is a healthy Angeli. Our second most important guy is our backup QB at this point until Angeli is without a doubt 100%. Our third is the new DC.

OL has to be better than the sum of its parts. DL has to be competent.

Not worried about the RBs. Worried about the WRs. Not bc of Gill, but because I need to see who is our Jackson Meeks.

Our core frosh from last year like Samuels and the Canadian Terminator need to get a level better, which I think they will.

Fran has to make his rhetoric a reality this year. I think he will.

I do agree we need a physical WR like Meeks. Gill and Cook were not him. Frankly didnt seem like anyone on the roster fit the bill there.

I hope the juco or a transfer can be a physical guy. Meeks made a lot of catches in traffic and difficult ones.

 

[Archbold44]

I do agree we need a physical WR like Meeks. Gill and Cook were not him. Frankly didnt seem like anyone on the roster fit the bill there.

I hope the juco or a transfer can be a physical guy. Meeks made a lot of catches in traffic and difficult ones.

Where Ricky really struggled was hitting receivers in stride. I think a normal human being would lack enthusiasm being asked to make an awkward catch over the middle. Gill and Cook had some pretty good physical catches from Angeli. As someone else said somewhere, it is hard to judge (edit) anyone based on those last 8 games.

 

[Irishsecra1]

A coach past his prime?

Thus the reason for the question mark.
If we get the guy who coached the Oline for the Eagles, we got a steal.
But that was 15 years ago
After that he bounced around from place to place.

He is 66 years old - I hope and pray that he still has the right stuff, so to speak.

 

[baggerbob]

By the end of the year, we were arguably the worst P4 team in the country.

Our most important guy is a healthy Angeli. Our second most important guy is our backup QB at this point until Angeli is without a doubt 100%. Our third is the new DC.

OL has to be better than the sum of its parts. DL has to be competent.

Not worried about the RBs. Worried about the WRs. Not bc of Gill, but because I need to see who is our Jackson Meeks.

Our core frosh from last year like Samuels and the Canadian Terminator need to get a level better, which I think they will.

Fran has to make his rhetoric a reality this year. I think he will.

Our OC better be a lot better then the guy who pretty much quit the last 8 games, because he didn't have all the right pieces for his offense. Someone like Beck would have found a way to win 3 more games and a bowl.

 

[Irishsecra1]

Where Ricky really struggled was hitting receivers in stride. I think a normal human being would lack enthusiasm being asked to make an awkward catch over the middle. Gill and Cook had some pretty good physical catches from Angeli. As someone else said somewhere, it is hard to judge (edit) anyone based on those last 8 games.

That was me!
Also hard to judge just how bad our defense was when they were playing from behind all the time with literally no hope of catching up and winning.
That can be incredibly wearing on any defense as the game drones on.

 

[sufan59]

That was me!
Also hard to judge just how bad our defense was when they were playing from behind all the time with literally no hope of catching up and winning.
That can be incredibly wearing on any defense as the game drones on.

Defense I thought showed out at times even after the Angeli injury when a good gameplan was put together (Robinson was inconsistent and it's why he got demoted), Syracuse was pretty much keeping up with Miami in the trenches, honestly might've even been outplaying Miami in the trenches for the first 27 minutes of that game. The defense was just never going to carry Syracuse to a win once we didn't have a serviceable QB.

 

[SU68]

I just checked ncaa.com and there are 1200+ players still in the portal. Hopefully we can still get some o-line players there.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

I just checked ncaa.com and there are 1200+ players still in the portal. Hopefully we can still get some o-line players there.

Do we need more OLs? We have 15 and a lot of them were freshmen or RFR.

 

[kcsu]

We are better at the most important spots on the team.
QB
Coaching.
D is going to be much improved. We didn't get any pressure last season and our edge position is 100x better. DL is a push or better.
LB better. CB better S push.
Not even close as far as Coaching goes.

QB. Steve will be fine and better.
QB 2 won't even be close.
RB push
OL going out on a limb but much better talent and Coaching. Center is a concern.
Wr push or better. Definitely more physical
TE sorry Dan but better
Special teams call it a push
Schedule better.
8-4 is my pick.

 

[David321]

I admittedly wanted more splash in the portal, but it looks like they went the proven, but in lower competition route. Coaching changes look great and Angeli is coming back, so I don't know what to think.

We should definitely be a bowl team at least.

 

[CanadianSU]

The schedule isn’t like this years, and even despite the (for lack of a better word) garbage play… so many games where it was like ok if we had Angeli this would be close. 6-6 with him this year honestly.

As usual for Syracuse it depends on the QB. Let’s see if he’s actually what we think, and I think he is.

I hope if he gets another injury the staff doesn’t force it and the new backups allow them to come in and actually be competitive. That’s the main thing, I still doubt Angeli plays all 12 (13) games next year and that is ok.