Athlon Sports Syracuse preview, national & ACC predictions

[Orangeyes]

Athlon Sports Syracuse preview, national & ACC predictions

 

[Texas Otto]

Fine I like being underestimated and this is underestimation at its best (or worst depending on you point of view)

 

[OrangeMojo]

Athlon is such a crap publication - the only reason anyone ever buys them is b/c they get to the news stands first and people are just dying for some football reading.

They're still using the SJ logo for Syracuse for cripes sake. Oh Lord

 

[OrangePA]

Not an unreasonable assessment.

If we develop at QB and guys like Corey Cooper can step and the younger defensive guys effectivle replace Thomas, Brewster and Sharpe, we'll be OK.

 

[omg_cuse_rules]

d will be solid. It all hinges imo on if hunt or Allen can fill the gap.

Sent from my LG-VM696 using Tapatalk 2

 

[OttosBestFriend]

Athlon Sports Syracuse preview, national & ACC predictions

They're using a logo from pre-Doctor Gross... How much could they really know about Syracuse?

 

[anomander]

we are being over looked by everyone. nobody has heard of Scott Shafer outside of Syracuse, and a couple of his other stops. Let them look past us, it's just what we want. this may be the last time it happens for a while.

 

[007]

Not an unreasonable assessment.

If we develop at QB and guys like Corey Cooper can step and the younger defensive guys effectivle replace Thomas, Brewster and Sharpe, we'll be OK.

I agree. That seemed like a fair assessment of the strengths and questions going into the season.

 

[anomander]

I agree. That seemed like a fair assessment of the strengths and questions going into the season.

i give them it is a fair assessment, but the prediction gets me

 

[CuseOnly]

we are being over looked by everyone. nobody has heard of Scott Shafer outside of Syracuse, and a couple of his other stops. Let them look past us, it's just what we want. this may be the last time it happens for a while.

This won't be the last time it happens because that is the normal perception of people about SU football in this day and age. It will take more than 2 successful seasons before anyone will jump out of line on a consistent basis and say SU is a contender. Unfortunately this hurts us in recruiting as well. Stinks but that it the perception.

 

[SUalldway]

Not an unreasonable assessment.

If we develop at QB and guys like Corey Cooper can step and the younger defensive guys effectivle replace Thomas, Brewster and Sharpe, we'll be OK.

What I found to be laughable in the Athlon mag was their unit rankings. While I understand the 14 out of 14 for the QB position, there is just no way that the SU DL and DBs will be 12 out of 14th ranked in the ACC! I think overall we'll be better than BC, Wake & MD & maybe NCSU in the Atlantic Div.

 

[007]

This won't be the last time it happens because that is the normal perception of people about SU football in this day and age. It will take more than 2 successful seasons before anyone will jump out of line on a consistent basis and say SU is a contender. Unfortunately this hurts us in recruiting as well. Stinks but that it the perception.

True, but it is even more than that. As SU fans we need to accept that the national "perception" of the program is built on the reality of years and years and years of poor play. It wasn't that long ago that the program was routinely ranked at or near the bottom of all teams in Div 1, both statistically and in terms of wins.

Marrone brought this program back from the abyss by going .500 over 4 years, 11-17 in the BE, and making/winning 2 bowl games. Last year, we "turned the corner" finished the season on a 6-1 run, and smoked WVU.

The national perception was not "hey, Syracuse is back" as much as it was "wow, Marrone must be really, really good."

Now, remove Marrone from the equation, remove a 1st round draft pick, and remove, statistically, the best QB to ever play at SU and you get....reasonable, IMO anyway, predictions like Athlon's.

 

[Crusty]

I am happy enough to be flying below the radar. Hope everybody in the ACC overlooks us.

 

[OrangeDW]

True, but it is even more than that. As SU fans we need to accept that the national "perception" of the program is built on the reality of years and years and years of poor play. It wasn't that long ago that the program was routinely ranked at or near the bottom of all teams in Div 1, both statistically and in terms of wins.

Marrone brought this program back from the abyss by going .500 over 4 years, 11-17 in the BE, and making/winning 2 bowl games. Last year, we "turned the corner" finished the season on a 6-1 run, and smoked WVU.

The national perception was not "hey, Syracuse is back" as much as it was "wow, Marrone must be really, really good."

Now, remove Marrone from the equation, remove a 1st round draft pick, and remove, statistically, the best QB to ever play at SU and you get....reasonable, IMO anyway, predictions like Athlon's.

We had 4 years of really poor play.

And we've been back to a competitive team for 4 years now.

People who still think we suck are just lazy and clueless fans who only pay attention to the SEC. Don't let them off the hook so easily!

 

[baggerbob]

That's ok Street and Smith ranks us 5th in the division, and rate Scott as the 2nd worst new coach. Their comment is as stupid as they are, " Not to put Shafer into a tiny box, but he was the defensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez got rid of at Michigan to make room for Greg Robinson." Well Rodriguez and Robinson worked out well, both gone , fortunately Scott's defense helped his new boss get an NFL job.

 

[anomander]

anyone know where Phil Steele predicts us? He is the only one I give any credibility to.

 

[HtownOrange]

We had 4 years of really poor play.

And we've been back to a competitive team for 4 years now.

People who still think we suck are just lazy and clueless fans who only pay attention to the SEC. Don't let them off the hook so easily!

That describes most CFB fans who believe whatever ESPN tells them on the Gameday show. Real fans look into t heir teams and in to their teams opponents, like most people on this board. Super fans go even deeper, some on this board, and analyze much more.

The mags are for selling mags. Why work hard when you can basically repeat what ESPN or CBS Sports or some other outlet states? Who cares whether they did any real analysis in the first place, so long as the pre-season mag sells.

Now, if there was a guarantee where the mag had to reimburse fans of schools that outperformed the mags' assessments, then you'd see some real work done on these prognostications.

 

[Geode]

One would think our skins would be a little thicker after the past 10 yrs.

 

[Chip]

Athlon is such a crap publication - the only reason anyone ever buys them is b/c they get to the news stands first and people are just dying for some football reading.

They're still using the SJ logo for Syracuse for cripes sake. Oh Lord

It really drives me crazy that they won't change that. They're one of the first to release their preview every year, and every year there's the SJ.

 

[007]

We had 4 years of really poor play.

And we've been back to a competitive team for 4 years now.

People who still think we suck are just lazy and clueless fans who only pay attention to the SEC. Don't let them off the hook so easily!

Well...in the last 4 years, we have had 2 losing seasons. Following the 10-3 season in 2001, SU has gone 51-82 (31 games below .500). That's 12 years of mostly very poor play. That's a lot of reality to overcome.

 

[Moontan]

Well...in the last 4 years, we have had 2 losing seasons. Following the 10-3 season in 2001, SU has gone 51-82 (31 games below .500). That's 12 years of mostly very poor play. That's a lot of reality to overcome.

So, you're saying 2002-2009 was bad/terrible.

That makes for a 3-year OK streak... and improving. LGO!!

 

[007]

So, you're saying 2002-2009 was bad/terrible.

That makes for a 3-year OK streak... and improving. LGO!!

Yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that the program is competitive again. Can't wait to see what Shafer can do as HC, and what MacDonald can bring in for talent.

My point in this thread was speaking more to the "perception" of the program nationally. I understand why people/prognosticators/magazine writers feel the way they do about SU. I just don't think we, as fans, need to over personalize that stuff.

Just win. The rest will take care of itself.

 

[Opus]

I am ok with people thinking this way about Syracuse football. I read a lot of message boards and nobody respects us. You got to earn it. We'll get back there! LGO!

 

[gocraz4dasu]

It's Athlon Sports.. I didn't even read it. Predictions don't mean a damn thing anyways. Let them pick whoever they chose to be first, they are irrelevant.

 

[baggerbob]

My feeling is Scott will steal a couple games this year, because his team will beat on people, that is one thing missing from the ACC. They lose a lot of big games, not because of talent but mistakes, and you overcome that with mental toughness.