Been Staying Away since UNC

[kcsu]

Go Knows. Hire the best OL coach money can buy and spend your NIL on them.

 

[All4SU]

I think your thoughts are what a lot of Syracuse fans are thinking……


I don’t mind we lose to Clemson, UNC and FSU this season but it’s how we lose.

Going to the game Saturday was brutal. I didn’t expect us to win, but I didn’t expect us to be out of the game midway through the first quarter……..

Nitpicking, I know…. But with a little over five minutes left in the first quarter it’s 3-0 and we have stopped them twice, blocked a punt and stand to get the ball at the UNC 49 yard line. We were in no way out of it at that point. Yes, things unraveled pretty quickly after tgat.

 

[gmoney44]

Shafer bad, no one is Grob lose by 20 to Akron at home bad

That was the game that broke me as a fan. I started bowing and gun hunting that fall and I’ve never looked back. Thank god I didn’t sit around waiting for SU to unpluck the football team.

 

[tbonezone]

well paragraphed. but looking away from the ugly don't ever make it pretty. i'm a huge shredder fan too.
but he's been under siege and outgunned past few weeks. he lacks the weapons to compete with the big boys.

 

[Lukeyloo]

I expect the program to make bowl games at least 80% of the time and believe this is a minimum requirement to be considered a stable P5 program. I would be fine with mediocrity most of the time as long as we could expect a good year (read: top 3 in the ACC) mixed in a couple times a decade and not get blown out so frequently by the good teams. I really don’t think this is asking for much and is not unrealistic for SU.

Even with this realistic expectation, the program continues to fall quite short. If the floor of the program can’t be raised immediately, as in starting this season, then it’s time to restart the rebuild.

Regarding this season specifically, this can end up being a weird year, to no fault of SU due to the schedule, where the season could end with a record of 8-4 or even 9-3 and not have a single good win. This would be due to all the wins being against bad teams, while all the losses would be blow outs to good teams. Even with that considered, I would be happy with the result and chalk it up to one of those “good” seasons. With this schedule I would consider anything less than 7-5 a disappointment.

 

[Brian Orange]

Very much agree with your first point, the glass being half empty on Syracuse football. We have every right to feel that way due to the product that has been on the field since 2005. I was beyond convinced last year we would lost 6 in a row after starting 6-0 and we came pretty close.

Syracuse basketball (unfortunately less so lately) is the exact opposite. They deserve the benefit of the doubt after many years. Syracuse football does not.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Still 4-2. I hate getting stomped in these games but eh, numb. It doesn't ruin my day anymore to be honest. Oh look, a million yards from UNC already. Whatever. Probably happens Sat too. Would be easier as I have a wedding at 4 at Del Lago. Maybe we catch some breaks and pull off a huge upset.

Get to 7 wins.

 

[ECE '76]

I feel that if Dino had more "Fire" on the sideline so would the team. He is so emotionless that it seems like he is bored. I believe the team emilites the head coaches persona. The teams that win are the ones with a fiery head coach (ie: Dabo), that is not Dino. He is more like grandpa asking for permission to talk to the official about a penalty call. Personally, I hope SU moves on from this staff as it is not working.

I long for the days of having a coach with the attitude of Coach Mac. His team got embarrassed out at Nebraska 63-7. Freakin' Osborne kicked an on-side kick in the SECOND QUARTER with a 21-0 lead. Just outright running up the score.

Well Mac had a year to stew over that game. He must have been planning how to get revenge for that whole year. Dino would probably just tell himself, "we have no chance against those guys - national champs, NFL talent, yada yada yada". Well Nebraska had to play in the Dome the next season. And from the opening kick off til the final gun, Mac had those guys playing tough, solid, mistake free, and with emotional energy out of this world. I presume you know the rest of the story...

Dino's not that coach. We keep on hoping he's going to pull off some kind of upset with some surprise game plans, a highly emotional team, but really nothing since the 2017 Clemson game (when SU knocked out their starting QB). Dino sure seemed resigned to losing these 3 games, badly. It's almost like, just go through the motions and don't risk getting anyone hurt. Problem is, you might never be able to turn the team back on again.

Coughlin would never do that. He played to win, even after his Giants teams had playoff slots locked up. He was another coach you would expect to be able to play up the the competition. One year he took BC into Happy Valley and shocked them. It was a thing of beauty.

 

[rocklloyd]

i'm back from my self imposed time out. Others have shared my sentiment about state of program and our situation. I'm not expecting to win this week. I thought we could sneak out a Clemson win and mistakenly thought we had a chance against UNC. LIke I said, I'm somewhat liberated this week. just hoping for no injuries, especially the season ending variety

 

[RMH44]

I shut off the game when we were down 30+ and purposely did not indulge in any football forums, radio, media etc. since Saturday. I have been mulling over some low and high level thoughts and figured this is the outlet.

1. The past has ruined my mindset.
I wish this was not the case, but being burned so often in our last decades and of recent, I just feel like “yup of course this is how it’s going to go” in regards to starting a season strong and petering out. It’s amazing how like clockwork Dino’s teams seem to flame out. Yes injuries I get it, but regardless it’s just conditioned into my brain unfortunately that we are heading for yet another rocky back half of the season. Yes we can turn it around after FSU and have an excellent season for cuse standards. But, I am naturally feeling glass half empty and I am not a glass have emptied kinda guy. Anyone else stuck in this rut of having a hard time seeing positivity?

2. I like Dino, but…
I really do like Dino as the face of our program. Clean cut program. But, I mean if my first point happens and we go 6-6, like what is there to look forwards to? I know it’s cuse not bama. I don’t expect complete domination every year, but I do expect to field a respectable team that likely will lose 3-6 games a year (more then 6 is not an option at this point of Dino’s tenure so I won’t go past 6), but it does matter in regard to how you lose them…. We are laying eggs against better competition. At this point in year 8 I do not think it’s over zealous to want to have a “chance” in every game. Hell App State fans for example feel like they have a shot against anyone I guarantee it. They put up FIGHTS with a great UNC team, yes they’re overmatched like us, but those fans know their team is going to rise to the occasion and fight. I think that’s all I’m asking for in these big games and once a season we upset a better team. Losses of that magnitude send waves across the CFB landscape. The casual guy goes “Jeesh cuse stinks” when scrolling. Not good for recruiting and perception. I can live with losing all these big 3 games, but how are we losing? Yes it matters as this is a barometer for us.

3. What am I trying to say…

Not sure exactly what I’m trying to say. Just rambling really, so let me ramble a little more and let’s see where this paragraph goes.

Our stud WR is just not a stud. Alford was hyped up big time and I am unsure why. Is he a practice star? He does not have enough quick twitch to be effective. Our best healthy wide out is obviously Hatcher right now. I just can’t get over how poorly our WRs have been under Dino. We can’t compete with upper end ACC teams with the talent at WR, I know we got guys hurt, but so does everyone. It’s part of the game and literally has to be a constant every year. Our stars will be hurt, how many? Who knows but we will never go a full season healthy, so we need depth. We were told we have depth but do we? We have bodies but where is the playmaking ability? Seems like our only two playmakers are hurt to me, OG and IJ. Not sure what we have to do to find productive ACC wide outs, but we are suffering severely because we can’t beat ACC defenders.

I am a huge fan of Shrader. Kids got the heart of a lion. But the recipe is kinda simple, stop his legs and you will win the game. As much as he says he wants to pass first and really seems to want to be a good pocket passer, I just don’t think he is great at it. I think he is a good pocket qb. But with our line perennially suspect like - we need a QB who can sling it quickly and effectively. Also I’m not ignorant to the fact that our WRs are not probably helping him. What I’m getting at, is if a team shuts down our running game between Shrader and Allen….we cannot win with an air raid attack. We simply need to have the legs open up the play action. It’s a symbiotic relationship. And we definitely can’t pass first to open up run I don’t believe at this time.

I am not calling for Dinos head. Let me say that first. But, if we finish mediocre again this year (limping to 7-5/6-6 meaning we went 3-5 or 2-6 after starting 4-0) , then what exactly is next for our trajectory at being a competitive ACC team going forward? I know this school is hard to win at, but there are also a lot of hard to win at schools who find ways. I feel like our team is pretty solid in the talent department for a Dino led team. One of the best I thought. More decent depth all over the team then in the last I thought. So if we don’t look like we belong on the same turf as UNC this year…. What’s the future going to bring? I’m very conflicted in my thoughts of Dino going forward.

Thanks for reading this if you got this far and I hope we see a team progress through the back half of the year instead of deteriorate (maybe I finally found a single sentence that sums up why I began this post.) That’s what I need to see to keep me on the Dino train. Dino please win out or something and make us forget about UNC,Clemson and FSU. Lol.

Cuse12

Some very solid points!

Dino lost me when decided to punt inside the 50 in the 3rd quarter. He also mentioned in his FSU interview that that the "jumbo" package was something pulled from the archives. Well, maybe it's just me, but that implied that he is most likely meddling in the offensive game plan. Dino needs to leave Beck and staff alone. He has proven over time that his methods don't work in the ACC.

 

[SuFTW]

Some very solid points!

Dino lost me when decided to punt inside the 50 in the 3rd quarter. He also mentioned in his FSU interview that that the "jumbo" package was something pulled from the archives. Well, maybe it's just me, but that implied that he is most likely meddling in the offensive game plan. Dino needs to leave Beck and staff alone. He has proven over time that his methods don't work in the ACC.

How do you know Beck didn’t ask him for help or for ideas?

 

[Cuse181]

Some very solid points!

Dino lost me when decided to punt inside the 50 in the 3rd quarter. He also mentioned in his FSU interview that that the "jumbo" package was something pulled from the archives. Well, maybe it's just me, but that implied that he is most likely meddling in the offensive game plan. Dino needs to leave Beck and staff alone. He has proven over time that his methods don't work in the ACC.

Yeah… about that. I don’t think the jumbo package is the problem (and if Beck didn’t have one, yikes). Maybe he’s meddled in other places but I have a hard time believing that IF he is meddling, that he is doing it unprompted and not because beck called two shite games in a row

 

[RMH44]

Yeah… about that. I don’t think the jumbo package is the problem (and if Beck didn’t have one, yikes). Maybe he’s meddled in other places but I have a hard time believing that IF he is meddling, that he is doing it unprompted and not because beck called two shite games in a row

Maybe Beck called two Shite games in a row BECAUSE Dino is meddling?

 

[RMH44]

How do you know Beck didn’t ask him for help or for ideas?

I don't. Just making an observation. Remember that last year around this time, Anae and Dino didn't appear to be on great terms.

 

[Cuse181]

Maybe Beck called two Shite games in a row BECAUSE Dino is meddling?

You have to believe he meddled for no reason. We can’t know for sure. I have a hard time believing that but I’m not in the meetings

 

[mark79]

I’m probably in the vast minority here, but I’d say we are still very much on track with my expectations at the beginning of this year.

When the season was starting, most here were saying 3-1 for the first four was reasonable. Then many on this board including me felt we’d probably lose the next three, and then win 4 of the last 5. A 7 win season, which based on past history is nothing to sneeze at. We’re still on pace to do that, even without our star wide receiver.

I think Dino is doing a fine job. Is he perfect? Don’t know anyone who is. I like the man and think he is a fine representative of the university. There I said it. Hammer away.

 

[kcsu]

I’m probably in the vast minority here, but I’d say we are still very much on track with my expectations at the beginning of this year.

When the season was starting, most here were saying 3-1 for the first four was reasonable. Then many on this board including me felt we’d probably lose the next three, and then win 4 of the last 5. A 7 win season, which based on past history is nothing to sneeze at. We’re still on pace to do that, even without our star wide receiver.

I think Dino is doing a fine job. Is he perfect? Don’t know anyone who is. I like the man and think he is a fine representative of the university. There I said it. Hammer away.

He is a good representative of SU so was Greg Robinson.

 

[SuFTW]

I don't. Just making an observation. Remember that last year around this time, Anae and Dino didn't appear to be on great term terms.

To many conclusions based on conjecture and now conjecture from last year.

 

[sufandu]

I don't see Beck calling bad games. I see an oline doing a good impersonation of a colander and WRs wearing lubricant on their hands. We had a number of things going early against Clemson but players made mistakes. The Shrader pick at the end of the half and the Villari pass that was dropped were not on Beck. When players make plays the OC is a genius. When they mess up, he doesn't know how to call a game.

UNC we just looked bad. That's a throw away game for me. I was frustrated that we didn't look at all like we belonged, but that's not indicative of how we looked up to that point. I expect us to look rough again this weekend, then we can get back to the real part of our season.

 

[orangencpolice]

Everyone uses App St as some kind of example just because 2 years in a row they almost beat UNC. App St isn’t all that. Sometimes a team just plays well against certain teams and has their number. Last year App St finished 6-6 and 3-5 in conference. This year they are 3-3 and have lost to Wyoming and Coastal Carolina while beating UL Monroe by 1.

I think his point was that they hang tough with some of the big boys. They upset Michigan a few years back and almost upset UNC this year. That’s exciting. I am sure that recruits see how close they play with some teams which may spark interest. I know they don’t dominate their conference and are usually the underdog, but they have played some exciting football in the last few years.