Big year for Orange will be 2016

[anomander]

I am sure there is a post somewhere where people predicted 2015 would be our break out year. The problem is it's always next year...

I was one of them, however I no longer feel that, and can't say next year will be either.

As for my reasoning as to 2015 being the coming out party. Hunt had just finished his Sophomore season in style. We were going to be returning a veteran OL, including 4 year starters in Trudo, and Foy, as well as a 3 year starter in Robinson. At the time Emerich looked like a suitable replacement for Mackey, and then either Ward or Lasker filling in for Hickey. At RB McFarlane and Morris were viewed as some as better RB's then what we currently had. We had a young group of TE's, and WR looked great with Ashton, AC, and probably our best WR recruiting haul ever.

As for defense I think most people always feel it will be a solid group. Eskridge would have been a potential star, along with Thompson, as well as plenty of young up and coming talent.

 

[jekelish]

I see 2017 as the strong year:
http://syracusefan.com/threads/when-will-we-crack-the-top-25.90449/#post-1385415

HCSS is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. He has a better record than coach Mac when he started. Actually, the HC trend mirrors the historical trend of SU football when towards the end of Ben ( like P) things started going south (literally, the population in the NE started moving south and we lost very critical recruiting grounds here in NE and had to become more national in recruiting), Maloney took over and we continued on the downward slide (GRob but not nearly as bad), Mac took over and it took him a few years and one Carrier Dome to get it going (HCSS got the practice facility and will get a new renovated Dome;eventually/possibly). I am counting HCDM and HCSS as a two headed monster towards getting us back.

As much heat that HCDM catches on here, he must be given credit for doing the nasty thankless job of cleaning up the mess left at the end of P's tenure along with the complete sink job that HCGR did. We did take a bit of a recruit hit when HCDM left but SS recruiting is much better than HCDM who got very solid players who played very solid football. This was essential to getting us out of the media spotlight of being in ESPN's "Bottom 10" every week season after season.

Although Gross hired Greg he has to also be credited in getting us the facilities and into the ACC. This is something that Shaw said couldn't be done. I remember at the end of his tenure Shaw saying that the Astroturf could not be replaced, shortly after Gross was hired, it was replaced. We were light years behind in facilities when Gross took over.

I count 2014 as a display of Murphy's Law along with a sacrifice to the Football "Higher Intelligent Beings". Like Greg, we should just let a lying dog lie.

Coyle is a very smart man when it comes to all this and I am sure he will do what he needs to do to get us where we should be; he also has Syverud's strong support.

I think you're right about 2017. It feels like a "now or never" in 2017. We're just so damn young right now, but you get to a point where guys like Zaire have been in the program for four years and become seasoned veterans, then you add a sophomore Robert Washington and hopefully Moe Neal, a senior Steve Ishmael, you'll have a QB with a full season under his belt (I'm still betting it'll be Eric Dungey)...

I think we're just so young and inexperienced that it's going to be tough to really break through this year, and next year is certainly a possibility, but I think 2017 is the best bet for a "breakthrough" season because we won't be breaking in a new QB and our talented younger guys will have experience and a couple years in the S&C program.

 

[money3189]

I was one of them, however I no longer feel that, and can't say next year will be either.

As for my reasoning as to 2015 being the coming out party. Hunt had just finished his Sophomore season in style. We were going to be returning a veteran OL, including 4 year starters in Trudo, and Foy, as well as a 3 year starter in Robinson. At the time Emerich looked like a suitable replacement for Mackey, and then either Ward or Lasker filling in for Hickey. At RB McFarlane and Morris were viewed as some as better RB's then what we currently had. We had a young group of TE's, and WR looked great with Ashton, AC, and probably our best WR recruiting haul ever.

As for defense I think most people always feel it will be a solid group. Eskridge would have been a potential star, along with Thompson, as well as plenty of young up and coming talent.

I definitely felt 2014 would be a breakout year but I wasnt as confident after Jerome decided to move on. I still thought we would have a similar year to 2013 buts lots of things went wrong in 2014. I didnt think McDonald would change the offense, didnt expect all the injuries and staff shuffling. Thats a recipe for disaster, and last season was a disaster.