Biggest rival?

[FireballPhil]

Add to this USC. Their rival in football is Notre Dame and vice versa, period. That is the game each one wants to win more than any other. The only reason it is not the last game of the year every year is that John McKay got tired of freezing in SB in November, so the game in SB is in October but the last game of the year when they play in LA.

Stereotypical comment by a graduate of the University of Spoiled Children - "UCLA? My maid went to UCLA."

Another one - Maryland doesn't care one whit about West Virginia. Penn State was a rival even when they were in the ACC.

UNC having NC State is questionable. The UNC fans have a hashtag they use about NC State - #notourrival. Quite a few of them dislike the fact that the Duke game was moved to earlier in the year and NC State is now the last game of the year.

I lived in NC for 5 years, and there was no fan ever who thought NC State had any rival at all, they were pretty much deemed irrelevant. So much so I always felt bad for NC State...but not to bad.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Interesting question - why are Pitt and BC better than us? It takes a large number of football players to make up a team. Perhaps no small number of the players that are on our menu have a preference for location in larger more mainstream cities? We offer neither high visibility nor big city vibe. In addition, our facilities are lacking in some regards. Syracuse seems to be a bit of a harder sell than Boston or Pitt when if comes to football. Just a theory, no more than a guess as to why we are stuck in the doldrums. I don't blame Dino.

The possibilities you make are certainly valid. That said, SU, BC, and Wake all fall into the same relative cluster of recruiting rankings according to the info posted today on the football board. And yet, BC and Wake have managed to win with that level of recruit during the Dino tenure.

You can also toss in that, while I was never in any way a Scott Shaffer fan...he did recruit the bulk of what became Dino's 10-win year (and so far, his only winning season to date). I'm not using the "Dino won using Scott's players" thing, because I don't believe Shaffer could have gotten 10 wins or even 9 out of that group. Dino did, and all credit to him. But clearly it is possible to get guys good enough to achieve an outstanding season at SU, and I refuse to say that we are unable to get guys good enough to at least have winning seasons.

At this point, I am neutral on Dino. I am not anti, but I am no longer pro either. I am totally in the middle. Dino has made somewhere between $10M and $20M in his time at SU and Wildhack didn't come to SU to accept the "impossible to win at SU" viewpoint for that kind of dough. The issue will never be "who can we get that can do better?" Like any job, the issue will always be "has this guy's performance merited the salary we are paying him?" I'm really hoping Dino can turn it around. Putting aside the postgame speeches and sound bites, we all simply happen to like the guy. You do, I do, we all do.

 

[Bayside44]

Add to this USC. Their rival in football is Notre Dame and vice versa, period. That is the game each one wants to win more than any other. The only reason it is not the last game of the year every year is that John McKay got tired of freezing in SB in November, so the game in SB is in October but the last game of the year when they play in LA.

Stereotypical comment by a graduate of the University of Spoiled Children - "UCLA? My maid went to UCLA."

Another one - Maryland doesn't care one whit about West Virginia. Penn State was a rival even when they were in the ACC.

UNC having NC State is questionable. The UNC fans have a hashtag they use about NC State - #notourrival. Quite a few of them dislike the fact that the Duke game was moved to earlier in the year and NC State is now the last game of the year.

I've gone to that UNC-NCSU game a few times at UNC. NCSU really wants to win and UNC really wants them off their campus.

 

[AlaskaSU]

The possibilities you make are certainly valid. That said, SU, BC, and Wake all fall into the same relative cluster of recruiting rankings according to the info posted today on the football board. And yet, BC and Wake have managed to win with that level of recruit during the Dino tenure.

You can also toss in that, while I was never in any way a Scott Shaffer fan...he did recruit the bulk of what became Dino's 10-win year (and so far, his only winning season to date). I'm not using the "Dino won using Scott's players" thing, because I don't believe Shaffer could have gotten 10 wins or even 9 out of that group. Dino did, and all credit to him. But clearly it is possible to get guys good enough to achieve an outstanding season at SU, and I refuse to say that we are unable to get guys good enough to at least have winning seasons.

At this point, I am neutral on Dino. I am not anti, but I am no longer pro either. I am totally in the middle. Dino has made somewhere between $10M and $20M in his time at SU and Wildhack didn't come to SU to accept the "impossible to win at SU" viewpoint for that kind of dough. The issue will never be "who can we get that can do better?" Like any job, the issue will always be "has this guy's performance merited the salary we are paying him?" I'm really hoping Dino can turn it around. Putting aside the postgame speeches and sound bites, we all simply happen to like the guy. You do, I do, we all do.

Why say that the issue is not, who can we get that is better? It is a consideration, as is the impact of instability.
I,d argue that on the whole both BC and Pitt get better recruits than us.
We can perhaps make a low end bowl as often as not, and pull some upsets, but sadly I don't expect more. However, I hope you are right.