Bowl will be decided in first 6 weeks | Page 2 | Syracusefan.com

Bowl will be decided in first 6 weeks

What I love about Fall, everybody starts with a clean slate.

There are never any auto-losses. You gotta roll the ball out and play the game. You never know, any of FSU/Clemson/Louisville/LSU might have a down year and drop a couple that they haven't as of late. You just don't know.

And I don't get why Miami is suddenly looked at as a power again? Richt is a hell of a coach, but, Miami has not been all powerful since the early 2000's.

I don't think we'll be terribly overmatched in any games save maybe Clemson/FSU. And, even then, I think it's really only a big difference up front.

I'll play our offensive skills against anyone in the country. Scheme alone is a big equalizer as far as that goes. Same goes for our LB's.

If the secondary and OL/DL can be effective, we'll be in most if not all games.

I'll never chalk up a loss for the season in August, never. There's just too many variables, and, if it was that easy everybody would be better off financially from sure bets.
 
I hope that we aren't playing against him this year with 7-8 of the starters out for the game in week 4 though.. I would be much more concerned if I were Pitt over what we did to their D with a backup QB, and no running game. Pitt had a Legit QB and a RB who will be playing in the NFL and pretty good talent all around last year.. LSU may be a bit more athletic but I dont think they have any more talent than Pitt had and I dont think the Oline plays that style as well for the OC yet.
 
Its impossible to try and handicap the season at this point. Offense should be good again but when your replacing the receiver who pretty much broke every record in one year and have ongoing question marks at OL and RB you have to wait and see how things play out.

Obviously SU should cruise versus Connecticut directional but after that who knows. I suspect MTSU and CMU should be wins but injuries, an off day or just a bad performance could change that especially against MTSU. I also expect SU to win a surprise game last year like they did against Va Tech but I also wouldn't be surprised if they were in a dog fight with BC or Wake as we didn't exactly blow out BC last year and hurricane or not we all know how Wake ended.

The biggest issue is the schedule is absolutely ridiculous. The ACC did us no favors and going to Baton Rouge while exciting is not the kind of game this team needs. I think this program still has a way to go before we can expect them to go into FSU or LSU and compete for 4 quarters. Perhaps they could ambush Lville but that's a very hard game to win on the road. Clemson losses a ton but were gonna be way outmatched in the trenches against them. This team needs a few breaks with injuries and performances and needs to catch a few opponents off guard or reeling due to injuries.
 
OMG_CUSE_RULEs said:
I'm probably in the minority here, but I feel we could start 2-1 going into LSU.

Shafer will throw the kitchen sink at us when we face him again. He likely has a serious hard-on to beat us after his termination.

If we start 3-2 after playing NCst, we still have a good shot at a bowl. I think miami is overrated, and pitt, wake, and BC are all winnable. Throw in a possible big upset from ville, fsu, clem (or even LSU) and we should be fine.
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I'm sure Shafer's very motivated to beat all the teams he faces...but he's still not a very strong head coach, and I assume Syracuse has better players at almost every position.

Fully agree that Miami's overrated here. That's not an automatic loss by any means.
 
I don't think any of us diehards are penciling in automatic losses. We're probably the only people in the fanbase who dare to think we could knock off LSU or Clemson. But it's reasonable to talk in terms of what's likely and unlikely.

It's unlikely we beat LSU, Clemson or FSU. Not impossible, but unlikely.

It's also unlikely we lose to CCSU, MTSU and CMU. Not impossible, but unlikely.

To me, the outcomes of the other 6 games are much more variable. Miami will rightfully be favored, probably by a lot depending on how the season is going at that point. But it's not a game I'm willing to put in the LSU/Clemson/FSU category of unlikeliness.

Having Pitt, Wake and BC at home is huge. That's our path. It's narrow, but it's there. Steal one on the road against either UL, NC State or Miami and we're in good shape.
 
JeremyCuse said:
Its impossible to try and handicap the season at this point. Offense should be good again but when your replacing the receiver who pretty much broke every record in one year and have ongoing question marks at OL and RB you have to wait and see how things play out.

.....
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Definitely true. We don't know all the particulars about our opponents. We have a ton of returning starters, Dungey and a good back-up, but we are projecting what Butler can do at WR, what we have at RB, what the OL replacements can do etc, whether the young DEs have grown up, without a lot of actual data -- or even practice observations.

At the same time, we probably know more about our team than in most pre-seasons, and we have fewer question marks and soft spots than in any season since 2012. We can look at the core leadership of this team, the 3 grad transfers plus Ravien Pierce, and the rising sophomore group that emerged over the course of 2016. It looks like a team that has a puncher's chance, with a defense that is better than we have had. How much better -- wait and see.
 
bigmike said:
Took the words right out of my mouth. Thinking of heading down to see what happens in person.
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bigmike I still have some tix left in our group package send me note if interested
 
gbo said:
I would guess it's because Clemson is at home and LSU is on the road. Too early to tell that LSU is a definite loss. Every game is winnable. The key to the season is holding serve at home.

This year's schedule is brutal for Cuse. Toughest in the nation in my opinion.
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I guess that's probably the reasoning. I put less weight on the where and more on the who. Until I see otherwise, I'm gonna believe Dabo has Clemson at reload instead of rebuild status.
 
OMG_CUSE_RULEs said:
I'm probably in the minority here, but I feel we could start 2-1 going into LSU.

Shafer will throw the kitchen sink at us when we face him again. He likely has a serious hard-on to beat us after his termination.

If we start 3-2 after playing NCst, we still have a good shot at a bowl. I think miami is overrated, and pitt, wake, and BC are all winnable. Throw in a possible big upset from ville, fsu, clem (or even LSU) and we should be fine.
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I expect him to throw the kitchen sink at us too. Less because he has a vendetta and more because it's who he is. I think he wants to win because he's competitive at his core in the way you want to beat your good friend in a game of 1-on-1 basketball and not because he hates us. From what I've read on here, I'm more concerned with how our defense handles their offense than how our offense handles their defense.
 
OttoMets said:
I'm sure Shafer's very motivated to beat all the teams he faces...but he's still not a very strong head coach, and I assume Syracuse has better players at almost every position.

Fully agree that Miami's overrated here. That's not an automatic loss by any means.
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He's a stronger DC than HC and that's the position he has now. Not saying I think we'll lose but lets not sell him short because of his failure here. Football is full of guys that are very good at one thing and horrible at another.
 
if the team that scored close to 70 against pitt shows up we will be fine vs mtsu no matter what they score
 
sufandu said:
He's a stronger DC than HC and that's the position he has now. Not saying I think we'll lose but lets not sell him short because of his failure here. Football is full of guys that are very good at one thing and horrible at another.
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Damn, brain fart on my part. For some reason I thought he was their head coach.
 
sufandu said:
He's a stronger DC than HC and that's the position he has now. Not saying I think we'll lose but lets not sell him short because of his failure here. Football is full of guys that are very good at one thing and horrible at another.
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People are very critical of his HC'ing. I have my own opinion on what happened, but, that's for another day.

You're spot on about his DC capabilities. People will point to the down statistical years on his resume, but, he is a VERY well respected Defensive guy. Has a very strong cast of supporters in the industry. Honestly, I think that Jim Harbaugh being one of his biggest supporters speaks pretty highly.
 
Finwad32 said:
People are very critical of his HC'ing. I have my own opinion on what happened, but, that's for another day.

You're spot on about his DC capabilities. People will point to the down statistical years on his resume, but, he is a VERY well respected Defensive guy. Has a very strong cast of supporters in the industry. Honestly, I think that Jim Harbaugh being one of his biggest supporters speaks pretty highly.
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Yeah. I'm not as critical about his HCing as some but certainly questioned a number of decisions, both gameday and staff choices. Regardless, I think he knows football and some guys flourish when they are able to focus on specifics instead of running the whole show. Wade Philips seems to be one of those.

Other guys need a couple chances before figuring things out. Who would've thought Pete Carroll would ever win a SB when he was in New England? And Belichik wasn't considered a genius with Cleveland.

I think it'll be fun seeing his defense play against us. When all is said and done I hope we light him up, of course.
 
care taker said:
Who annointed Miami a power ?
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Their recruiting level has increased since Richt got there and while I wouldn't call them a power I would say they are clearly the best team in that division of the ACC and have a clear talent edge on Syracuse this year. Also, NC State has a few sure fire early round NFL Draft prospects and is another school with a clear talent edge this year over SU. While I wouldn't say those two games are automatic losses for SU they are games where SU will be at a significant talent level disadvantage.
 
Cusester said:
One thing everyone should remember is what Lsu's offensive coordinator did to our defense last year. And now he has more talent.
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Well if cuse has the same caliber defence as last year a bowl might be quite the long shot.
 
Personally, I don't think any game is a definite loss. If we shock LSU, which I think we will, then the momentum will be rolling. LSU will be like the Nebraska win we've been waiting for, for far too long. I'm thinking 14-0, myself.
 
Cusester said:
One thing everyone should remember is what Lsu's offensive coordinator did to our defense last year. And now he has more talent.
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His weapons are primarily built around a slow, pounding running game which could benefit us as our offense is built for speed and can wear down a team. And if we have any semblance of a running game,...anything can happen. We are an underdog to beat LSU, but it is not an impossibility.

Fully agree that we will have to respect what the OC can do with good players.
 
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