Brian Ward Fired

[atom58]

A related issue to your defensive problems may be time of possession. Running teams usually dominate that statistic, whether they win or lose. If your D team is on the field too long chasing someone, they will be winded. When Babers left Bowling Green State U before the bowl game, it was widely assumed by people here that they would still win that game but they were flattened by Ga Southern (?) who when FCS had beaten UF in "the Swamp" without completing a forward pass (!) I read. The related issue is that a spread offense can quickly go 3 and out and leave a D team on the field too long - and yes those two BC runners are in the neighborhood of 250 lbs.

 

[TheCusian]

Syracuse's defense faced opponents running 75 plays per game on average. That would be the 27th fastest pace of any offensive in college football. Add in the fact most games have been blowouts and its not hard to figure that it would be closer to facing 80 plays per game (which would be 6th fastest offense).

With Dino's offensive style (tempo, score quick), it also has a tendency to tire out our own defense as well, especially when 3 and outs occur at a strong clip, which they did this year.

Ward's defense was a defense built to protect a lead. Make the opposing offense throw the ball and let the length in the secondary and the pass rushing defensive ends go to work.

That defense got the chance to protect one lead against a power 5 opponent this year. And it laid an egg Saturday with that lead.

I am firmly in the camp that Babers is never going to have a team where the defense can carry it.

Defense is more reliant on talent than offense is too. Offense can be schemed above its talent more consistently than defense can. Given our given our recruiting disadvantages - it makes sense to lean into offense

 

[shu 49]

really.. we ran it a ton.

In first half we ran it one additional time

 

[IthacaMatt]

A related issue to your defensive problems may be time of possession. Running teams usually dominate that statistic, whether they win or lose. If your D team is on the field too long chasing someone, they will be winded. When Babers left Bowling Green State U before the bowl game, it was widely assumed by people here that they would still win that game but they were flattened by Ga Southern (?) who when FCS had beaten UF in "the Swamp" without completing a forward pass (!) I read. The related issue is that a spread offense can quickly go 3 and out and leave a D team on the field too long - and yes those two BC runners are in the neighborhood of 250 lbs.

Well, the clear answer to this is a lot of player rotation on the D. We haven't seen those very promising LBs all season, and there are a bunch of them, not just Mikel Jones. If you don't play players and you are going to play at a fast tempo, you may have trained your guys up to be in better condition than the other players. But if your guys are playing 75 plays a game and theirs are only playing 55-60 because of player rotation, then your advantages in conditioning and pace are gone.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[CuseLegacy]

George was a truly great O line coach, but isn't he about 1,000 years old by now?

Ageism.

 

[RandomGuy]

It really looked like it yesterday when td was yelling at lynch on the sidelines. The players you names are the oc and weakest part of the offense. Guy needs to be help accountable for an awful offense this season

Yeah, that was troubling.

If Babers is calling more plays than Lynch, what do you say?

 

[kcsu]

He is old im not promoting him for OL coach as i hope we land a guy with strong recruiting ties to the North East. My point is that he is such a great coach a wealth of knowledge.

 

[shu 49]

really.. we ran it a ton.

No we didn’t rewatch game. First half was one time. Either way he can call a descent game but it should look like the first quarter and not the rest of the game.

 

[shu 49]

George was a truly great O line coach, but isn't he about 1,000 years old by now?

Yes

 

[Chip]

"seven of the top eight offensive performances by an opponent allowed by the Orange defense in its history have come in the Ward era."

Ouch. And the offense really isn't even playing fast anymore.

 

[OrangePA]

George was a truly great O line coach, but isn't he about 1,000 years old by now?

He may be but he's helping run the offense for the 8-0 Baylor Bears

 

[OrangePA]

"seven of the top eight offensive performances by an opponent allowed by the Orange defense in its history have come in the Ward era."

Ouch. And the offense really isn't even playing fast anymore.

I wonder why that is so - why is the offense not playing fast?

 

[Alsacs]

"seven of the top eight offensive performances by an opponent allowed by the Orange defense in its history have come in the Ward era."

Ouch. And the offense really isn't even playing fast anymore.

Anything from 2015 should be taken with a grain of salt. That secondary wouldn’t have be top half in the MAC.
The last 3 years should be on Ward though.

 

[CuseLegacy]

I wonder why that is so - why is the offense not playing fast?

New QB at the starting spot?

 

[Alsacs]

I wonder why that is so - why is the offense not playing fast?

We can’t play fast when we go 3 and out.
According to NextGen stats the Syracuse offense has gone 3 and out on 39.6% offensive possessions.
We can’t go fast because we aren’t getting first downs and we aren’t getting first downs because of our OL.

 

[GoSU96]

I wonder why that is so - why is the offense not playing fast?

Because they are consistently in 2nd and 3rd and long with no prospect of converting. The offense is unable to do anything that is necessary for the team as a whole to succeed with the approach Babers wants to use.

 

[Cusefan78]

My gut feeling is that they are being vanilla and slow on purpose because they know they don’t have the offensive pieces to do what they want to do.

Yeah, that was troubling.

If Babers is calling more plays than Lynch, what do you say?

 

[Chip]

New QB at the starting spot?

I don't think we played all that fast last year either. We got up to the line, but more often just took a look at the defense, then to the sideline.

I'm not complaining about it. A lot of teams do that. See how the defense is lined up, go from there. But I do tend to wonder how an OC on the sideline can see it so well, vs being up in the booth.

When we do actually snap it fast it tends to be a run up the middle or a quick screen out to the WR. I can't recall us running any other play on a quick snap.

I also think some of it is that defenses have caught up to it.

 

[Chip]

He may be but he's helping run the offense for the 8-0 Baylor Bears

I think we could benefit from offensive and defensive consultants. I hope it's in the budget. It's something a lot of coaches are doing. It's a staple of Saban, and he strikes the world as someone who doesn't need anyone's help.

 

[upperdeck]

in the first half we had some drives when the game still was in doubt and we turned 2nd and 2 into about 4th and 20.. we did it 2-3 times.. all year when we had the few good 2nd down chances we struggle because we cant just run for it and when we throw it becomes 3rd and we cant run again.. in 4 yrs we really have not had a good running oline. fix that to just an avg running team and the system hides a lot of the other issues.

 

[samspann1]

We can’t play fast when we go 3 and out.
According to NextGen stats the Syracuse offense has gone 3 and out on 39.6% offensive possessions.
We can’t go fast because we aren’t getting first downs and we aren’t getting first downs because of our OL.

the historically poor performances from the defense (referenced above) are not limited to this season.

 

[CuseLegacy]

I think we could benefit from offensive and defensive consultants. I hope it's in the budget. It's something a lot of coaches are doing. It's a staple of Saban, and he strikes the world as someone who doesn't need anyone's help.

I wonder if you could have an outside, non staff, consultant . There is a certain coach that knows the Offense very well that is coaching HS football in Texas right now.

 

[atom58]

A related issue to your defensive problems may be time of possession. Running teams usually dominate that statistic, whether they win or lose. If your D team is on the field too long chasing someone, they will be winded. When Babers left Bowling Green State U before the bowl game, it was widely assumed by people here that they would still win that game but they were flattened by Ga Southern (?) who when FCS had beaten UF in "the Swamp" without completing a forward pass (!) I read. The related issue is that a spread offense can quickly go 3 and out and leave a D team on the field too long - and yes those two BC runners are in the neighborhood of 250 lbs.

While I am not a FB expert, it is known that a "ball control" offense does two things: (1) it keeps your offense off the field so they can't score points, and (2) it keeps your defense on the field so they can get tired. It is harder to use a passing offense to achieve this because the time of possession is too short - even if they score points. The other team can rotate defensive players but they are putting in the "twos" who are not as good as the "ones" or else they would be starting. You do not see a pure passing team as one of the top teams - you have to have several strong running backs to succeed.