CFN Syracuse Preview

[OrangeTarheel]

Rutgers and Liberty will be tough. If we can find some wide receivers this year and if special teams can stay special then this could be an amazing year. Without those two we will struggle every game.

 

[Chip]

Win the first 2 and things will fall into place.

Win 0 or 1 of the first 2 and you might have a team searching too hard for confidence and thinking same old story. We can overcome it, but it's an uphill climb after a 1 win season.

Not winning 6 this year would be a really tough pill to swallow. If not this year, then when again? When we add up Dungey injuries and somehow buy him 1 more year of eligibility?

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Rutgers and Liberty will be tough. If we can find some wide receivers this year and if special teams can stay special then this could be an amazing year. Without those two we will struggle every game.

A team coming off a 1 win season should always expect every game to be tough.

That said...Rutgers and Liberty should be programs we beat if we're fielding a quality football team.

 

[orangepassion]

Win the first 2 and things will fall into place.

Win 0 or 1 of the first 2 and you might have a team searching too hard for confidence and thinking same old story. We can overcome it, but it's an uphill climb after a 1 win season.

Not winning 6 this year would be a really tough pill to swallow. If not this year, then when again? When we add up Dungey injuries and somehow buy him 1 more year of eligibility?

I agree that with all the 5th year seniors that returned, if we don't win 6 this year, it's very concerning.

 

[TexanMark]

I don’t know how many have paid attention to the few early 2022 nfl mock drafts, including mcshay, but the ones I’ve seen all have the liberty QB going in the 1st round.

I actually think this game will be a huge game. We win I think we will bowl... assuming we will be 3-1 by then.

I just hope we don't let another shifty dual QB on a smaller teams make us looked.

We will know by the end of the @FSU game if the HCDB era is on life support or rejuvenated.

 

[cusefan88]

Liberty celebrated on video in the Dome locker room bumping NY State of Mind. I hope the team watches that video everyday leading up to that game.

 

[Newhouser]

Rutgers will tell us where we are and what we are. Big game for Dino.

 

[Cusefan69]

I don’t know how many have paid attention to the few early 2022 nfl mock drafts, including mcshay, but the ones I’ve seen all have the liberty QB going in the 1st round.

Interesting...hate to say it but the Liberty of today does not feel like the scrub easy win of maybe years past. They were 10-1 and ended ranked 17th and 23. After going 1 and 10, Syracuse should plan on being the underdog in most games and better be ready to prove they are better on the field each week. I think they will indeed be better but if fans don't want to be butthurt about what the preseason prognosticators are saying they should probably just ignore them because it's time for our team to earn some respect on the field. I think we surprise teams this year and find 7 wins.

 

[kcsu]

Date	Opponent	Time/TV	Comments
Saturday September 4th	at Ohio
Saturday September 11th	RUTGERS		9/11 Remembrance
Saturday, September 19th	SUNY ALBANY		COVID Hero Recognition Day?
Friday, September 24th	LIBERTY
Saturday, October 2nd	at Florida State		Board tailgate likely
Saturday, October 9th	WAKE FOREST
Friday, October 15th	CLEMSON
Saturday, October 23rd	at Virginia Tech
Saturday, October 30th	BOSTON COLLEGE		3rd year in a row BC plays in the dome
Saturday, November 6th	BYE
Saturday, November 13th	at Louisville		3rd year in a row SU plays at UL
Saturday, November 20th	at NC State
Saturday, November 27th	PITTSBURGH

This is a little early for this but what the hell.

Would love to win the first 4 but I am not sure we will be favored in any of those games except SUNY Albany. Given our struggles with OOC games, going 3-1 would be a good result.

The next 4 are going to be very tough. Just getting 1 win would be a pretty good result here.

I think the last 4 should be more reasonable games for us to win and would be disappointed if we only won 1. I think having decent depth for the first time in the Babers era will really help us here.

The hope is to win the first 4 and 2 of the 3 winnable home games (Wake, BC and Pitt). None of the road games are against teams I project as top 25 teams and all are winnable in my mind. Though we will be 10 point underdogs or more in all of those games.

If we could win one of the 4 ACC road games, and the 6 outlined above, that would constitute a really good season and one I will be thrilled with. I project a lot of close games. Am thinking our defense is going to be the better unit, but the offense should make steady improve as the season progresses.

Lines and QBs win football games.

If the Oline is decent we win 5-6 games. If they are good 7-8

The D will be solid. QB play will be adequate. Its all on the oline.

 

[CuseCrew08]

I thought our defense played really well for 3 quarters per game last year. We were in most games through halftime last year if my memory serves me correctly. The problem was the offense couldn't score when the defense gave them great field position.

The defense was also on the field so much I believe they just ran out of gas by the end of the game.

With all the puzzle pieces on the O-line we have this year, I have to imagine we can figure out a decent group that will allow the QB to look downfield and not run for his life, open up a few more holes, and force defenses to put more people in the box. This adds up to a few more first downs and the defense can have energy to finish games.

I have my Orange glasses on already! LGO.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

I thought our defense played really well for 3 quarters per game last year. We were in most games through halftime last year if my memory serves me correctly. The problem was the offense couldn't score when the defense gave them great field position.

The defense was also on the field so much I believe they just ran out of gas by the end of the game.

With all the puzzle pieces on the O-line we have this year, I have to imagine we can figure out a decent group that will allow the QB to look downfield and not run for his life, open up a few more holes, and force defenses to put more people in the box. This adds up to a few more first downs and the defense can have energy to finish games.

I have my Orange glasses on already! LGO.

And without any wide receiver threats opposing teams will cue up on our run game and we’ll be putting the onus on the defense yet again. We’ve got lots of pieces in place but the wide receiver corps is the missing link for this season IMO

 

[Doc5120]

That article says we have not beaten Florida State since 1966, but I seem to remember beating them in 2018.

I believe they said 1 win since 1966. I had to read it twice too, because initially I thought the same as you.

 

[Eric15]

I didn't realize until just now that the Rutgers game is on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. That will be a special day in the Dome. I hope we go big and invite some first responders to be honored.

Hard to believe that Auburn game was 20 years ago.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

VTech is key. Fuentes seems almost a fixture on the hot seat and wants to get out of there. Is this the year the dam bursts and they fall apart?

 

[JeremyCuse]

Win the first 2 and things will fall into place.

Win 0 or 1 of the first 2 and you might have a team searching too hard for confidence and thinking same old story. We can overcome it, but it's an uphill climb after a 1 win season.

Not winning 6 this year would be a really tough pill to swallow. If not this year, then when again? When we add up Dungey injuries and somehow buy him 1 more year of eligibility?

If we don't win six this year, it will be another coach trying to find a path forward.

 

[Crusty]

I have no earthly idea what to expect. The last time everybody dumped on us we won 10 games and the next year everybody was friendly and we stunk. The talking heads are just that - they can't possibly predict which players are going to be Cisco' or Tuckers. Nobody knows. Just put the ball out there and let's play.

 

[AAM62]

Damn I forgot liberty was on the schedule again. That QB is going to have so much hype heading into the season.

 

[BrooklynCuse]

Interesting...hate to say it but the Liberty of today does not feel like the scrub easy win of maybe years past. They were 10-1 and ended ranked 17th and 23. After going 1 and 10, Syracuse should plan on being the underdog in most games and better be ready to prove they are better on the field each week. I think they will indeed be better but if fans don't want to be butthurt about what the preseason prognosticators are saying they should probably just ignore them because it's time for our team to earn some respect on the field. I think we surprise teams this year and find 7 wins.

That Liberty loss last year was one of the worst. Their 10 wins were smoke and mirrors. The only team they beat that was worth anything was a 5-6 Virginia Tech team.

Dino needs to beat them and beat them bad. Like second stringers in the end of third quarter bad

 

[Dick_in_MI]

If we don't win six this year, it will be another coach trying to find a path forward.

For me, the number is 7 wins. If we only get to 6 it will be five non-winning seasons out of six years (and three non-winning seasons in a row). Can't have that at the P5 level, given the investments in infrastructure that have been made. He got the 10-win year but the 1-win year offsets that, regardless of the reasons for it. I like Dino and hope he can get that winning season but with the alleged new emphasis on football in the ACC, he has to produce.

 

[SUbear]

I believe they said 1 win since 1966. I had to read it twice too, because initially I thought the same as you.

You are right but the way that is written is really backwards.

 

[TiogaCuse]

That Liberty loss last year was one of the worst. Their 10 wins were smoke and mirrors. The only team they beat that was worth anything was a 5-6 Virginia Tech team.

Dino needs to beat them and beat them bad. Like second stringers in the end of third quarter bad

That was not a smoke and mirrors win, Liberty dominated us upfront on both sides of the ball. They win that game 10 times out of 10 and probably 96 times out of 100.

 

[BrooklynCuse]

That was not a smoke and mirrors win, Liberty dominated us upfront on both sides of the ball. They win that game 10 times out of 10 and probably 96 times out of 100.

That was one of the hardest games I’ve ever watched. It was right up there with some Gerg games. No way we should lose to Liberty. Ever.

I didn’t say our game was smoke and mirrors, we were dominated and it was tough to watch. It was the first time that I thought maybe Dino wasn’t the guy(I do believe he’ll be successful here)

I said their 10 wins were smoke and mirrors. A winless FIU, winless Northern Alabama, winless UL Monroe, winless UMass and a 1 win Western Carolina.

That’s 1 win in 5 opponents.

 

[TiogaCuse]

That was one of the hardest games I’ve ever watched. It was right up there with some Gerg games. No way we should lose to Liberty. Ever.

I didn’t say our game was smoke and mirrors, we were dominated and it was tough to watch. It was the first time that I thought maybe Dino wasn’t the guy(I do believe he’ll be successful here)

I said their 10 wins were smoke and mirrors. A winless FIU, winless Northern Alabama, winless UL Monroe, winless UMass and a 1 win Western Carolina.

That’s 1 win in 5 opponents.

Fair enough. I think they were a better team than their schedule allowed them to show, but I guess we shall see!

 

[BrooklynCuse]

Fair enough. I think they were a better team than their schedule allowed them to show, but I guess we shall see!

I agree and they did what they were suppose to do and win. If I recall I think I remember both their lines being bigger than ours and being surprised how we got pushed around.

But I’m all in on our second stringers playing by the 4th quarter this year!

 

[TiogaCuse]

I agree and they did what they were suppose to do and win. If I recall I think I remember both their lines being bigger than ours and being surprised how we got pushed around.

But I’m all in on our second stringers playing by the 4th quarter this year!

At one point in the mid third quarter of that game we were down by 21, they were driving, and I just remember thinking to myself “Damn it. These guys are better than we are”. What a depressing feeling.