OttosShoes
Scout Team
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2024
- Messages
- 489
- Like
- 1,641
RIP SWC.
The Upside
Yes, there's upsides.
The fans--we showed up. We tailgated and had fun. The weather was finally great and it felt as much like a college football Saturday morning as I can remember.
This team was never built to accept mediocrity--this is going to be a wakeup call. I mean, I don't know when Fran is going to be able to shower again and the whole team will literally smell their failure that whole time. Rebuilding isn't some linear progression process--sure there will be brilliant moments, but some things you only learn through failure. Resolve, for example. There's no shortage of winners on this team and this loss is going to haunt them and drive them to new heights.
While there might not have been much of a team effort, there were still individual efforts today. Jack Stonehouse is just, consistently good. I don't think you can ask for more from a punter. Antoine Deslauriers; he keeps making huge plays that show athleticism, size, and intelligence. That sack was a work of art. Braheem Long runs like the 180lb 4x100 champ he is. And yet he makes plays like a 205lb NFL safety. I'm really not sure how he does that, and as someone who once-upon-a-time was also a 180lb 4x100 runner, it spins my head with woulda-coulda-shouldas. The whole receiver corp. It's hard to call out people who didn't make plays, but they consistently ran their routes and found separation and caught what they could. Justus Ross-Simmons even made what I swear was a great catch; feet inbounds, hands under the ball and not behind it, pulled it into a chest. Call didn't go our way (did they say it moved or that he hit OOB? I don't have the heart to watch the replay yet) but I'm not sure what more he could've done with the throw he had.
The Downside
Oof. Momentum? Gone. Confidence? Gone. Rest of the season? Suddenly very very long. Even for a rational adult this was a painful game and it's pretty reasonable to conclude people hanging out on a website called syracusefan.com aren't going to feel particularly rational about it. This really hurts, and playing nearly two quarters of garbage minutes wakes up the part of our brains where names like Robinson and Shafer are stored at a time when we're not even really done celebrating a big win in Death Valley.
Rickie. A lot of us thought he would be better than this. He's talented, but a sad reality of talent is that it doesn't always survive moving up a level. We see this with the NFL all the time--the pointy end of things is extremely pointy and changes are big. Worse, I'm not convinced this downside has a solution. Fran is loyal, I don't see Rickie getting demoted to QB2 right away, but it's also tough to justify him staying at QB1. Aside from current performance, there's no clear path to beating out Angeli next year, seems like he transfers end of the season anyway. If we're going to lose more games, it's a double whammy to do so developing someone poised to leave. On the other hand many of us want to see Carney--who could be an excellent QB2 to Angeli next year--but he's young, early in his career, and has spent the whole season three deep. The reality is is just unlikely that he can come in and fix this, it's too big an ask, at least for now. This is a bad situation to be in, and overwhelmingly, I'd like to use this as an opportunity to recant anything remotely negative I've ever said about Steve Angeli.
Walking back to the truck after the game I ended up near some students walking back to Sadler. I heard one of them say "they're going to make fun of us on TikTok now." I can't say I fully appreciate why that matters but clearly it mattered to them a lot. We want that student section full and lively and bonkers, not weary of internet shame.
DART took a hit today. As above, I can pick out a few players that were DART. The team was decidedly not. When you live DART it's real. When you don't it's just a flashy backronym.
The recruits. I'm fortunate to sit near the 50 behind the sideline and can confirm they saw what we saw. Many left early with the same shellshocked and empty faces the fans had. You have to work against yourself.
The Side
Not as much this time. I stayed to the end to see if they were going to run. Maybe I left too early but after the alma matter they just turned and headed back for the tunnel. Should they run after every bad game? I dunno I guess not. Does playing an even worse game and not running sprints make it look like it was all just a stunt? Probably.
The Upside
Yes, there's upsides.
The fans--we showed up. We tailgated and had fun. The weather was finally great and it felt as much like a college football Saturday morning as I can remember.
This team was never built to accept mediocrity--this is going to be a wakeup call. I mean, I don't know when Fran is going to be able to shower again and the whole team will literally smell their failure that whole time. Rebuilding isn't some linear progression process--sure there will be brilliant moments, but some things you only learn through failure. Resolve, for example. There's no shortage of winners on this team and this loss is going to haunt them and drive them to new heights.
While there might not have been much of a team effort, there were still individual efforts today. Jack Stonehouse is just, consistently good. I don't think you can ask for more from a punter. Antoine Deslauriers; he keeps making huge plays that show athleticism, size, and intelligence. That sack was a work of art. Braheem Long runs like the 180lb 4x100 champ he is. And yet he makes plays like a 205lb NFL safety. I'm really not sure how he does that, and as someone who once-upon-a-time was also a 180lb 4x100 runner, it spins my head with woulda-coulda-shouldas. The whole receiver corp. It's hard to call out people who didn't make plays, but they consistently ran their routes and found separation and caught what they could. Justus Ross-Simmons even made what I swear was a great catch; feet inbounds, hands under the ball and not behind it, pulled it into a chest. Call didn't go our way (did they say it moved or that he hit OOB? I don't have the heart to watch the replay yet) but I'm not sure what more he could've done with the throw he had.
The Downside
Oof. Momentum? Gone. Confidence? Gone. Rest of the season? Suddenly very very long. Even for a rational adult this was a painful game and it's pretty reasonable to conclude people hanging out on a website called syracusefan.com aren't going to feel particularly rational about it. This really hurts, and playing nearly two quarters of garbage minutes wakes up the part of our brains where names like Robinson and Shafer are stored at a time when we're not even really done celebrating a big win in Death Valley.
Rickie. A lot of us thought he would be better than this. He's talented, but a sad reality of talent is that it doesn't always survive moving up a level. We see this with the NFL all the time--the pointy end of things is extremely pointy and changes are big. Worse, I'm not convinced this downside has a solution. Fran is loyal, I don't see Rickie getting demoted to QB2 right away, but it's also tough to justify him staying at QB1. Aside from current performance, there's no clear path to beating out Angeli next year, seems like he transfers end of the season anyway. If we're going to lose more games, it's a double whammy to do so developing someone poised to leave. On the other hand many of us want to see Carney--who could be an excellent QB2 to Angeli next year--but he's young, early in his career, and has spent the whole season three deep. The reality is is just unlikely that he can come in and fix this, it's too big an ask, at least for now. This is a bad situation to be in, and overwhelmingly, I'd like to use this as an opportunity to recant anything remotely negative I've ever said about Steve Angeli.
Walking back to the truck after the game I ended up near some students walking back to Sadler. I heard one of them say "they're going to make fun of us on TikTok now." I can't say I fully appreciate why that matters but clearly it mattered to them a lot. We want that student section full and lively and bonkers, not weary of internet shame.
DART took a hit today. As above, I can pick out a few players that were DART. The team was decidedly not. When you live DART it's real. When you don't it's just a flashy backronym.
The recruits. I'm fortunate to sit near the 50 behind the sideline and can confirm they saw what we saw. Many left early with the same shellshocked and empty faces the fans had. You have to work against yourself.
The Side
Not as much this time. I stayed to the end to see if they were going to run. Maybe I left too early but after the alma matter they just turned and headed back for the tunnel. Should they run after every bad game? I dunno I guess not. Does playing an even worse game and not running sprints make it look like it was all just a stunt? Probably.
