sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Cliche Day!
I kid you not. Would I lie to you?
Now that I’ve let the cat out of the bag, please don’t shoot me. I’m just the messenger. It’s right here in black and white, in Chase’s 2006 Calendar of Events. “Use cliché’s as much as possible today,” advises Wellcat Herbs and Holidays, the sponsor of the observance.
Trust me, you’ll want to be prepared for Cliché Day, lest you get left out in the cold or caught with your pants down. Practice makes perfect, and once you get the hang of it, it’s easy as pie. So why not begin right now using clichés to your heart’s content?
I sense that many of you are not jumping at the chance to hop on the bandwagon. What’s the matter? Got cold feet?
By all means, it’s okay if you don’t swallow the idea hook line and sinker. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all. But please, at least meet me half way on this. You may not be an eager beaver now, but once you get in the swing of it, it’s like stealing candy from a baby.
SU News
Syracuse football linebacker Parris Bennett is living the good life -- and racking up tackles (PS; Mink)
Parris Bennett and his family would often sit around the table in their Detroit home playing board games.
Bennett liked "The Game of Life," in which players spin a wheel and live out various real-life scenarios before retirement — whoever finishes the game with the most money wins.
"That's what it's about," Bennett said. "Live the good life."
And so far, it's hard to see the Syracuse football junior linebacker doing anything less than that, as he leads the team in tackles with 73 heading into Saturday's matchup at No. 2 Clemson. In fact, Bennett has recorded double-digit tackles in four of his last five games, helping anchor an improving defense with fellow linebacker Zaire Franklin.
Bennett's steadiness is no accident. His support network back in Detroit has been so strong that he has had to worry about very little outside of football and school.
His parents wanted it no other way, enrolling him in an all-boys catholic school in seventh grade. His mother, father, stepfather and grandparents all pitched in to help cover tuition costs.
"It's all academics," said his stepfather, Antonio Kimble, "and I wanted him to be diverse."
Bennett also received scholarship money through a donor at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy named Jack Curley, a 1963 graduate who is the institution's most recognizable athletic benefactor. Like Bennett, Curley played football at Detroit Jesuit before he attended Dartmouth, and the two developed a solid relationship through Bennett's time at the school.
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Syracuse: Did the ACC Keep the Receipt? (shakininthesouthland.com; Drew)
It’s Wednesday, and that means my hate has been braising for four days in the deepest pit of my soul and is now cooked and ready to be served. Clemson faces the Orange after a complete and total debacle in Tallahassee that saw the 7-0 Tigers only defeat the Seminoles by 3 points in Doak Campbell stadium, falling even farther behind Louisville in the margin of victory column and once again having to fall back on the vastly overrated actual victory column. Clemson is perhaps the most disappointing 8-0, #2 ranked team in the history of College football and needs to pull it together before they mess around go 13-0 and really upset some folks.
Syracuse comes into this match-up on a 2-game heater, the likes of which they haven’t seen this millennium (I didn’t actually check this stat, but it feels right). The Orange are looking forward to escaping the desolate hellscape of basically Canada, New York and heading south to God’s country where the wounded Tigers look to win yet another game (sigh…. boring) and further enrage Louisville and South Carolina fans. Now, Let’s get to the hating.
Dino “The Hostage” Babers: From everything I’ve read and seen, Dino Babers is a good guy. He plays an entertaining brand of football, says the right things, and appears to be genuinely liked by everyone. His coaching resume stretches back to 1984, when he was a GA for his alma mater Hawaii. He’s put in time at such football outposts as Eastern Illinois, Northern Arizona, and Bowling Green. This guy deserves a shot at coaching a major college program. Based on his resume and temperament, I’m fully convinced that Syracuse is holding Dino Babers hostage. There is no way someone who has been around college football this long thought, “Syracuse, yeah, that sounds like a good place to win football games.” The only way this makes sense is that Babers is coaching under duress.
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Two reasons Clemson won’t cover big number vs. Syracuse | New York Post (nypost.com; Steele)
Football expert Phil Steele is the owner and publisher of Phil Steele’s College Football Preview, regarded as the college football bible. Get in-depth coverage of college and pro football 24/7/365 at PhilSteele.com.
Syracuse (+26) over CLEMSON: The College Football Playoff committee put out its rankings this week. Last year, the top five teams combined to go 0-5 against the spread after the first release. All Clemson has to do is win out and it will be in. The Tigers are off a big, emotional win at Florida State, while Syracuse is fresh off a bye. Clemson has five wins by a touchdown or less and the Orange will keep this closer than expected.
STANFORD (-14¹/₂) over Oregon State: I went with Stanford to cover at Arizona last week, and the Cardinal made a switch at quarterback and came up big, winning by more than three touchdowns. I’m going back to them this week. Last year’s Heisman Trophy runner-up Christian McCaffrey is back to nearly 100 percent healthy and had his first 100-yard effort last week since opening the season with three straight. The Beavers are allowing 239 rushing yards per game in Pac-12 play and Stanford will get another blowout win.
Last week (NCAA): 2-0
Season: 9-8-1
Quit whining and complaining: Venables leaves little doubt about feelings - Clemson Football News - TigerNet (tigernet.com; Hood)
Brent Venables is happy that thirdranked Clemson escaped Doak Campbell Stadium with a win last Saturday night, and he’s thrilled that his defense got the stop it needed with the game on the line.
Just don’t ask him to be happy with how his group played.
The Seminoles racked up 449 yards of total offense, including averaging 5.8 yards per carry to gain 163 on the ground, and scored 34 points in the loss. The defense also committed five pass interference penalties, and Venables was asked Tuesday if he thought some of the penalties were of the iffy variety.
His answer left little doubt about his feelings, and said that everybody needs to quit whining and complaining about the officials and just get better.
"I don't know," he said. "We must get better and clean up our technique and that starts in practice. You have to stress yourself and hold yourself accountable and quit whining and complaining. We have officials at every practice and we do it too much. We must get better that way. When you are guilty of it early, they are really going to be looking for it. When we are phased and in position, we must do a better job of helping them out and coaching and correcting them."
Clemson’s defensive backs had trouble with the deep ball, failing time and time again to turn their head before the ball’s arrival, and the back end of the defense had issues stopping Dalvin Cook and the counter run game.
"With a counter play for example, you can train some guys to get it down through repetition and they can get it down and fit it right, track the guard or the tackle and they see the split flow,” he said. “And then some guys they show up Day One, man, and they know the ball is going over here. Guys over here waiting on the ball because he has such good feel and instincts and natural movement to him
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Would Boston College Football Make A Bowl At 5-7? (bcinterruption.com; Salzano)
Yesterday, AJ posted an article pondering whether making a bowl at 5-7 would be enough for BC to retain Steve Addazio for next season. In addition, some bowl projections have a 5-7 Syracuse team making a bowl game over BC, which, as AJ has pointed out, can’t happen.
Let’s start off this article with two quick points:
- No one is rooting for BC to get just one more win.
- We can all acknowledge that going 5-7 would result in an incredibly disappointing season.
- No one is rooting for BC to get just one more win.
There will be 80 teams playing in bowl games. Bowl games are filled in a certain order, with teams 6-7* or better all getting in before the 5-7 teams. If, after all those teams are selected, there are still bowl slots open, the remainder will be filled with teams based solely on, and in numerical order of, their Academic Progress Rate (APR).
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Syracuse football at Clemson: See our picks, make your predictions (PS; Staff)
The Syracuse football team will head back on the road to face No. 3 Clemson at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
It's time for our predictions. Hop below in the comments and offer your picks.
Brent Axe
Syracuse is bringing rocks to a boulder fight on Saturday. The No. 3 Tigers are that good and are starting to click on all cylinders with a spot in the College Football playoff in sight. Deshaun Watson has one of the best wide receiver corps in the country to throw to and the Tiger defense is punishing. Going to be a long afternoon for the Orange in Death Valley. (Clemson 48, Syracuse 20)
Stephen Bailey
If the Orange gets out of Death Valley healthy, that'll be just fine. The goal here heading into the back third of the season is to make a bowl, and barring a slip-up by the Tigers, SU is exceptionally unlikely to pick up one of its 1-2 needed wins this Saturday. That said, the environment should be fantastic and the matchup will serve as a nice test to see how SU's new systems perform against superior talent. (Clemson 45, Syracuse 20)
Stephen D. Cannerelli
Of all the remaining games, this one is the easiest to predict. Even though Clemson has struggled this year (handling only Boston College and Georgia Tech easily) they have too much riding on this game to have any sort of letdown. You can say they have much more pressure on them because they not only have to win, but have to win convincingly to stay in the top four and be assured a spot in the playoffs. Orange followers believe Syracuse has nothing to lose, has been improving each week, (even on the defensive side of the ball) and if it can keep the game close, anything can happen.
But not this weekend. Deshaun Watson will have a big game, especially throwing the ball and the Clemson defensive line will put serious pressure on Dungey, causing all kinds of havoc.
Babers said it best when asked about their chances against Clemson, "Don't bet the house on it, Brother." This game will give everyone another does of reality. Heck, it was a nice winning streak while it lasted. (Clemson 48 Syracuse 24)
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Reivers' Van Ginkel picks Wisconsin (nonpareilonline.com; White)
Andrew Van Ginkel was in Madison last Saturday for Wisconsin’s overtime victory over Nebraska.
“The atmosphere there was insane,’’ he said.
That recruiting trip was far from the only factor in Van Ginkel’s recent decision. But it didn’t hurt.
The Iowa Western sophomore defensive end called Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst on Tuesday night and accepted an offer to continue his career with the Badgers. He chose Wisconsin over finalists Nebraska and Iowa, and he also had offers from Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota, Colorado, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia.
Van Ginkel is considered a three-star prospect by 247Sports and Scout, and a four-star prospect by Rivals.
He expects to be enrolled for the second semester in January.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder is a Rock Valley, Iowa, native. He spent two years at the University of South Dakota, and was named the Missouri Valley Conference freshman of the year after a season that included 18 tackles for losses and nine sacks.
After experiencing that success, Van Ginkel wanted more.
“My dream was to play at a high level, hopefully make it to the Power Five,’’ he said.
So Van Ginkel enrolled at Iowa Western, where he has struggled with a hip injury. He’s made 13 solo tackles and 20 assists in eight games for the 4-5 Reivers, to go with two sacks.
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ACC Power Rankings - Week 9 (shakinthesouthland.com; Gordon)
#1 Clemson Tigers (8-0, 5-0) Last Week – W, @ #12 Florida State (37-34)
Movement from Week 8 – (No Change)
The Cardiac Cat’s strike again. After allowing Dalvin Cook to absolutely take over the game and give the Noles a 4th quarter lead, Clemson did what Clemson does and came back to win on their last offensive drive. The win was Clemson’s record setting 9th consecutive road win and I think answered the common hypothetical question as to who you would want with the ball in the last 2 minutes of a game down a score. The answer is Deshaun Watson. Say what you want about the lack of dominant performances in the Tiger’s wins this season, the bottom line is they know how to win, which I will take over any tangible skill. The one glaring issue that came out of Saturday nights slugfest was Clemson’s secondary. The Tiger’s just aren’t that good in coverage. Nobody in the secondary was able to locate the ball all night. Will be something to keep an eye on against the pass happy Syracuse attack next week.
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#7 – Syracuse Orange (4-4, 2-2) Last Week - Idle
Movement from Week 8 - (+3)
So it’s come to this…Syracuse…at #7 in the ACC Power Rankings…What does that say about the depth of the bottom half of this conference? It says a lot. I had to think long and hard about this one, but there is one thing that the Orange have that no other team below them on this list has, and that is a signature win. I’m not going to sit here and try to justify Syracuse as an above average football team to you, because I respect your intelligence, but the win over the Hokies has me unwilling to move any other team over them. The rest of their schedule is brutal so I don’t expect them to stay here, but as of right NOW, they are #7.
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Week 10 ACC football power poll (dailyprogress.com; Ratcliffe)
1. Clemson, 8-0/5-0 (1). Are we headed for another Alabama vs. Clemson national championship? After escaping a close call at Tallahassee, the Tigers should be favored to run the table.
2. Louisville, 7-1/5-1 (2). Any time the Cardinals find themselves in a jam, they call Lamar Jackson’s number and the leading Heisman Trophy candidate delivers. Bobby Petrino’s boys are expected to win out, but will that be enough?
3. Florida State, 5-3/2-3 (3). The Seminoles are playing for pride and a good bowl spot from here on out. After giving Clemson a fit, they better be leery of their trip to Raleigh, where they’ve tripped up before.
4. Virginia Tech, 6-2/4-1 (4). Bud Foster should host a clinic on how to play defense in the modern era and charge a million bucks to every coach who comes. With his defense, and QB Jerod Evans, Hokies are tough to beat.
5. North Carolina, 6-2/4-1 (5). The Tar Heels had a bye week to try and figure out how to stop Paul Johnson’s option offense. Carolina still may have to score a ton of points to keep on rolling in the Coastal.
6. Pittsburgh, 5-3/2-2 (6). If the Panthers have calmed down from last Thursday night’s home loss to Virginia Tech, they can get ready for a trip to Miami. Hint: keep feeding the ball to James Conner.
7. Georgia Tech, 5-3/2-3 (9). If QB Justin Thomas can continue performing like he did last week, the Yellow Jackets could have a strong say in who wins the Coastal.
8. N.C. State, 4-4/1-3 (7). The Wolfies are reeling after back-to-back-to-back losses to Clemson, Louisville, and Boston College. Ending their free fall won’t be easy with Florida State coming to town.
9. Miami, 4-4/1-3 (8). Uh, speaking of free falling, how about those Hurricanes? They normally collapse in November when there’s little to play for, but they’ve lost four in a row with hungry Pitt coming to town.
10. Wake Forest, 5-3/2-2 (10). Deacons coach Dave Clawson said after a home loss to run-oriented Army that he felt his team had regressed. Wake’s defense should sue its offense for non-support.
11. Syracuse, 4-4/2-2 (11). Orange QB Eric Dungey has been one of the most electrifying players in the country the past month. That all ends Saturday in Death Valley.
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How Syracuse can make a bowl game as a 5-win team and how likely that is to happen (DO; Libonati)
Let’s not mince words: The easiest way for Syracuse football to make a bowl game is by being a six-win team. But if that doesn’t happen, some five-win teams could make a bowl game, too.
SU has a good probability of winning at least one of its final four games. Although it faces No. 3 Clemson and No. 19 Florida State, the Orange also plays North Carolina State, a team that lost to Boston College this past week, and Pittsburgh, which narrowly lost at home to Virginia Tech. To get to five wins, SU would likely have to split the latter two. Getting to six games would probably also mean having to sweep those two games.
Five-win teams have been a bowl fixture since 2012, when the NCAA introduced a rule that if bowl games couldn’t be filled, a team that finished in the top five in the academic progress rate, or APR, could be invited to a bowl game. Each team is given an APR based on its academic performance. Until last year, that method had sufficed.
Only 77 teams finished the 2015 season at 6-6 and eligible for a bowl game. The five in the APR all reached bowl eligibility. The NCAA then clarified its rule and said the top five five to seven teams in terms of APR would be eligible to fill slots. Syracuse (4-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) could take advantage of the rule this year, especially with a tough slate ahead. Currently, CBS Sports and SB Nation do not have Syracuse in, and ESPN hasn’t released an update to its bowl projections since SU’s bye week. SU plays Clemson (8-0, 5-0) in Death Valley on Saturday, a game Dino Babers said the Orange would need a rock and a sling shot to win.
“Don’t bet the house on it, brother,” Babers reiterated about beating Clemson.
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SU vs. Clemson travel guide from a local Orange fan (TNIAAM; Clark)
My fiancée (now wife) accepted a job in the Charlotte area two years ago. Being engaged made for a very easy life choice: I was also moving to Charlotte. A couple months of job-hunting proved fruitless, so I looked a bit farther away from the city. That search took me all the way to Clemson, S.C.: the East Coast’s Capital of #disrespekt and butthurt. Seriously, the sports talk radio station here almost makes me long to hear Bud Poliquin on the radio… almost.
Sarcasm aside, the Orange has a game this Saturday in Clemson. So I reached out to John to offer my sort-of insider’s perspective of game day in Clemson for ‘Cuse fans, that won’t be smothered in purple and orange.
Getting to Clemson
Clemson is technically a city, but it’s really a small town. It has 13,000 permanent residents and a student enrollment of just over 22,500. It’s also in the middle of nowhere. The nearest actual city, Greenville, is 40 minutes away. It has the infrastructure of a small town. That means it’s not really built to handle the 100,000 plus people who show up for home games. That number includes the 81,000 game attendees and folks who come just to tailgate in town.
Even though it’s a 3:30 p.m. ET kick, you’re going to want to get up and get into town early. Arrive after 11 a.m. at your own risk. Generally speaking, if you’re driving in from Atlanta, or from the south off I-85, try to take Exit 14 (SC 187) to avoid the traffic in Anderson on your way in. If you’re coming from Charlotte, GSP Airport, or north off I-85, your best bet will be to use Exit 35 (SC 86), and take the back roads.
Regardless of where you’re coming in from that morning, bow down to our technology overlord Google, and download the Waze app. It will be your friend trying to get into town.
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Syracuse football (at 4-4) can still gain one of those 80 bowl berths; Yippee, right? (PS; BUD POLIQUIN)
Back in those innocent days when most folks couldn't conceive of oddities called the AutoNation Cure Bowl or the TaxSlayer Bowl or the Dollar General Bowl (and, yes, Virginia, there really are such football curios), the NCAA removed a shoe and pounded it on a table.
Turns out, once upon a time that governing body thought it crude to chase dollars the way kids do Tootsie Rolls along curbs at holiday parades. But that was then, this is the 21st century and grubbing for moola has become the NCAA's business model.
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Other
Camillus' wandering sheep to get a new home after capture by 40 people (PS; Hannagan)
Mike Bott knew something was up on Emann Drive when he saw a guy in a fluorescent vest walk through the woods behind his house.
Next came the police officer who leaned over the backyard fence and peered under his deck.
Were they looking for a criminal in the quiet neighborhood of houses and woods?
Then the retired Pepsi worker saw a sheep with four horns wander by the backyard pool.
"It was creepy for sure," Bott said Wednesday afternoon.
Police officers and municipal workers Wednesday captured five sheep who have been wandering the fields, woods and backyards from Onondaga to Camillus and back again for nearly two weeks. The sheep gathered a loyal following on the Camillus Community Connection Facebook page.
"I didn't know anything about this," he said during an interview at his home at 214 Emann Drive.
The sheep, estimated at one time to be a flock of five to seven animals, escaped from a property on Kasson Road in the town of Onondaga. The Onondaga County Sheriff's Department has had a half dozen calls about the wandering sheep since Oct. 24. Two days later the Camillus Police Department put a notice on the department's Facebook page asking for the public's help in finding the animals.
The sheep were spotted on Sheridan Road, Corporal Welch Road, Kasson Road, Howlett Hill Road and Fireside Lane, as well as near a Wal-Mart. Then at 9:29 Wednesday Camillus police got a call: five sheep were grazing near East Hill Elementary School on Blackmore Road in Camillus.
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