sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to Barbie Doll Day!
Barbie Doll Day marks the anniversary of the day that the Barbie doll first went on sale in 1959. Barbie was thought up by Ruth Handler, wife of one of Mattel's founders, Elliot Handler. Handler noticed her daughter, Barbara, gave adult roles to paper dolls when she played with them. In 1956, Handler bought three German Lilli dolls while vacationing in Switzerland, and used them as inspiration in creating the Barbie doll upon returning back to California. On March 9, 1959, Barbie made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City, which became Barbie's birthday, and also Barbie Day.
SU News
Syracuse football and Central New York in the NFL: Who made Week 1 rosters? (PS; Bailey)
Week 1 of the National Football League starts Thursday night. It's been a tough week for former Syracuse football players, seven of which were cut from teams -- though three (WR Amba Etta-Tawo, OL Sean Hickey and DT Eric Crume) signed on to practice squads.
Let's take a look at which ex-Orange players, as well as Central New York products, made 53-man rosters.
LB Cameron Lynch
Cameron Lynch was on the bubble for the third straight year after going undrafted in 2015. The versatile linebacker made the St. Louis Rams' 53-man roster as a rookie, got cut last season (before signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and won a spot with the Bucs this summer.
Lynch, whose stressful close to camp was aired on HBO's "Hard Knocks," has played in 28 games, primarily on special teams, over his two professional seasons.
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Orange Watch: Syracuse football coaches past and present match wits Saturday - The Juice Online (the juice; Bierman)
Item: It wasn’t exactly the debut Scott Shafer was looking for as he made his coaching return as the defensive coordinator for Middle Tennessee State last weekend after a one season sabbatical. The MTSU defense gave up touchdown drives of 80, 76, and 75 yards in its one-sided 28-6 loss to the SEC’s Vanderbilt Commodores, at home none-the-less. Now the former SU coach (2013-15) returns to the Dome Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET / ACCN+) to face his successor Dino Barbers, who has to be concerned about the continued absence of a running game (155 yards against FCS defense Central Connecticut State / 3.8 yards per carry) to balance his “faster” offense.
The last time a former Syracuse head coach came back as a member of the opposition was Paul Pasqualoni’s return as Connecticut head coach in 2012, a 40-10 SU win under Doug Marrone in his last season guiding the Orange.
Now it’s the coach that followed Marrone in line for a homecoming of sorts this weekend, with Shafer preparing to face many of the players he either helped recruit or coach as recently as just two seasons ago.
“For me, it’s more of a step-out-of-the-way moment,” Babers explained Monday when asked about coaching his current ‘Cuse players who were recruited by Shafer and his former staff.
“This is a proud moment because these guys are in the room because Scott Shafer recruited them, or he coached them,” Babers continued. “Now it’s an opportunity for them to go back and say ‘you know what, you recruited me, thought I could do this, how (do) you like me now?’”
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Syracuse Football: It’s time to believe the hype with Dino Babers (itlh.com; Peelman)
Syracuse Football has had its struggles over the last decade, but this year I think there is room for optimism. Inside The Loud House explains why
Syracuse Football has a huge place in my heart. Ever since I moved here when I was six years old I’ve been drawn to sports.
About three years after I moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to Syracuse, New York, Syracuse won the national title in basketball.
Now Donovan McNabb and Marvin Harrison weren’t playing football for the Syracuse Football team anymore, but we did have the likes of Walter Reyes, a running back who was a Heisman candidate the year before, on the team.
Syracuse Football wasn’t a national title contender, but they definitely were a tough out each and every game. Syracuse Football was known for having a pretty good defense, one of the better ones in the nation, and their home crowd in the Dome was one of the loudest and the best in the nation. The Carrier Dome was the epitome of home field advantage in the northeast.
They’ve come a long way…
The Syracuse Football team has come a long way since then, and I’m not saying that’s entirely a good thing. Syracuse has had major struggles since 2004, hiring several different head coaches due to the fact they couldn’t win here. I could probably name each and every one of them for you if I had the time, but as we all know, that’s just rehashing the past, which we all know wasn’t all that great anyways.
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Syracuse Football players reflect on facing their former head coach (cnycentral.com; Tamurian)
On Monday, it was Dino Babers delivering his take on what's on tap when former Syracuse coach Scott Shafer returns with Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Now, those even closer to Shafer respond.
So many of the Syracuse starters were recruited to Central New York by Shafer and his former staff.
Now, they have to play against him.
"He was like a father figure to me" says Orange quarterback Eric Dungey.
"I know the media's going to try and blow it up and make a big deal out of it but it's nothing for me, it's going to be great to see him honestly" he adds.
One thing Coach Babers mentioned on Monday, and with good reason, is the advantage Shafer may have going against his former pupils. He knows them better than certainly any other opposing coach.
Babers went on to say that "Now, what he doesn't know is what's happened since he's left"
It's a mindset repeated by his players.
"The amount I've learned since my freshman year, it's crazy" Dungey adds. Eric was a freshman in Coach Shafer's final season on the hill.
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http://www.dnj.com/story/sports/col...-vanderbilt-looking-ahead-syracuse/632396001/ (dnj.com; Bacharach)
It took all of three Vanderbilt possessions and 18:07 of game clock for MTSU’s balloon of hype to burst. Optimism and lofty expectations accompanied the Blue Raiders into Floyd Stadium for their season opener Saturday, so the blunt force of the ensuing letdown was difficult to absorb.
"We invested a lot in that game. Our players invested a lot in that game,” MTSU coach Rick Stockstill said Monday of his team’s 28-6 loss to Vanderbilt. “Not just in the week prior but since January when we came back.”
More: MTSU at Syracuse: TV, radio, streaming, kickoff information
But there’s no time to dawdle, not with two more Power Five foes coming up, the next of which — Syracuse — is an 8.5 favorite to beat the Blue Raiders.
“You don't dwell on it,” Stockstill said. “We talked about it Sunday, but not much. We got beat by a better team. They were better than us. That doesn't mean we're not a good team; it just means we got beat by somebody better than us.”
The day after
MTSU’s loss to Vanderbilt was “terrible,” quarterback Brent Stockstill said. It was “embarrassing” and “unacceptable.” So shaking it off in Sunday’s practice wasn’t easy.
"When you first come in there's always heads hanging,” Brent Stockstill said. “If there isn't, I think you've got a problem. I know me personally, I wasn't in the best mood. I was embarrassed. I didn't want anyone seeing me smiling or anything, but as you get going, that's why you come in on Sundays. Win or lose, you kind of flush that taste out of your mouth and get ready for the new week.”.
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Other
Onondaga County legislator: We need to start 'talking much bigger' about War Memorial's future (PS; Kramer)
John Dougherty was one of the 17 Onondaga County Legislators who unanimously voted to allot $4.5 million toward improvements in the Syracuse Crunch's War Memorial on Tuesday.
But before his thumbs up, he gave voice to the same logical concern that anyone who has visited the 66-year-old building would raise: When is the county going to start discussing the planning for a new arena instead of repeatedly sinking money into the old one?
"As you all know I'm an active hockey fan locally. I enjoy going to see Crunch games often,'' Dougherty told the Legislature. "One thing I'd like to see come out out of this is not only improvements and upgrades to the existing building, but start the discussion about what we do from here. The building is getting really old. It's getting close to or it's past its useful life. We're doing metrics as well as local hockey fans a disservice in this community by continuing to make small upgrades to this building.
"I'd like to see a much bigger discussion...maybe relocating it or moving it, retaining all of the memorials that exist for the veterans, including the wall, the displays they have. I think they're beautiful. I think they're necessary. The building, I don't think the same about. That should eventually come down. And I think we should start talking much bigger in this community about this particular building. And maybe give the Crunch a new home and give all of downtown the upgrade that you've seen happen in many buildings.''
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