sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to International Day of Non-Violence!
International Day of Non-Violence celebrates the use of non-violence to create social and political change and honors Mahatma Gandhi by being observed on the anniversary of his birth. Non-violence is not passive but engages in conflicts while at the same time rejecting physical violence. It has been used by many social and political movements throughout history. In January 2007 a conference was convened in New Delhi that called for the United Nations to create a day of non-violence. On June 15, 2007, a resolution creating the day was adopted by the United Nations, after it was introduced by India's Minister of State for External Relations, Anand Sharma.
SU News
How good can Syracuse football be in 2018? (podcast) (PS; podcast; Axe, Bailey, Mink)
The Syracuse University football team lost to Clemson but the Orange's strong showing in Death Valley has Orange fans thinking big.
Before the season, a 6-6 finish and a bowl bid would have been a deal most Orange fans would take if offered, but maybe the performance of the Orange so far in 2018 is raising the bar.
The Orange are knocking on the door of the Top 25 polls and perhaps have shown they can play with anyone in the country (although let's not go scheduling Alabama quite yet).
Syracuse.com football beat reporters Stephen Bailey and Nate Mink join Brent Axe on Episode 43 of the Syracuse Sports Podcast to discuss the Orange's 4-1 start and where they can go from here.
You can listen to the podcast below by clicking on the Soundcloud player.
Please subscribe in iTunes or Google Play to get new episodes downloaded wherever you listen to your podcasts when they are available.
Syracuse Football Mid-Season (Kinda) Report Cards – Orange Fizz – Free Syracuse Recruiting News (orangefizz.net; Leonard)
Quarterbacks: A
Dungey has exceed expectations so far this year when he’s been out there. I mean the dude is actually kinda in the Heisman conversation. Tommy D struggled initially, but while playing with the first stringers in the second half of FSU—the redshirt freshman delivered. That’s the difference between this year and years past. SU can still get by if Dungey goes down.
Running Backs: C+
It’s unreasonable to ever expect a Dino offense to put up big run numbers. That’s just the way football is heading. Having said that, SU has showed no signs of being able to run the ball effectively at the goal line. That’s a legitimate issue.
Offensive Line: A-
With the exception of Koda Martin being treated like a turnstile for that sack at the end of the Clemson game, he has been one of the most valuable players on the Syracuse roster. Overall, this is the most improved unit from a year ago and a huge reason why they’re knocking on the top 25 door.
Receivers: B-
Jamal Custis and Devin Butler stepped up and played like the receivers SU needs them to be on Saturday. As a whole, though, they’ve been too inconsistent. Custis oozes potential, which makes the costly drops even more infuriating. Also shoutout, Taj Harris, the freshman has been a welcome surprise to a position group that needs a few of those.
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Pitt heads into crucial matchup with Syracuse on Saturday (cardiachill.com; Whaley)
After another disappointing game on Saturday, Pitt will turn around to face Syracuse this weekend.
Looking at the game before the season started, it was hoped that this one could be penciled in as a win. Syracuse did beat the Panthers last year but Pitt also suffered its worst season in a decade and still lost by only three on the road. That Orange team, too, was not very good, finishing 4-8.
But if you were hoping for an easy game for the Panthers this weekend, think again. Syracuse comes in at 4-1 this year and is one of the surprises in, not only the conference, but probably all of college football. This weekend, they nearly upset No. 3 Clemson on the road, losing by four after the Tigers scored late in the game. Clemson was down to its third string quarterback but even figuring that in, that was an impressive showing.
Besides that game, Syracuse has looked beyond good. Their offense scored at least 30 points in every other game and topped 50 points three times. Their defense hasn’t been quite that good but has still more than held their own, giving up only seven points to Florida State and only ten to Wagner. They did give up 42 in the opener in somewhat of a head-scratcher against Western Michigan. But, aside from an ugly loss to Michigan, Western Michigan has scored a ton of points themselves.
With quarterback Eric Dungey, Syracuse’s passing offense is more than capable. But it’s in the running game where they’ve really done their damage. The Orange ranked No. 9 in the nation in rushing offense heading into this weekend and Dungey contributes there, too, as he’s the second-leading rusher on the team. Currently, they average 278 yards on the ground per game and a big part of stopping them is going to be limiting Dungey’s mobility.
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Orange Watch: Upward direction of Syracuse football is as fast as its offense - The Juice Online (the juice; Bierman)
Item: it’s taken only 29 games of the Dino Babers era to put Syracuse football within shouting distance of the Top 25 polls. Shoot, we’re proclaiming Orange football IS ranked this week, No. 28, so a shout-out to all for an eye-opening accomplishment now being absorbed by the sport’s national followers, especially in such a short amount of time considering the millisecond world we live in. Going back to Babers introductory press conference on December 7, 2015, Pearl Harbor Day for the Hawaiian-born son of a Navy officer, and which seems so long ago, it was the new coach’s request for “belief without evidence” that became the early pitch to his holdover players and recruits alike, and which has quickly taken form to turn the program’s fan base into a large group of believers.
If anything, and ironically, Syracuse football didn’t play fast enough in the end last weekend, worn down by the conditions and a talented team, allowing just enough time for Clemson’s gutsy comeback and resulting in the first SU football defeat since the Saturday after last Thanksgiving.
The last minute loss certainly wiped away thoughts of back-to-back 4-8 seasons under Babers, and beginning with Saturday afternoon’s annual dual with Pittsburgh (12:20 p.m. ET / ACCN-Sirius XM) at Heinz Field (SU is 1-7 all-time there since the stadium opened in 2001), it’s now a question of how many wins this team can achieve against a now seemingly friendlier remaining schedule, up first on the road with the taste of defeat evaporating slowly as each day of practice leads to week six, with a much appreciated off weekend looming after Pitt.
“We have to move on from that game (the Clemson loss), Babers quickly pointed out at his weekly Monday press outing at the Manley football complex. “We can’t finish and reach our goals if we keep looking back to the past.”
With the theme of, what else, but fast, Babers has asked everyone to move on to preparing for Pittsburgh, already pleased with how his team reacted watching the Clemson film, installing the mindset that this week’s challenge is beating a Panther’s program that Syracuse has lost to 13 of the last 17 times they’ve met.
“We work hard on our culture. You guys (the media) are around us, you guys see us,” Babers reiterated Monday.
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What's up Cuse Nation?!?!? In this show, we talk Clemson loss. There's no reason to hang our heads on this loss. We'll give you the good and bad of the game and why we should stay positive. This weeks round of Fan Feedback. Joe's MyBookie picks are at 5-0. We give some more stuff away. As always wrap with the Pitt preview!
On The Block On Demand | WTLA-AM (espnsyracuse.com; radio; Axe)
Brent opens the show talking Syracuse football and what happened that lead to a Clemson win. Then, he continues the SU Football talk including how you’ll know if Syracuse is “back.” The podcast wraps up by taking a listen to some clips from Dino Babers, including how Dino’s vision from his introductory press conference is coming true.
Pitt football already on the same path as last season (post-gazette.com; Batko)
Five games into the 2018 season, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi isn’t in the mood to look at the big picture.
After a second loss of more than 31 points, Pitt’s third such defeat in the past two years, Narduzzi was asked Monday if he believes his program is on the right track amid a mountain of statistical evidence that it is not.
“You can evaluate. I think the program is going in the right direction,” Narduzzi said. “That's not my job. My job is to get ready for Syracuse. You can write what you want to write, because I know you will, but you can't look at the points. You look at the wins and losses. The points don't matter. That's all stats.”
And the stats don’t back up Narduzzi’s assertion that he has Pitt football moving forward. Perhaps he set a high bar for himself by going 16-10 with a couple of unforgettable victories over his first two seasons, but the stretch of 17 games since has been anything but memorable, save for last season’s upset of Miami.
It’s not so much that Pitt is off to its worst start under Narduzzi — if you’ll recall, the Panthers were 2-3 at this time last year, too — that is cause for alarm, but that this season is already looking a lot like the last. This year, through five weeks, Pitt is at a low point in average scoring margin (minus-8.4) under Narduzzi and a high point for penalties (40 for 379 yards). Pitt’s worst first-five-games numbers in total defense, sacks and sacks allowed have come this year or last, and its 343.2 yards per game so far this season are the second fewest of Narduzzi’s tenure.
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Pitt football | Panthers look to remedy numerous issues, flaws (tribdem.com; Filipcic-Godsey)
Pitt returns to Heinz Field on Saturday to celebrate homecoming against Syracuse, following a 45-14 defeat against Central Florida.
Against the Knights, several Panthers went down with cramping and injuries in the 91-degree Orlando weather, including defensive end Patrick Jones II. Jones went down clutching his left leg late in the first half.
After the game, Central Florida coach Josh Heupel, running back Adrian Killins, and quarterback McKenzie Milton all asserted the Panthers had been faking cramps as an attempt to disrupt the Knights’ high-tempo offense.
“That’s one way to try and defend it,” Heupel said. “It didn’t work well (Saturday).”
“If that’s what it takes for them to get the upper hand and you know, kind of keep their bodies fresh. It is what it is.” Milton said. “I hate it, but it’s gamesmanship. It’s part of football.”
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was hesitant to discuss the fake injury accusations at first.
“I don’t care what they say, I don’t care what we say,” Narduzzi said. “It doesn’t really matter.”
Narduzzi quickly went on to state there was no issue with the tempo of the game and pointed to several Pitt players receiving IVs during the game as proof they were not faking cramps or injuries.
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Pat Narduzzi Press Conference: Syracuse Week - University of Pittsburgh (pittsburghpanthers.com)
Obviously a tough weekend for the Panthers down south. Our guys competed. I always kind of evaluate with what we did back there (points to back wall with 'ATTITUDE,' 'EFFORT' and 'TOUGHNESS' graphics). Our kids had a great attitude, still got a great attitude. I think they played with great effort. You put the tape on, our guys played hard. We played tough I would say 90 percent of the time. There's some fits with some linebackers -- there's always like some nasty part of the game that you'd like to see done better. When I talk toughness, and we're by far not a soft team; not even close. I don't even want to use that word. But our kids play tough. Could we have played tougher, yes.
There's a couple plays out there -- Connor Dintino is doing some great -- a great job chopping some people. I wish everybody were doing that. He knocks a couple linebackers on their tails, and they're like this holding their back.
So to me that's part of the game, and something I'd still like to see a little bit more of that. But our kids are playing hard. There was a lot of good, and there was some bad.
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Q. Speaking of the tempo that you guys dealt with Saturday, UCF's coach and players said afterward that they thought some of the cramping issues you guys had throughout were more gamesmanship than legitimate. Do you have any response to that?
PAT NARDUZZI: Not a whole lot. You know, again, I don't care what they say, I don't care what we say. It doesn't really matter. Put it this way. I'll just leave it at this. We didn't have a problem with the tempo. It was multiple IV's given even before halftime, during halftime, and then in the third quarter. That speaks for itself. We don't just give IV's to people for nothing. It's not even worth addressing to be honest with you. I've cramped in a recliner before after some yard work. What are we talking about? It's all about the players' safety. I'm never going to question the guys' health. And again, it wasn't all cramping issues, either. Is that good? Does that answer you? I hate to be short, but it's not...
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Pitt-UCF Monday Morning Aftermath: Time to Right the Ship? (pittsburghsports.com)
UCF 45 – PITT 14
Pitt was throttled by the National Champion UCF Knights, who came into the game with the nation’s longest winning streak and left it with said streak never seriously threatened. The Panthers offense was particularly anemic, not scoring until well into garbage time–the first points were scored by the special teams on a nifty punt return by Rafael Araujo-Lopes. The defense struggled, albeit against a Heisman candidate in quarterback McKenzie Milton, and had two interceptions wiped out by penalties.
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Pitt vs. Syracuse: The Panthers’ Probable Two-Deep for Week 6 (247sports.com; O'Brien)
Pitt has released their probable two-deep depth chart for their Week 6 ACC league game. Syracuse (4-1) fell to No. 3 Clemson last week 27-23, their first loss of the year. Pitt (2-3) lost 45-14 to UCF, dropping their second game in a row.
There are no changes to the lineup for Pitt headed into this week’s game against Syracuse.
The Week 6 match-up between Pitt and Orange features two programs currently going in different directions. Syracuse has won four games this season and that's significant because that's the same amount of total games that they won during the 2016 and 2017 season.
Pitt and Syracuse were both also a part of the Big East football conference until both schools left and joined the ACC officially in July. 1, 2013. In their first five years in the ACC, Pitt has averaged almost seven wins per season and have appeared in four bowl games. Syracuse has played in only one bowl game since joining the ACC.
QUARTERBACK
1ST Kenny Pickett (Sophomore, 6-2, 220)
2nd Ricky Town (Junior, 6-3, 215)
3rd Nick Patti (Freshman, 6-1, 185) or Jeff George (Junior, 6-3, 220)
Pickett has completed 60 out of 96 passes for 580 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions.
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ACC Football Rx: Links, news and rumors - 10/2/18 (accfootballrx.com; HM)
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From ACCSports: ACC Football Power Rankings Week 5
I noticed that these rankings are starting to settle into bands, which I highlighted here:
Rank | David Glenn | Brian Geisinger | Josh Graham | Consensus |
1 | Clemson | Clemson | Clemson | Clemson |
2 | Miami | Miami | NC State | Miami |
3 | NC State | NC State | Miami | NC State |
4 | Syracuse | Virginia Tech | Syracuse | Syracuse |
5 | Virginia Tech | Syracuse | Virginia Tech | Virginia Tech |
6 | Boston College | Duke | Duke | Duke |
7 | Duke | Boston College | Boston College | Boston College |
8 | Wake Forest | Virginia | Wake Forest | Wake Forest |
9 | Florida State | Wake Forest | Virginia | Virginia |
10 | Virginia | Florida State | Florida State | Florida State |
11 | UNC | Georgia Tech | Pitt | Georgia Tech |
12 | Pitt | Louisville | Georgia Tech | Pitt |
13 | Georgia Tech | Pitt | Louisville | UNC |
14 | Louisville | UNC | UNC | Louisville |
Other
Syracuse University student diagnosed with potentially deadly bacterial meningitis (PS; Mulder)
A Syracuse University student has been diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly illness.
SU announced today the unidentified student has left campus and is being treated at a hospital near the student's hometown.
SU has notified students who live with or may have come in contact with the student. The school said it is giving antibiotics to individuals who had close contact with the sick student.
Students who have had prolonged contact with the sick student are at greatest risk of developing bacterial meningitis.
"If you have not been contacted by Health Services, you are not at increased risk from this case and you do not need antibiotics," Dr. Karen Nardella, SU's medical director, said in an emailed message to students, faculty and staff.
Meningitis is an inflammation, or swelling, of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.
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