sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 27,200
- Like
- 119,777
Welcome to Levi Strauss Day!
Levi Strauss was a German-American businessman born in Bavaria on February 26th, 1829, who came to the United States with his family the mid-1800s when he was 18 years old. Strauss began as a dry goods wholesaler in San Francisco, California, where he sold various items such as clothing, bedding, bags and handkerchiefs to settlers, many of whom had arrived in California to take part in the gold rush.
Needless to say, the hard physical labor required of the miners of the day and those building new railroads made it difficult for them to find clothing that would last for more than a few months without falling apart at the seams. One day in 1870, one of Strauss’ clients, a tailor named Jacob W. Davis was approached by a woman who needed a pair of exceptionally strong working pants for her husband, a woodcutter. Her request prompted Davis to make a pair of pants from the denim he’d bought at Strauss’ shop that he then strengthened with copper rivets to reinforce the stitching. Word of the new article of clothing and its endurance spread fast, and soon Davis was not able to keep up with the demand for his invention, nor did he have the resources to open a larger tailor shop or obtain a patent.
SU News
Former Syracuse football quarterback Chance Amie is transferring to Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, he announced in his Twitter bio.
A redshirt freshman, Amie made the decision to leave the Orange in January. He did not play in any games last fall after heading to Central New York from Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, Texas.
Amie, who flipped from Houston late in the 2018 recruiting cycle, was a consensus three-star prospect and slotted as the No. 25 dual-threat quarterback in his cycle by 247Sports.com’s composite rankings. He accounted for 5,325 yards of total offense and 53 touchdowns as a high school upperclassman, throwing and running for at least 10 touchdowns in both his junior and senior seasons.
His departure leaves the Orange with three quarterbacks on roster in redshirt sophomore Tommy DeVito, redshirt senior Clayton Welch and redshirt junior Rex Culpepper. Culpepper finished the 2018 season at tight end, but has been throwing again during winter workouts.
The Syracuse 8 risked their careers to take a stand for equality (si.com;video)
Every day during Black History Month, SI is paying homage to unsung heroes in black sports history. In 1970, a group of football players at Syracuse University boycotted the program to fight for what they believed in. SI remembers a group of players that risked their careers to take a stand.
Syracuse Football: Orange in Alliance of American Football, Week 3 recap (itlh.com; Edsen Jr)
The Alliance of American Football has just wrapped up Week 3. Here’s how all the former Syracuse football stars did on and off the field.
Another week of the Alliance of American Football is in the books. Several former Syracuse football standouts made people remember their names this week. Here’s our weekly report on all the former Orange players, coaches, and executives in the Alliance of American Football.
Here’s how some former Orange stars performed in Week 3:
Amba Etta-Tawo, WR, Birmingham Iron
The Iron is one of only two undefeated teams remaining in the Alliance of American Football (3-0). Birmingham dominated the Atlanta Legends 28-12 in Week 3. Sadly the Iron is having this success without Amba Etta-Tawo who continues to battle injuries and missed his second straight game.
Ervin Philips, WR, Atlanta Legends
In what ended being a blowout between the Legends and the Iron had a really cool storyline underneath the game. The all-time reception leader in Syracuse history (Erv Philips) and Etta-Tawo who had one of the best single-seasons in program history faced off. There’s only so many spots in the NFL so seeing two Syracuse greats getting another chance to prove themselves is awesome to see. Erv finished with two receptions for 31 yards in the loss.
Kevin Coyle, HC, Atlanta Legends
Unfortunately, the Atlanta Legends are arguably the worst team in the AAF so far sitting at 0-3 (one of only two teams who remain winless, the other is the Memphis Express). Atlanta is running out of time to turn it around this season.
...
ACC spring primer: Will Clemson's challengers stabilize? (si.com; Jung)
Clemson was incredible last season. All of the ACC teams that were expected to push Clemson ... were not. The next six weeks might show us who's ready to give ACC title contention another shot in 2019.
It was a good year for the ACC. Clemson won the national title and established itself as one of the greatest teams ever. Syracuse ended the year with a top-25 ranking and the program’s first 10-win season since 2001. NC State and Virginia continued their upward swings. However, there is plenty of room for improvement everywhere else in the conference. The Coastal Division was a mess last season, with a 7–5 Pitt team emerging from a sea of disappointments. Entering spring football, the league welcomes three new coaches to the fold at North Carolina (Mack Brown), Miami (Manny Diaz) and Louisville (Scott Satterfield). Will the ACC ever have depth to match its top-end talent?
Here’s a five-minute guide to what to watch around the league this spring.
State of the spring favorite: Clemson’s golden generation of defensive linemen is off to the NFL draft, and all four starters will likely come off the board in the first two rounds. (Backup DT Albert Huggins helped his own pro stock filling in for the suspended Dexter Lawrence in the final two games of his college career, too.) Will the national champions be able to sustain their dominance as sophomore Xavier Thomas, redshirt junior Nyles Pinckney, junior Justin Foster and others step up? Thomas was the No. 3 overall player in the class of 2018, so defensive coordinator Brett Venables doesn’t have a bare cupboard, but the questions of who claims starring roles in the trenches and who fills in behind them as supporting cast members along Clemson’s defensive line will be a story to watch all spring.
Most interesting QB competition: Virginia Tech has already had plenty of quarterback drama this winter. Presumptive starter Josh Jackson, who missed most of 2018 after he was injured in a late-September loss to Old Dominion, will transfer to Maryland for his final season; he was reportedly angry at being asked to compete for his starting job this spring. The competition among those who remain is still open, with last year’s starter Ryan Willis looking to hold off talented redshirt freshman Quincy Patterson and redshirt sophomore Hendon Hooker, who was in the transfer portal himself until Feb. 21.
...
Virginia Tech Football: 5 Newcomers to Watch for the Hokies (athlonsports.com; Kinne)
Justin Fuente is hoping a borderline top-25 recruiting class can help the Hokies get back to contending in the ACC Coastal
Coming off a 6-7 season and a start to the offseason that featured uncertainty thanks to a couple of high-profile personnel losses, the Virginia Tech football program needed some good news. On Feb. 6, it arrived.
A late recruiting charge, highlighted by a major flip just before Signing Day, elevated the Hokies to No. 26 in the 247Sports Composite rankings. Considering all that occurred over the past five months, finishing that well has to be considered a major success.
Now it’s time to figure out which of these prospects can actually make an impact on the field in 2019. Justin Fuente's team has a lot coming back on defense, but there are a couple of potential contributors in the secondary that enrolled early. Offensively, the Hokies beefed up the line in a big way, added a running back that could push for carries, and a receiver that may provide a boost to the passing game.
Here are five newcomers that could see action for Virginia Tech this fall.
Bryan Hudson, OG
All of the linemen signed by Virginia Tech are projected as guards by 247Sports. Hudson was considered the 12th-best prospect at that position coming out of Scott County High School in Georgetown, Kentucky. With plenty of turnover on the interior of the Hokies' offensive front, the 6-foot-4, 292-pounder that had offers from Alabama, Florida, LSU, Ohio State, and Louisville will get an opportunity.
...
ACC Football Rx: Rx: Fixing Ticket Sales at FSU (and elsewhere) (RX; HM)
This is based on the article "FSU takes multi-pronged approach to reviving season ticket sales" on Warchant.com - but rather than summarize it, I'm going to take a different approach this time: I'm going to come up with my own prescription for each problem mentioned in the source article. Also, while the Warchant piece is about Florida State, a lot of this applies to similar campuses like Clemson, Virginia Tech and, to some extent, Syracuse.
__________
Problem #1: unattractive home schedule in odd years (when Florida is an away game) - this year FSU's OOC home games are ULM and Alabama State.
Solution: schedule a home-and-home with a P5 so that the home game is played in odd years. Clemson tries to do this to compensate for playing South Carolina on the road.
Downside: that makes for a tougher schedule (2 P5 OOC opponents), and it guarantees a P5 away game every year (either at Florida or at some other P5).
Prognosis: It's "becoming easier to find Power 5 schools who are willing to play home-and-home series because ticket sales are lagging across the industry. Everybody is in the same boat." FSU currently is in talks with several “big-time” football programs to visit Doak in 2023, ‘25 and ‘27. The Seminoles already have Notre Dame coming to town in ‘21 and ‘29 as part of its partial membership in the ACC.
__________
Problem #2: Tallahassee is a remote campus location; few alumni live nearby, making it difficult for them to come to a lot of FSU home games.
Solution: Instead of building the schedule around 7 home games, how about 6 home + 1 neutral site? FSU can still play Florida + 1 other P5, 1 G5 or FCS, and a 4th OOC game at a neutral site more convenient for alumni. Virginia Tech - which is also located far from population centers - has done this for many years.
Downside: That makes for an even tougher schedule because it would likely mean up to 3 P5 (and/or high G5) OOC opponents every season. Also, the students and fans who live near campus would get one less home game.
...
ACC Football Rx: ESPN Ratings with streaming added (RX; HM)
From FierceVideo: ESPN sees Millennial Viewership Bump in Streaming Metrics.
ESPN’s viewership numbers have received a healthy bump from Nielsen’s new Total Live Audience metric, which adds livestreaming and out-of-home (OOH) viewership to ESPN’s overall TV ratings.
Nielsen’s Total Live Audience is the latest in a string of new products aimed at capturing viewership that occurs outside of the traditional TV-viewing environment. ESPN, like nearly all the other TV networks, have suffered slow ratings declines over the past few years as viewers consume more programming on new platforms such as mobile apps and connected TVs.
Nielsen’s Total Audience metrics include viewership from mobile platforms, livestreaming TV services like Hulu and YouTube TV. ESPN was the first network to sign up for Nielsen’s new measurement.
Not surprisingly, millennials—which Nielsen defines as consumers aged 18-34—are streaming the most. In the seven weeks between Sept. 25 and Nov. 12, ESPN saw a 23% jump in day viewership, and a 28% jump in primetime viewership among millennials. For specific programming such as college football games, millennial viewership jumped a whopping 33% with streaming and OOH viewership added.
...Overall, Millennial viewers account for 46% of ESPN streaming, the network said.
...livestreaming and OOH viewing grew ESPN’s total live audience by 14% across day and primetime, according to data from Nielsen. Among viewers aged 25-54, Nielsen’s livestreaming and OOH viewership added 18% to ESPN’s C3 ratings, which spans the live broadcast and three days after the broadcast...
...
ACC Football Rx: 2019 Miami Preview (RX; HM)
From BR: College Football Teams with the Most Turnaround Potential Next Season
Miami Hurricanes
2018 Record: 7-6 (4-4 ACC)
Miami trudged to a seven-win campaign last year as Mark Richt's quarterback roulette cost the Hurricanes a chance to win a repugnant ACC Coastal Division. Those problems wasted a defense that ranked third nationally in yards allowed per play.
Five key contributors (namely Gerald Willis III and Jaguan Johnson) moved on from that defense, but the transfer portal has brought reinforcements to the unit. More importantly, though, the coaching carousel ended with new coach Manny Diaz bringing in Dan Enos from Alabama to coach QBs and run the offense.
The 'Canes desperately needed upgrades in both areas.
As long as one of quarterbacks N'Kosi Perry or Jarren Williams (assuming transfer Tate Martell isn't ruled eligible) are even average, Miami is the Coastal favorite.
The five-game stretch with Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Pitt and Florida State will effectively determine if Diaz takes the 'Canes to Charlotte for the ACC title game in his debut season.
...
ACC Football Rx: 2019 Preseason FPI (RX; HM)
2019 Preseason FPI
From ESPN: Clemson gets best of Alabama again in FPI preseason rankings; here are their preseason FPI rankings for all 130 FBS teams (ACC teams highlighted in light blue):
RANK TOP 25 TEAMS FPI OFFENSE
RANK DEFENSE
RANK SPECIAL
TEAMS
1 Clemson 29 1 2 21
2 Alabama 27.6 2 1 7
3 Georgia 22 4 7 24
4 LSU 21.5 8 5 20
5 Michigan 21 6 9 1
6 Oklahoma 19.3 3 29 30
7 Notre Dame 18 9 11 9
22 Florida State 11.3 48 10 40
32 Miami (FL) 8.2 61 15 48
36 Virginia Tech 7.9 32 40 29
43 Virginia 5.5 66 24 43
45 North Carolina 5.2 30 65 18
47 NC State 4.5 52 44 50
49 Pittsburgh 3.8 54 46 33
50 Syracuse 3.6 75 38 15
...
Other
The Chainsmokers singer reveals Syracuse origin of hit song ‘Closer’ (PS; Herbert)
Syracuse University alumnus Drew Taggart has revealed The Chainsmokers’ biggest hit was inspired by his time at SU.
Taggart and bandmate Alex Pall comprise the superstar DJ duo that first rose to fame in 2014 with the novelty hit “#Selfie." They reached mainstream status nearly two years later when Taggart started singing on tracks; their Grammy-nominated single “Closer” (feat. Halsey) reached No. 1 in 2016, topping the charts for a near-record 12 weeks -- and was the first to feature Taggart’s voice:
"So baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover,
That I know you can’t afford
Bite that tattoo on your shoulder
Pull the sheets right off the corner
Of the mattress that you stole
From your roommate back in Boulder
We ain’t ever getting older..."
In The Chainsmokers’ latest vlog on YouTube, the 29-year-old Taggart reveals he had the foundational chords for “Closer” in mind for about a decade -- largely created while experimenting with his then-limited abilities on a 25-note MIDI keyboard in college.
...
