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Orangeyes Daily Articles for Monday for Football

sutomcat

No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Chicken Wing Day!

Buffalo wings were invented by Teressa Bellissimo at Buffalo's Anchor Bar in 1964. According to multiple stories, Teressa, who owned the bar with her husband Frank, deep-fried some wings for her son Dominic and his college friends, who had come into the bar hoping for a late-night snack. Before serving them, she tossed them with cayenne hot sauce and butter. Chicken wings had otherwise usually used for chicken stock at the bar, and according to some accounts, the bar had recently accidentally received a shipment of wings and had too many to know what to do with.

SU News

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Aquinas tight end Steven Mahar Jr. commits to Syracuse (D&C; Johnson)

In the end Aquinas football standout Steven Mahar Jr. couldn't resist playing in the Carrier Dome.

The 6-foot-5 tight end announced his commitment to Syracuse on Sunday on his Twitter account. Mahar is the 13th commit for Dino Babers for the 2020 class and the first from New York.

"It's special man, I'll be able to rep my home state in the ACC conference. To rep New York state means a lot," Mahar said.

Mahar is rated the 24th best tight end prospect in the country by 247Sports and is the fourth highest rated prospect in New York. He's Babers' first Section V commit and will be the first Rochester-area player to suit up for the Orange since Rush-Henrietta's Chauncey Scissum in 2013.

After a visit to campus in March, the Orange extended him a scholarship offer in May along with the likes of Boston College, Pittsburgh and Temple among others.

Pittsburgh, Boston College and Syracuse were his final top three and he seriously considered playing for the Orange's conference rivals. He even took one of his official visits to Boston College earlier this summer.

However, the allure of playing for essentially his 'hometown' team was too much to ignore in the end. The work of wide receivers coach Justin Lustig and the ability to play in Babers' wide open offense were key selling points.

"They just talked about how they're going to place me everywhere. At inside receiver, outside receiver or I can be flexed out to wide receiver," Mahar said.

The Orange coaching staff didn't just want him to know how he'd fit in the offense, but also how much the program wanted him. After Mahar remarked that Syracuse was slightly late to the party with an offer, the Orange coaching staff took it personally and ramped up their efforts to get his verbal commitment.

"I was feeling the love from the start from Syracuse, I know I said some things that could have come off negative, but I really built a great relationship with Coach Lusting, Coach Babers and the entire Syracuse football community," Mahar said.

With his decision made, Mahar's excitement for his future team's upcoming season is hard to contain. After posting 10 wins a year ago, he hopes the see the same effort once again and will do his part to build onto to Syracuse's current class.

"I want to see domination on the field, you know that up-tempo offense that can gash any type of defense," Mahar said. "(My class) is going to be something to watch for in the next couple of years, I can tell you that. The commits they have are crazy."
...


2020 3-star tight end Steven Mahar commits to Syracuse (DO; Hillman)

Class of 2020 tight end Steven Mahar has verbally committed to Syracuse, according to the three-star recruit’s Twitter page.

Turning dreams into reality… 110% COMMITTED@CuseFootball @CoachBabersCuse

— S.Mahar (@SmaharJr15) July 28, 2019

The 6-foot-5, 225-pound Rochester, New York native held offers from Pittsburgh, Boston College, Iowa State, and Indiana. BC, Pitt and Syracuse were Mahar’s three finalists. Mahar is listed as the No. 33 tight end in the class by 247sports.com. He’s also ranked fifth across the state of New York.

Mahar caught nine passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns last fall for Aquinas Institute (New York). He also recorded 21 tackles and two sacks at defensive end, according to MaxPreps.com. The SU 2020 class is sitting at 13 following Mahar’s commitment.

The Orange also picked up Canadian defensive back Ben Labrosse on Saturday, July 27. Mahar, a Rochester native, is the only tight end of the 13.

With Ravian Pierce graduating and Gabe Horan medically disqualified, Syracuse has moved junior Chris Elmore to tight end. Mahar’s commitment could provide the Orange with an established player at the position come 2020.
...

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Is Syracuse football offensive line most important factor for 2019 season? (mailbag) (PS; Mink)

Football season is creeping up, as Syracuse begins practice Friday.

The Orange has big expectations for the 2019 season, and it seems everyone is buying into the job fourth-year coach Dino Babers and staff have done.

Thousands of new season-ticket holders are on board, and national media is picking SU to be Clemson’s biggest challenger in the ACC.

Football talk will only heat up as the 2019 season draws near, so let’s jumpstart the conversation by opening up the mailbag and answering some fan questions.

Got a question for Nate Mink? Email him at nmink@syracuse.com or find him on Twitter at @MinkNate.

Q: Why wouldn’t more four- and five-star wide receivers want to come to Cuse? Great QB, lots of chances for stats

- Rob A.

Recruiting is a year-round topic of interest, and with good reason. It’s the lifeblood of any program.

I’m going to work off an answer given by Babers when he spoke to a group of firefighters last month. A question on recruiting was raised during a Q&A portion of the event.

“A lot of the generation is logged into branding and names, and that’s all that’s important to them,” Babers told the group.

"(Players) go with the majority vote, so to speak, even though maybe some of those votes aren’t really family votes.

"I’m amazed at -- if somebody was going to go into the military at 18, it would be a family decision. You would talk to someone in your family.

"Nowadays, if you’re talking about a college education, you’ll be amazed at how many parents I’ve had sit in my office talking about how much they love their son and look right at me and say, ‘but it’s his decision.’

"Interesting. A military decision is a family decision, but a decision on what institution you’re going to go to, to get an education that’s going to affect your life and the life of your grandkids is left up to a 17- or 18-year-old that you raised but can be influenced by other people.

“I’m not saying that’s for everyone. I’m saying I’m amazed at how high that percentage is.”

Here’s what I would contribute to the discussion.

- There aren’t that many five-star prospects in general (about 30 in the 2020 recruiting class). That number becomes more distilled when grouping by position. You’re talking about a handful of five-star receiver prospects any given year. Those kids will be recruited by everyone.

...

2019 ACC Football: Pitt hoping for better passing game (roanoke.com; Berman)

The Pittsburgh football program is hoping a few new coaches can fix its lackluster passing game.

The Panthers won the Coastal Division last season, but their aerial attack did not deserve much of the credit. They ranked just 13th in the ACC in passing offense (141.8 ypg) and 12th in both touchdown passes (12) and scoring offense (25.6 ppg). Quarterback Kenny Pickett ranked only 10th in the league in passing efficiency.

So coach Pat Narduzzi fired offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson in January, along with receivers coach Kevin Sherman. Sherman, a Radford High School and Ferrum College graduate who has been an assistant at Ferrum, VMI and Virginia Tech, had been on the Pitt staff for four years.

“We’ve got to throw the ball better than we did a year ago,” Narduzzi said this month at ACC media days in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We can’t be just one-dimensional.”

...

2019 ACC College Football Preview - MikeDropSports (mikedropsports.com; Schneid)

I went through all 838 games of the 2019 college football season, picking winners to project the record of all 130 FBS teams.

Projected Standings
Atlantic Division Overall Conference
Clemson 11-1 7-1
Syracuse 10-2 6-2
Florida State 8-4 5-3
NC State 8-4 4-4
Wake Forest 6-6 4-4
Boston College 6-6 3-5
Louisville 3-9 1-7
Coastal Division Overall Conference
Virginia 9-3 6-2
Virginia Tech 9-3 6-2
Miami 8-4 5-3
Pittsburgh 7-5 5-3
Duke 4-8 2-6
Georgia Tech 3-9 1-7
North Carolina 3-9 1-7
ACC Championship – Clemson over Virginia
Virginia is the only Coastal team to never play in the ACC Championship Game. This would be Clemson’s 5th consecutive appearance and victory.

Each individual team write up includes a fun schedule tidbit, player(s) to watch, look back at recent successes or failures and how they project to do in 2019 including key wins/losses.

Boston College Eagles
1. Schedule note: Boston College and Rutgers renew an old school rivalry in 2019, playing for the first time since 2004. As members of the Big East, the schools faced each other every year from 1981-2004. BC has won the last 10 vs Rutgers.
...
...
Syracuse Orange
1. Schedule note: Syracuse hosts Clemson week 3 for what is likely to be a College Gameday appearance. Clemson’s last regular season loss came at the Carrier Dome in 2017 (10/13)

2. Players to Watch: Kicker Andre Smyzt is special. He was second in the nation with points in 2018, with 151, second only to Clemson’s Travis Etienne. He hit 88% of his field goals and 100% of his extra points, with a 54 yard FG being his long.

Safety Andre Cisco was tied for the most interceptions in the country with 7, as a freshman in 2018.

3. Recent Recap: The Orange won 10 games in 2018, for the first time since 1992 and ended the season winning the Camping World Bowl against West Virginia.

4. Preview: The Orange return 7 starters on defense and Tommy DeVito steps in at QB. As noted above, I have the Orange winning on 9/14 in a home game against Clemson. They follow the Clemson game with Western Michigan and Holy Cross, but I think they will lose at NC State on 10/10, in a post Clemson let down.
...


Is It Time For Syracuse To Feel Tigers Wrath? (clemsonjunkies.com; Priester)

for gbo

Dino Babers is such a great coach he has quickly gotten Syracuse back to respectability

On October 13 back in 2017, the unbeaten Tigers rolled into the Carrier Dome ranked number two in the country. The Tigers were the defending national champs and still getting used to life after Deshaun Watson.

Kelly Bryant was the guy taking the snaps and due to its inability to consistently stretch the field, the offense had more of a ground and pound feel to it than it had in recent years, which led it to be far less dynamic.

The Saturday before, against Wake Forest, Bryant had sprained an ankle. Watching him in pregame that night, it was clear he wasn’t close to 100%. His mobility was severely impacted leading to him taking a viscous hit before halftime that led to a concussion.

It’s easy to point to the Bryant injury as to why Clemson lost that game. Sure, it played a part, but the team didn’t bring its A-Game that night. Sometimes complacency can be a great teams biggest enemy and it seemed like that at least played a role on this night.

Syracuse had a 10 play 72 yard TD drive on its opening possession and really never looked back. The Orange’s uptempo offense gave the Tiger defense fits all night long, as Eric Dungey carved out himself a place in the Syracuse history books, leading his team to the program’s biggest win since 1984.

Last season, many fans were expecting revenge. The Tigers had Syracuse coming to Death Valley. That’s not quite how it played out, however. As we all know, Clemson was fortunate to have gotten a win that day.
...


Why ACC teams make the College Football Playoff - Champion Insiders (championinsiders.com; Broback)

Thanks to Clemson, the perception of the ACC is positive. The gap between the Tigers and the rest of the conference remains drastic with no signs of closing. They reload, and the rest of the conference needs to find answers to compete. That’s a lot of pressure put on one team, but the Tigers can handle it for now. At least it makes an easier road back to the playoff.

OTHERS: Sun Belt, CUSA, MW, AAC, IND, PAC 12, BIG 12, B1G, SEC

ACC Atlantic
Boston College Eagles
Besides the first game against Virginia Tech, the Eagles don’t have a big test until late October. AJ Dillon should have no problem putting up big numbers until that point, and the Eagles could be 6-0 heading into the NC State game. That’s where things get tough, but they’ll have plenty of momentum on their side if they’re undefeated.

Clemson Tigers
All roads go through the Tigers. If you want to win the ACC, you must beat the Tigers. If you also want to win a national championship, you must beat Clemson too. After winning it all last year, this is the team to beat. The offense, led by Trevor Lawrence, is as loaded as it’s ever been. We shouldn’t have to say much more, and it’s their league to lose until further notice.

Florida State Seminoles
Willie Taggsrt’s team really can’t go much farther in the wrong direction. Are they due for a bounce back season? A bowl game might not be enough for Taggart to keep his job, but this isn’t the same team as it used to be anymore. The talent is on the roster, but it needs to produce on the field (especially in ACC play).

Louisville Cardinals
Scott Satterfield walks into a tough situation that Bobby Petrino left him. Louisville’s been heading in the wrong direction since Lamar Jackson left campus for the NFL. So, don’t expect anything crazy.

NC State Wolfpack
Though they won 18 games the last few years, it felt like they should have won more. Now, Ryan Finley and Kelvin Harmon are gone on offense, and the defense looks like it might take a step back. I wouldn’t call it a rebuild, but there aren’t many expecting the Wolfpack to compete for a conference title.

Syracuse Orange
Dino Babers brought this team to new heights, and it looks like they’re comfortable staying there. Tommy DeVito brings a new era to the offense in place of Eric Dungey. He’ll have a handful of playmakers returning as well. Alton Robinson and Kendall Coleman give the Orange two of the best defensive ends in the country, and Andre Cisco had a monster year at safety as a freshman. The only team ahead of them is Clemson, and Syracuse has been so close to taking down the Tigers the last two years.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons
It’s time for the Demon Deacons to overachieve in a big way. Dave Clawson’s teams have been underdogs the last few years, and this year’s no different. It’s not going to be easy in the division they’re in, and Utah State’s coming to Winston-Salem Week 1.
...


Weekend Links - 7/28/19 (RX; HM)

Weekend Links - 7/28/19
ACC football logo

How the ACC's renewed commitment to football has ensured the league's long-term survival
The ACC launched a football title game, expanded twice and emerged as one of the top leagues
It's stuff most of us already know, but a "feel-good story" for you ACC newbies.

Pac-12

Pac-12 After… Dawn? League exploring games kicking off at 9 a.m. PT in 2019
LOS ANGELES — Pac-12 After Dark has turned into a cult following in recent years late on Saturday nights during the football season but that could change in a big way on the sun dial for fans based on early conversations the league has had with its television partners.
The conference confirmed they have had preliminary discussions with Fox about having a Pac-12 game kickoff at 9 a.m. PT/noon ET as soon as this season in order to help alleviate night kickoffs and explore a new TV window to maximize exposure on the East Coast. While there would be at most one or two games after Week 3 that would even be eligible (and Mountain Time Zone schools like Utah and Colorado would be chief candidates), it certainly sounds like there’s a real possibility of it happening...
Yeah, but 9:00 AM though!

...

How UConn could affect ACC FB (RX; HM)

How UConn could affect ACC FB
UConn Huskies

From FBSchedules article "UConn Huskies Begin Play as FBS Independent in 2020":
The end of their membership in the AAC means that UConn athletics director David Benedict has a lot of work to do over the next 13 months filling out a football schedule that has just four games currently on it:
09/12 – at Illinois
09/19 – Maine
09/26 – Indiana
09/03 – UMass
So just which schools should Benedict be on the phone with? Here’s a list of schools (excluding AAC programs) that still have holes remaining in their 2020 schedules:
Florida State (1)
Virginia Tech (1)
TCU (2)
Arkansas (2)
South Carolina (1)
Florida International (2)
Louisiana Tech (1)
Old Dominion (1)
Southern Miss (1)
UAB (1)
Army (1)
Air Force (1)
Coastal Carolina (1)
Louisiana (1)
Louisiana-Monroe (2)

Filling out their 2020 schedule, even with this many teams still having holes to fill, isn’t going to be easy. The most difficult thing for UConn is going to be getting home games. Most of the teams with one opening in their non-conference schedules are already playing at least one game away from home and won’t be looking to add another.

...

ACC's Best New Coordinators for 2019 (RX; HM)

ACC's Best New Coordinators for 2019
coach

From Athlon's College Football's Top 35 Coordinator Hires for 2019, here are the ACC-related stories:

24. Bryan Brown, Co-Defensive Coordinator, Louisville
Brown has been on a fast rise through the assistant ranks since his playing career ended in 2006 at Ole Miss. The Mississippi native spent time working in graduate assistant or in off-field roles at Rutgers, Delta State and Ole Miss before landing at Appalachian State in 2012. He worked with the secondary from 2012-17 before taking over as the team’s play-caller in 2018. The Mountaineers had a standout defense in 2017 but were even stingier with Brown calling the plays. Appalachian State limited teams to 15.5 points a game, 4.4 yards a play and allowed just one play of 50 or more yards. Brown will share the defensive coordinator title with Cort Dennison.

18. Dwayne Ledford, Offensive Coordinator, Louisville
New Louisville coach Scott Satterfield is likely to play a significant role in the play-calling duties, but Ledford makes this list due to his ability to develop talent in the trenches. The North Carolina native landed his first coaching gig at Tennessee State in 2010 and spent one season at Gardner-Webb (’11) before joining the staff at Appalachian State. Ledford worked four years as the Mountaineers’ offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator, with the last three under Satterfield. He worked for the last two years at NC State, helping the Wolfpack own one of the ACC’s top lines. Ledford’s group allowed only 24 sacks and produced four all-conference performers from 2016-17.

17. Mark Whipple, Offensive Coordinator, Pitt
Pitt’s rushing attack ranked among the best in the nation last fall, but the Panthers need more out of the passing game. That’s where Whipple’s background and experience should come into play. The veteran coach previously worked in the Steel City from 2004-06 as the Steelers’ quarterbacks coach and has stops as an assistant on his resume at New Hampshire, Brown, Miami and also in the NFL with the Eagles and Browns. Whipple also owns a 137-103 record as a head coach from stints at UMass, Brown and New Haven. He’s been regarded throughout his career for his work in developing quarterbacks and passing attacks.
...


Links, news and rumors - 7/29/19 (RX; HM)

Links, news and rumors - 7/29/19
ACC football logo

First, SI asked its writers "Which College Football Conference Will Be Most Improved in 2019?" Two of them picked the ACC...
Ross Dellenger: It can only go up from here for the ACC. The top of the league last year was very good, and by top, we mean Clemson. Every other team was saddled with at least three losses, and the Coastal Division winner, Pitt, finished 7–7. The ACC had just two teams finish in the top 25, and the conference won less than one-third of its non-conference games against Power 5 foes. This year, Clemson's league brothers are expected to be stronger. That goes for Florida State, Miami, North Carolina and Louisville.

Scooby Axson: The ACC has nowhere to go but up, but dethroning four-time conference and reigning national champion Clemson is a little too much to ask. In terms of competition for the Tigers, there was none last year, and the league as a whole was even more pitiful against ranked and non-conference foes. Expect Florida State, Miami and Virginia to be better than they have been, with North Carolina trying to make waves with new coach Mack Brown. In college football, perception is the reality, and the ACC must be more competitive overall.
__________

From CFN "ACC Preview 2019: Miami And FSU, Where Are You?" by Pete Fiutak, here are some highlights...
Clemson is going to win the ACC Championship. Again.

Louisville will be a whole lot stronger under Scott Satterfield
...


Other


The daredevil flies about 150 feet from third base to first base.
 
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