sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to New Year's Eve!
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, the last day of the year, is on 31 December. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated at evening social gatherings, where many people dance, eat, drink, and watch or light fireworks. Some Christians attend a watchnight service. The celebrations generally go on past midnight into New Year's Day, 1 January.
SU News
Jones just misses 20-sack season: SU and CNY in the NFL (PS; Burrows)
After a four-sack game last week, former Syracuse football star Chandler Jones had a chance to take down Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record against the Rams on Sunday.
Jones was shutout, however, and finishes the season with 19 sacks, missing on both a 20-sack season and Strahan’s single-season record.
“I won’t use the word disappointment,” Jones said after the game. “Things didn’t go our way, but disappointment is not the word I’d use.”
Despite last week’s monster performance, Jones actually finishes 2019 with the second most sacks in the NFL. Tampa Bay’s Shaq Barrett piled up three sacks on Sunday to finish with 19.5.
Here’s how former Syracuse and Central NY stars did in the NFL this week:
Latavius Murray, RB, New Orleans Saints
Murray got the majority of reps at running back on Sunday, finishing with 17 carries for 61 yards and one catch for 14 yards. Starter Alvin Kamara finished with just 10 total touches.
Last game: Saints 42, Panthers 10
Next game: Vikings at Saints (NFC Wild Card)
Riley Dixon, P, New York Giants
Dixon punted six times on Sunday for an average of 42.8 yards. Three of his punts landed inside Philadelphia’s 20-yard line.
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Orange Watch: Syracuse star Walt Sweeney should be Hall of Fame semifinalist - The Juice Online (the juice; Bierman)
Item: During this 100th anniversary season of the NFL now heading to its playoff portion of the schedule this weekend, the league has been celebrating the greatest players, coaches, and achievements in the sport. For the 2020 Hall of Fame class, the NFL is honoring a specially conceived “Centennial Slate” class of 20 members. Five will be enshrined from a list of 25 modern era semifinalists announced on Nov. 26. For this year only, 15 additional enshrines will be comprised from the 38 “Centennial” semifinalists announced Dec. 19. That group will consist of 10 players, three contributors and two coaches. Unfortunately, there is one ex-Syracuse player missing from that 20-player list.
Among the great tradition and history of Syracuse football is that some of the top players in the history of the sport donned an Orange uniform. An amazing seven of those players, plus the great Al Davis, have been memorialized at the Hall of Fame’s Canton, Ohio locale, and others with Syracuse backgrounds (Dwight Freeney) will be inducted in the future.
With eight Hall members, Syracuse proudly stands tied for fifth among all colleges (with Alabama, Miami, and Pittsburgh), trailing only Note Dame (13), Southern California (12), Ohio State (10) and Michigan (9). That’s some company.
When the final 20 names of players on the “Centennial Slate” were announced a couple of weeks back, it was hard to argue with who was on the list, but it was also easy to argue with an obvious omission; former Orangeman Walt Sweeney.
Playing along the both the offensive and defensive lines, but primarily a guard and sometimes a tight end under Ben Schwartzwalder from 1960-62, Sweeney, who died at age 71 in 2013, was named one of 44 members of Syracuse’s All-Century team in 1989.
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2019 Belk Bowl Preview (RX; HM)
2019 Belk Bowl Preview
I'll start this preview by letting you know that these teams don't like each other...
From 247Sports: Tempers Flare as Kentucky and Virginia Tech Prepare for the Belk Bowl.
Does that make Kentucky QB Lynn Bowden think twice about playing? Nope.
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Last-minute Links - 12/30/19 (RX; HM)
Last-minute Links - 12/30/19
Let me start by saying Congratulations, Louisville! UL 38, MSU 28. The Cards finish 8-5, which is 6 wins more than last year.
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From ESPN: Ohio State vs. Clemson Draws 21.2 Million Viewers, Most-Watched Non-New Year’s Day College Football Playoff Semifinal and Up 9% Year-Over-Year
By contrast, the LSU-Oklahoma CFP Semifinal pulled in 17.2 million viewers.
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From BannerSociety: North Carolina’s impending 2020 hype, by Alex
The Heels wrapped a nifty comeback season by blasting Temple at the Military Bowl, 55-13. Sam Howell was 25-of-34 for 294 yards and three scores, didn’t get sacked, and threw in three runs for 53 yards, which were nice to see, because if Howell had one limitation during a great freshman season, it was that he was never much of a running threat.
You should expect UNC in preseason top 25s. Nobody is better than Mack Brown at glad-handing AP Poll voters, the Heels showed a lot of good signs, and they’re on the right side of the ACC.
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2019 Sun Bowl Preview (RX; HM)
2019 Sun Bowl Preview
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl - Tuesday, December 31, 2:00 pm; CBS
Florida State (6-6, 4-4 ACC) vs. Arizona State (7-5, 4-5 Pac-12)
Florida State leads series, 3-1; Last meeting: FSU, 52-44 (1984)
Head Coaches:
Florida State - Odell Haggins, interim (4-1 in second year at FSU and overall)
Arizona State - Herm Edwards (14-11 in two years at Florida State and overall
Notes: Florida State will appear in the postseason for an NCAA-best 38th time in the last 40 seasons. The Seminoles are returning to the Sun Bowl for
the first time since 1966 and also played in the 1954 Sun Bowl, which was the second bowl appearance in program history.
Florida State leads the all-time series with Arizona State 3-1 and has won three straight against the Sun Devils since coming up short by a 45-38 score in the inaugural Fiesta Bowl in 1971. The Seminoles then prevailed in Tampa in 1979 and again in Tempe in 1983 and 1984, the latter in a wild, high-scoring 52-44 affair. The Seminoles are 9-2 all-time against current members of the Pac-12
Arizona State dropped three games during the 2019 regular season by a combined nine points, and FSU had three losses by a combined 14 points
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Louisville rallies to beat Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl (tennessean.com; Organ)
Louisville scored 31 straight points to come back and beat Mississippi State 38-28 on Monday in the 22nd annual Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl at Nissan Stadium.
The Cardinals (8-5), who fell behind 14-0 in the second quarter, finished the season by winning three of their last four games. Mississippi State (6-7) had to win three of its last four regular-season games to become bowl eligible.
Here are five things we learned:
Louisville shuts down SEC's top rusher
The Louisville defense, which entered the game ranked 115th out of 130 FBS teams against the rush (210.8 yards), was expected to struggle in its effort to stop Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill, the SEC's regular-season rushing leader.
It did not.
Hill had minus-8 yards on his first four carries. He finished with three yards on seven carries. Hill suffered a knee injury in the first quarter, but was able to return.
Hill, who ran for 1,347 yards in the regular season, announced earlier this month he will forgo his senior season to enter the NFL Draft.
Mississippi State finished with 145 rushing yards after averaging 226.9 yards in the regular season.
Cunningham punished State's defense
After the slow start, Louisville quarterback Micale Cunningham, a sophomore from Montgomery, Alabama, wreaked havoc on Mississippi State's defense and earned MVP honors because of it.
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Florida Football: 3 takeaways from Orange Bowl win over Virginia (saturdayblitz.com; Bigalke)
Florida football prevailed in a thriller at Hard Rock Stadium. Here are three things we learned from the Gators victory over Virginia at the Orange Bowl.
FINAL
FLORIDA GATORS
36
VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
28
Florida got more of a test than most people expected against Virginia, but the Gators still walked away from the Orange Bowl with a 36-28 victory on the final Monday of 2019. The win gave head coach Dan Mullen his second straight New Year’s Six victory since leaving Mississippi State after the 2017 season, and earned Florida their first 11-win season since Will Muschamp took the Gators to the Sugar Bowl in 2012.
Virginia certainly came out looking to prove they belonged in a New Year’s Six bowl game, after much was made about the Cavaliers receiving the ACC’s automatic bid into the Orange Bowl despite losing the conference championship against Clemson. Bronco Mendenhall’s team kept things tied up early into the second quarter, but Florida gained momentum and scored 10 unanswered points to take a 24-14 lead into the intermission.
The Cavaliers pulled within six points in the fourth quarter, but they would get no closer. Even so, Virginia acquitted themselves well on a night where they were expected to lose by more than two touchdowns.
What did we learn from a surprisingly good contest between the Gators and the Cavaliers in Miami? Here are three things to take away from Florida’s victory at the Orange Bowl.
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Other
CNY’s best restaurants: Our critics pick their favorites of 2019 (PS; Staff)
Jared’s Top 5
Saint Urban Wine Bar & Restaurant
124 Dell St., Syracuse
(315) 243-8509
Website
Jared Stafford-Hill chose Westcott Nation for his French-inspired wine bar and bistro, returning home to the neighborhood where he grew up. Weekends feature a three-course prix fixe menu that rotates each week based on available ingredients and produce. Each dish from our visit was precise and exquisite, from the bold flavors in the corn soup with cured trout to the arrangement of the vegetables over a pan-seared cod filet. Saint Urban is experiential dining at its best; the type of place you can lose yourself in the food and carefully-curated wine list, but close enough to reality where you can find your way home easily.
Eden
118 E Genesee St., Syracuse
(315) 911-8408
Website
I’m not sure what else I can say about Rich Strub’s open hearth restaurant in Hanover Square. It was our other favorite dining experience of the year and not just because the kitchen is constantly engulfed in flames. The craft of each dish is on display with the housemade pork sausage, shortbread cookies (for the excellent goat cheese cheesecake), and sauces. The menu changes every other day and, if money were no object, you would visit every time to find out what was new.
1833 Kitchen & Bar at Inns of Aurora
391 Main St., Aurora
(315) 364-8888
Website
Classic fine dining on the veranda overlooking one of the Finger Lakes? A thunderstorm crushed our view, but not the kitchen during our visit to the 1833 Kitchen & Bar at the Inns of Aurora. It’s modernized American fine dining with Asian and Italian influences throughout, such as a rich and addictive Korean bulgogi-style pork belly. The artful presentation, from the intentionally careless swoop of cream on the filet mignon to the way the toasted bread fanned out in the burrata appetizer, rendered each dish equally as pleasing to look at as it was to eat.
Otro Cinco (Brunch)
206 S. Warren St., Syracuse
(315) 422-6876
Website
That Otro Cinco or Alto Cinco lands on a list of Syracuse’s best restaurants is not a surprise. Their loyal following is built on more than two decades of flawless execution of Americanized Mexican and Spanish dishes. It may surprise some to find Otro Cinco on this list because of brunch. The boozy weekend brunch service features chilaquiles, a Mexican-style hash where fried corn tortillas replace potatoes. It was the underpinning of a breakfast visit that featured a vegetarian benedict and so many mimosas.
Darwin
110 W. Fayette St., Syracuse
(315) 373-0484
Website
It’s only open Monday through Friday and, even then, for just a few hours a day. It’s more than just a quirky little lunch spot with an eclectic array of sandwiches, like a turkey, pear and brie, spinach and raspberry mayo number called Birds In Pear-A-Dise. The clientele is intensely loyal and many people during our visit were on a first-name basis with the staff. We’re already looking forward to summer when the lobster roll returns to the menu.
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