sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Welcome to National Button Day!
Although there are many kinds of buttons, by most accounts National Button Day celebrates buttons that are used on clothing, for ornamentation or as fasteners. The first buttons were used for ornamentation and seals, and have been found in the Indus River Valley (c. 2800-2600 BCE), China (c. 2000-1500 BCE), and ancient Rome. The oldest known button—dating to 5000 BCE—was made from a curved shell and found in the Indus River Valley. Buttons that function as fasteners, along with buttonholes, didn't come about until the 13th century, where they first appeared in Germany, and spread throughout Europe. They have been made from almost every material, their composition often reflecting the popular materials of the era in which they were made. Today they are most often constructed out of hard plastic, metals, seashells, or wood. They have been created by artisans, artists, and craftspeople, out of raw materials or found objects such as fossils, or from a combination of both. They have been made in small quantities, or in large scale quantities at factories.
SU News
SU Football Retrospective: About the Offense | | CitrusTV (citrustv.com; Gunn)
Syracuse Football (1-7, 1-6 Atlantic Coast) has an abysmal offense. This is nothing new, as I wrote several weeks ago about how poor they have been on offense.
With that said, there has been some personnel changes since I wrote my original article. Namely, at Quarterback. Tommy DeVito has missed the last four games with a leg injury. Since, two quarterbacks, Redshirt Senior Rex Culpepper and Freshman JaCobian Morgan, have started under center.
Given those changes, I thought it would be interesting to see how much has changed since DeVito went down. Remarkably, not much has changed. Take a look at the numbers and they show a stark lack of change.
| Games DeVito Started (4) | Games DeVito Hasn’t Started (4) | |
| Points/Game | 19.3 | 17.3 |
| Yds/Game | 254 | 273.5 |
| Pass Yds/Game | 176.5 | 179 |
| Rush Yds/Game | 77.5 | 94.5 |
| 3rd Down Conversion % | 21.7 | 26.5 |
| Turnovers | 4 | 10 |
The Orange have only scored two fewer points per game without DeVito. The yards per game have gone up, but that has mainly come from the rushing attack; their passing attack under Culpepper and Morgan has essentially contributed the same amount of yardage as it did with DeVito.
Why is that so? Well, part of that comes from QB play. Rex Culpepper has taken the majority of the snaps since DeVito went down and he’s been less than stellar. He only completed 47.3 percent of his passes in his three starts.
Also, that massive jump in turnovers? That also can be credited mostly to Culpepper, as he has thrown six interceptions and lost three fumbles in his starts. That’s eight of SU’s 10 turnovers right there. He has just been too erratic to keep the off flowing.
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College football odds: Syracuse again a double-digit underdog against Louisville (PS; Owens)
Coming off a bye week, the Syracuse football team returns to the field this week in a familiar position.
As a double-digit underdog.
The Louisville Cardinals are an 18-point favorite over the Orange this week, according to the website BetOnline.
Louisville is 2-6 this season, 1-6 in the ACC, and is coming off a 31-17 loss at Virginia. Syracuse had a week off following a 16-13 home loss to Boston College.
The game is set to kick off at 7:30 Friday at Louisville, and will be broadcast on ESPN.
Although Syracuse lost to BC, the Orange covered the 14-point spread, evening SU’s record against the spread at 4-4 this season. The Orange also covered the spread in its win over Georgia Tech and in losses to Pittsburgh and Clemson. SU hasn’t been favored in a game this season.
Monday Musings: New Old Targets for Syracuse Football? (SI; McAllister)
1. Will Muschamp was relieved from his duties as the head coach of South Carolina on Sunday. How does this impact Syracuse? South Carolina happens to have a prospect Syracuse recruited heavily earlier in the cycle. That would be 2021 wide receiver O'Mega Blake. Blake is from South Carolina and committed back in June. With Muschamp's dismissal, could Blake be exploring his options? I reached out to Blake and he did admit that Syracuse has remained in touch despite his commitment. Regarding his recruitment and his status, he said, "I gotta make the best decision for me on signing day. So it's whatever me and my family consider."
2. Another prospect who was committed elsewhere is offensive lineman Austin Barber. He recently decommitted from Minnesota and was someone Syracuse recruited previously in the cycle. However, it appears three schools have moved to the forefront since his decommitment in Maryland, Mississippi State and Virginia Tech. I expect that Syracuse either did or will reach out, but it does not sound like they will be a serious player here.
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What we learned in Louisville football's 31-17 loss to Virginia on Saturday (C-J; Saxon)
Louisville football went to Virginia and came away with a 31-17 loss. Here are some takeaways from Saturday's game.
Cunningham steps up with Javian Hawkins and Tutu Atwell out
Cardinals quarterback Malik Cunningham had to shoulder more of the load with the absences of running back Javian Hawkins (822 yards, 7 TDs) and wide receiver Tutu Atwell (528 yards, 5 TDs). To make up for that, Cunningham finished with over 300 yards of individual offense. Cunningham was 13-for-21 passing with 161 yards and one touchdown and had another 197 yards rushing with two touchdowns on 20 carries.
Virginia's Brennan Armstrong turned in a star performance
Cavaliers signal caller Brennan Armstrong did a little bit of it all for Virginia on Saturday. He was not only efficient going 15-for-23 for 203 yards and a touchdown, but he also led the Cavaliers in rushing. Armstrong finished with 60 yards and two scores on 15 carries.
Turnovers determined the outcome
It's cliché to say you can't win football games losing the turnover battle, but the Cardinals demonstrated that old adage on Saturday. It started with Cunningham's first-quarter interception, which was returned 85 yards for a touchdown by Cavs linebacker Noah Taylor. Then the turnover bug creeped up once again when Cunningham fumbled on a 27-yard run in the fourth quarter, which the Virginia offense was able to turn into a touchdown on their next drive. Cardinals gave up a total of 14 points on three turnovers.
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Despite loss to Virginia, Louisville still has plenty to play for with 3 games left C-J; Saxon)
It hasn’t quite been the season that the University of Louisville football team had hoped for. The Cardinals sit at 2-6 following Saturday’s 31-17 loss to Virginia that adds another blemish to a year that has been filled with uncertainty, setbacks and quarantines.
While Saturday’s loss was the fourth in the Cardinals' last five games, Louisville still believes there is plenty left to play for with three games remaining on the schedule.
“We’re definitely playing for pride,” said senior quarterback Malik Cunningham. “We want to win these games out. We’ve been trying to do everything right throughout the weeks. We’ve just been coming up short.”
The Cardinals, barring any COVID-19-related setbacks, are scheduled to play Syracuse this Friday, travel to Boston College on the 27th and finish out the season against Wake Forest on Dec. 5. Besides finishing their schedule with wins, the Cardinals hope they can use their last three games to show the losses haven’t killed their spirit and competitive fire.
“Like coach always says, God is putting us through a lot of adversity to show this team something,” said Cunningham, who finished with 358 total yards, two rushing touchdowns and two turnovers. “We just got to build off this loss.”
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Louisville football: Grading the Cardinals’ performance against Virginia (BRL; Owens)
The Louisville football team suffered another loss this week to Virginia. Which position groups came to play and which ones struggled?
The Cardinals had another rough performance on Saturday coming on the heels of their Covid recovery. The Cards dropped the game 31-17 in a game that felt like they really should have been the victor in.
Louisville turned the ball over and just could not finish on what they were starting on every drive. It was a frustrating performance for a team that just cannot find the means to string together a performance worthy of writing home about.
There were both good and bad performances on the day. Perhaps, there were some position groups that played better or worse than you may have expected.
Even though the team lost, I thought there were some special performances in this game. One certain position group had their best game of the season.
With that being said, let’s dive into some positional group rankings for the Virginia game, shall we?
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AP Poll Analysis - 11/15/20 (RX; HM)
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COMMENTS:
Regarding first place votes: Notre Dame wins, Alabama doesn't play, yet the Tide pick up one of the Irish' first place votes? Typical.
Regarding top four: Still two ACC* teams on a collision course with the playoffs.
Regarding Miami: The Canes win a tough rivalry game - on the road - and fall 3 spots. Who passed them? Indiana, Wisconsin, and Oregon. What great thing did those 3 teams do? They beat 1-win teams. (Oh, and they're in the Big Ten, Big Ten, and Pac-12, respectively).
Regarding UNC: The Tar Heels are so far ahead of all other teams receiving votes that it's a foregone conclusion if anybody falls out of the top 25, UNC is a shoo-in (as long as the Heels don't lose again).
Ranked-on-Ranked Games, Week 12:
#9 Indiana at #3 Ohio State (something has to give)
#14 Oklahoma St at #18 Oklahoma (Bedlam!)
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Quarterback News - 11/15/20 (RX; HM)
Quarterback News - 11/15/20
From ESPN's College Football Final for Week 11, here's a couple of snippets about the ACC:
So you're telling me Willie Taggart* had a serviceable quarterback at FSU and let him go? Par for the course.
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JHowell's ACC Picks for 2020 Week 12 (RX; HM)
JHowell's ACC Picks for 2020 Week 12
Below are the projections through the games of 11-21-2020. Games against non-rated teams are excluded.
The favorite is listed first with the projected margin of victory (i.e., the line) in parenthesis. HOME TEAM is in ALL CAPS. 'TP' represents the total number of points expected to be scored in the game and 'Odds' represents the odds of the favorite winning straight-up (not against-the-spread).
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How Hot Should Justin Fuente's Seat Be? (RX; HM)
How Hot Should Justin Fuente's Seat Be?
Virginia Tech lost again this weekend. It was by one point, to a top 10 team. In normal conditions, that would not be a problem for the fans to accept, but coming off of a loss to Liberty - especially given the way the Hokies lost to the Flames - has plenty of Gobbler fans in an uproar.
Still, it begs the question: should Coach Fuente be worried about his job yet, or is this just fans being unhappy about every loss?
Consider which teams the Hokies have lost to, how, and why.
Before we dive too much deeper, just a quick look at those losses reveals that
Indeed, because the Coronavirus pandemic caused such huge changes in schedules, the Hokies' record this season can't be compared apples-to-apples with other years. Consider that normally the schedule sets up for 2 or 3 near-automatic wins, but this year the Hokies replaced...
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ACC Football 2020, Week 11 (11/14/20) (cardiachill.com; HM)
Here’s your overview of scores with commentary for this week’s ACC football action - call it “underrated rivalry week” in the ACC!
Saturday, Nov. 14th, 2020
Early Games
#9 Miami Hurricanes 25 at Virginia Tech Hokies 24
The Hokies jumped out to an early 14-3 lead in the second quarter, then to a lead of 24-13 in the third, but the Canes kept battling back to finally prevail by a single point, 25-24. Another great game in this underrated rivalry.
Next up for Virginia Tech: at Pitt
Next up for Miami: Georgia Tech
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Wake Forest Demon Deacons 53 at North Carolina Tar Heels 59
This in-state rivalry game had seven lead changes, a come-from-behind victory, and scoring - plenty of scoring!
Next up for UNC: BYE
Next up for Wake Forest: at Duke
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Mid-Afternoon Games
#2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 45 at Boston College Eagles 31
“The Holy War” lived up to its name as BC hung tough with Notre Dame early and then kept within striking distance throughout the game. In the end, though, Irish talent prevailed.
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Can the ACC get some credit? No league has done it better this football season (theclemsoninssider.com; Vandervort)
There was a commercial that ran on the SEC Network, and occasionally on ESPN, which stated, “It just means more.”
The indication was college football means more in the SEC than it does to any other conference in college football. And maybe it does.
However, as much credit as the SEC has been given for staying the course and finding a way to play football this fall, credit needs to go to the Atlantic Coast Conference as well. Not only was the ACC the first Power 5 Conference to play this year, but the way it has been able to use its three open dates, including the week of Dec. 12 to reschedule postponed games has been better than anyone to this point.
Granted, anything can happen and with COVID-19 every week is fluid. But it just seems to me the SEC has received more compliments on how they have been able to get football games in this fall and no one is speaking to what the ACC has been able to accomplish.
The ACC has been able to use the two built in open dates it gave each program and the week of Dec. 12 to move games around, giving each school the best opportunity to play at least 11 games this season. The SEC will only play 10.
Like every conference, the ACC has it share of postponed games due COVID-19 positive cases and contacting tracing.
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College football bowl projections: Will the ACC, Big Ten or SEC get two teams in the playoff? (cbssports.com; Palm)
What a strange week of college football. We saw a total of 15 games canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 that continues to surge nationwide. Included among those games were No. 1 Alabama at LSU and No. 3 Ohio State at Maryland. The Crimson Tide and Buckeyes are the top two seeds in my projected College Football Playoff.
The No. 3 seed is Clemson, and the Tigers had a scheduled week off following their loss at Notre Dame last week. The No. 2 Fighting Irish were the only top-five team to actually get a game in this week. They avoided a letdown and defeated Boston College 45-31 to remain in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs. Notre Dame should get tested again next week when it travels to North Carolina.
No. 5 Texas A&M had its game with Tennessee postponed as well. The Aggies are not currently in my New Year's Six projections despite currently owning a better record than Georgia, which also had its game this week postponed. The Aggies are expected to take another loss and fall behind the Bulldogs in the rankings by the end of the season. However, Texas A&M is definitely a New Year's Six team if it wins out, and it may even sneak into the CFP.
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Other
Hidden Gems of CNY: Covid closed the door at a ‘gourmet’ diner, and thankfully another door opened (PS; $; Miller)
Brewerton, N.Y. — The first customer to walk into the Brewer Union Cafe was the guy who had owned the diner in the same spot months before Covid took it away.
It wasn’t easy for Mike Piraino to order breakfast from the kitchen where he had spent so many hours creating what we described last year as “gourmet diner food.” After five years of running The Brewerton Diner, he closed during the coronavirus shutdown and never reopened.
Still, he did visit when Christian Felix opened the Brewer Union Cafe on Oct. 13, and he’s returned several times.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Mike said of the new restaurateur during his visit last Friday. “This is excellent food.”
Christian is 46, and he has spent the past 32 year in the restaurant business (Yes, he started when he was 14.). He’s cooked at Phoebe’s, The Retreat, the Sherwood, and he was the executive chef at Strada Mia. He never really wanted his own restaurant, and he wasn’t looking to buy this one, especially during a pandemic.
“Seriously? I was looking for reasons NOT to buy it. I watched all these good people and their businesses get crippled by (the coronavirus),” he said. “But I realized it was a good deal.”
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