sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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The popular board game Scrabble is celebrated today, on the birthday of its creator, Alfred Butts. Butts lost his architectural job in 1931, during the Great Depression, and began brainstorming with the goal of creating a game. He organized board games into three categories: strategy games, numbers games, and word games. Realizing most games weren't word games, he set out to make one that everyone could enjoy. He wanted to combine chance and skill, and was influenced by crossword puzzles and anagrams. In his new game, which he called Lexico, words were built by drawing and discarding from letter tiles. Nine letter tiles were held at a time and there was no game board. Between 1934 and 1938, he made Lexiko sets by hand. He tried to license them to Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers but was rejected.
In 1947, Alfred Butts was contacted by James Brunot, who paid Butts a small royalty and put the game back into production in the summer of 1948. Brunot changed the name of the game to Scrabble, which means "to scrape or grope frenetically with the hands." Brunot and his wife Helen began making the games in their home and stamped the letters on each wooden tile. In 1949, they made 2,251 Scrabble games for a loss of $450. Shortly thereafter, a fortuitous event is said to have occurred: an executive of Macy's department store came across the game while on vacation. It is believed this is what made business begin to boom in 1952.
SU News
Will SU’s Offensive Line Take a Step Forward? – Orange Fizz – Free Syracuse Recruiting News (orangefizz.net; Shults)
Last season, just about everything that could go wrong for Syracuse, did go wrong as the Orange finished with a terrible 1-10 record. One of the main issues was the offensive line, which allowed an Atlantic Coast Conference high 38 sacks. Part of the issue was Tommy DeVito staying in the pocket too long, until he suffered an injury and Rex Culpepper stepped into the starting lineup.
But the poor O-line play forced head coach Dino Babers to adapt his offense, altering to quick passes to the sidelines, rather than the vertical offense that was a constant so far into his tenure. But with transfer Chris Bleich eligible to play next season, Syracuse should have depth that it lacked last season.
Besides the addition of Bleich, tackle Airon Servais will return for a redshirt senior season. With another year to gel, SU’s offensive line should take major steps next season. Besides Servais and Bleich, starters returning include center Carlos Vettorello, redshirt junior Dakota Davis, sophomore tackle Matthew Bergeron and right guard Darius Tisdale. The Orange will also add Texas transfer Willie Tyler, a six-foot-7, 330 pound guard.
Unlike other positions, the offensive line requires time working together in order to excel. Last season, Syracuse was riddled with injuries and forced to start fullback Chris Elmore at guard. If Davis can stay healthy, Syracuse could have an experienced, deep offensive line to compete within the ACC.
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Q&A: Syracuse commit Willie Tyler on transferring from Texas, bond with Mike Schmidt, OL development (247sports.com; $; Bailey)
Syracuse football landed one of its most important commitments of the offseason on Thursday when Texas offensive lineman Willie Tyler made his transfer announcement. The Racine, Wisc., native has three years of eligibility left and expects to arrive on campus in May, shortly after completing his undergraduate degree at UT.
Tyler became a priority target of the Orange shortly after he entered the transfer portal on Jan. 19. Within an hour, fellow Racine (Wisc.) native Kramer Cook reached out to him. SU's director of recruiting was quickly followed by other staff members. And before the week was out, head coach Dino Babers spoke 1-on-1 with Tyler and pitched him on coming in to compete for the starting right tackle job.
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Syracuse safety Andre Cisco shares timeline for his return to football (nfl.com; video)
Syracuse safety Andre Cisco shares timeline for his return to football.
From Dabo Swinney to Ted Roof: Ranking the 49 ACC football coaching hires since 1992 (theathletic.com; $; Bitter & Navarro)
Where are all the dadgum great coaches? You might be asking yourself that as you look at our list of the best ACC football coaching hires since 1992, when Florida State joined the conference, and compare it to similar lists published by The Athletic colleagues who cover the SEC and Big Ten.
Well, the parameters we set eliminated a few Hall of Famers. Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer cleaned up in the ACC during their careers, the former with 12 ACC titles, the latter with four in his first seven years in the league. Both were hired before 1992, however, and both were hired before their schools joined the ACC.
The latter is a common issue for many of the league’s current schools that joined in 2004 and later. So take Bowden and Beamer out of the mix, plus a few pretty good Miami coaches. And while Mack Brown’s second run at North Carolina makes the cut, his more successful first run with the Tar Heels wasn’t considered because he was hired in 1988.
Still, there were 49 coaches we ranked who were hired to coach in the ACC from 1992 on. Our methodology was part stats (wins and losses, championships, final rankings) and part feel (the degree of difficulty can’t be overlooked for many schools in this league).
No. 1 was easy, a whole lot of hires were mediocre and, quite honestly, we didn’t have a clue what to do with Bobby Petrino.
1. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
Year: 2008 (took over 3-3 team)Record: 140-33 overall (86-17 ACC) in 13 seasons
Best season: 15-0, national championship in 2018
Program record previous three seasons: 25-13 (14-10 ACC)
AD who made the hire: Terry Don Phillips
The former walk-on receiver at Alabama was named interim coach when Tommy Bowden resigned during the 2008 season, then promoted to the full-time job despite never having been a coordinator. He has turned out to be a pretty good head coach, with two national championships, seven ACC titles (including each of the past six) and the best active winning percentage (.809) among all coaches in college football to coach at least 10 seasons. We think he’s done all right at little ol’ Clemson.
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Predicting breakout true freshmen for every ACC team (247sports.com; Hummer)
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DUCE CHESTNUT, CB, SYRACUSE
247Sports Composite Ranking: No. 418
The Orange are going to be young in the secondary next year. So much so that CuseNation projects a freshman starter at every spot in 2021. That gives Duce Chestnut, Syracuse’s highest-rated 2021 signee, a chance to vault into the rotation right away. Chestnut is a versatile cornerback who can play as many as four positions in the secondary thanks to his size and tackling ability, which allows him to play corner, nickel and even some safety.
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One bold prediction for every ACC team in 2021 (247sports.com; Gates)
I am not sure this is a bold prediction...
SYRACUSE ORANGE
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WILL LOSE A NONCONFERENCE GAME — From South Florida in 2015 and 2016, Middle Tennessee in 2017, Maryland in 2019 and Liberty in 2020, Syracuse has shown it can struggle at times when playing nonconference opponents. The Orange have not been able to be consistent in those games and have done themselves no favors with this year’s schedule, facing Liberty again and an improving Rutgers team, among two other games. Expect at least one blemish on Syracuse’s record when ACC play begins, which could be the sign that it is going to be another long year for fans of Syracuse football in 2021.
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CFB Border Wars?
This time Big Game Boomer wants to nuance us a bit - not just rivalries, but "border state" rivalries!There are eight ACC-related rivalries here (three in conference, five out of conference):
- Pitt-West Virginia
- Va Tech-W. Virginia
- Cincinnati-Louisville
- UNC-Virginia
- Clemson-Ga Tech
- UNC-S. Carolina
- Boston College-Syracuse
- Cincinnati-Pitt
- Michigan-Notre Dame
- Michigan St-Notre Dame
Bottom Line:
Any time you can get 10 of the top 50 of something, that's not too shabby....
Rx: Best of ACC, Big XII, and ND Conference (RX; HM)
Rx: Best of ACC, Big XII, and ND Conference
What if the football-first schools in the ACC and Big XII were to get together and decided that they need to do something radical to remain competitive with the Big Ten and SEC? Might they decide to create a "Best of Both" conference? If they did, what might it look like?From "Notre Dame the ACC, Big 10, and Everyone Else" on CSNBBS,
In response to this scenario:
TerryD, Notre Dame fan and frequent commenter on this blog, replied:
We've already suggested that the ACC should seriously "encourage" Duke and Wake to both accept the "Notre Dame Deal" and become non-football members of the ACC. However, in the event that one or both refuses to take that offer, dissolving the conference and forming a brand new one - combined with the best of the Big XII - would actually be an even better move, albeit a riskier one.
Let's try to fill out Terry's "if they have to join" conference...
That leaves you with a 16 teams spanning 11 states. 10 of those teams have at least one national championship trophy (all but Oklahoma St, Louisville, NC State, UNC, UVA, and Virginia Tech). In fact, I chose TCU as the "other team from Texas" for that very reason.
How much is that new TV deal worth? No doubt quite a lot! In my opinion, this group would be in a position to challenge the Big Ten and the SEC - both on the field and in terms of revenue - immediately.
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Other
Syracuse Mets will require Covid-19 tests, vax info from fans (PS; $; Weaver)
On the Syracuse Mets’ Opening Day at NBT Stadium, there will be no tailgating. Fans sitting in the stands must wear masks.
And nearly everyone – even little kids – must show proof of a recent negative Covid-19 test or full vaccination before walking through the turnstiles, according to current state rules.
The rules at the ballpark are similar to many now required in schools, restaurants, churches and even weddings in New York.
But Opening Day on May 4 marks something different.
It’ll be the single-biggest in-person gathering in Onondaga County since the coronavirus pandemic began. And the rules here are a preview of how a lot of bigger events will likely go this summer as sports teams, concert venues and festivals try to balance safety with normalcy.
“We have to open up within the guidelines,” General Manager Jason Smorol said of the state’s rules about mask wearing, social distancing and cleaning. “We’ll make that as good as possible and ask for patience from our fans.”
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