sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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1908 Syracuse Football Team
Welcome to American Football Day!
American Football Day celebrates the popular sport, American football. Like many sports, the rules of the game changed a lot over time to be what they now are. The roots of American football are in rugby football and association football—which is commonly known as soccer. The first American football game is seen as being played on November 6, 1869, but the rules were the same as soccer at the time. During the 1870's rugby gained more of an influence on the game, and the ball was allowed to be carried. Walter Camp is known as the "Father of American football", and rule changes he came up with in 1880 brought about things such as the snap, the concept of downs, and teams having eleven players on the field at once. At this time most football was being played at the college level, and a intercollegiate association that later came to be known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed in 1905. In 1906 the forward pass was introduced, and changes in field sizes and points for scoring changed soon afterwards. In 1920 a professional league was formed, which came to be known as the National Football League (NFL). By the 1930's the NFL was gaining in popularity because of its emphasis on the passing game, and football in general was gaining in popularity.
SU News
Bleav in Syracuse Episode 18: Dom Foster (SI; podcast; The Bleav)
Bleav in Syracuse podcast episode 18 is out! With Syracuse on a bye week, we speak to a future member of the Orange football program. Class of 2022 Syracuse defensive back commit Dom Foster out of Warren G. Harding High School in Ohio joins the podcast to discuss his switch to the defensive side of the ball, his recruiting process, commitment to Syracuse, Dino Babers' comparing his game to another recent Orange star and much more.
Syracuse Fans' Bye Week Viewing Guide (SI; McAllister)
With Syracuse on a bye, many Orange fans will still watch plenty of college football this week. Which games should Syracuse fans pay the most attention to? We put together a viewing guide of the most notable games that have some connection to Syracuse. Games listed occur on Saturday unless otherwise noted. Times listed are Eastern.
Virginia Tech at Boston College (Friday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2)
A matchup of the two teams Syracuse has beaten the last two weeks. If Syracuse fans want to watch this game to see if the win over either is perhaps a bit better than originally thought, this game could be of interest. Boston College may need to win this to keep bowl hopes alive. Virginia Tech won last week and has Duke next, but then wraps up the regular season with two straight road games. Intriguing game.
Wake Forest at North Carolina (12:00 p.m., ABC)
For Syracuse fans that care about perception of the ACC or the strength of the conference, this game could be of interest. Wake is the lone undefeated team in the ACC, and has the toughest stretch in its schedule starting with this one. If the Demon Deacons wants to make a legitimate case for the playoff, it has to win this one.
Liberty at Ole Miss (12:00 p.m., SEC Network)
Ole Miss is in the SEC and ranked 16th in the country. This is a massive game for Liberty, if it wants to be considered one of the best non power five teams in the country and/or finish the season ranked. A win here likely puts the Flames into the polls, which would make Syracuse's win earlier in the season look even better.
Pittsburgh at Duke (12:00 p.m., ACC Network)
Syracuse plays the Panthers in the regular season finale in the Dome. This is an opportunity for Syracuse fans to watch Pitt in order to see how they would matchup with the Orange in a few weeks.
Temple at East Carolina (3:00 p.m., ESPN+)
East Carolina has been linked to Syracuse as a potential bowl opponent. Syracuse fans may want to watch to get a feel for the Pirates.
Michigan State at Purdue (3:30 p.m., ABC)
This game should interest Syracuse fans on two fronts. First, Sean Tucker's top competition for the national rushing title is Kenneth Walker of Michigan State. He needs 74 yards in this one to pass Tucker. In addition, Purdue has been noted as a potential bowl opponent, and Syracuse faces Purdue the next two seasons (2022 in the Dome, 2023 at Purdue).
Wisconsin at Rutgers (3:30 p.m., Big Ten Network)
For Syracuse fans that do not like Rutgers and want to root against the Scarlet Knights making a bowl game, watch this one to cheer for the Badgers. Rutgers is currently 4-4 and finishes the regular season with at Indiana, at Penn State and home against Maryland. This game is very important for Rutgers' bowl hopes.
Middle Tennessee at Western Kentucky (3:30 p.m.)
For those who want to see how former Syracuse coach Scott Shafer is doing, he remains the defensive coordinator of Middle Tennessee.
Penn State at Maryland (3:30 p.m., FS1)
If Syracuse fans want to play Penn State in a potential bowl game, the Nittany Lions likely need to lose one or two more games. Syracuse fans can watch this one hoping Maryland pulls the upset.
NC State at Florida State (4:00 p.m., ACC Network)
Syracuse faces NC State in a couple of weeks. If Orange fans want NC State to be ranked for that matchup, it has to win this game. It will also give Syracuse fans a chance to watch the Wolfpack against a common opponent to see how NC State would match up with SU.
Tulane at Central Florida (4:00 p.m., ESPNU)
Central Florida is another team that has been mentioned as a potential bowl opponent for Syracuse in bowl projections. An advanced scouting opportunity for Orange fans.
Clemson at Louisville (7:30 p.m., ACC Network)
Syracuse's next game is at Louisville. The Cardinals face the Tigers Saturday night. This is a scouting opportunity for Syracuse fans that want to check out the next opponent. Expect the Syracuse coaches to be tuning in.
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5 things that would help Boston College turn it around in football (boston.com; Haas)
When the Boston College football team started the season 4-0, it wasn’t far-fetched to believe that the Eagles could still win eight or nine games even with starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec sidelined.
They were fresh off a thrilling win over Missouri and had lots of momentum heading into Atlantic Coast Conference play. Since that point, BC has stumbled through an 0-4 stretch to move to .500 overall and last in the conference standings. Opponents have outscored the Eagles, 101-40, during that span, and a season initially filled with optimism has spiraled into one disappointing result after another.
FEATURED ON BOSTON.COM
Aaron Nesmith proves worthy of playing time: 8 takeaways…“Are we where we want to be? No. I get it,” coach Jeff Hafley said. “Do the fans have every right to be disappointed? They do. I’m disappointed, trust me. I’m not happy about it, and I’m going to do something about it.”
The Eagles still have time to finish strong, starting with the Red Bandanna Game against Virginia Tech Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Alumni Stadium.
Here are five things that need to happen for BC to turn its season around.
Start Emmett Morehead at quarterback
Dennis Grosel has had a tremendous career, and his accomplishments and leadership shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Now, however, is the time to let true freshman Emmett Morehead take over. Morehead hadn’t played since his junior year of high school, but he was able to come in on the road in a tight game at Syracuse last Saturday and help the Eagles keep the game competitive until it wasn’t.
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On The Block On Demand 11-4 (ESPN; radio; Axe)
Brent starts the show with the five stats that define Syracuse football. Then, he starts previewing their upcoming opponent, the Louisville Cardinals, and explaining why that game should be another close one.
Syracuse Orange Football Team 2021 Touchdown horn
Syracuse football has a bye week, and I’ve got tons of thoughts to share (itlh; Fiello)
Happy bye week everyone, and to those who crave Syracuse football, I’m sorry! To those wanting to maintain an adequate blood pressure or maybe in a relationship with an Orange fan but not a fan yourself, enjoy the off-time this weekend.
Either way, I want to take a look at this season so far and discuss a few thoughts I have.
Syracuse Football Is The Rodney Dangerfield Of The ACC
When it comes to Syracuse football, at least one national writer has no respect for this team. Jerry Palms of CBS Sports has a list of his bowl game projections with Boston College and Virginia Tech (Syracuse’s 2 ACC wins) listed, BUT SYRACUSE IS NOT!As of right now to add insult to injury, BC and Virginia Tech have 4 wins versus Syracuse’s 5. I know the Orange’s schedule isn’t easy and I’m admittedly a Homer but to think those two teams can find two wins and Syracuse can’t find one is kind of insulting.
Defense Recognized Nationally
If you think the defense has been performing great, you’re right. Some players are ranking rather impressive nationally, according to NCAA statistics. Mikel Jones is 30th in the country in solo tackles and 31st in total tackles. Cody Roscoe is 12th in sacks, along with teammate Stefon Thompson who is 47th.Late Season Bye Weeks Stink
Syracuse football has played 9 games with 3 left and just now getting a bye week? Shouldn’t bye weeks be more like halfway through the season like when baseball takes a few days off for the All-Star game? That would make more sense.Right now we have players with, as Coach Babers famously says, “owwies” including Chris “Rhino” Elmore so it’s definitely a needed break but just odd to have one 3/4 of the way through the season. I think it would be a better idea to give everyone a bye week in the middle of the season…but maybe within a two-week period so that there is still football on TV (like half the ACC has October 10th off and the other half October 17th hypothetically).
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BC coach Hafley wants to end QB shuffle against Hokies (AP; Golen)
Boston College coach Jeff Hafley has picked a winner in his quarterback competition. He's just not saying who it is.
After shuffling Dennis Grosel and Emmett Morehead in and out during last week's 21-6 loss at Syracuse, Hafley said “I'd like it to be one guy” against Virginia Tech (4-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) on Friday night.
“It could be two, but I'd like it to be one," Hafley said. “I want to give the guy a chance to go play, but if something happens where we have to change it up, I don’t want you guys to think I was lying.”
Hafley thought he had his quarterback problem solved two years ago when Pennsylvania prep phenom Phil Jurkovec transferred from Notre Dame. He led BC to a 6-4 record in 2020, but this year he was knocked out in Week 2 with what is expected to be a season-ending wrist injury.
In came Grosel, a former walk-on who led BC (4-4, 0-4) to wins over three non-Power 5 schools and Missouri before losing to a pair of ranked teams, Clemson and North Carolina State. After a third straight loss, to Louisville, Hafley went with a rotation last week against Syracuse.
Grosel started and played the first two drives: one ended on downs at the Orange 24 yard-line, the other was a three-and-out. Morehead, a freshman, ran the four second-quarter possessions, which resulted in a field goal and three punts.
Grosel got two more tries in the third quarter, which led to a field goal and a three-and-out. Then came Morehead again with two three-and-outs sandwiched around a longer drive that ended with a punt on fourth-and-40. Back to Grosel, who was handed the ball on the Syracuse 19 and led BC to the 1 before the Eagles failed to punch it in from there.
“I don’t know what direction they’ll go," said Hokies coach Justin Fuente, whose team is in a stretch of four games out of five on the road after starting with six out of seven at home. "I don’t know that there’s a huge disparity between what their approach is between those two guys. We’ll have to be ready for whatever we’ll see.”
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Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson addresses 'atrocious' label applied to defense (journalnow.com; Joyce)
Dave Clawson will never come out and argue for a ranking.
The Wake Forest football coach has made that point multiple times this season. The reasons being that the ranking doesn’t matter if focus is lost by his team. Plus, he doesn’t think it’s useful for a coach to enter those conversations anyway.
He will, however, defend his team when needed. On his weekly radio show Wednesday night, Clawson answered a fan question regarding the perception of the ACC being down without established powers like Clemson and Florida State leading the conference. It led to Clawson addressing the fact that ESPN analyst Joey Galloway referred to the Demon Deacons defense as “atrocious” during Tuesday night’s initial College Football Playoff rankings reveal, with the Deacons at No. 9.
“When someone says their defense is atrocious – football today is different,” Clawson said on the show. “And we run a tempo offense – and we’re really good on offense – but part of our production comes from that we play fast. So our defense is never going to have low-yardage totals because they’re going to play more snaps. And I’ve decided as a head coach, that’s how we’re going to play right now. That fits our football team.”
Wake Forest’s defense bounced back against Duke on Saturday, a 45-7 victory in Winston-Salem that moved the Deacons to 8-0 and left them as one of four undefeated Power Five teams. The performance followed back-to-back games against Syracuse and Army where run games capitalized on the unit.
Clawson pointed out that the Deacons tick positive marks in enough metrics to prove Galloway’s point otherwise.
“We’re in the top half of the ACC in scoring defense (seventh, 23.9 points per game),” Clawson said. “We’re one of the top teams in the country in creating turnovers (tied for 10th with 17). Our situational defense in the red zone is good (tied for 20th in the nation). Our stop rate is in the top half of the country. And if you’re going to measure a defense by traditional ways, yardage – the way we play on offense, we’re never going to be high on that list.”
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Florida State aims to derail NC State’s division title hopes (wnct.com; AP)
North Carolina State isn’t in the driver’s seat in the Atlantic Division but the Wolfpack know they control their own destiny and that the road ahead includes matchups that will put them in position to claim their first football division title in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
It starts with Saturday’s night matchup against Florida State.
“It definitely feels nice to be in the hunt,” offensive tackle Ikem Ekwonu said. “I know Coach (Dave) Doeren has said something that it’s been a while since N.C. State has been in this position. It definitely means a lot and it’s definitely nice that we have a lot of control over how we finish the season.
“I feel like that’s the biggest thing for me. It’s not really up to any other people. We don’t have to rely on any other teams to win out or anything like that.”
N.C. State (6-2, 3-1 ACC) lost at Miami on Oct. 23 to fall out of the Top 25, but the Wolfpack rebounded with last week’s home win against Louisville. North Carolina State has never represented the Atlantic Division in the championship game since the ACC began the two-division format in 2005.
But the Wolfpack can’t afford to get ahead of themselves and look past Florida State (3-5, 2-3).
The Seminoles are coming off a 30-20 loss at Clemson last week and is holding on to its slim hopes of reaching a bowl after missing out following the 2020 season. It’s been wild ride for Florida State — from an 0-4 September to three straight October wins before falling at Clemson.
“It was a challenging first month but we got up,” Florida State coach Mike Norvell said. “We responded. We pushed forward. There were four weeks of positive momentum, a lot of things we’re growing and building upon. Saturday, we got knocked down again.
“The only sin is if you stay down on that ground. We’re going to jump up and move forward.”
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ACC Division Title Scenarios as of 2021-11-05 (RX; HM)
ACC Division Title Scenarios as of 2021-11-05
If I did this right, this covers all of the most likely ACC division title scenarios (I'm not spending a lot of time figuring out how Louisville can still win the Atlantic Division - sorry!)| Atlantic Division | ||
| Team | W-L | To win division |
| Wake | 5-0 | beat NC State and either Clemson or BC. |
| NC State | 3-1 | win out OR beat Wake and one other, plus win tiebreaker. |
| Clemson | 4-2 | win out; NC State beats Wake but loses to FSU, Syracuse, or UNC; Clemson wins the tiebreaker. |
| Coastal Division | ||
| Team | W-L | To win division |
| Pitt | 3-1 | beat UVA OR win the other two UVA loses one. |
| UVA | 4-2 | win out OR beat Pitt and win tiebreaker. |
| UNC | 3-3 | win out and win tiebreaker. |
| VT | 2-2 | win out OR win 3 and the tiebreaker. |
| Miami | 2-2 | win out OR win 3 and the tiebreaker. |
Wake Forest/NC State winner vs. Pitt/Virginia winner
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2021 Week 10 ACC Factoids (RX; HM)
2021 Week 10 ACC Factoids
ACC Notes• Five conference games, including a Friday night contest between Virginia Tech and Boston College, and a non-conference game Saturday between league foes Wake Forest and North Carolina, highlight Week 10 of the ACC football schedule.
• Virginia Tech travels to Boston College on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2. The Hokies are coming off a 26-13 win at Georgia Tech, while the Eagles are looking to end a four-game skid and earn their first conference win of the season. Virginia Tech and Boston College have met at least once every year since both became ACC members with the Hokies holding an 11-7 advantage in previous league meetings.
I thought this was interesting:
Grossel - although part of that may be due to easier competition. Does that mean anything at all for Friday night's game? Not necessarily... - Hokie Mark |
• Also at noon on ABC is one of the more intriguing matchups of the week with No. 10 Wake Forest looking to remain unbeaten at North Carolina. The Deacons' top 10 ranking is the first in school history. Wake Forest’s 24-18 win two seasons ago marked the first time since the ACC was founded in 1953 that two member schools met in a football game designated as non-conference.
The teams met in a conference game last November, with the Tar Heels coming out on the winning end of a 59-53 scoring fest. Wake's Sam Hartman and North Carolina's Sam Howell are ranked in the top 20 of nearly every passing category nationally.
• Miami, which has won two consecutive games to even its record at 4-4, plays host to Georgia Tech at 12:30 p.m. on RSN. The Hurricanes' resurgence has been led by QB Tyler Van Dyke, who has won back-to-back ACC Rookie of the Week honors. Georgia Tech has won its last two matchups versus the Hurricanes to grab a 13-12 lead in the series, including a 28-21 overtime victory in the most recent meeting in 2019. In that game, the Yellow Jackets turned a fake punt into a touchdown, recovered a fumble in the end zone for another score and blocked a Miami field goal try in the final seconds of regulation.
What to Watch in Week 9
• UNC QB Sam Howell has 87 career TD passes and is three touchdown passes shy of Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence's ACC record for touchdown passes (90) through three seasons....
CFP Expansion: Not IF, but How Many (RX; HM)
CFP Expansion: Not IF, but How Many
From ESPN: College Football Playoff expansion talks tabled until Dec. 1, consensus needed by January on 2024 formatSounds to me like expansion is a foregone conclusion, they're just debating over how many and in what format.
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Other
Strada Mia's patio is still open when the weather is pleasant. (Jane Marmaduke Woodman/Contributing Writer)
Steak and salad are surprising stars at Strada Mia (Dining Out Review) (PS; $; Woodman)
Since Strada Mia opened in 2015, its menu has become more ambitious and prices are higher, ranging then from $10 to $22 and now from a still-moderate $15 to $55 for mains.
Choices still include a large selection of Italian standards like the red-sauce restaurant dishes we tried for takeout last winter. However, for our first return visit inside since 2015, we wanted to see how the kitchen would handle parts of the menu that go beyond standard Italian.
What we experienced was an uneven execution of an excellent menu resulting in a meal the quality of which was, surprisingly, our first experience of what was probably short staffing.
Widely varying temperatures of items on the same plate, from a hot steak to nearly cold mashed potatoes, for example, undermined excellent flavors and textures and suggested an understaffed or inexperienced cook line.
The ribeye at Strada Mia was one of the best setaks we've had in CNY. (Jane Marmaduke Woodman/Contributing Writer)
The clear inexperience of our pleasant server suggested that the front of the house was struggling as well. On the other hand, those flavors and textures? They were largely terrific.
Wines remain fairly priced, with a range from $22 to $295. Our Cline Old Vines Zinfandel ($34) was the dark, fruity, soft red we expect from good Zinfandel.
We couldn’t recall whether a charcuterie board ($16) had been offered when we’d last reviewed the restaurant, but there is now one on the menu, which describes it simply as cured meats, cheeses, olives, pickled peppers and crostini.
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