sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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How often have you reached into your sock drawer or laundry basket, perplexed to find one sock, but not the one that matches it? Chances are that you have held onto your lone socks, with hopes that someday their matches would return. Lost Sock Memorial Day is for looking for those lost socks one last time, honoring them, and then letting go by throwing away or putting to another use those unpaired socks that have been lingering in your sock drawer.
SU News
Three-star Amari Colon from New York is the latest 2025 pledge for Syracuse football, in a class that's No. 6 nationally. / Jack Haley / USA TODAY NETWORK
As Syracuse football scores another N.Y. pledge, 2025 class up to No. 6 nationally (itlh; Adler)
Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and his top-flight staff continue to impress with their 2025 recruiting efforts, locking up another pledge this week from a New York product.
Three-star athlete Amari Colon, a talented 6-foot-1, 180-pound prospect who hails from the Empire State, said via his X page on Tuesday that he was offered a scholarship by the Orange and was verbally committing to the 'Cuse.
A big congrats and welcome from Orange Nation to Amari. This past season, per 247Sports analyst Mike McAllister, Colon suited up at both running back and wide receiver for James Monroe High School in Rochester, N.Y.
However, McAllister notes that the Syracuse football staff is recruiting him as a safety. Additionally, Colon is moving from the 2024 class to the 2025 cycle. This coming term, he will attend the Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, N.Y.
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Washington Jr. matured playing special teams for Louisville. At SU, he hopes to show it on defense (PS; $; Leiker)
Having started college football while he was still just 17 years old, Marcus Washington Jr. believes his biggest growth through his first two seasons has simply been in his maturity.
He appeared in just one game for two snaps on defense as a true freshman at Georgia.
For his sophomore year, Washington transferred to Louisville, where he still appeared in only two games on defense but all 14 on special teams.
“Playing special teams, it really builds the most character and it helps you mature because you’re in those pressurized situations a lot and you learn how to fight through adversity,” Washington said Wednesday.
Washington committed to Syracuse football out of the transfer portal from Louisville on Tuesday night. He said he left the Cardinals in search of a program where he could play more on defense in addition to continuing his special teams contributions.
The Orange will be his third team in three years of college ball. He has three years of eligibility remaining.
The move reunites Washington with Fran Brown, who’d been his primary recruiter to Georgia as a four-star high school prospect and then his position coach when he was rostered with the Bulldogs in 2021.
Washington said he spoke with defensive backs coach Joe Schaefer before he talked with Brown.
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Syracuse football 2024 transfer class in top 10 nationally as Louisville DB commits (itlh; Adler)
Marcus Washington Jr., a defensive back at fellow Atlantic Coast Conference school Louisville who was in the transfer portal, has committed to Syracuse football and will reunite with Fran Brown, the Orange's first-year head coach.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Washington announced his pledge to the 'Cuse via social media on Tuesday night. According to media reports, he will have three seasons of collegiate eligibility remaining.
Washington began his college career at Southeastern Conference powerhouse Georgia and then transferred to the Cardinals. He hasn't played all that much in his two terms of college football so far.
Brown, formerly the defensive backs coach at Georgia, was Washington's primary recruiter for the Bulldogs, per reports. A huge congrats and welcome from Orange Nation to Marcus, who further bolsters the squad's depth in the secondary ahead of the 2024 season.
Syracuse football continues to make moves in the transfer portal this off-season.
Even as Brown and his staff focus on their recruiting efforts in the 2025 and 2026 cycles, the Orange keeps adding pledges from current college transfers, as the recent spring transfer-portal window ran from April 16 to April 30.
Besides Washington, other college transfers who have committed to the 'Cuse of late include Notre Dame senior cornerback Clarence Lewis, Colorado graduate student offensive tackle Savion Washington and Colorado State sophomore wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons.
According to 247Sports, Marcus Washington Jr. entered the transfer portal on April 26. When I wrote this article on Wednesday morning, in national transfer rankings, placed Washington as three stars and No. 315 overall.
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Syracuse football commit from C-NS has Silver Gloves boxing background, is part of new staff’s attention to CNY (PS; $; Carlson)
A reminder of the increased emphasis on recruiting that Syracuse head coach Fran Brown brings to the Orange football program arrived each spring practice, when a parade of high school prospects was measured and then walked out to the Orange practice field.
Cicero-North Syracuse junior Kardiear Shepherd was often among them, taking advantage of the early morning start time, the program’s increased openess and the short drive to his high school to become a regular observer of the SU football program during Brown’s first months.
During those visits, Shepherd took note of the energy and enthusiasm he saw in Syracuse’s new staff. He began to envision being coached that way. And before the spring was over, Shepherd was among the 19 high school prospects who have currently committed to the Orange in the Class of 2025.
“After my first visit I just kept going down there and talking with the coaches and just fell in love with it,” Shepherd said. “I like what they are doing there, I like their staff, I like how they are going about things. I like the coaches’ intensity and I like how they treat their players and stuff like that.”
Syracuse’s Class of 2025 currently has more verbal commitments than any program in the country other than Notre Dame. It is currently ranked as the No. 8 group in 2025 by 247 Sports, although that ranking that is boosted by the sheer number of commitments.
Four of those commitments are from Central New York high school products, a group that includes Shepherd and three players from Christian Brothers Academy (Matthew Hawn, Darien Williams and Daunte Bacheyie).
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https://www.kansas.com/sports/article288420083.html (kansas.com; Kaye)
For the first time this month, coach Shane Beamer and the South Carolina football team have lost a player to the transfer portal.
On Wednesday afternoon, 247Sports and On3 reported that USC edge rusher Drew Tuazama had entered the transfer portal. He is not currently listed on the Gamecocks’ online roster.
Some might be wondering: Didn’t the transfer portal close on April 30? How is South Carolina losing guys in May?
Well, the transfer portal did close over a week ago but graduate students, like Tuazama, are allowed to enter the portal at any time.
So Tuazama will move on from South Carolina for his sixth — and final — year of college football. And what a wild six years it has been. The 6-foot-5, 270-pound Raleigh native began his college career at Syracuse in 2019. He was in upstate New York for two years before transferring to East Mississippi Community College (of Last Chance U fame), before bouncing back and playing the 2022 season at UAB.
In 2023, he moved on to his fourth college football program, committing with South Carolina as a grad transfer. He joined the Gamecocks as an EDGE for fall camp in August but struggled to find a role. Last season, Tuazama played in just five games and recorded one sack.
With the Gamecocks bolstering up their EDGE room this offseason, bringing on transfers Gilber Edmond and Kyle Kennard, along with five-star freshman Dylan Stewart, it was going to be an uphill battle for Tuazama to see the field.
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ACC News
12 conference realignment legal lessons as FSU, ACC and Clemson sue (tampabay.com; $; Baker)
Although the latest round of conference realignment was getting ugly, at least one major player never thought it would get this bad.
Lawsuits? Over who is in the ACC?
“In the past 25 years, 39 other schools have changed conferences,” attorney Eric Isicoff told the Miami Herald, “and there has never been a lawsuit.”
That was 21 years ago as the Hurricanes prepared to flee the Big East. Since the start of that legal brawl, no fewer than 19 realignment-related lawsuits have followed.
Five are unfolding now: The dueling lawsuits filed by Florida State (in Leon County) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (in North Carolina) against each other; the separate but similar complaints between Clemson and the ACC in both Carolinas; and the Florida Attorney General’s public-records complaint against the ACC.
How and when the ongoing cases will end is unknown. But the Tampa Bay Times reviewed every relevant case from 2002-22 looking for clues, recurring themes, settlement figures and timelines. Here are 12 takeaways:
Expect a settlement
Every case but one was settled out of court, and that exception comes with a caveat. In 2004, a Massachusetts judge sided with Boston College and against the Big East over its exit fee. But that only ended one part of the complex dispute (see below).Mediation led to a quick resolution in at least one case: the WAC’s suit against Nevada, Fresno State and the Mountain West over their exit timeline. That’s notable because a Tallahassee judge has ordered mediation between FSU and the ACC.
Dueling lawsuits are common
There are a few precedents for the parallel litigation playing out between FSU/Clemson and the ACC.In November 2011, West Virginia filed a home-court suit against the Big East on its way to the Big 12. The Big East sued the school back a few days later in its home court (Rhode Island). In between, the Mountaineers hosted the Big 12 to celebrate their move.
A year later, Maryland and the ACC started suing each other over the Terrapins’ jump to the Big Ten.
The messiest — by far — was the 2003-05 legal brawl as the ACC prepared to raid the Big East. It featured at least four lawsuits in three states (Florida, Connecticut and Massachusetts) involving various combinations of teams staying in the Big East (UConn, Pitt, Rutgers and West Virginia), teams leaving for the ACC (Miami and Boston College) plus both conferences/league administrators. Virginia Tech began one suit as a plaintiff (on the Big East side) but withdrew on the eve of a court date because it, too, was leaving for the ACC. Awkward.
This could take a while
The average case (or set of dueling lawsuits) took more than 10 months to resolve. The 2010 WAC-Mountain West suit only lasted a month. It took about three months to settle the Big East lawsuits with West Virginia and Pitt around 2012.
But those cases were relatively easy. The harder ones took at least 15 months. The legal fight over Maryland’s ACC exit began in November 2012 and ended in August 2014. It took 15 months for Rutgers to drop its claim against the Big East/American Athletic Conference. The longest timeline: the 2003-05 Big East brawl involving Miami. It spent 23 months in the courts.
Exits are (at best) delayed, not stopped
None of the cases we found prevented a school from changing conferences. The Big East brawl began before the ACC voted to add Miami and Boston College, but the litigation merely complicated and slowed their exits.The WAC kept Fresno State and Nevada from leaving a year early, but they still left.
On the other side, Pitt paid the Big East an extra $2.5 million to jump a year ahead of schedule. West Virginia got out two years earlier thanks to an $8.5 million settlement payment and $9 million in withheld revenue.
Fights over home-court advantage are routine
FSU and the ACC disagree on whether their dispute belongs in FSU’s home court (Leon County) or the conference’s home court (North Carolina, where the league is based). Several other sets of cases had arguments about where they’d argue. Conferences generally won:• A Maryland court paused the Terrapins’ suit while the ACC’s North Carolina suit proceeded.
• A federal New Jersey judge moved Rutgers’ complaint against the Big East to the conference’s home state (Rhode Island).
• A Connecticut court ruled that Boston College did enough business in that state to be sued there while leaving the Big East.
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Who's overrated, underrated, previewing the ACC (theathletic.com; $; Bardahl)
Today I’m joined by Grace Raynor to preview the ACC’s players to watch in 2024. But first … rankings!
Ari Wasserman’s Top 25
Overrated, underrated teams
With spring practices over and another transfer portal window behind us, The Athletic’s Ari Wasserman released his preseason Top 25 yesterday. Ohio State and Georgia safely secured the top two spots. As for the rest of the list, here are my picks for one team each that will underperform and overperform compared to Ari’s rating, plus one mystery team I just can’t figure out.Overrated, No. 5 Notre Dame: The Irish will have a good team, and I’m excited to watch QB Riley Leonard in South Bend. But a spot in the top five feels optimistic. Prove me wrong, Irish!
Underrated, No. 24 Oklahoma State: The Cowboys return RB Ollie Gordon II, who led the nation in rushing yards in 2023. QB Alan Bowman returns for his seventh year of college football, providing plenty of experience as long as he stays healthy. Mike Gundy is a consistent winner, and the Cowboys’ schedule appears favorable.
Mystery team, No. 7 Alabama: We’ve made it to the post-Nick Saban Alabama era. Of course, this has to be the mystery team. I’m confident in Kalen DeBoer, and the Crimson Tide return QB Jalen Milroe, but I’m still not ready to say this season will be a seamless turn of the page in Tuscaloosa. The SEC also looks stacked.Ari discussed his rankings on yesterday’s Until Saturday podcast. Listen to it here.
What’s New in ACC?
Realignment, new head coaches
The ACC will be a 17-team conference in 2024 thanks to the addition of three programs.- SMU: The Mustangs’ AAC finale ended with a conference championship, an 11-win season and a finish at No. 22 in the AP poll. Entering his third season, Rhett Lashlee will look to keep the momentum against a more competitive conference slate.
- Cal: The Golden Bears reached bowl eligibility for the first time since 2019 last season. The team’s leading rusher, Jaydn Ott, returns, and the program recently picked up a transfer commitment from WR Kyion Grayes II (Ohio State).
- Stanford: Troy Taylor’s first year in charge ended with a 3-9 record, but he inherited a program that was going to take some time to rebuild. The good news is Stanford’s schedule looks a little more manageable in 2024, except for tough road trips to Clemson (Sept. 28) and Notre Dame (Oct. 12).
- Bill O’Brien at Boston College: O’Brien jumped to the Eagles just three weeks after he was hired as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator. He was the head coach at Penn State from 2012-13 and spent 2021-22 as Alabama’s OC/QBs coach. In the NFL, O’Brien was the head coach for the Houston Texas from 2014-20 and spent last season as the OC/QBs coach of the New England Patriots.
- Manny Diaz at Duke: Hired away after spending two seasons as Penn State’s DC, Diaz is an elite defensive coach. His only head coaching stint at Miami from 2019-21 ended with a 21-15 record. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel graded this hire a B-minus, the best of ACC newcomers.
- Fran Brown at Syracuse: The Orange replaced Dino Babers with Brown, Georgia’s former DBs coach. This is Brown’s first head-coaching gig, but he’s known as one of the best recruiters in the game.
- Cam Ward, Miami QB: The former Washington State QB pulled his name out of the NFL Draft in January and was one of the most coveted prospects in the portal this offseason. The Hurricanes have recruited incredibly well under coach Mario Cristobal, but the results haven’t followed with Miami having gone just 5-7 in 2022 and 7-6 in 2023. Ward, who has both the requisite talent and experience, could be the difference-maker. He threw for 3,736 yards and 25 touchdowns a season ago and could be the ACC’s top QB.
- DJ Uiagalelei, FSU QB: There is arguably no other player in the ACC as intriguing as Uiagalelei. The former five-star recruit started his career at Clemson, transferred to Oregon State last season and is headed back to the ACC to suit up for Clemson’s top league rival. It has been a whirlwind of a college career for Uiagalelei, and this final chapter could be the most fascinating of them all. The Seminoles need to replace their star from a season ago, Jordan Travis, and Uiagalelei knows this league well. But if he struggles, as he did with the Tigers, how long is his leash? Clemson at FSU on the first Saturday in October will be must-see TV.
- KC Concepcion, NC State WR: Concepcion was one of the most dynamic receivers in the league a season ago as a true freshman and should only be better as a sophomore. If you love quick, shifty, dominant receiver play, Concepcion is your guy. The ACC’s Rookie of the Year in 2023, Concepcion set NC State’s freshman records for receiving touchdowns with 10 and catches with 71. His 71 receptions were the sixth-most in single-season history at NC State, and his 839 receiving yards ranked second-best in program history by a freshman. Concepcion will have a new QB this season in Coastal Carolina transfer Grayson McCall. Could the duo make NC State a dark horse in the conference race?
Teel: Virginia Tech-Miami clash could bring early juice to ACC football (newsadvance.com; Teel)
From 1999-2005, each of Virginia Tech’s annual football games against Miami showcased ranked teams, seven consecutive seasons of excellence that forged a rivalry and spanned the programs’ dominance of the Big East and transition to the ACC.
Michael Vick and Corey Moore. Ed Reed and Reggie Wayne. DeAngelo Hall and Kevin Jones. Frank Gore and Santana Moss. Those are among the luminaries who graced the series during that span.
Alas, for the respective fan bases, the Hokies and Hurricanes haven’t collided with both among the Associated Press’ top 25 since 2017. But what are the odds that changes in late September, when Tech opens its conference season at Miami?
The question surfaced, at least in my scattered mind, when Oregon State’s Damien Martinez, arguably the transfer portal’s top running back, committed to the Hurricanes in late April.
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ESPN direct-to-customers by 2025 (RX; HM)
ESPN direct-to-customers by 2025
It looks like ESPN will soon be available a la carte (or at least, small bundle) via streaming... can the ACC Network be far behind?
From Yahoo!: Disney Will Add ESPN Tile to Disney+ This Year
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Links, News and Rumors 2024 May 8th (RX; HM)
Links, News and Rumors 2024 May 8th
From CBS Sports: ACC post-spring power rankings
If you want to know why, click the link above.
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Miami football returns most productive WR trio in ACC (caneswarning.com; Rubenstein)
Houston transfer Sam Brown, Jacolby George, and Xavier Restrepo are the only trio of wide receivers in the ACC who each had 800 yards receiving in 2023. With Brown, George and Restrepo catching passes from quarterback Cam Ward and running back Damien Martinez, Miami projects to have a prolific offense in 2024.
Brown had 62 receptions for 815 yards and three touchdowns for Houston in 2023. George was second on Miami with 57 receptions for 864 yards and led the Hurricanes with eight TDs in 2023. Restrepo set the single season Miami record with 85 receptions for 1,092 yards and six TDs in 2023.
Brown will provide Miami with another talk WR who can stretch the field. Brown was a clutch receiver with 33 receptions for first downs, 20 catches for at least 25 yards and seven of 25 or more yards. George had 33 receptions for first downs, 18 for 15 or more yards and 12 or 25 or more in 2023.
Restrepo had 52 receptions for first downs in 2023, 32 for 15 or more yards and 10 for 25 or more. Brown and George project to be the big-play receivers downfield for Miami in 2024, with Restrepo working the middle of the field out of the slot. Isaiah Horton and JoJo Trader are projected as the primary backups at WR.
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(youtube; podcast; War Chant)
FSU Football News | FSU ACC Lawsuit | Jeff Cameron Show 5-8-24 | Warchant TV #FSU
CBS Sports College Football on Instagram: "@bcrawford87’s post-spring ACC QB rankings Who do y’all think should be higher?"
4,847 likes, 207 comments - cbssportscfb on May 8, 2024: "@bcrawford87’s post-spring ACC QB rankings Who do y’all think should be higher?".
www.instagram.com
Other
Pro-Palestinian protesters say they won’t move unless Syracuse University meets their demands (PS; $; Moss)
Pro-Palestinian protesters at Syracuse University have decided they will not move their tent encampment as SU officials have demanded ahead of this weekend’s commencement ceremonies, a protest organizer said.
The protesters, which numbered around 50 on Wednesday afternoon, are refusing to move from SU’s Shaw Quad until their demands are met by SU or there is a clear plan to do so, according to the organizer, Cai Cafiero, a doctoral student in the School of Education.
“A protest has to be disruptive, that’s how it works,” she said. “We are being peaceful, we are being calm, we are here to take up space and be visible.”
The encampment was established last Monday. Protesters are demanding, among other things, the university cut any ties with Israeli academic institutions.
Around 10 a.m. Wednesday, SU officials handed letters to the protesters telling them to relocate the encampment, Cafiero said. University officials said they could move to either the Women’s Building Field on Comstock Avenue or an outdoor space near the Life Sciences Complex on College Place, the letters said.
The letters said a large tent needed for commencement ceremonies must be constructed over the area in the quad currently taken up by the encampment.
Protesters were told they had 30 minutes to respond, Cafiero said. They discussed what to do during their regular 10 a.m. check-in meeting, she said.
Protesters replied to SU officials that they would not discuss relocating until after a “good-faith meeting” about SU meeting their demands, Cafiero said. SU officials and some protesters are scheduled to meet Monday, she said.
SU officials and the protesters have yet to meet to substantively discuss their demands, Cafiero said.
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End of individually wrapped cheese slices? NY bill targets plastic packaging (PS; TNS)
Assembly lawmakers are advancing legislation aimed at cutting down on plastic packaging as New York aims to deal with a solid waste problem.
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act would require companies with more than $1 million in net income that sell or distribute packaging materials to “reduce packaging, improve recycling and recycling infrastructure, financially support municipal recycling programs, and reduce toxins in packaging.”
The legislation is supported by many environmental groups that believe that its policies will address bursting New York landfills. In December, the state Department of Environmental Conservation released a solid waste management plan that called for a “circular economy,” where waste is reduced and reused.
Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a group that focuses on ending plastic pollution, said that the legislation, if passed, would be the “most comprehensive plastics reduction in the nation.”
The legislation, which has been opposed by many in the plastics industry and by Republican lawmakers, would put the responsibility of dealing with plastic waste on the producers, Enck said.
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Syracuse University announced in a Dec. 8 news release that it would convert 727 S. Crouse Ave., formerly known as The Marshall, into second-year housing. The announcement came a month after SU revealed it would do the same to the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center.
Gallery: In case you missed it, here's what happened this school year (DO; photo gallery)
Gallery: In case you missed it, here’s what happened this school year
