sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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SU
Port-Au-Prince
Two SU Football Players Recount Recent Mission Trip to Haiti (PS; Carlson)
The police are not to be trusted, and the palace in the capital hasn't been rebuilt more three years after an earthquake sent it crumbling to the ground.
Food is so scarce that even the cows look dangerously thin, and the air smells of garbage, the result of a sanitation system that doesn't exist in Haiti.
"Everything," Syracuse wide receiver Macauley Hill said, "is just about as bad as it gets."
The orphan children in this mess, though? They press their palms tightly into the hands of two Syracuse football players, look up at them and beam.
Hill and Sam Rodgers, juniors on the Syracuse football team, went on a seven-day mission trip to Haiti last month with an organization called Poverty Resolutions. With two weeks between the end of their finals and the start of summer school, they spent most of their precious free time as volunteers at the House of Hope orphanage in Williamson, about 40 miles from Port-au-Prince.
...
RF QB Mitch Kimble Takes Slight Lead into Training Camp for Backup QB Job (PS; Bailey)
Last year, a quarterback battle dominated Syracuse's training camp story lines as Drew Allen and Terrel Hunt dueled for the starting job.
This year, there's another battle. But with Hunt locked in as the clear-cut starter, this one is for the backup job.
Redshirt freshman Mitch Kimble is the early leader after being slotted as the No. 2 signal caller in SU's pre-training camp depth chart, but quarterbacks coach Tim Lester said all four of the team's young QBs have a shot to win the race.
"None of them have shown enough on the practice field to solidify one (as the backup)," Lester said in an interview on Wednesday. "The problem with depth charts is you have to make an order. I really think that the most fluid part of our room is, 'Who's 2?' because I think any one of the three or four guys there could win that spot."
...
Durell Eskridge (3) Makes an Interception
Can the Secondary Stay Healthy and Avoid the Big Play? (PS; Axe)
It can be argued that the secondary on the 2014 Syracuse University football team is the most polarizing unit on the team.
On one hand, it is home to the team's leading tackler and perhaps its best overall talent in safety Durrell Eskridge, a third-team All-ACC selection a season ago.
Senior strong safeties Ritchy Desir (47) and Darius Kelly (44) were also in the top six in tackles for the Orange in 2013.
...
Is 8 Wins a Reasonable Goal for Orange in 2014? (PS; Axe)
It's back!
In 2012, I did the Syracuse football 12 in 2012series.
In 2013, it was 13 in 2013.
And now ...well, you get the picture.
A countdown of 14 topics that will influence the 2014 Syracuse University football season leading up to the start of training camp in early August.
Look for one or two topics in the series every weekday leading up to the start of camp. Players report on Friday, August 1.
...
Rob Long
SU Long Snapper Sam Rodgers Confident Lift for Life Will be Public Event in 2015 (PS; Mink)
Syracuse is holding its second Lift for Life event on Friday as part of its summer workouts.
The event is the cornerstone of an ongoing fundraising effort to combat Anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare type of brain cancer that former punter Rob Long beat. It pits the offensive players versus the defensive players in a lifting competition. Fundraising totals also help determine the winner.
Senior long snapper Sam Rodgers said Thursday one change from last year will be the addition of a team comprised of special teams players, who will challenge for the team's top fundraising group.
Rodgers, who this year interned with Northwestern Mutual, is hoping the team can raise $15,000 for Uplifting Athletes, the nonprofit organization that oversees several university-based chapters around the country. You can donate via the team's fundraising page.
...
Tempo Can Only Help SU's hunt (espn; Hale)
On the offensive side of the ball, this offseason has been all about tempo for the Syracuse Orange.
Last season, the Orange ran one play every 24.8 seconds of possession time (just a tick faster than the league’s midpoint) and averaged just 74 plays per game (11th in the ACC). The results weren’t awful, coach Scott Shafer said, but they could’ve been better, and so Syracuse is focused on finding ways to speed things up at the line of scrimmage. (Note: We wrote extensively about ACC offensive tempo last week.)
Offensive lineman Sean Hickey talked up the new procedures at ACC Kickoff this week, noting simplified verbiage for the line and a new process to get plays in from the sideline that will allow quarterback Terrel Hunt to focus on reading the opposing defense rather than relaying the play call to his teammates.
...
ACC
ACC Lunchtime Links (espn; Adelson)
Two Miami topics up for discussion this fine lunch hour.
First: Is Duke Johnson a viable Heisman candidate? I agree with everything Athlon Sports says about Johnson in its write-up:
From a talent standpoint, Johnson is the only other option in the ACC who can compete with Winston. He has elite-level, breakaway speed and explosiveness. The biggest speed bump in The Duke’s Heisman campaign will be staying healthy. The smallish back has dealt with injuries but if he can stay on the field and post 250 touches, his numbers could be ridiculously good.
Being healthy is obviously important. If he is able to get 250 carries while averaging his career mark of 6.5 yards per carry, Johnson will have at least 1,650 yards. If he can somehow get to 2,000 like Andre Williams did a season ago, then he has a terrific chance of being invited to New York. But there is one more stumbling point from my point of view: uncertainty at quarterback.
With Stephen Morris behind center and Johnson at running back, Miami always had the threat to run or pass. The passing threat has been taken away without a sure-fire quarterback. More teams will load the box. Williams found a way to overcome that at BC last year, but the Eagles decided early on they wanted to be physical and play smash-mouth football. Miami does not play that style of football. So along with staying healthy, Johnson has to find a way to keep breaking off explosive runs with more defenses keying on him.
...
A Waiver, Battling QBs and UVa's Slide (espn; Adelson)
Can the two-year slide in the Virginia football program be directly tied to a piece of paper?
Quite possibly.
Let us start back in spring 2012. Quarterback Michael Rocco had just taken UVa to an 8-5 season and bowl appearance. Mike London won ACC Coach of the Year honors. The Cavaliers became the first program to ever win road games at Florida State and Miami.
The trajectory pointed up.
Rocco had made strides in the second half of the 2011 season, throwing only four interceptions in his final six games. Though London said in the spring the quarterback competition was open, it seemed pretty clear Rocco was the best, most solid choice to start. Then came word after spring practice ended that Phillip Sims had transferred to Virginia.
Two months later, that piece of paper came into play. The NCAA granted Sims a waiver for immediate eligibility. Now, Rocco not only had to hold off David Watford to keep his starting job, he had to hold off the former ESPN150 prospect, too. Sims was too tantalizing a player to keep on the bench, so London decided both Rocco and Sims would play. The plan worked briefly before completely collapsing. Rocco took a step back, perhaps because he felt he could not truly lead his teammates. Sims, for all his talent and athleticism, was largely ineffective.
...
New Coach Brings Hope to Wake Forest Football (roanoke.com; Berman)
The Wake Forest football team has suffered five straight losing seasons, but new coach Dave Clawson is confident he can eventually turn the program around.
Clawson replaced Jim Grobe, who had just five winning seasons in his 13-year reign. During an eye-opening stretch of three straight winning seasons from 2006-08, Grobe steered Wake to 28 wins and an ACC championship.
“This isn’t a place that’s never won,” Clawson said this week at the ACC’s preseason media gathering in Greensboro, North Carolina. “We’ve had success and some of it is recent.”
Clawson also finds hope in the recent success of some of Wake’s fellow private schools, such as Duke and Vanderbilt.
“The other schools that look like us nationally are winning,” he said.
...
College Football
Time Warner to Carry SEC Network as of August 14th Launch (sportsbusinessdaily.com; Ourand)
Time Warner Cable, the country's second biggest cable operator, has agreed to carry SEC Network as of its Aug. 14 launch. Bright House Networks also will carry the channel, bringing its distribution footprint up to 60 million homes. The deals leave DirecTV, Charter and Verizon as the only big SEC-area distributors that have not cut a deal. DirecTV and Charter sources say they expect to carry the channel before its first regular-season SEC football game, Aug. 28.
...
2014 College Football Preview/Haiku Fest: Nos. 31-35 (Texas A&M Still Has Plenty of Talent Less Johnny Football; PS; Stevens)
...
32. TEXAS A&M
If the SEC's media days taught the world anything, it's that the over/under on the number of players most media members and fans knew about from last year's Texas A&M team was 1.5. So without mentioning either of the most notable names from the Aggies' roster last season, here are some guys to keep an eye on in College Station this season.
QBs Kyle Allen/Kenny Hill: One of them is going to win the job of replacing the most well-known player in college football. Allen is a freshman, Hill is a sophomore who threw 22 passes last season.
CB Deshazor Everett: The senior might be the best cornerback in the SEC, though the rest of the secondary could use some improvement for the Aggies.
G Jarvis Harrison: One of four returning offensive line starters for the Aggies, something that should be of great value.
T Cedric Ogbuehi: And another lineman. Like Harrison, Ogbuehi's a senior. He moves over from right tackle to replace Jake Matthews, now with the Atlanta Falcons.
TB/KR Trey Williams: The Aggies' top returning rusher might see the ball more this season. He also averaged 25.2 yards per kick return last fall.
Texas A&M in haiku:
Maybe a slight dip
Sumlin's track record sublime
Don't see huge tumble
...
Miami RB Duke Johnson is an AA Candidate
PS 2014 College Football Preview/Haiku Fest: Nos. 36-40 (Miami Should be Better, But Might Not Have More Wins; PS; Stevens)
...
40. MIAMI
What's not to like about Miami? Well, it couldn't stop anyone down the stretch last season, it has journeyman Jake Heaps and a bunch of freshmen at quarterback and dropped five of its last seven against a back-loaded schedule last season.
Those are problems. But this year's schedule? It's simply loaded, and that's the biggest issue.
The Hurricanes visit Louisville and Nebraska in September, both Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in October and play host to Florida State in mid-November in a game that has all the makings of feeling like a neutral-site contest (and perhaps worse for Miami). Duke, Cincinnati, North Carolina and Pittsburgh & not a pushover among them — pay visits as well.
Miami's crossover schedule (Florida State and Louisville) puts it at a considerable disadvantage in the ACC's Coastal Division compared to Duke (Syracuse and Wake Forest) and Virginia Tech (Boston College and Wake Forest). Even North Carolina (Clemson and N.C. State) has a less daunting pair of opponents from the Atlantic.
The good news here is the return of Duke Johnson. Very, very few running backs have the power to dramatically alter the course of their team's season. Johnson might just qualify in that group. He wasn't the ACC's preseason player of the year, but he would stand a chance in an MVP voting if he stays healthy all year. He's that important to the Hurricanes.
Miami in haiku:
Probably better
Might see win total decline
Fans' response? A yawn
...
Port-Au-Prince
Two SU Football Players Recount Recent Mission Trip to Haiti (PS; Carlson)
The police are not to be trusted, and the palace in the capital hasn't been rebuilt more three years after an earthquake sent it crumbling to the ground.
Food is so scarce that even the cows look dangerously thin, and the air smells of garbage, the result of a sanitation system that doesn't exist in Haiti.
"Everything," Syracuse wide receiver Macauley Hill said, "is just about as bad as it gets."
The orphan children in this mess, though? They press their palms tightly into the hands of two Syracuse football players, look up at them and beam.
Hill and Sam Rodgers, juniors on the Syracuse football team, went on a seven-day mission trip to Haiti last month with an organization called Poverty Resolutions. With two weeks between the end of their finals and the start of summer school, they spent most of their precious free time as volunteers at the House of Hope orphanage in Williamson, about 40 miles from Port-au-Prince.
...
RF QB Mitch Kimble Takes Slight Lead into Training Camp for Backup QB Job (PS; Bailey)
Last year, a quarterback battle dominated Syracuse's training camp story lines as Drew Allen and Terrel Hunt dueled for the starting job.
This year, there's another battle. But with Hunt locked in as the clear-cut starter, this one is for the backup job.
Redshirt freshman Mitch Kimble is the early leader after being slotted as the No. 2 signal caller in SU's pre-training camp depth chart, but quarterbacks coach Tim Lester said all four of the team's young QBs have a shot to win the race.
"None of them have shown enough on the practice field to solidify one (as the backup)," Lester said in an interview on Wednesday. "The problem with depth charts is you have to make an order. I really think that the most fluid part of our room is, 'Who's 2?' because I think any one of the three or four guys there could win that spot."
...
Durell Eskridge (3) Makes an Interception
Can the Secondary Stay Healthy and Avoid the Big Play? (PS; Axe)
It can be argued that the secondary on the 2014 Syracuse University football team is the most polarizing unit on the team.
On one hand, it is home to the team's leading tackler and perhaps its best overall talent in safety Durrell Eskridge, a third-team All-ACC selection a season ago.
Senior strong safeties Ritchy Desir (47) and Darius Kelly (44) were also in the top six in tackles for the Orange in 2013.
...
Is 8 Wins a Reasonable Goal for Orange in 2014? (PS; Axe)
It's back!
In 2012, I did the Syracuse football 12 in 2012series.
In 2013, it was 13 in 2013.
And now ...well, you get the picture.
A countdown of 14 topics that will influence the 2014 Syracuse University football season leading up to the start of training camp in early August.
Look for one or two topics in the series every weekday leading up to the start of camp. Players report on Friday, August 1.
...
Rob Long
SU Long Snapper Sam Rodgers Confident Lift for Life Will be Public Event in 2015 (PS; Mink)
Syracuse is holding its second Lift for Life event on Friday as part of its summer workouts.
The event is the cornerstone of an ongoing fundraising effort to combat Anaplastic astrocytoma, a rare type of brain cancer that former punter Rob Long beat. It pits the offensive players versus the defensive players in a lifting competition. Fundraising totals also help determine the winner.
Senior long snapper Sam Rodgers said Thursday one change from last year will be the addition of a team comprised of special teams players, who will challenge for the team's top fundraising group.
Rodgers, who this year interned with Northwestern Mutual, is hoping the team can raise $15,000 for Uplifting Athletes, the nonprofit organization that oversees several university-based chapters around the country. You can donate via the team's fundraising page.
...
Tempo Can Only Help SU's hunt (espn; Hale)
On the offensive side of the ball, this offseason has been all about tempo for the Syracuse Orange.
Last season, the Orange ran one play every 24.8 seconds of possession time (just a tick faster than the league’s midpoint) and averaged just 74 plays per game (11th in the ACC). The results weren’t awful, coach Scott Shafer said, but they could’ve been better, and so Syracuse is focused on finding ways to speed things up at the line of scrimmage. (Note: We wrote extensively about ACC offensive tempo last week.)
Offensive lineman Sean Hickey talked up the new procedures at ACC Kickoff this week, noting simplified verbiage for the line and a new process to get plays in from the sideline that will allow quarterback Terrel Hunt to focus on reading the opposing defense rather than relaying the play call to his teammates.
...
ACC
ACC Lunchtime Links (espn; Adelson)
Two Miami topics up for discussion this fine lunch hour.
First: Is Duke Johnson a viable Heisman candidate? I agree with everything Athlon Sports says about Johnson in its write-up:
From a talent standpoint, Johnson is the only other option in the ACC who can compete with Winston. He has elite-level, breakaway speed and explosiveness. The biggest speed bump in The Duke’s Heisman campaign will be staying healthy. The smallish back has dealt with injuries but if he can stay on the field and post 250 touches, his numbers could be ridiculously good.
Being healthy is obviously important. If he is able to get 250 carries while averaging his career mark of 6.5 yards per carry, Johnson will have at least 1,650 yards. If he can somehow get to 2,000 like Andre Williams did a season ago, then he has a terrific chance of being invited to New York. But there is one more stumbling point from my point of view: uncertainty at quarterback.
With Stephen Morris behind center and Johnson at running back, Miami always had the threat to run or pass. The passing threat has been taken away without a sure-fire quarterback. More teams will load the box. Williams found a way to overcome that at BC last year, but the Eagles decided early on they wanted to be physical and play smash-mouth football. Miami does not play that style of football. So along with staying healthy, Johnson has to find a way to keep breaking off explosive runs with more defenses keying on him.
...
A Waiver, Battling QBs and UVa's Slide (espn; Adelson)
Can the two-year slide in the Virginia football program be directly tied to a piece of paper?
Quite possibly.
Let us start back in spring 2012. Quarterback Michael Rocco had just taken UVa to an 8-5 season and bowl appearance. Mike London won ACC Coach of the Year honors. The Cavaliers became the first program to ever win road games at Florida State and Miami.
The trajectory pointed up.
Rocco had made strides in the second half of the 2011 season, throwing only four interceptions in his final six games. Though London said in the spring the quarterback competition was open, it seemed pretty clear Rocco was the best, most solid choice to start. Then came word after spring practice ended that Phillip Sims had transferred to Virginia.
Two months later, that piece of paper came into play. The NCAA granted Sims a waiver for immediate eligibility. Now, Rocco not only had to hold off David Watford to keep his starting job, he had to hold off the former ESPN150 prospect, too. Sims was too tantalizing a player to keep on the bench, so London decided both Rocco and Sims would play. The plan worked briefly before completely collapsing. Rocco took a step back, perhaps because he felt he could not truly lead his teammates. Sims, for all his talent and athleticism, was largely ineffective.
...
New Coach Brings Hope to Wake Forest Football (roanoke.com; Berman)
The Wake Forest football team has suffered five straight losing seasons, but new coach Dave Clawson is confident he can eventually turn the program around.
Clawson replaced Jim Grobe, who had just five winning seasons in his 13-year reign. During an eye-opening stretch of three straight winning seasons from 2006-08, Grobe steered Wake to 28 wins and an ACC championship.
“This isn’t a place that’s never won,” Clawson said this week at the ACC’s preseason media gathering in Greensboro, North Carolina. “We’ve had success and some of it is recent.”
Clawson also finds hope in the recent success of some of Wake’s fellow private schools, such as Duke and Vanderbilt.
“The other schools that look like us nationally are winning,” he said.
...
College Football
Time Warner to Carry SEC Network as of August 14th Launch (sportsbusinessdaily.com; Ourand)
Time Warner Cable, the country's second biggest cable operator, has agreed to carry SEC Network as of its Aug. 14 launch. Bright House Networks also will carry the channel, bringing its distribution footprint up to 60 million homes. The deals leave DirecTV, Charter and Verizon as the only big SEC-area distributors that have not cut a deal. DirecTV and Charter sources say they expect to carry the channel before its first regular-season SEC football game, Aug. 28.
...
2014 College Football Preview/Haiku Fest: Nos. 31-35 (Texas A&M Still Has Plenty of Talent Less Johnny Football; PS; Stevens)
...
32. TEXAS A&M
If the SEC's media days taught the world anything, it's that the over/under on the number of players most media members and fans knew about from last year's Texas A&M team was 1.5. So without mentioning either of the most notable names from the Aggies' roster last season, here are some guys to keep an eye on in College Station this season.
QBs Kyle Allen/Kenny Hill: One of them is going to win the job of replacing the most well-known player in college football. Allen is a freshman, Hill is a sophomore who threw 22 passes last season.
CB Deshazor Everett: The senior might be the best cornerback in the SEC, though the rest of the secondary could use some improvement for the Aggies.
G Jarvis Harrison: One of four returning offensive line starters for the Aggies, something that should be of great value.
T Cedric Ogbuehi: And another lineman. Like Harrison, Ogbuehi's a senior. He moves over from right tackle to replace Jake Matthews, now with the Atlanta Falcons.
TB/KR Trey Williams: The Aggies' top returning rusher might see the ball more this season. He also averaged 25.2 yards per kick return last fall.
Texas A&M in haiku:
Maybe a slight dip
Sumlin's track record sublime
Don't see huge tumble
...
Miami RB Duke Johnson is an AA Candidate
PS 2014 College Football Preview/Haiku Fest: Nos. 36-40 (Miami Should be Better, But Might Not Have More Wins; PS; Stevens)
...
40. MIAMI
What's not to like about Miami? Well, it couldn't stop anyone down the stretch last season, it has journeyman Jake Heaps and a bunch of freshmen at quarterback and dropped five of its last seven against a back-loaded schedule last season.
Those are problems. But this year's schedule? It's simply loaded, and that's the biggest issue.
The Hurricanes visit Louisville and Nebraska in September, both Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in October and play host to Florida State in mid-November in a game that has all the makings of feeling like a neutral-site contest (and perhaps worse for Miami). Duke, Cincinnati, North Carolina and Pittsburgh & not a pushover among them — pay visits as well.
Miami's crossover schedule (Florida State and Louisville) puts it at a considerable disadvantage in the ACC's Coastal Division compared to Duke (Syracuse and Wake Forest) and Virginia Tech (Boston College and Wake Forest). Even North Carolina (Clemson and N.C. State) has a less daunting pair of opponents from the Atlantic.
The good news here is the return of Duke Johnson. Very, very few running backs have the power to dramatically alter the course of their team's season. Johnson might just qualify in that group. He wasn't the ACC's preseason player of the year, but he would stand a chance in an MVP voting if he stays healthy all year. He's that important to the Hurricanes.
Miami in haiku:
Probably better
Might see win total decline
Fans' response? A yawn
...
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