sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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SU News
2014-15 Year in Review for Syracuse Football (sujuiceonline.com; Auger)
Fifty years from now when Syracuse fans are perusing the annals of sports seasons past, the most recent chapters authored by the football and men’s basketball teams will certainly gather more dust than page turns. Both squads are guilty of crashing and burning this past year, although perhaps that’s a bit unfair to Jim Boeheim’s bunch. Boeheim and his staff have raised the level of the hoops program to one of the true elites over the past six seasons. Orange football fans are used to seeing the team struggle for the better part of the last decade. Both teams had reasons to be optimistic heading into the year but the train quickly derailed early in each season. (Check back in tomorrow for Part II, focusing on the basketball team.)
Fresh off an exciting win in the Texas Bowl and with Terrel Hunt firmly entrenched as the team’s signal caller, Hunt and Co. avoided a near disaster against FCS opponent Villanova in the opening game of the year at the Carrier Dome. The Orange escaped with a 27-26 2OT win only because the Wildcats blew a chip-shot 25-yard field goal at the end of regulation.
» Related: Hard to get a solid early grasp of 2015 Syracuse football
Hunt wouldn’t be long for the season as his year came to an end as the result of a broken foot suffered in a Dome loss to Louisville. Less than five games into the season and an already struggling offense lost arguably its best player. This led to musical chairs of quarterbacks the rest of the year. Austin Wilson, A.J. Long, and Mitch Kimble all took snaps. There’s an old saying that if you have multiple quarterbacks than you don’t have any quarterbacks. What really could’ve helped the offense was a solid, steady run game. Speaking of.
...
SU Football Should Bring Back 44; Yankees Shouldn't Retire 51 (auburnpub.com; Sciria)
What's in a number?
Today's column is brought to you by the numbers 44 and 51.
As in the use of No. 44 by the Syracuse University football team and the upcoming retirement of No. 51 by the New York Yankees.
Words about numbers is what all this boils down to.
Since Syracuse forced out athletic director Daryl Gross, there's been chatter about the football team unretiring the famed No. 44. Gross retired it about 10 years ago in honor of legends Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. Until then, the number hadn't been worn since Rob Konrad graduated in 1998.
This is very simple folks. No. 44 has been and should be used as a recruiting tool. It doesn't matter that most of today's teenagers have no idea who Brown, Davis and Little are, any recruit can watch the fine movie "The Express" and learn what 44 means at Syracuse.
Use the 44 to entice a hot-shot running back to play football for the Orange. If the kid doesn't pan out, well, it happens, and in four years, you can give it to someone else.
Syracuse needs all the help it can get and there's nothing wrong with using No. 44. You can still have Brown's, Davis' and Little's jerseys hanging at the Dome while someone else wears No. 44.
Remember, the basketball team already does this, it "retires" the jersey of a great player while the number itself continues to be used. Derrick Coleman and John Wallace wore No. 44 with success and no one said to retire it. I'd like to see Carmelo Anthony's No. 15 be used again.
So please, unretire No. 44 and start dangling it in front of the eyes of a five-star recruit. That's a number you don't see at Syracuse very often.
...
Hey Athlon, Here Are 7 Reasons Syracuse ISn't the Worst College Town in the ACC (PS; Baker)
Our fair city was recently ranked the worst college town in the ACC by Athlon Sports.
Well, our glass here is half full. Yes, Syracuse has its problems. And yes, we get lots of snow. But it's hard to believe we lack the glamour and excitement of such ACC cities as Blacksburg, Va. or Winston-Salem, N.C.
There are things to love about Syracuse, if you just give it a chance. After all, there's more to the city than sports and the Sheraton. Heck, even Syracuse.com sports writer Nate Mink didn't rank Syracuse last among ACC schools, and he has to live here.
If you're looking for some reminders about why Syracuse isn't so bad after all, here are seven of them:
1. We know how to party -- Princeton Review ranked Syracuse University the No. 1 party school in America last year. We were the only ACC school in the top 10 (take that, Duke). We're even bringing back disco (maybe).
...
Other
Newhouse Grad Bill Roth to Leave Virginia Tech for UCLA (hokiesports.com)
The Virginia Tech athletics department announced today that the school’s longtime and popular radio play-by-play broadcaster, Bill Roth, is leaving his position to accept a similar position at UCLA. The Tech athletics department will honor the legendary announcer known as the “Voice of the Hokies” for his contributions to Virginia Tech at this Saturday’s Maroon-Orange Spring Game.
Roth, who works for IMG College, Virginia Tech’s multimedia rights holder, will make his final call for Virginia Tech this Saturday. At the end of the first quarter, the department will recognize Roth by announcing the establishment of the Bill Roth Student-Athlete Endowed Scholarship, which will be awarded annually in perpetuity to a deserving Virginia Tech student-athlete with an interest in communications or broadcast journalism.
“While we are certainly sad to see Bill depart from Virginia Tech, we are sincerely happy for him and his family for this new opportunity,” Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock said. “Bill forever will be a Hokie, no matter where he works, and we thank him for his tremendous service, professionalism and friendship. He has been such a beloved part of the brand and the fabric of Virginia Tech. He will certainly be missed. We will honor Bill and his 27 years of service by creating an endowed scholarship in his name. Bill’s final game will be this weekend’s Spring Game, and we hope all fans in attendance atLane Stadium will join us at 2 p.m., as we celebrate Bill and his career here.”
A native of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Roth graduated from Syracuse University in 1987. He worked one season at Marshall University before Virginia Tech’s athletics director at the time, Dave Braine, brought him to Blacksburg. Roth has spent the past 27 years calling games, describing some of the greatest moments in Virginia Tech athletics history and delivering his iconic call “Touchdown Tech!”
Roth has been recognized nationally as one of the best in his profession. The National Sportswriters and Sportscaster Association named him the state’s Sportscaster of the Year an astounding 11 times, and in April of 2013, Roth joined some of the greatest athletes, coaches and broadcasters in the Commonwealth’s history when he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
...
Bombrys played American football and basketball in his youth
Glasgow Warriors: Michigan Man Nathan Bombrys Aiming High (bbc.com; Lyall)
Nathan Bombrys tells a tale of champagne waiters, mahogany furniture and a dazzling silver fireplace.
The Glasgow Warriors managing director has entered the lair of his counterpart in Toulouse, hours before their teams lock horns in the European Champions Cup, to enjoy the finest in pre-match hospitality.
The place, he says, was vast, its sprawling interior festooned with regal auburn fixtures, the walls bedecked by myriad trophies and medals - all centred around that immaculate hearth.
The contrast with Bombrys' own Scotstoun surroundings may be stark, but the same can no longer be said for his club. Their cavalier rugby and shining success - reaching the last four of the Pro12 in 2012 and 2013 and the final last year - has drawn great acclaim amid the barren recent history of Scottish rugby.
This glimpse of Gallic flamboyance, however, proffered a reminder of the gap Glasgow must yet strive to bridge - a caveat that keeps Bombrys grounded, while simultaneously driving his hunger to deliver sporting prosperity to Scotstoun.
"We were sat at the (Pro12) final last year away at Leinster - we'd had a good season, but they're announcing 13,000 season ticket holders for the seventh straight year," says the 40-year-old.
"You see the sponsors they have, you see their big 18,000 stadium sold-out most of the time, and their Heineken Cups, you do realise we've got a long way to go."
Bombrys, the son of two high school coaches, hails from the wilds of Michigan and grew up immersed in sport, graduating from Syracuse University where he stumbled across rugby, and found himself transfixed by its values and ideals.
"I never saw a rugby ball until I went to Syracuse," he says. "I thought: that's the game for me; it was just the funnest game I'd ever played.
"But also because of the camaraderie and international nature of rugby, it opened up the rest of the world for me.
"I had a Kenyan scrum-half with dreadlocks who was going to start the African Revolution - until we met his mum and she was a ginger-haired banker from Nebraska.
"I had a number eight from South Korea and his father was one of the ministers in South Korean government - he was a big, bruising eight, and his bodyguard was another of our scrum-halves.
...
"It just opened up the fact there was a bigger world out there than what I'd experienced before."
2014-15 Year in Review for Syracuse Football (sujuiceonline.com; Auger)
Fifty years from now when Syracuse fans are perusing the annals of sports seasons past, the most recent chapters authored by the football and men’s basketball teams will certainly gather more dust than page turns. Both squads are guilty of crashing and burning this past year, although perhaps that’s a bit unfair to Jim Boeheim’s bunch. Boeheim and his staff have raised the level of the hoops program to one of the true elites over the past six seasons. Orange football fans are used to seeing the team struggle for the better part of the last decade. Both teams had reasons to be optimistic heading into the year but the train quickly derailed early in each season. (Check back in tomorrow for Part II, focusing on the basketball team.)
Fresh off an exciting win in the Texas Bowl and with Terrel Hunt firmly entrenched as the team’s signal caller, Hunt and Co. avoided a near disaster against FCS opponent Villanova in the opening game of the year at the Carrier Dome. The Orange escaped with a 27-26 2OT win only because the Wildcats blew a chip-shot 25-yard field goal at the end of regulation.
» Related: Hard to get a solid early grasp of 2015 Syracuse football
Hunt wouldn’t be long for the season as his year came to an end as the result of a broken foot suffered in a Dome loss to Louisville. Less than five games into the season and an already struggling offense lost arguably its best player. This led to musical chairs of quarterbacks the rest of the year. Austin Wilson, A.J. Long, and Mitch Kimble all took snaps. There’s an old saying that if you have multiple quarterbacks than you don’t have any quarterbacks. What really could’ve helped the offense was a solid, steady run game. Speaking of.
...
SU Football Should Bring Back 44; Yankees Shouldn't Retire 51 (auburnpub.com; Sciria)
What's in a number?
Today's column is brought to you by the numbers 44 and 51.
As in the use of No. 44 by the Syracuse University football team and the upcoming retirement of No. 51 by the New York Yankees.
Words about numbers is what all this boils down to.
Since Syracuse forced out athletic director Daryl Gross, there's been chatter about the football team unretiring the famed No. 44. Gross retired it about 10 years ago in honor of legends Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. Until then, the number hadn't been worn since Rob Konrad graduated in 1998.
This is very simple folks. No. 44 has been and should be used as a recruiting tool. It doesn't matter that most of today's teenagers have no idea who Brown, Davis and Little are, any recruit can watch the fine movie "The Express" and learn what 44 means at Syracuse.
Use the 44 to entice a hot-shot running back to play football for the Orange. If the kid doesn't pan out, well, it happens, and in four years, you can give it to someone else.
Syracuse needs all the help it can get and there's nothing wrong with using No. 44. You can still have Brown's, Davis' and Little's jerseys hanging at the Dome while someone else wears No. 44.
Remember, the basketball team already does this, it "retires" the jersey of a great player while the number itself continues to be used. Derrick Coleman and John Wallace wore No. 44 with success and no one said to retire it. I'd like to see Carmelo Anthony's No. 15 be used again.
So please, unretire No. 44 and start dangling it in front of the eyes of a five-star recruit. That's a number you don't see at Syracuse very often.
...
Hey Athlon, Here Are 7 Reasons Syracuse ISn't the Worst College Town in the ACC (PS; Baker)
Our fair city was recently ranked the worst college town in the ACC by Athlon Sports.
Well, our glass here is half full. Yes, Syracuse has its problems. And yes, we get lots of snow. But it's hard to believe we lack the glamour and excitement of such ACC cities as Blacksburg, Va. or Winston-Salem, N.C.
There are things to love about Syracuse, if you just give it a chance. After all, there's more to the city than sports and the Sheraton. Heck, even Syracuse.com sports writer Nate Mink didn't rank Syracuse last among ACC schools, and he has to live here.
If you're looking for some reminders about why Syracuse isn't so bad after all, here are seven of them:
1. We know how to party -- Princeton Review ranked Syracuse University the No. 1 party school in America last year. We were the only ACC school in the top 10 (take that, Duke). We're even bringing back disco (maybe).
...
Other
Newhouse Grad Bill Roth to Leave Virginia Tech for UCLA (hokiesports.com)
The Virginia Tech athletics department announced today that the school’s longtime and popular radio play-by-play broadcaster, Bill Roth, is leaving his position to accept a similar position at UCLA. The Tech athletics department will honor the legendary announcer known as the “Voice of the Hokies” for his contributions to Virginia Tech at this Saturday’s Maroon-Orange Spring Game.
Roth, who works for IMG College, Virginia Tech’s multimedia rights holder, will make his final call for Virginia Tech this Saturday. At the end of the first quarter, the department will recognize Roth by announcing the establishment of the Bill Roth Student-Athlete Endowed Scholarship, which will be awarded annually in perpetuity to a deserving Virginia Tech student-athlete with an interest in communications or broadcast journalism.
“While we are certainly sad to see Bill depart from Virginia Tech, we are sincerely happy for him and his family for this new opportunity,” Tech Director of Athletics Whit Babcock said. “Bill forever will be a Hokie, no matter where he works, and we thank him for his tremendous service, professionalism and friendship. He has been such a beloved part of the brand and the fabric of Virginia Tech. He will certainly be missed. We will honor Bill and his 27 years of service by creating an endowed scholarship in his name. Bill’s final game will be this weekend’s Spring Game, and we hope all fans in attendance atLane Stadium will join us at 2 p.m., as we celebrate Bill and his career here.”
A native of Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Roth graduated from Syracuse University in 1987. He worked one season at Marshall University before Virginia Tech’s athletics director at the time, Dave Braine, brought him to Blacksburg. Roth has spent the past 27 years calling games, describing some of the greatest moments in Virginia Tech athletics history and delivering his iconic call “Touchdown Tech!”
Roth has been recognized nationally as one of the best in his profession. The National Sportswriters and Sportscaster Association named him the state’s Sportscaster of the Year an astounding 11 times, and in April of 2013, Roth joined some of the greatest athletes, coaches and broadcasters in the Commonwealth’s history when he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
...
Bombrys played American football and basketball in his youth
Glasgow Warriors: Michigan Man Nathan Bombrys Aiming High (bbc.com; Lyall)
Nathan Bombrys tells a tale of champagne waiters, mahogany furniture and a dazzling silver fireplace.
The Glasgow Warriors managing director has entered the lair of his counterpart in Toulouse, hours before their teams lock horns in the European Champions Cup, to enjoy the finest in pre-match hospitality.
The place, he says, was vast, its sprawling interior festooned with regal auburn fixtures, the walls bedecked by myriad trophies and medals - all centred around that immaculate hearth.
The contrast with Bombrys' own Scotstoun surroundings may be stark, but the same can no longer be said for his club. Their cavalier rugby and shining success - reaching the last four of the Pro12 in 2012 and 2013 and the final last year - has drawn great acclaim amid the barren recent history of Scottish rugby.
This glimpse of Gallic flamboyance, however, proffered a reminder of the gap Glasgow must yet strive to bridge - a caveat that keeps Bombrys grounded, while simultaneously driving his hunger to deliver sporting prosperity to Scotstoun.
"We were sat at the (Pro12) final last year away at Leinster - we'd had a good season, but they're announcing 13,000 season ticket holders for the seventh straight year," says the 40-year-old.
"You see the sponsors they have, you see their big 18,000 stadium sold-out most of the time, and their Heineken Cups, you do realise we've got a long way to go."
Bombrys, the son of two high school coaches, hails from the wilds of Michigan and grew up immersed in sport, graduating from Syracuse University where he stumbled across rugby, and found himself transfixed by its values and ideals.
"I never saw a rugby ball until I went to Syracuse," he says. "I thought: that's the game for me; it was just the funnest game I'd ever played.
"But also because of the camaraderie and international nature of rugby, it opened up the rest of the world for me.
"I had a Kenyan scrum-half with dreadlocks who was going to start the African Revolution - until we met his mum and she was a ginger-haired banker from Nebraska.
"I had a number eight from South Korea and his father was one of the ministers in South Korean government - he was a big, bruising eight, and his bodyguard was another of our scrum-halves.
...
"It just opened up the fact there was a bigger world out there than what I'd experienced before."
