sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
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Welcome to Christmas Card Day!
The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was a civil servant (Government worker) who was very interested in the new 'Public Post Office' and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people.
Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas Cards with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist. They designed the first card and sold them for 1 shilling each. (That is only 5p or 8 cents today(!), but in those days it was worth much much more.) The card had three panels. The outer two panels showed people caring for the poor and in the centre panel was a family having a large Christmas dinner! Some people didn't like the card because it showed a child being given a glass of wine! About 1000 (or it might have been less!) were printed and sold. They are now very rare and cost thousands of Pounds or Dollars to buy now!
The first postal service that ordinary people could use was started in 1840 when the first 'Penny Post' public postal deliveries began. Before that, only very rich people could afford to send anything in the post. The new Post Office was able to offer a Penny stamp because new railways were being built. These could carry much more post than the horse and carriage that had been used before. Also, trains could go a lot faster. Cards became even more popular in the UK when they could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one halfpenny - half the price of an ordinary letter.
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Linkage
SU News
Anthony Brown Was the Top Target at QB for Scott Shafer
New Syracuse Staff Wastes No Time Reaching Out to Recruits (thejuice; Cheng)
Best of luck to former Syracuse coach Scott Shafer as he takes over as the defensive coordinator at Maryland. On to today’s recruiting links…
Now that Dino Babers has been formally introduced as head coach of Syracuse, he has been reaching out to verbal commits from Shafer’s regime, and other recruits, as well. One such recruit is quarterback Anthony Brown. The dual-threat signal caller committed to Boston College over Syracuse over the summer, but Syracuse.com’s Stephen Bailey reports that the new coaching staff has reached out to Brown.
Babers may immediately flip three-star wide receiver Terrance Landers from Bowling Green to Syracuse. Landers told ’s Scott Brown that he decommitted from BGSU, likely because Babers had previously said he wouldn’t attempt to flip any currently committed BGSU prospects.
» Related: Syracuse recruits give thumbs up to Dino Babers hiring
Another potential target Babers’ staff may look into his Fishers (Ind.) Hamilton Southeastern outside linebacker/defensive end Collin Miller. He decommitted from Purdue on Monday according to 24/7 Sports’ Steve Wiltfong, and holds offers from Syracuse and Mississippi State.
Newly minted assistant coaches Sean Lewis and Kim McCloud also reached out to prized H-back commit Moe Neal, writes the Daily Orange’s Paul Schwedelson. McCloud will be meeting Neal in person today.
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Syracuse Hiring Dino Babers May Be Among the Nation's Best Moves...How? (TNIAAM; Cassillo)
Most of college football's head coaching vacancies have been filled -- including all 13 open Power Five jobs. While people can differ on the rankings here, a rough look at how these hires shook out could look like this:
1. Miami – Mark Richt (Georgia)
2. Virginia Tech – Justin Fuente (Memphis)
3. Georgia – Kirby Smart (Alabama DC)
4. Virginia – Bronco Mendenhall (BYU)
5. Syracuse – Dino Babers (Bowling Green)
6. Maryland – DJ Durkin (Michigan DC)
7. Iowa State – Matt Campbell (Toledo)
8. Rutgers – Chris Ash (Ohio State DC)
9. USC – Clay Helton (USC interim)
10. South Carolina – Will Muschamp (Auburn DC)
11. Minnesota – Tracy Claeys (interim Minnesota)
12. Missouri – Barry Odom (Missouri DC)
13. Illinois – Bill Cubit (interim Illinois)
Wait...
5. Syracuse – Dino Babers (Bowling Green)
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Scott Shafer Faces Big Challenges Fixing His Maryland Defense (testudotimes.com; Kirshner)
Scott Shafer, the Maryland football program's as-yet unofficial new defensive coordinator, has a long history coaching on that side of the ball. He's been doing it since he was a defensive backs coach at Rhode Island in 1993, and he spent the last seven seasons as the defensive coordinator and then head coach at Syracuse. With Shafer, there's now a lot of data.
Scott Shafer's Defenses by S&P+ Rank
Year Rank Program
2005 107 Western Michigan
2006 62 Western Michigan
2007 85 Stanford
2008 57 Michigan
2009 57 Syracuse
2010 56 Syracuse
2011 81 Syracuse
2012 66 Syracuse
2013 67 Syracuse
2014 33 Syracuse
2015 70 Syracuse
That goes back to 2005, when Shafer was the defensive coordinator at Western Michigan. It frankly isn't a great record of defensive play, at least not by S&P+, an efficiency- and explosiveness-based metric that draws on play-by-play data from every game and is adjusted for opponent strength. Other than an above-average unit in 2014, Shafer hasn't coached anything better than a mediocre defense in 11 seasons.
So, what's been the issue? Let's try to zero in on Shafer's tenure at Syracuse.
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