Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 4879538, member: 405"] I hate to be a wet blanket, because the momentum is very exciting as he builds a much better staff than we certainly would have had under Chesney. But remember, just a year ago, we had a lot of people on this board saying that this was the best staff we had had in many years - the [I]inventor[/I] of the 3-3-5, not just one of his pupils. The angry Bob Anae was gone, and now the QB whisperer Jason Beck would unleash the offense. We supposedly improved our O line coach, we added a very respected special teams coach, Ligashevsky, and Dino would stick to his CEO role. How did that all turn out? I'm glad that we are lining up some very exciting talent, but Louisville thought the same thing when they hired Kenny Payne, former National Title WInner, like their most recent version of a superstar guard, who had just been an assistant for the Knicks under Tom Thibideau, and was going to blow everybody away on the recruiting trail. And how did that one turn out? I love that we are getting serious gunslingers who are probably going to assemble a very good 1st recruiting class, despite starting out a bit behind. Certainly I expect that they will be better than Dino ever accomplished, with the guys they are lining up. But somebody's gotta be able to coach these players and improve them as pro prospects. Yes, winning begins with better talent (like we've seen with Autry; on paper, those new guys are better than the ones we've been drawing in JB's final years). But you have to be able to implement a game plan on offense and defense, and you have to improve players, year over year, so they are in their best possible position to get drafted, or to play overseas and make a career of basketball. In football, I feel like Dino was getting guys drafted, but there were never enough of them for us to remain competitive, once 4 or 5 guys got injured. And I think there was something wrong (no nutrition program at all - just junk food in a players only dining hall ??) with the admin of the program. Other sports and other programs learned the value of nutrition and recovery years, decades ago. I was embarrassed at some of things I heard last year, coming into Dino's 8th year (!) that we're just getting around to as a program. So, I am very hopeful. But i hope to see solid line coaches, solid coordinators (and soon!) and some program running experienced peppered into the staff, to help with organizing things. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?