Fjoinkay
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and SU was already playing its 3rd and 4th string QBs out of necessity. Some of the positives after Dungey's injury include Wilson's TD throw to Custis in the second quarter which was really nice, and during OT Mahoney hit Kendall Moore to pick up a first down and Kendall Moore atoned for some poor play earlier in the game. I thought playing Fredericks during OT was a good move, and he did a great job along the sideline to score the winning TD. The blocking downfield, I believe it was Avant on the winning TD, continues to improve which is great to see. Before Dungey's injury, the offense was humming, and I think we saw some improvement over last week. The pass over the top to Ish was a thing of beauty, and Strickland's TD was nice and obviously overshadowed by what transpired after Dungey threw that pass. Dungey has shown many great traits already, and now we know he is a very tough kid in addition to being very bright, modest, and very talented. Its just too bad that we had to witness his toughness on a play like the one we saw. I really hope he is ok.
After the first week of the season I saw a few sage posters on this board point out that the CMU game would be a challenge for this SU team, and I agreed. Yesterday, SU beat a pretty good team while playing its 3rd and 4th string QBs for about 2/3 of the game. Week one, CMU pushed a ranked Ok State team, and yesterday, CMU lost to an SU team playing a 4th string walk on QB in OT. That speaks well for the program and for the way SU competes.
I think the game plan on defense was to bend and not break, which is always awkward to watch with SU teams these past several years because we are used to seeing the defense be aggressive and bring a lot of pressure on just about every play. The tackling, especially on the back end, suffered in this game. I've seen this before when the SU defense goes into bend mode. I see kids thinking more or being more relaxed, and maybe that's by design but its just strange to see from SU's defense. Either way, the back end needs a lot of attention right now. I think the potential is high. Its just that the play needs to improve a lot especially the tackling and the angles. If this defense can get solid play from the backend it can be a pretty good unit.
SU football remains in a rebuilding mode all these years after 2001, and that's at least one reason why its been since 1991 that any SU team has started 3-0. As a fan, I've always enjoyed watching successful rebuilds, but long drawn out rebuilds like the SU situation are frustrating and difficult to stay attuned to. The fact that these are college football players makes it a little easier for me than it would be with an NFL team because at the end of the day these are students and athletes and they inspire me with all of their hard work. With SU football, I eventually dropped the expectations and the feelings I had from the 1987-2001 era, and that has made this long slog of a rebuild much easier for me. I mostly enjoy watching SU compete and work hard to build something that resembles the kind of success SU football had in the past. It can be very frustrating at times especially during games and that's why I would never post anything during a game, but I let all of that go after the game. For me, I no longer feel entitled to Top 25 football on the hill the way I probably did during the 90s and then into the 2000s. I have minimized the "shoulding", you know, thinking that SU football should be this or SU football should be that. College football is extremely competitive. Several great programs have gone through down periods in the past 15 years, and it isn't easy to rebuild for any school even when you have 80,000 people or more showing up every week. I do, however, believe SU will have Top 25 football once again and perhaps not too far down the road! It will happen.
I like the potential on this team right now. They just need to keep working and to stay focused. The 12 games go pretty fast, and I think these guys have a good chance to play a 13th game. Go Cuse!!
After the first week of the season I saw a few sage posters on this board point out that the CMU game would be a challenge for this SU team, and I agreed. Yesterday, SU beat a pretty good team while playing its 3rd and 4th string QBs for about 2/3 of the game. Week one, CMU pushed a ranked Ok State team, and yesterday, CMU lost to an SU team playing a 4th string walk on QB in OT. That speaks well for the program and for the way SU competes.
I think the game plan on defense was to bend and not break, which is always awkward to watch with SU teams these past several years because we are used to seeing the defense be aggressive and bring a lot of pressure on just about every play. The tackling, especially on the back end, suffered in this game. I've seen this before when the SU defense goes into bend mode. I see kids thinking more or being more relaxed, and maybe that's by design but its just strange to see from SU's defense. Either way, the back end needs a lot of attention right now. I think the potential is high. Its just that the play needs to improve a lot especially the tackling and the angles. If this defense can get solid play from the backend it can be a pretty good unit.
SU football remains in a rebuilding mode all these years after 2001, and that's at least one reason why its been since 1991 that any SU team has started 3-0. As a fan, I've always enjoyed watching successful rebuilds, but long drawn out rebuilds like the SU situation are frustrating and difficult to stay attuned to. The fact that these are college football players makes it a little easier for me than it would be with an NFL team because at the end of the day these are students and athletes and they inspire me with all of their hard work. With SU football, I eventually dropped the expectations and the feelings I had from the 1987-2001 era, and that has made this long slog of a rebuild much easier for me. I mostly enjoy watching SU compete and work hard to build something that resembles the kind of success SU football had in the past. It can be very frustrating at times especially during games and that's why I would never post anything during a game, but I let all of that go after the game. For me, I no longer feel entitled to Top 25 football on the hill the way I probably did during the 90s and then into the 2000s. I have minimized the "shoulding", you know, thinking that SU football should be this or SU football should be that. College football is extremely competitive. Several great programs have gone through down periods in the past 15 years, and it isn't easy to rebuild for any school even when you have 80,000 people or more showing up every week. I do, however, believe SU will have Top 25 football once again and perhaps not too far down the road! It will happen.
I like the potential on this team right now. They just need to keep working and to stay focused. The 12 games go pretty fast, and I think these guys have a good chance to play a 13th game. Go Cuse!!
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