"Get A Life"...1999

[CuseOnly]

I judge people on there actions not their words. I could careless about the get a life comment. I care that after building the Dome SU went on cruise control for 3 decades and we have paid the price as fans of this program. It has been a painful 20 years of getting donkey kicked in the nads because of Shaw’s leadership and we are still climbing out of the massive crater he left us in.

Where did all the money go from all those 30 years of not investing it back in the program?

 

[Cuseregular]

I always felt that a challenge for Pasqualoni was that because his personality was so... non-existent... the community couldn't connect with him. He wasn't engaging, he wasn't a marketer, he didn't sell a vision, so all he had going for him to garner support was winning.

And while it wasn't entirely fair -- given our difficult schedule and perennial depth issues -- people felt that the McNabb years were ultimately a wee bit disappointing. We won lots of big games, 3 conference titles, and made two New Year's bowls... but we never cracked the top 15, or even got out of September without a loss, in those 4 years. Maybe it was delusional to think we could have competed for a national title, but I certainly did, and I wasn't alone.

So when McNabb left, with some degree of program potential unfulfilled, and the '99 team stumbled late in the season with a silly QB musical chairs game being played out, people were disgruntled. Coach P didn't have a personality-driven reservoir of goodwill built up to help him weather it (which we are seeing Dino draw upon as we speak, incidentally).

This is not to say that the 'get a life' comment wasn't dumb. It was. However, I also think it became a Rorschach Test about how people felt connected to SU. Seemed like a loft of folks used it as an excuse to stop supporting the school for a long time -- and I think many those people were looking for any excuse to do that.

Yep on all that, and it was successful at alienating a bunch, some to this very day, still, whom I know of.

Was just bad business, bad optics, etc. etc. to say stuff like that. And IMO the P.com guys were ahead of their time, not just with their site but with their analytics behind their rationale (that's a compliment Millhouse/Chip). I remember calling the Rutgers loss in '99 preseason and getting a bunch of crap but the trajectory in that direction was already evident and with or without P we'd still be where we are right now.

But that's all old history and water under the bridge, onward and upward or one can hope.

 

[gmoney44]

We were scheduled for a complete turf replacement in a few years. Didn't make sense to buy 1-2 new rolls of turf just to change one end zone for a few seasons.

View attachment 173372

Delay the move to the “Orange” or move up the purchase of the turf. The optics of how it played out were bad.

 

[Scooch]

Where did all the money go from all those 30 years of not investing it back in the program?

There was a classroom in Newhouse that I lectured in 7-8 years ago, with a little plaque that said the technology in it was thanks to the 1992 Fiesta Bowl. It infuriated me when I saw it, knowing that was Buzz skimming off athletics money and not reinvesting it in the program.

That practice was largely changed when Gross started, I believe, but Buzz helped cripple football by doing that for years.

 

[OttoMets]

There was a classroom in Newhouse that I lectured in 7-8 years ago, with a little plaque that said the technology in it was thanks to the 1992 Fiesta Bowl. It infuriated me when I saw it, knowing that was Buzz skimming off athletics money and not reinvesting it in the program.

That practice was largely changed when Gross started, I believe, but Buzz helped cripple football by doing that for years.

Not just into the general university coffers, either. I believe the Gator Bowl (or maybe one of the later McNabb bowls) money was used to replace the track in Manley. Seemed fair, though this was around the time when Pasqualoni banned his guys from participating in a second sport.

 

[NJCuse97]

There was a classroom in Newhouse that I lectured in 7-8 years ago, with a little plaque that said the technology in it was thanks to the 1992 Fiesta Bowl. It infuriated me when I saw it, knowing that was Buzz skimming off athletics money and not reinvesting it in the program.

That practice was largely changed when Gross started, I believe, but Buzz helped cripple football by doing that for years.

We had a podium in the lecture hall of Slocum with that same plaque. I am no Buzz fan, but he was chancellor for 13 of those 30 years. Nancy gave bus stops and wifi to downtown. At least Buzz gave better facilities to his clients.

 

[JeffCuse]

Pasqualoni needed to go way before he actually did. He dramatically underperformed on the field considering the players ge recruited. Keeping him too long lit the match on our decline. Hiring Robinson was the equivalent of pouring gasoline on the fire.

Obviously we'd all probably trade our current state for one in which we could again have 3 and 4 star seasons with 5 star talent. But that's revisionist history and at the time the move was the right one.

 

[OttoMets]

We had a podium in the lecture hall of Slocum with that same plaque. I am no Buzz fan, but he was chancellor for 13 of those 30 years. Nancy gave bus stops and wifi to downtown. At least Buzz gave better facilities to his clients.

I recall that SU's Connective Corridor capital contribution was already-committed money. Details could be a little off, but I think SU agreed to the funding in exchange for New York State forgiving loans made for Eggers or SciTech construction in the '80s?

People think it's a boondoggle, but at least the construction didn't represent any additional outlay in university funds. The real problems came from the huge administrative expansion, funny accounting, and some other questionable capital projects (some deferred maintenance, some stuff like the Warehouse purchase and Life Sciences/Newhouse III/Ernie Davis construction that I'm told sent the school's debt service through the roof).

 

[JeffCuse]

We had a podium in the lecture hall of Slocum with that same plaque. I am no Buzz fan, but he was chancellor for 13 of those 30 years. Nancy gave bus stops and wifi to downtown. At least Buzz gave better facilities to his clients.

I miss the train. That is all.

 

[suorange08]

That was 2004.

Yes I remember Chancy Nancy talking about it in our Freshman orientation that fall.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Yes I remember Chancy Nancy talking about it in our Freshman orientation that fall.

My freshman year at Le Moyne too. Kind of a benchmark in my head.

 

[Ozone!]

Shaw was brought in to fix things financially; in other areas, he went lacking. For instance, he had very little empathy for injured workers. At a pre-basketball get together, he vocalized, to me, that injured workers were taking advantage of the university. He had no clue that I was working with individuals with disabilities (at that time, I was not working at the university). His statements made me cringe!

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Ah, here we go. Guess it happened after the BC loss. Fortunate that it didn't have a worse outcome.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL; 3 Syracuse Players Are Stabbed

COLLEGE FOOTBALL; 3 Syracuse Players Are Stabbed (Published 1999)

Three members of Syracuse University football team are stabbed during melee outside bar on city's west side (S)

www.nytimes.com

ESPN.com - College Football - Syracuse senior in intensive care

ESPN -College Football, Syracuse senior in intensive care

www.espn.com

Good lord.

 

[billorange44]

We were scheduled for a complete turf replacement in a few years. Didn't make sense to buy 1-2 new rolls of turf just to change one end zone for a few seasons.

View attachment 173372

But spray paint! Good Lord it just looked horrible and made it look like what it was, trashy and low rent!

 

[NJCuse97]

I recall that SU's Connective Corridor capital contribution was already-committed money. Details could be a little off, but I think SU agreed to the funding in exchange for New York State forgiving loans made for Eggers or SciTech construction in the '80s?

People think it's a boondoggle, but at least the construction didn't represent any additional outlay in university funds. The real problems came from the huge administrative expansion, funny accounting, and some other questionable capital projects (some deferred maintenance, some stuff like the Warehouse purchase and Life Sciences/Newhouse III/Ernie Davis construction that I'm told sent the school's debt service through the roof).

I know she tried to drag the idea to Newark where she is currently, so I assumed it was her idea. I would not be surprised to learn she couldn't handle money issues. Look at the AD where she went (not fair really, she's only at Newark). IIRC there was some major money issues and house cleaning that took place once Syverud took over. Same was true with Coyle. I think one of the reasons he said he left even if off the record, was because "the funding situation was a real mess" (more air quotes, not an actual quote).

 

[tbonezone]

try hanging on sign on your small business door reading
"Don't like our prices ? $ OFF !"
see how that sells.

 

[JDemo]

I think it was right before the BC game, a bunch of players went out to a bar in the hood (like West Onondaga Street/South Ave -ish, IIRC) for who knows what reason and bad things ensued. A few players (David Byrd was one of them, I think, and a couple more names we'd recognize but that I've forgotten) got stabbed. Pretty scary situation.

Dave Byrd was hospitalized with a bad wound to his neck...ended up being very lucky. Geovani DeLoatch got stabbed in the arm and Duke Prettijohn outran the attackers to make it away with minor cuts. Coach P stayed in the hospital with Byrd for an extended period of time. If I recall correctly the attackers received prison sentences.

*** Edit, just saw the linked stories after responding to the initial post.

 

[FloridaFan]

Hot take but is it that wrong for extra athletic money to go to academics. I’m not saying don’t invest the money but that should be for the whole university not just athletics or in particular the revenue sports

 

[JeffCuse]

Not exactly capacity here...

 

[Stevenson]

Hot take but is it that wrong for extra athletic money to go to academics. I’m not saying don’t invest the money but that should be for the whole university not just athletics or in particular the revenue sports

it’s not “extra money” if the football program is already underfunded.

 

[CuseOnly]

Pasqualoni needed to go way before he actually did. He dramatically underperformed on the field considering the players ge recruited. Keeping him too long lit the match on our decline. Hiring Robinson was the equivalent of pouring gasoline on the fire.

Obviously we'd all probably trade our current state for one in which we could again have 3 and 4 star seasons with 5 star talent. But that's revisionist history and at the time the move was the right one.

I disagree, I would argue that he performed admirably considering that he had ridiculously inferior facilities that had not been upgraded in 20 years.

As well as a Dome turf that many opposing coaches were saying caused injuries and was being used to negatively recruit against us.

And money was being funneled from the Athletic Department to classroom technology.

 

[JeffCuse]

I disagree, I would argue that he performed admirably considering that he had ridiculously inferior facilities that had not been upgraded in 20 years.

As well as a Dome turf that many opposing coaches were saying caused injuries and was being used to negatively recruit against us.

And money was being funneled from the Athletic Department to classroom technology.

He recruited fine. We had some of the programs best players in history during that time. And he always found Ways to lose one or two games a season he shouldn’t with them