Has the Syracuse fan base gone soft?

[Orangeyes]

Growing up there was one hated opponent over all other schools on our schedule...that hated opponent was Penn State!

The only other school that came close was Boston College.

In recent years it seems that our hate energy has been spread too thin and in too many different directions.

For a period back in the nineties Virginia Tech became that hated rival and more recently, for whatever reason Rutgers became the target of our venom.

As game day approaches against the once scorned Nittany Lions I'm not feeling the hatred as I once did.

It's almost as if this is just another game.

No one in the media is giving us a chance against this depleted bunch.

It doesn't sit well with me and I'm sure it riles our HCSS and his players.

Folks it time to amp up the hatred, this is friggin Penn State it's time to kick some a$$.

LGO

 

[SUfaninAZ]

The media has sucked since in recent years! Go Orange!

 

[Legendof44]

Absolutely! Although i never considered rutgirls anything more than an annoying fly that keeps buzzing by your head. They werent worth a damn so i didnt have time to hate them. VPI and Miami...absolutely loathe them with a passion.

 

[shandeezy7]

I think the apathy over the opponent has more to do with conference realignment than anything else. Aside from WVU in the past 20 years, who has Syracuse played on a regular basis that would warrant such hatred? Pitt I suppose, but like was discussed last year, for whatever reason there is no rivalry there. Penn State has played Syracuse twice in the last 23 years. Tough to sustain hatred for a team at that rate.

On that note, I can't stand any college football team not named Syracuse, and my hope is that we wipe the field clean with the Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon!

 

[Doc5120]

Wait a second...I thought we're HARDNOSED now. With Shafer in charge, we as a fan base, better get HARDNOSED. I know everyone on this board is ready!

 

[donniesyracuse]

I think I've just grown up. I spend far more energy liking my own team rather than hating others.

 

[MadNY3]

Yes.

 

[Alsacs]

To have a legitimate rivalry I think you need to play consistently. I am sure when we were both Indys and playing a lot Penn State was easy to hate, but without playing them consistently I don't think the entire fanbase on either side can hate one another. I am sure St. Bonaventure would love a basketball rivalry with Syracuse, but we don't play one another to have one. I don't think we have gone soft their just isn't a football team we have a legitimate rivalry with. I don't hate Rutgers but they seemed to be the closest thing to a football rival, but neither side really wanted it. I would say our internet fanbases hated one another but they weren't a rival IMO. Penn State was a rival of the past, but we need to beat them Saturday.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

There is apathy towards the whole football program from the general public. Most people I talked to this week either didn't know the day of the game or the time if they knew the day. Don't worry I informed them all.

 

[Orangeyes]

There is apathy towards the whole football program from the general public. Most people I talked to this week either didn't know the day of the game or the time if they knew the day. Don't worry I informed them all.

That's funny because I have run into a lot of folks who are either going to the game or anxious to watch it on TV. Wearing your SU gear at a state fair will find you a lot of comrades in arms.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

That's funny because I have run into a lot of folks who are either going to the game or anxious to watch it on TV. Wearing your SU gear at a state fair will find you a lot of comrades in arms.

That's awesome. I feel a little better, it was actually getting a little depressing yesterday.

 

[Chip]

SU football suffers from a few key things. 1. The decline since McNabb left (heavy emphasis on the GRob years). 2. The conference we were left with and stuck with after 2004. 3. The success of the hoops team. It's hard to get enough people to rally around SU football when SU hoops is basically in elite status (consistent Top 10, largest crowds in the sport). SU football is consistently nowhere near the Top 25, and even a full Dome, albeit very loud and difficult to play in, is an average sized crowd for this sport.

Then throw in that the Penn State rivalry ended in 1990. You know how many new fans we have since then? Just go look at the first game thread. The 2 games in 2008/2009 didn't do us any favors to get that old feeling back, even though it seems the results were similar to how many years of that rivalry went for us.

SU has been given a lifeline to win back its football popularity. The ACC can only help. It resolves one of the 3 issues I mentioned above. Hopefully the infusion of associated revenue $ will help with the team's performance. It's easy to look at last year and say we're on our way back. I think/hope we are. But we had heavy losses of production from that team. Replicate last year and the future looks much brighter.

The crowd size issue can't necessarily be solved. But you can get around it. Oregon only draws 50k, and it's considered the most difficult place to play in the country. The Dome can get to a status at or near that.

A win this weekend would be a nice step in the right direction for everything. And it's a winnable game.

 

[sufandu]

Growing up there was one hated opponent over all other schools on our schedule...that hated opponent was Penn State!

The only other school that came close was Boston College.

In recent years it seems that our hate energy has been spread too thin and in too many different directions.

For a period back in the nineties Virginia Tech became that hated rival and more recently, for whatever reason Rutgers became the target of our venom.

As game day approaches against the once scorned Nittany Lions I'm not feeling the hatred as I once did.

It's almost as if this is just another game.

No one in the media is giving us a chance against this depleted bunch.

It doesn't sit well with me and I'm sure it riles our HCSS and his players.

Folks it time to amp up the hatred, this is friggin Penn State it's time to kick some a$$.

LGO

To really hate another team you have to play them every year. Our rivalries have changed too much over the last 15-20 years to have one rival hated above all else. I was too young when we stopped playing Penn St. so I don't hate them as much as Va Tech. Hopefully, now that we have a solid home, we can get one real natural rival and watch the hatred grow.

 

[OrangeDW]

I think the apathy over the opponent has more to do with conference realignment than anything else. Aside from WVU in the past 20 years, who has Syracuse played on a regular basis that would warrant such hatred? Pitt I suppose, but like was discussed last year, for whatever reason there is no rivalry there. Penn State has played Syracuse twice in the last 23 years. Tough to sustain hatred for a team at that rate.

On that note, I can't stand any college football team not named Syracuse, and my hope is that we wipe the field clean with the Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon!

I think the problem with Pitt, is that SU and Pitt have rarely been good at the same time.

 

[rosconey]

wins were so hard to come by for a decade that fans were just happy when we got one- hard to build or sustain a rivalry when your just not good-its built upon one team ruining another teams season consistantly- that was what wv was for -you can bet those couch burners hate us more than we hate them

add in the realignment stuff

 

[SU2NASA]

Come on people, let's throw all of our future hatred at Boston College.

 

[Chip]

Come on people, let's throw all of our future hatred at Boston College.

People are too quick to dismiss that this will happen. 2003 and 2004 was the high water mark of the hatred in this rivalry. I don't know that it will ever be at that level again. But we'll be playing them every single year as our final opponent. They won't stay down for long, just like we didn't. Addazio will get them back. It's going to be a fun game.

Both teams need to be good though. It will be better if it's two bowl teams playing that finale, versus a bowl team and a spoiler, or (gulp) two bowl free teams.

Would be so much better if Rutgers was left out. But of all the dumb things that school has done over the years (I mean really, who could stay bad that long? You almost have to try to be that bad), the one smart thing they did was build it where they did. Who knows if that was by accident, probably was. Worked out though.

 

[SUfaninAZ]

I'm sooooo ready to put some "hate" energy back towards BC!

 

[rosconey]

People are too quick to dismiss that this will happen. 2003 and 2004 was the high water mark of the hatred in this rivalry. I don't know that it will ever be at that level again. But we'll be playing them every single year as our final opponent. They won't stay down for long, just like we didn't. Addazio will get them back. It's going to be a fun game.

Both teams need to be good though. It will be better if it's two bowl teams playing that finale, versus a bowl team and a spoiler, or (gulp) two bowl free teams.

Would be so much better if Rutgers was left out. But of all the dumb things that school has done over the years (I mean really, who could stay bad that long? You almost have to try to be that bad), the one smart thing they did was build it where they did. Who knows if that was by accident, probably was. Worked out though.

as a whole they got lucky twice in 100 and something years- they didnt take advantage of the first lets hope the second is treated the same