HCSS

[newmexicuse]

I read a lot of posts criticizing HCSS. Yes, I made a post and has some criticisms as well.

Let's put things in perspective. Nobody is going to confuse HCSS with Bill Belichek or Bud Wilkerson, but by and large the team plays hard and puts forth energy. We have seen progress at the critical QB position despite multiple injuries.

The bottom line is that we simply lack enough overall talent relative to our league and our schedule.

To me, if a coach isn't committing egregious mistakes, and if the team plays hard and shows year over year improvement then the coach is doing a good job.

This team has had huge issues at QB. I like Dungey as much as anybody else here based upon what I have seen though my sample size is smaller. But, let's not kid ourselves, ED as a freshman is not nearly the player a healthy Hunt would have been as a senior. The staff gets kudos for his development.

The team already has equalled last season's win total. Barring total collapse, last year's total will be exceeded.

The next key is recruiting. It seemed to me that in recent prior years' we were getting mostly a mix of two & three star recruits. That has been upgraded as now we are getting mostly three stars with some 4 star sniffs.

All in all, I think HCSS has done a very solid job so far, and if we can can keep progressing along these lines we should be a plus .500 program in just another couple of years, which should fulfill near term expectations.

 

[DocFlanders]

Just what we are all clamoring for... a .500 club in 2 years.

 

[K Otto XLIV]

We were a plus .500 program when he took over but it will take another 2 years to get back there?

 

[newmexicuse]

We were a plus .500 program when he took over but it will take another 2 years to get back there?

The level of competition has changes, surely you can't have the same expectations playing in the ACC (last year really wo a QB and this year with a frosh QB) as compared to the remnants of the Big East.

Let's get real, it will only be the odd year when we can successfully compete against the FSUs and Clemsons of this world. Long term reasonable expectations would be to have a team that is plus .500 almost every year with between 6 & 9 wins.

I am not saying that HCSS will accomplish that, but I am saying he is on track to do so, and as long as he stays on track then I will be in his corner saying he is doing a solid positive job.

 

[CanadianSU]

No. I do not want a 6-6 program. That is the building block for this year. When all our freshman mature and we have an older team and with Dungey in 2/3 years we should ABSOLUTELY not be going 6-6...

 

[Chris02M]

the remaining opponents besides fsu and clemson we are right there with

 

[Chris02M]

the remaining opponents besides fsu and clemson we are right there with

 

[TheCusian]

We were a plus .500 program when he took over but it will take another 2 years to get back there?

This has been debated and debated. Plus .500 - but midway through that year many were questioning Marrone's future.

Not to mention Shafer was a major reason we were any good for most of those years. The offense under Hackett only got cooking his last year here.

Also - he left a dearth of young offensive talent. And took all the coaches, save our not-good recruiting WR coach.

Marrone took us from bad to mediocre. He did a poor job recruiting offensive weapons. We were going to take a step back in 2013 offensively no matter what.

Shafer made it worse with a bad OC hire. And that's on him.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think dungey is better than hunt right now.

 

[K Otto XLIV]

The Big East had no FSU or Clemson but the other 6 conference games we play are comparable to the Big East. Our SOS the last 2 years in Big East vs the 1st two in ACC:

2012 45th
2011 55th

2014 41st
2013 57th

Doesn't look all that different to me.

 

[OrangeAl]

There has to be hope for a consistent winning program or a coach doesn't belong here. I do have that hope for HCSS.

 

[SWC75]

I read a lot of posts criticizing HCSS. Yes, I made a post and has some criticisms as well.

Let's put things in perspective. Nobody is going to confuse HCSS with Bill Belichek or Bud Wilkerson, but by and large the team plays hard and puts forth energy. We have seen progress at the critical QB position despite multiple injuries.

The bottom line is that we simply lack enough overall talent relative to our league and our schedule.

To me, if a coach isn't committing egregious mistakes, and if the team plays hard and shows year over year improvement then the coach is doing a good job.

This team has had huge issues at QB. I like Dungey as much as anybody else here based upon what I have seen though my sample size is smaller. But, let's not kid ourselves, ED as a freshman is not nearly the player a healthy Hunt would have been as a senior. The staff gets kudos for his development.

The team already has equalled last season's win total. Barring total collapse, last year's total will be exceeded.

The next key is recruiting. It seemed to me that in recent prior years' we were getting mostly a mix of two & three star recruits. That has been upgraded as now we are getting mostly three stars with some 4 star sniffs.

All in all, I think HCSS has done a very solid job so far, and if we can can keep progressing along these lines we should be a plus .500 program in just another couple of years, which should fulfill near term expectations.

I would never compare anyone to Bud Wilkerson.

 

[phil77]

The entire coaching staff really let the players, fans and university down. The team was unprepared to play. Offense was awful, Defense was out of position. Special teams had no juice. The whole thing was a mess and that falls at the feet of the coaches. If he going to get all the credit for the way the team started the season and the way we fought LSU then he gets all the blame for that crap we saw on Saturday.

 

[TheCusian]

The entire coaching staff really let the players, fans and university down. The team was unprepared to play. Offense was awful, Defense was out of position. Special teams had no juice. The whole thing was a mess and that falls at the feet of the coaches. If he going to get all the credit for the way the team started the season and the way we fought LSU then he gets all the blame for that crap we saw on Saturday.

Offense was not awful. Re-watch.

Defense was gashed by a running QB and a good RB. Those are TFL's vs UVa.

 

[phil77]

Offense was not awful. Re-watch.

Defense was gashed by a running QB and a good RB. Those are TFL's vs UVa.

The offense was awful. Option after option was terrible play calling. I did re-watch twice. That first half play calling was terrible. Short side option after short side option a couple to Ben Lewis is awful. Sorry it is.

 

[dasher]

I think dungey is better than hunt right now.

I don't think it is even close.

 

[Finwad32]

The entire coaching staff really let the players, fans and university down. The team was unprepared to play. Offense was awful, Defense was out of position. Special teams had no juice. The whole thing was a mess and that falls at the feet of the coaches. If he going to get all the credit for the way the team started the season and the way we fought LSU then he gets all the blame for that crap we saw on Saturday.

The coaching staff absolutely deserves a share of the blame, but, players play. We may have been out-schemed in certain situations, but, I saw multiple defensive instances against the run where we were not gap-sound. That could be a LB, DL or occasional secondary mistake.

I haven't watched all of it and I saw enough in what I did see to know that we were beaten defensively. Offensively, there were a significant amount of positives that you have to take with a grain of salt because there were some bad decisions by young players as well.

This season is going to be constantly evolving, and the coaches didn't forget everything they've learned over 30 years over the course of a week. Sometimes bad game-plans happen. I'm not even willing to say that we had a bad game plan this week, what I am willing to say is that it wasn't executed at a high level and the blame for that should be put everywhere.

 

[TheCusian]

The offense was awful. Option after option was terrible play calling. I did re-watch twice. That first half play calling was terrible. Short side option after short side option a couple to Ben Lewis is awful. Sorry it is.

</Overstatement alert>

One play to Lewis. One.

Lester said Dungey missed a bunch of reads pass and in the option game that he normally makes. He did make them in the second half.

Rest of the game, passing looked sharp.

 

[cuseguy]

The coaching staff absolutely deserves a share of the blame, but, players play. We may have been out-schemed in certain situations, but, I saw multiple defensive instances against the run where we were not gap-sound. That could be a LB, DL or occasional secondary mistake. I haven't watched all of it and I saw enough in what I did see to know that we were beaten defensively. Offensively, there were a significant amount of positives that you have to take with a grain of salt because there were some bad decisions by young players as well. This season is going to be constantly evolving, and the coaches didn't forget everything they've learned over 30 years over the course of a week. Sometimes bad game-plans happen. I'm not even willing to say that we had a bad game plan this week, what I am willing to say is that it wasn't executed at a high level and the blame for that should be put everywhere.

Good players make plays.

 

[TheCusian]

Good freshman players make plays sometimes.

Fixed.

 

[Finwad32]

Good players make plays.

Nobody says this anymore because coach speak is pounded into their head at every media opportunity. Coaches fall on the sword for their players, every time, every time. But, the fact of the matter is, there are kids you can teach something to 26 times and they still struggle with the assignment, it's just a reality.

I'm not damning the coaches or the players exclusively, it's a cumulative effort.

Our biggest problem, is the majority of our skill position players are young. It's the reality. Syracuse football is going to have high peaks and low valleys this year. How quickly they can adapt and grow will determine how our season develops.

 

[SUSizzle]

Same coach that had us in there with LSU. Barring a third and long late hit penalty, we had a chance to come back Saturday. I like what he is doing.
He deserves more time.

 

[phil77]

</Overstatement alert>

One play to Lewis. One.

Lester said Dungey missed a bunch of reads pass and in the option game that he normally makes. He did make them in the second half.

Rest of the game, passing looked sharp.

How many times did we run the short side option? If Dungey was having problems reading the option why keep calling it? Like I said Lester was piss poor in the first half IMO.

I heard all preseason how we were going to run a more north/south approach not side line to side line. Instead this game went back to side line to side line. USF stacked the box on a regular basis we never attacked that instead we kept running options to the side lines.

 

[TheCusian]

How many times did we run the short side option? If Dungey was having problems reading the option why keep calling it? Like I said Lester was piss poor in the first half IMO.

No. You said the offense was awful. It was not in the 2nd half.

Also: we ran the option in the 2nd half some and it worked fine.

 

[Finwad32]

How many times did we run the short side option? If Dungey was having problems reading the option why keep calling it? Like I said Lester was piss poor in the first half IMO.

So the exact same concepts we succeeded with in the 2nd half we shouldn't have called in the 1st half? Once he saw his true FR QB miss a read or two we should've abandoned all zone read and option? You realize that this is a very large portion of our offense right?