Babers' presser was flat-out exciting. He has a mesmerizing personality .. and his passion for the game is infectious. His offensive scheme has yielded obvious results (big jumps in year 2 at both his latest schools).
Good point. Unfortunately, at our current talent level, at least for the first 3 quarters I don't think we're going to scare the Seminoles or the Tigers by running a track-meet. In the fourth quarter, however, I think any defense is going to wear down chasing an offense constantly on the run.
We did, but it wasn't because we were stout (if you mean that in the positive sense as big or strong). Our defense played their butts off in that game. Holding the nation's #1 team without a TD in the second half was probably the high point of the season. Unfortunately, not only did we lose, I think that defensive performance turned out to be an outlier. We got embarrassed against LV, USF, FSU and NCSt. In 7 out of 8 losses, our defensive line got pushed around and opposing O linemen were often able to block our LB's off the ball. In the secondary, we were outmatched in size, speed and experience. We couldn't defend bubble screens because our CB's and safeties got manhandled by bigger stronger receivers on the other teams. We also had trouble all year tackling bigger, faster RB's and TE's (I remember us trying to tackle USF's tight end .. it took half the defense to bring him down). So I'd say size and speed were the two biggest concerns with our defense this year.
i don't think training techniques rules out that they can find big kids. it actually gives me hope, one of marrones accomplishments i thought was plucking jay bromley. there are plenty of huge kids in the tri-state area that haven't played enough football and are not on national recruiting radars that if coached properly can be good players. i think yukon is beating us to the punch in this area a bit, by recruiting the biggest kids they can find and seeing if they can turn them into football players. i think it is a good way to find lineman.
modern offenses are held to a higher standard. if you run some boring old offense against FSU and get killed, people shrug and say "well what can you do, it's FSU"
Not sure I get your point here. Are you saying that instead of bringing in a proven system like what Babers runs that could differentiate SU from the majority of peer schools, you'd rather just recruit guys like Fournette and Henry to run the ball at Syracuse? I'm pretty sure that's not currently a viable option.
No, I like Babers system. My point was, at the end of the day, no matter what system he runs, he's still going to need players with strength, speed and size. I'm not saying we need everyone of our players to meet certain criteria .. it'd be too hard to recruit that way. And to be sure, we have a few players on the roster that make you forget their size -- Cordy, Estime, Phillips come to mind. But in the long run in our conference, with the teams we need to play every year, there's no substitute for big, fast guys. I'm tired of seeing them on the other team -- that's what I'm saying.
I agree with you .. a division championship is a long way off. Unfortunately, so is 7-5 or 8-4 given our current schedule. I know we were there 3 seasons ago, but that's history. Next year, we're going to start off with Colgate, USF, UConn and ND. I'd be happy with 2 wins there. Then, we play Clemson, FSU, LV, V-T and Pitt. Realistically, can we beat any of those teams? Who knows. But if not, we're 2-7. That's it right there ... a losing season if we're lucky (i.e, we don't have trouble with BC, WF, or the other 3 games we schedule).
