It’s over for Syracuse Football

[tep624]

Another thing we desperately need is an annual rivalry game. Easier said than done, but having one game every year that everyone considers must win would help tremendously. It obviously won’t be in state, and I don’t know how to manufacture this, but it would help a lot. Rivalry weekend last Saturday had me thinking about this.

We desperately need noticeable traditions, a rivalry, and consistency. We don't need to be competing for NC's every year as a measure of success or whatever. But the program is lacking in a number of key areas that aren't "on the field" areas in order to round it out comparative to what I would consider to be big time programs.

44 is just another example of shootings ourselves in the foot rather than catching lightning in a bottle. Had an opportunity to reintroduce it after The Express, had an opportunity this season, and it continues to be shelved due to the wishes of short sighted, selfish people, while tradition wise our program continues to float adrift at sea.

 

[chugg21]

We literally just beat the eventual national champion 4 years ago (ranked #2 when we beat them)

And have went 5-24 against all other P5 school since then let alone against actual good ones. Pointing out 1 miracle and ignoring the rest of the disaster doesn't really do a whole lot.

 

[chugg21]

Honestly, I feel like people who feel this way should just adopt a second team, like a side team. Go ahead and have an SEC team on the side. Not trying to throw shade, but seriously.

Personally I could never and would never do that, but if being in the national conversation annually is that important to your college football fandom, just do it. This is supposed to be fun. Me, I’ll just continue to focus on the ACC and staying in that realm.

I've actually had this happen. Had to live in College Station a few years ago as my Wife completed a program at A&M. It's such a complete different experience in all ways. Can obvious skip comparing them in a game day atmosphere or the community giving a *t as they might as well be playing a completely different sport. It's the day to day, online part that is just so much different and interesting. Following our recruiting is horrible and depressing. Following theirs is wild. They got a commitment from the #1 WR and #3 overall player in the country last night. That's on top of having the #2 overall player and the #2 QB locked up as well. Their very worst commit is ranked 450 places above our highest. It becomes depressing to have friends going crazy about possibly getting the #1 class in the country while I'm trying to talk myself into every kid ranked 1000+ being a diamond in the rough.

 

[OburgOrange]

Honestly, I feel like people who feel this way should just adopt a second team, like a side team. Go ahead and have an SEC team on the side. Not trying to throw shade, but seriously.

Personally I could never and would never do that, but if being in the national conversation annually is that important to your college football fandom, just do it. This is supposed to be fun. Me, I’ll just continue to focus on the ACC and staying in that realm.

Don’t ever question my fandom, I’ve been behind this program likely longer than you have been alive. I’m dealing with the landscape of what today’s College football has become. And it’s not good for SU. We were good enough to be in the hunt for national championship, but those days are over.
Now , our standard of success is 6-7 wins a year and a crappy bowl some where. And that makes us all want to throw a parade if it happens. Sad days, but it is reality

 

[Roger N]

How different would it be if we landed Mike Vick and kept things going, we probably avoid the Grob disaster and not be irrevelant save for a few seasons in the last 15 or so

Then we'd be burying all those dead dogs.

 

[David332]

Don’t ever question my fandom, I’ve been behind this program likely longer than you have been alive. I’m dealing with the landscape of what today’s College football has become. And it’s not good for SU. We were good enough to be in the hunt for national championship, but those days are over.
Now , our standard of success is 6-7 wins a year and a crappy bowl some where. And that makes us all want to throw a parade if it happens. Sad days, but it is reality

I didn’t question your fandom.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

And playing in front of an empty open-air stadium in October and November would more than cancel out that weather advantage. Not to mention the roof helps to make the stadium look a lot bigger and a lot louder than it really is. Architecturally speaking, without that roof, that facility would be a complete eyesore.

Wins have more to do with attendance.

Look at Minnesota. It has worked out for them. I think we would see similar here. If we had a 44k stadium with the seating right on top of the field (like Lane or Autzen), the crowd noise will still be good. Make it state of the art with real seats between the 20s, wide concourses, great food options, and plenty of luxury boxes. I think for September and November games attendance will be fine. IMO October is the issue as it feels like it rains every game. The Dome experience stinks.

 

[Bayside44]

Wins have more to do with attendance.

Look at Minnesota. It has worked out for them. I think we would see similar here. If we had a 44k stadium with the seating right on top of the field (like Lane or Autzen), the crowd noise will still be good. Make it state of the art with real seats between the 20s, wide concourses, great food options, and plenty of luxury boxes. I think for September and November games attendance will be fine. IMO October is the issue as it feels like it rains every game. The Dome experience stinks.

Minneapolis metro has 3.7 million people, lots of corporate HQs. Thats why it works. They'd draw the same inside.

 

[JimBoston]

The new football head coaching contracts this year and the impending large increase in media revenues for the SEC is changing the dynamics in college football. The gap between schools is dramatically increasing which will lead some academic schools to make tough decisions down the road. Will they keep spending to keep up? The ACC is at the center of this dynamic as there are a handful of teams, notably Florida State and Clemson, that want to keep competing against the SEC and a large number of academic schools that may decide to not keep spending.

 

[Trueblue25]

Dino didn’t retain Dino as HC.
His bosses did.
They told the fanbase Dino wasn’t kept for monetary reasons.
That right there tells us what we are.

Im reserving further meltdown fury pending the OC hiring. This program has potential. If ADJW opens up his pocketbook for the OC and other positions… who knows. If the buy outs not a problem, then neither is paying for P5 assistants.

 

[TheCusian]

Don’t ever question my fandom, I’ve been behind this program likely longer than you have been alive. I’m dealing with the landscape of what today’s College football has become. And it’s not good for SU. We were good enough to be in the hunt for national championship, but those days are over.
Now , our standard of success is 6-7 wins a year and a crappy bowl some where. And that makes us all want to throw a parade if it happens. Sad days, but it is reality

Most of us have been living in this reality since the BE fell apart

Ground shifted. But could be worse, we could be UConn

 

[Orangejet]

Of course you are. No disrespect but it seems all Americans are either Chelsea, Man U, or Man City fans. Bandwagon fans. It would be like being an Alabama or Clemson fan. Too easy to be a fan of the very best. I’m newish to the Premier League and I’ve adopted Brentford as my team. I love rooting for the underdog.

I am a C.Pulisic fan and root for Americans in the EPL. Also like Leeds United and Juventus in the SerieA because of McKinnie. No bandwagon guy here!

 

[JRHEETER]

Most of us have been living in this reality since the BE fell apart

Ground shifted. But could be worse, we could be UConn

Could be UConn but they went out and got Jim Mora and are building a decent staff over there

 

[NineOneSeven]

I want to win 6 (up to 8) games at least two out of three years. That’s my bar.

 

[TheCusian]

Could be UConn but they went out and got Jim Mora and are building a decent staff over there

They don’t have a conference, tv money, and have sucked worse than us for 15 years. Mora is the last ditch effort to save FB there

We’re in a better spot x10

 

[Roger N]

I’ve known this for a while, but I was always in denial. But with the recent signings of Kelly and Riley to these enormous contracts….and more to come, players getting paid at the big programs,,,,SU will never compete for a Natty ever again. College football that I once knew and loved, is forever gone

I agree, college football is headed in the wrong direction. The salaries of college football coaches is out of sight. Even the NCAA is paying their administrators millions. Eventually, somebody has to pay the piper. The weaker teams will not be able to compete salary wise. We are treating these coaches like they invented Covid vaccines not the gym teachers that they are. There is only one Sabin. If Dino was not coaching football he'd be successful but not making anything like he is now. I can't believe what Michigan State is paying their coac

I didn't see Syracuse play one game on TV this year. I pay enough for cable. I'm not paying another dime to get the ACC network. Sooner or later the bubble will burst. I am a life long SU fan going back to 1959 when I was an usher at Archbold. I'm glad I didn't see any games on TV as it would have made me angry at how much we suck. Losing to Louisville 41-3. How can we such this bad????

Our recruiting sucks. I live in South Jersey, right outside of Philly. Within a 30 minute drive there are lots of big time recruits. Leary, the NC State QB lives very close to me. Dino, like GRob ignores New Jersey. Mac recruited players that lived within a four hour drive and he recruited the parents not the players. Dino has yet to recruit a big time wide receiver.

Now basketball sucks too. I'm gonna stop wearing my SU hat. I don't want people saying "There, there, maybe things will get better." Just this morning my investment guy gloated about his Pitt team. You can't spell SUck with out SU.

 

[qdawgg]

Well, I’m going to ruffle some feathers here….


Syracuse doesn’t invest in getting younger people interested into Syracuse football.

This was the first season we saw a push for the students to attend football games in a long time so that’s a huge start.

We have 0 traditions, absolutely nothing that sets us apart on game day. In game production is awful and isn’t drawing fans.

When the defense is on the field during first and second down it’s pretty quiet in the dome. Think about some of the away games you’ve gone to. The crowd is engaged the entire time, especially on defense. With the “good” football programs I’ve gone to at away games the entire stadium is standing the entire time. They are there for the game and not some social event.

We also have a lot of people who are very complacent with where the program is and just chalks things up to “well were Syracuse.”

This $150 million sports project is a huge plus however, we had a shot at going ALL OUT on the dome and backed off and went as minimal as possible. Don’t get me wrong the dome is absolutely beautiful now, but they left a lot of things out that could have really done it wonders. Glad that they ended up doing the uplifting on the outside of the building…that helped.

Personally I would have taken the whole west side of the dome and make it glass.

Syracuse is dipping their toes into being serious about football and I truly hope they dive all the way in…..there’s a lot of money there that Syracuse could make but like anything….you have to spend money to make money

There’s a lot of truth in here.

I’ve been harping on this forever. Attendance could be a lot worse than it is given our 20 yr history. That’s a lot of kids growing up not giving a crap about SU FB, that’s a lot of teenagers and 20 year olds that started out as fans and got tired of wasting their time.

My nephew grew up in a SU household and has been to numerous games for BB/FB. It doesn’t cross his mind to even care in any way, follow, look at how the FB is doing. I’m trying to raise my 6 yr old daughter as an SU and Bears fan. Talk about bad parenting. I mentioned this in the game thread. We’ve watched every game this year together. Pitt was a late game so she could stay up late and watch or go to bed. At halftime she decided to go to bed instead of staying up late.

We have a 20+ yr gap in building and maintaining a fan base. It’s partially why I believed we needed a coaching change. We need a consistent winner even if it’s getting to a crappy bowl most years. Losing 5/6 seasons is just sliding further backwards

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Umm, 35 years ago

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Get over yourself.

Wake could easily have made the playoffs this year and that could be us.

But yeah we absolutely can't do what Texas does and start firing coaches every 2 years.

Tony White is our next coach regardless. You could make the move now but its likely better to do it next year midseason if we aren't on track to make a bowl game.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

How is this whole thing sustainable? The gap keeps widening between the haves and the have nots

I don't think so. How has Texas widened the gap between us and them? Now they get to go to the SEC.

What about Miami they have had 20 years to widen the gap on us?

Whats the ACC title game again? Pitt is still a peer program for the most part as is Wake they just had better years than us.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Basketball is another story. NCAA Hoops in general outside of us is the best product its been in a decade this year and players wont be rushing to leave after a year anymore. Unfortunately the sport has a massive reemergence right as we trend towards the basement and Cuse fans have to settle for family storyline and perennial bubble if we are lucky and nowhere near a power.

 

[Noexcuse]

Until you have that and then you want more

That’s how it goes

Right now we all want 6-9 seasons because we’ve had so many losing seasons

I hear people saying we are a couple of plays away from having a 6 or seven or eight win team this year. It's what fans do. But just think if we were a perennial 6 to 9 win team how much better it would be to dream we could have won 9 or 10 or 11 games if a few plays here and there went our way.

 

[orangedave]

Sad to say that was 34 years ago. Mac isn’t walking back through that door.

And if Mac did, I'm not sure he would have the same success in today's college football world - for the same reasons noted above.

 

[Grbac]

I am a C.Pulisic fan and root for Americans in the EPL. Also like Leeds United and Juventus in the SerieA because of McKinnie. No bandwagon guy here!

Cool. I started watching Chelsea because of Pulisic. They are completely loaded. Of course it helps to have a billionaire owner who is willing to spend whatever it takes.

Leeds better get Ayling and Bramford back or they’ll end up getting relegated. Not looking good.

 

[Symphony Steve]

"It’s a viscous cycle really."

Well, there's viscous cycle 'good': Well-oiled machine

and

viscous cycle 'bad': Sludge irreparably damages engine.