Last Year's Squad With The 2016 Schedule

[Ish88888]

I will preface this with saying that I am 100% on board with Dinomania. However, Shaf & Co were dealt some rough schedules in terms of Clemson/FSU/Ville gauntlets, early Bye weeks, and the WF/BC bracket. This schedule sets up nicely especially having the Ville in the dome on a Friday night. Nothing like the juice in the dome for a night game .We have jumped teams that were better than us a few times in this environment. Marrone's teams jumped ranked oppenents like Bridgewater's Ville team and Gino Smith's WVU team. So pumped up for this 2016 schedule!

 

[SU94]

I will preface this with saying that I am 100% on board with Dinomania. However, Shaf & Co were dealt some rough schedules in terms of Clemson/FSU/Ville gauntlets, early Bye weeks, and the WF/BC bracket. This schedule sets up nicely especially having the Ville in the dome on a Friday night. Nothing like the juice in the dome for a night game .We have jumped teams that were better than us a few times in this environment. Marrone's teams jumped ranked oppenents like Bridgewater's Ville team and Gino Smith's WVU team. So pumped up for this 2016 schedule!

I agree, but only to a small, small degree. Maybe I am not sensitive enough, but SU (and all teams) play the opponents on their schedule. Not the circumstances or logistics of the schedule.

All I heard for most of the last decade from this forum is that we schedule too tough early. And because of this, we are never "allowed" ride the momentum of a strong start.

Well, this past year, we started 3-0. And lost the 4th game in a strong fashion to Top-10 LSU. 3-1. All good.
That LSU setback was the first of our 8 consecutive losses. And, to be honest, I think our 4-8 record last year was fairly-well reflective of the caliber of team we were.

I played a lot of sports in my day. Never football, however. What boggles my mind is the idea that kids (and pros too) have to "get up" to play that one game per week. That frustrates me to no end.

 

[TheCusian]

I will preface this with saying that I am 100% on board with Dinomania. However, Shaf & Co were dealt some rough schedules in terms of Clemson/FSU/Ville gauntlets, early Bye weeks, and the WF/BC bracket. This schedule sets up nicely especially having the Ville in the dome on a Friday night. Nothing like the juice in the dome for a night game .We have jumped teams that were better than us a few times in this environment. Marrone's teams jumped ranked oppenents like Bridgewater's Ville team and Gino Smith's WVU team. So pumped up for this 2016 schedule!

Last years schedule was fine. They needed USF and UVA. Had a chance with Pitt. They blew it.

 

[Ish88888]

Last years schedule was fine. They needed USF and UVA. Had a chance with Pitt. They blew it.

I agree, UVA/Pitt was a huge turning point last season. The last staff had horrible luck with keeping QBs healthy and that contributed significantly.

 

[TheCusian]

I agree, UVA/Pitt was a huge turning point last season. The last staff had horrible luck with keeping QBs healthy and that contributed significantly.

Dungey was good to go and played pretty well in both games (until he got clobbered vs Pitt in the second half). The defense let us down by allowing late scores.

I don't want to think about last year! Cannot wait to see how well Dungey takes to this system.

 

[SoBristol]

I agree, UVA/Pitt was a huge turning point last season. The last staff had horrible luck with keeping QBs healthy and that contributed significantly.

Yes, those games could have gone our way.
As for horrible luck at QB, a different perspective is that the last staff did not do enough to bring in talent at the position. Lots of schools need to play their second or third QB over the course of a season.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Last year's schedule was cake. That is the reason why we were 3-0 for the first time in forever. USF which is a very winnable road game we had two weeks to prep for. On top of that we had UVA, Pitt, and NC State which were all winnable. Plus Louisville wasn't out of the realm of possibility. There was no excuse for anything less than a competitive 5-7 record. The fact that we were an uncompetitive 4-8 is why Shafer is gone.

This year's schedule is harder as we trade CMU for UConn. On top of that we get Louisville early, which is a bad thing. Our team should get much better as the year goes on, making a later game vs Louisville a more likely win.

 

[SoBristol]

So thin the margin between a competitive 5-7 record, and 4-8. We lost to UVa in overtime, after leading into Q4. Lost to Pitt in the final drive.

As for the schedule, 2016 is definitely harder. Wake believes it has had its best two recruiting classes, back to back, in school history. BC is an away game, and they brought in a grad transfer at QB to cure their major weakness. The home games are challenging.
But we can hope Babers will boost the offense, and the defense (except for DE) returns a lot of players, and was bolstered by this recruiting class. Game management has to be better.

 

[Scooch]

The schedule wasn't the problem last year. We pissed away several winnable games. Some impacted by injuries, others not.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

Dungey was good to go and played pretty well in both games (until he got clobbered vs Pitt in the second half). The defense let us down by allowing late scores.

I don't want to think about last year! Cannot wait to see how well Dungey takes to this system.

Yeah, we had issues at quarterback. But the defense could not stay out of their own way and could not get stops when it counted. Happened over and over again.

 

[AlbOrange]

The schedule wasn't the problem last year. We pissed away several winnable games. Some impacted by injuries, others not.

As painful as that was, I can't help but see a silver lining #orangeisthenewfast

 

[leftytg]

The schedule wasn't the problem last year. We pissed away several winnable games. Some impacted by injuries, others not.

exactly!

The problem with our schedule last year is that our coaching staff made it so that we were, essentially, playing each game with one hand tied behind our backs. Poor game planning, in game management and outdated and meatheaded philosophies had the effect of minimizing, rather than amplifying, the talent on the team.

Put another way, it is no accident that only one member of the staff received a promotion, and Daust's promotion to DC came at a non P5 school. With the exception of Smith, who eventually settled on a lateral move, everyone else either dropped a job title, dropped out of P5, or is still unemployed.

I think people are going to be amazed at the difference in the quality of the staff this year, and what a difference it'll make.