SWC75
Bored Historian
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THE SCHEDULE
Games times and media coverage are subject to change.
NORTHWESTERN Saturday 9/1/12 Noon Carrier Dome on ESPN2
The Wildcats are a lot like Syracuse in certain ways. The passing game is the strength of the team. The running game is a question mark and so is the offensive line. They had a lousy defense last year and have lost some players but think their replacements may be better than the guys they lost. They even had a five game losing streak last year. There are some differences. They had a four game winning streak after that five game losing streak. They’ve also been to four straight bowl games. Last year they lost to Texas A&\M in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. At least their brakes work. Their best win was 28-25 at Nebraska. But they also lost 14-21 at Army. They finished 6-7 and have gone from 9 to 8 to 7 to 6 wins in recent years. But they’ve used those four straight bowls to recruit well and are optimistic that the trend can be reversed.
They run the spread, which we’ve had trouble defending in recent years and have a remarkable quarterback in Kain Colter, who was used in multiple capacities last year, (much as we are proposing to do with Ashton Broyld) and ran for 654 yards, caught passes for 466 and threw for 673 when he was behind center. They also have an exciting return man in Venric Clark, who returned punts at 16 yards a crack. That’s almost a season total for us. We beat these guys in a 37-34 thriller in the Dome in Marrone’s first and this could be the same kind of game. The problem: if we lose it, it’s our 6th straight loss with #7 coming up.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Saturday 9/8/12 3:30PM MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Everybody is writing this off as a blow-out loss. They could be right. We actually played semi-competitively vs. them last year before losing 17-38. Ryan Nassib came out firing and completed his first 11 passes, running his streak to 22. We scored first. Nassib completed 25 of 37 for 230 yards and Matt Barkley completed 26 of 39 for 324 yards. But Nassib threw only one TD pass while Barkley threw 5 of them, three of them from at least 31 yards out. It was the kind of game where a few big plays determined the outcome and we were not a big-play team. When a mid-level program like Syracuse plays a powerhouse like USC, they might get one semi completive game out of it. Watch out for the other one. This is the other one.
Barkley wound up with 39TD passes compared to only 7 interceptions last year, (Nassib was 22/9). Robert Woods and Marquis Lee are probably the best receiving tandem in the country, (184 catches between them last year). Their best running back was Curtis McNeal, who ran for 1005 yard, until Lane Kiffin did what Doug Marrone wouldn’t do- he picked Penn State’s bones for Silas Redd, who ran for 1241 yards last year for the Nittany Lions. They have their entire “back seven”, (linebackers and D-Backs) returning, including All-American Safety T.J. McDonald. Andre Heidari is an excellent place kicker and Kyle Negrete an excellent punter. Per Athlon, “they have a lethal group of return men with a chance to go the distance on any given day”. Their only weakness appears to be depth due to their scholarship limitations from their recent probation.. But their back-ups are surely as good as anything we have, probably better.
We might have had a puncher’s chance at the sort of off-the-wall upset that would have put us on the map, (see Nebraska ’84) but our Athletic Director, Darryl Gross, agreed to have this game moved from the Carrier Dome to the Meadowlands because he felt it gave us a higher profile. Instead our next home game will be against Stony Brook. Yes, Stony Brook.
STONY BROOK Saturday, 9/15/12 4PM Carrier Dome Local TV on Time Warner Cable
Stony Brook, which sounds like where the Slippery Rocks come from, started playing football in 1983. They didn’t offer football scholarships until 2006 and are now an FCS team. And a good one. Last year they were the highest scoring team in FCS and went to the playoffs, losing only 27-34 at the #1 ranked team, Sam Houston State. They finished 9-4. That Rhode Island team we barely scrapped by in the Dome last year, (21-14), was also an FCS team, one that went only 3-8. The Sea Wolves are much, much better than the Rams.
Yet this game was set up as a sort of runaway truck offshoot, like those you see in the mountains for trucks that have lost their breaks. People are looking at this as the game that allows us to easily break a 7 game losing streak, if we are unable to beat Northwestern and then get clobbered by USC. We can always beat, heh, heh, Stony Brook. Suppose we lost to them, which we certainly could do. That would likely be the equivalent for Doug Marrone of the 2008 Akron game, where Greg Robinson, in a year when he had to get it turned around or be fired, lost by two touchdowns to one of the worst programs in FBS. It was the final nail in G-Rob’s coffin. If this proves to be our 8th straight loss, the demands that Marrone be fired will reach a crescendo. Recruiting will stop because the players won’t know if Marrone will be the coach when they get here. We will be back in the vicious cycle we are desperately trying to get out of. For that reason, I think the school with the funny name is actually the most important game of the season, the one we can least afford to lose.
The Seawolves have a big-time running back in Miguel Maysonet, who rushed for 1633 yards last year. Their second best runner, Brock Jackolski, ran for 1418. Quite a combination, (hurray for the two back offense!). Jackolski is gone but they have Iowa transfer Marcus Coker, who ran for 1384 with the Hawkeyes, so the beat goes on. Four guys come back on the offensive line. Their quarterback, Kyle Essington, threw for 1919 yards and 20 scores. Would Syracuse’s guys have done any better against their schedule?
Their weakness last year was on defense and they have lost some players there, especially in the line. If we play efficiently on offense, we should be able to score a lot against Stony Brook. We may need to.
The USC game doesn’t scare me. We’ve taken a lot of bad beatings in recent years and this one would not be a surprise. Stony Brook scares me. We can’t afford a loss but could easily get one if the team is down coming off the USC game- or up if we somehow beat them. Losing to the Seawolves the next week would completely cancel that out. What happens the rest of the year may well depend on what happens in this game.
MINNESOTA Saturday 9/22/12 8PM in Minneapolis, Minn. Big Ten Network
The Golden Gophers look more like brass these days. They are coming off of consecutive 3-9 seasons. Fans who want to kill the coach don’t have to: his name is Jerry Kill. They have a quarterback who is the type Ashton Broyld might be someday. MarQueis Gray led them in rushing with 966 yards, mostly on scrambles and passed for another 1495 but only 8 TD’s. They have only one returning receiver who has caught a touchdown pass in college and their running backs and offensive linemen are inexperienced. They have a dominant defensive tackle in RaShede Hageman but little else on defense. Troy Stoudemire and Marcus Jones are big-time kick-returners. Jordan Wettstein is a good placekicker but they are looking for a reliable punter.
I think we are better than these guys and hopefully we will be at least 2-2 coming out of this game.
