SWC75
Bored Historian
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THE TEAM
Offense
The Passing Game
Terrell Hunt will be our quarterback this year. Period. He was the heir apparent to Ryan Nassib last year, having been in the program for two years, (one a redshirt year), and out-competed the other quarterbacks we had on the roster. But then Drew Allen became available. He was a top recruit out of the Texas high school ranks who had gone to Oklahoma and lost out on the prized quarterback job there to Landry Jones. He had one season of eligibility left and decided to spend it at Syracuse. There’s an NCAA rule that a player can transfer with a year left and play immediately if his new school offers a course of study not available at his old one. When interviewed here, Allen was asked what this course of study was and he had to pull a card out of his pocket to remember what it was called. (He then dropped it and had to pick it up.) It turned out to be a course all the 5th years seniors seem to take, probably to keep them eligible for that fifth year. I’m sure Oklahoma has something similar. They just call it something else. The whole “Searching for the course he wanted” thing was bogus.
So were Allen’s credentials as a blue chipper. Everybody assumed that we were getting a top-flight quarterback prospect, somebody way better than the sort of talents we normally get for that positon up here in the cold northeast, (including Hunt). Besides, Oklahoma’s highly productive offense was similar to ours, (or what we wanted to do). Who better to run it than an Oklahoma quarterback? There was talk of a completion for the job but no one was surprised when Allen was named the starting quarterback before the opener vs. Penn State. I’m sure he was sure that this was the start of his glorious senior year that would erase the frustrations he had in Norman and make him a high NFL draft choice. But some wondered why he fled Oklahoma when Jones had already moved on to the pros and the positon was open again. Didn’t he think he had a chance to win that job and wouldn’t he rather be the Oklahoma quarterback than the Syracuse quarterback? Apparently he came here because he could be assured of starting. His teammates might not be as good but his talent would overcome that.
He came out against Penn State and looked gigantic, (he’s 6-5 and 230), but very stiff. The game seemed to be swirling around him while he did everything in slow motion. He completed 16 of 37 for 189 yards. He did complete a 55 yarder to speedy Jeremiah Kobena but never found the end zone, throwing two interceptions in a 17-23 loss to SU’s old time rival, in a season where we couldn’t afford to let too many games get away. His defenders noted that he’d had only a few weeks to “learn the system”. But he was totally out-played by Penn State’s true freshman, Christian Hackenberg (22/31, 278 yards, 2YDs, 2int), who had those same few weeks and was four years younger and less mature. And besides, hadn’t Allen come here because our system was similar to what he was used to at Oklahoma?
Against Northwestern, Allen improved except in one critical area. He was 27 for 41 for 279 yards and 1 touchdown. But he threw 4interceptions in a game that became an embarrassing 7-34 rout by halftime. Hunt finally managed to get in late in the fourth quarter, long after the game had been decided. The team’s spirts immediately picked up and they drove down the field to score. Hunt completed a couple of passes for 22 yards and ran for 30 more. Allen supporters dismissed that as being against reserves late in a one-sided game but there were reports that Hunt was the guy the rest of the team wanted to play with all along and they were excited that he finally got a chance to get in there. They seemed to play with more enthusiasm and better coordination.
The next week a decision was made to start Hunt, rather than Allen against FCS opponent Wagner. It would have been a game for Allen to rack up some big stats, (we won 54-0), and get some confidence back. Instead, the staff had decided that Hunt’s development was more important. He had two more years of eligibility after this and Allen didn’t look like such an upgrade after all. Hunt ripped the Seahawks for 15/18, 265 yards and 3 scores with no picks while running for another 22 yards. Allen did OK in the late going, 8/11 for 62 yards and a score. But the die was cast. People wondered if we might have done better to keep Hunt the starter all along and begin his development earlier so he could peak earlier in the season. But Allen came here to start and he was a Texas kid and an Oklahoma quarterback, so he’d gotten the job.
Hunt had another big game against Tulane, who was thought to be a bad team but wound up 7-6, (Northwestern shockingly wound up 5-7), going 16 for 21 for 181 yards and 4 scores, again with no interceptions. He also ran for 39 yards and a score in a 52-17 win. A star had been born, it seemed.
Then he hit the wall. In the next six games, he was 59 for 130 (45%) for 553 yards (92 a game), NO touchdowns and 7 interceptions. We somehow split those games, thanks to injuries that crippled, Wake Forest and Maryland’s offensives, (those teams weren’t all that good when healthy), and allowed our defense to shut them down. But the losses were horrendous- to Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State by a combined 17-164. Meanwhile, Drew Allen didn’t exactly shine when he got a chance to relieve Hunt late in the blowouts, going 14 for 27 for 111 yards 0TDs and 3int. he’d done nothing to take the job back and with the rest of the games close, his season and his college career was over. He wasn’t drafted by the NFL.
At the end of the season, things started making more sense for Terrell Hunt and he looked more confident and was more productive. Against Pitt and Boston College, he was 47 for 71 for 429 yards, 3TDs and 1 int. He ran for 103 yards on 25 carries and scored once. We split those games and got into the Texas bowl, where he was 19 for 29 for 188 yards. He didn’t throw a TD pass but didn’t throw an interception, either and ran for 74 yards and 2TDs, including the winning score to give us a final record of 7-6 after a very difficult season. His final stats: 167 of 273 (61%) for 1,638 yards but for only 10TDs in 12 games, with 8 interceptions. He ran for 610 yards and 7 TDs but lost 110 yards on sacks for a net 500.
He’s a big guy, too at 6-3, 234. He’s much more mobile than Hunt. He’s not a track-star type quarterback but has a niftiness that allows him to pick his way through an open field. He looks to pass first but can take advantage of running opportunities when they are there. He doesn’t have a rifle arm but is accurate enough on short and medium passes when he’s not been put on the run by the defense of a national title contender. He seems like a good and vocal leader who has the confidence of his teammates and that can help a lot. What would help a lot more is an improvement in the receiving corps, (see below). He had very little to work with last season and badly needs some reliable and dynamic receivers to emerge. I agree with the notion that it might have helped if he’d been the starter from the beginning last year but that’s water under the bridge. He became a pretty good college quarterback by the end of the year and should be better this season. I could see him having a Nassib-like career: redshirt, doesn’t play much his first season, struggles his first year as a starter, begins to put some serious numbers up as a junior and explodes as a senior. This is Hunt’s junior year.
His back-ups are Austin Wlison, Mitch Kimble and AJ Long but the name to conjure with is freshman Alin Edouard from Florida who could be the “next big thing” here. But Hunt is “the man” here for the next two seasons.
Last year our leading receiver was Ashton Broyld, who, in 13 games, never scored. It was the first time in 40 years that SU’s leading receiver hadn’t scored. On that 1973 team, it was Bob Petchel, who caught 22 passes in 11 games for a team that wound up 2-9. It was Ben Schwartwalder’s last season. We lost our first 8 games and a national newspaper article declared SU to be “the worst team in the country”. Last year Broyld caught 52 passes in 13 games but still couldn’t score for a 7-6 team.
Ashton seems to be the classic “athlete without a position”. He came out of high school having led Rush-Henrietta of Rochester to the state title while looking like a Cam Newton clone as a quarterback. He’s a big dude at 6-3 216, (he must have slimmed down: I’ve seen him listed at 230), who was the biggest and fastest guy on the field in high school. And he could throw the ball. I thought maybe he might emerge as SU’s next QB after Nassib and we’d see if he looked like Cam Newton in college. Obviously, he isn’t. We used him as a running back in 2012 and he looked good in that role, (36 carries for 171 yards and an actual touchdown), but fumbled in a couple critical situations. That plus some immaturity he says he’s now put in the rear view mirror had him in Doug Marrone’s doghouse. Scott Shafter and George MacDonald put him in “the slot” where he served as a sort of extra tight end, (which is why he got only 452 yards, (8.7 a catch) on those 52 passes he caught and never found the end zone. This year, they tried putting him out on the flank to take better advantage of his speed but they’ve switched him back to the slot- and to his old role. I hope he scores this year.
Actually, he’s sharing the slot with a very different and, I think, a very special player. I first saw Brisley Estime, (“Esteem” seems to be the most popular pronunciation) in his You-Tube recruiting videos. I saw a water-sprite who zig-zagged all over the field and, when he got an opening, could burst through the defense like a laser beam. LSU’s Tyrone Mathieu was getting a lot of publicity as a great defensive back and return man for them. His nickname was “The Honey Badger”. I noted that Brisley was about the same size, (but a bit lighter) and actually had a better 40 yard time. I decide to dub him “The Salt Badger” and hoped he could do the things for us that the Honey Badger was doing for LSU- break up games with big plays.
He got off to a slow start. The coaches said he had to learn the offense. I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t returning kicks. How much is there to learn there? It has been years since we had any kind of a kick return game in Syracuse- and we’ve ended one because, other than 2012, our offense was often pitiful. But we started to see more and more of the SB late in the season. He had a 9 catch game vs. Wake Forest. He caught 2 passes for 35 yards vs. Boston College and 5 for 47 against Minnesota. But the big play of the season was his 70 yard punt return vs. Minnesota that set up Hunt’s winning score:
Was that Brisley making the block in the end zone when Hunt scored?
I think Estime will gain plenty of esteem this year. I think SU will do everything It can to get the ball into his hands on passes, kicks, even the occasional running play, (he’s be great on the end-around). He has the type of talent that elevate this team to more than just another .500 season. The Salt Badger may roar in 2014!
http://theshroom.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/badger.jpg
Jarrod West was the #3 receiver behind Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales in 2012. He played last year like he was still the #3 receiver. He went from 43 catches in 13 games to 26 in 11 and scored once. He’s a big target at 6-3 but not very fast or dynamic.
Jeremiah Kobena came to SU with a reputation as the sort of speedster we needed. But catching the ball has been a problem. He caught 16 of 30 passes thrown to him last year for 206 yards and- of course- no scores last year. He’s not even on the three deep at any wide receiver spot going into this year. Nunesmagician.com says : “There aren't a ton of teams in the conference with this type of experience this far down the depth chart, and that should help SU out immensely. Whether it's tutoring younger players or playing an active role off the bench, Kobena has ample chances to help out in 2014”. That’s not what we had in mind when he showed up here.
For seemingly years no we’ve heard about how talented Adrian Fleming is. He’s tall, (6-4) with good hands and speed. The problem is the rest of his body. Something keeps breaking down. Injuries have limited him to 20 games, (mostly on special teams, waiting for Lemon and Sales to graduate), and 2 catches for 18 yards. He didn’t last one half before getting hurt and out for the season last year. He’s going to give is another try this year.
It was a big deal when Quinta Funderburk transferred here from Arkansas. He’s as big as West or Fleming, (6-4 201), and coming out of high school he was a four star recruits described this way on At their request, this network is being blocked from this site.: “A big, strong receiver that’s an acrobat in the air adjusting to the ball. Has terrific body control and boxes out smaller defensive backs like he’s going for a rebound. More than just a jump ball specialist though, Funderburk runs crisp routes and is capable of breaking a tackle and running over, around, and by potential tacklers. A tough receiver that will cut inside looking for extra yards instead of hunting for the sidelines.” He rated the #35 receiver prospect coming out of high school. But he couldn’t seem to get on the field last year for reasons that were never specifically stated. He got into four games, got thrown to five times and caught three of them for 28 yards and no scores. Whatever his problem(s) was/were, I hope their over.
People who have attended practices have had good things to say about Alvin Cornelius and Ben Lewis for a couple years now. They too, have good size, (6-1 and 6-2) and some speed. Cornelius caught 9 passes for 142 yards and a score last year. Lewis has 1 catch for 7 yards. Sean Avant “has the team’s best hair” per NunesMagician. Keenen Hale was injured in the spring game and is “buried on the depth chart”.
There was supposed to be a wave of new talent descending on the wide receivers positons from the freshman class. KJ Williams was the highest rated but his grades weren’t rated as high so he’s in prep school and has opened up his recruiting again. Corey Cooper got homesick and went home. He’ll be transferring somewhere closer to home, (North Carolina). Adly Enoicy is coming off surgery. Corey Winfield was moved to defensive back. The one freshman wide-out left that might make an impression is Steve Ismael, if he doesn’t redshirt. (And it appears he won’t as he’s risen to #2 in the depth chart).
Tight end Josh Parris got hurt in pre-season practice and had surgery. He’ll be out at least 3-4 weeks. He caught 13 balls for 90 yards and two scores, both against Boston College in the bowl-clinching game. Kendall Moore caught a TD pass in the northwestern game. Tyler Provo is the brother of Nick Provo, one of Nassib’s favorite targets. Jamal Custis is 6-6, 225, supposedly with 4.37 speed in the forty yard dash, (I’ll believe it when I see it). Deandre Smith, SU’s running backs coach said of him: “He is as good as I've ever seen a kid look as a freshman. Oh my goodness, he's unbelievable." He could be a wide-out or a tight end, and a difficult match-up for anybody covering him in either capacity.
It will be up to returning players to turn this unit around and give Hunt the sort of wide receivers he can thrive with. They are not without ability but their accomplishments so far have been limited. We need at least a couple of guys to bust out this year. I think Estime will be one of them. Who will be the other?
The Running Game
I’ll spare you my annual plea to go back to a traditional fullback-halfback line-up with both as running threats. We don’t have a classic fullback type this year. Jerome Smith had graduated and decided to pass up his last year of eligibility to go to the pros. But they didn’t want him. He wasn’t drafted and has been cut by the Falcons who gave him a shot as a free agent. Last year Jerome, a powerful straight-ahead runner with breakaway speed, rushed for 914 yards and 12 scores after getting 1,019 yards the years before. It would have been nice to have him back this year but I don’t know that another year would have made him a better player or more attractive to the NFL. And we have plenty of talent coming back at running back.
Prince-Tyson Gulley isn’t big, (5-8, 193). He has some speed and some moves. He’s a veteran back capable of having some big games. In the Pinstripe Bowl vs. West Virginia, he ran for 213 yards and two long TDs and caught passes for 56 yards and another score. For his career, he’s gained 1,449 yards on 272 carries, (5.3) and 14 scores and caught 53 passes for 375 yards and 3TDs. Being the most experienced back, he’s probably the best blocker, something the fans ignore but coaches stress. And he’s become one of the leaders on the team and was elected one of four co-captains
Behind him George Morris and DeVante McFarland have shown obvious talent: good size, (both about 6 feet and 200 pounds), excellent speed and great instincts. Morris rushed for 334 yards and scored twice while McFarlane ran for 292 yards and a score but averaged 6.1 yards per carry. They are clearly the future of the position and will get a lot of touches this year.
Adonis Amin-Moore has a great name and a big body- too big. He was thought to be a major recruit. People thought he might start and star as a freshman but he ate his way out of job, blowing up to 5-11 and at least 260. He was used primarily in goal-line situation where his bulk might move the pile. He’s down to 246 this year and back in the mix at running back. He might make the kind of fullback I talk about each year but I promised I wasn’t going to get into that. And he hasn’t done enough to warrant such thinking, anyway.
A lot of people are talking about 5-11 179 speedster Ervin Phillips. It remains to be seen how much we’ll see of him this season with the people he has ahead of him but he’s a name to remember. Coach Shafer on his radio show called him “really explosive”. Maybe the fans will need helmets.
For years we were plagued by mediocre and then lousy offensive lines. Doug Marrone, a former All-East tackle, decided to change that and one characteristic of Syracuse in this decade is that we’ve had good offensive lines. Once you start having good lines you can get to a situation where 3-4 guys return each year who know what it takes and you can maintain that strength. We seem to be in that agreeable situation. We’ve got four returning starters, Sean Hickey, (named to the preseason All-ACC team), Ivan Foy, Rob Trudo and Nick Robinson. Robinson is nursing an injury to start the season and Omari Palmer, who seemed to be beating out Trudo, caused Rob to be moved to replace Robinson. It was thought that center Mackey McPherson would be replaced by Jason Emerich but he got beat out by John Miller. Hopefully, the rise of Palmer and Miller are due to their abilities, not due to weaknesses in Trudo or Emerich. I think it is and that we’ll have another fine offensive line. Hunt should have time to check down his receivers and throw to them against most opponents and the running backs should find holes waiting for them when they get to the line of scrimmage. That could not only lead to big plays but it means that our guys will having a running start when they get hit and will be more likely to “win” those collisions and gain extra yardage.
George MacDonald has promised that his offense will rev it up this year. We are going to get off more plays and get the defense gassed. That’s what we did two years ago. But that requires an efficient passing game and tends to put the running game, which will probably be our real strength, into the background. But a dynamic passing game can also open things up for the running attack. Stay tuned.
Defense
The Line
In 2010 we went 8-5 with a veteran defensive line. “Veteran” in college doesn’t simply mean that you have experienced players. Linemen do a lot of body building in their college careers. They are often about 250 when they are recruited, 260 after a redshirt year, 270 when they start getting playing time, then 280 when they become starters, then 290, then 300. That 2010 line was full of 300 pounders who could stuff the run.
Then they graduated and the next year’s line was full of those 270 pounders, (which used to be big in the old days but not now). They got pushed around a lot by offensive line 300 pounders. Our defense declined and we went 5-7. The next year those guys got stronger and went 8-5 again. Last year we seemed blessed in this area but top recruit Wayne Willaims, (who was already over 300 pounds), didn’t qualify, Davon Walls, another big guy, burglarized a fellow student’s apartment and got kicked off the team and John Raymon, a huge transfer from Iowa got his knee Theismaned in the Georgia Tech debacle. Two others , Jay Bromley, our best lineman and arguably the best player on the entire team, and Zian Jones graduated. Suddenly we didn’t seem so blessed. We wound up 7-6 but it wasn’t a strong 7-6 and the D-line wasn’t a strong reason we were 7-6.
What we have now is 296 pound Eric Crume, a good one, Ryan Sloan, a bigger one at 320 and Williams, who finally qualified but may be too a bit too big at 330, as well as talented but under-sized isaiah Washington (276), Marcus Coleman (286) and Ron Thompson, a former highly-recruited tight end prospect, who is listed at only 255 pounds. There’s not much proven ability or depth there and it’s a big concern.
We are in better shape at end where Robert Welch (248) is our best lineman. Micah Robinson(270) is pretty good and Thompson will play there, as well. At least I like the name value. Marcus Coleman, Isaiah Johnson and Micah Robinson all sound like defensive linemen, don’t they? And I guess Johnson, Robinson and Thompson will be the “My Three Sons” of football.
But if you’ve got problems up front, you’ve got problems, period.
The Linebackers
I’ve loved our linebackers the last few years and will love them again this year. Say the name Dyshawn Davis and I will always remember what he did to Rutgers as a freshman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XcYR_ky-c
He’s now a senior team leader. I’ll miss posting that highlight in next year’s preview.
Cameron Lynch of Georgia was one the early benefits of the announced switch to the ACC, (so was George Morris, who is from the same state). He always seems to be in the middle of every play. Marquez Hodge also showed a lot of good instincts as freshman last year. Josh Kirkland had a nose for the ball last year. Zaire Franklin was a top guy in our recruiting class. Luke Arciniega provides some much-need size at 240 pounds, (Davis is 221, Lynch 226, Hodge 216, Kirkland 201 and Franklin 215), and that is the one concern with this group, especially when undersized guys are manning the defensive line.
Defensive backfield
We’ve been recruiting defensive backs like mad in recent years and converting offensive players back there. It’s obvious Shafer and his staff know that competing in the ACC is all about speed and you need it most in the defensive backfield, where they have to keep up with fast guys who know where they are going when the defender doesn’t. Free safety Durell Eskridge will be our best all-around defensive player. Darius Kelly will be the other safety. Brandon Reddish and Wayne Morgan are fast friends- they are friends and they are fast- from the New York City area who play cornerback for us. So does Julius Whigham, who may be better than either one but suffered a ghastly injury during Florida State when the scar tissue from a previous internal operation came loose and he vomited blood in the end zone. It made me wonder if he should be playing football at all but he’s back and is supposed to be healthy enough to play. He’s listed as a starter above Morgan. Those guys will be good- if they remain healthy.
The Kicking Game
Ross Krautman appeared to be on his way to setting all kinds of kicking records here. As a freshman, he hit 16 field goals in a row and 18 of 19 overall, both tying SU records. But he was less steady 15 for 23 his second year and 1 for 2 last year until it was revealed he had a chronic hip injury. He announced just before this season that he was giving up his football career. Very sad. That leaves us with Ryan Norton, our kick-off man as our place-kicker. Last year, filling in for the injured Krautman he was 10 for 15. The coach said that he had the leg but not yet the timing. We’ll see if he has that timing down this season. Riley Dixon is an excellent punter, a rare one who can not only launch it when he has to but can place the ball, too, including coffin corner kicks.
For years our kick-off returns have tended to be interrupted very suddenly at the 20 yard line. Coach says he’s increased the number of linebackers on the roster from 8-9 to 13-14 to get better special teams coverage. Hopefully they can give us some good blocking as well. Meanwhile, our punt returners were raising their arms for a fair catch even before the punter’s foot made contact with the ball. Our kick returners were giving our struggling offense absolutely no help whatsoever. But now we have Brisley Estime, who will be returning punts and, from one report, may be returning kick-offs as well, (with Erv Phillips: they would make quite a combination). The more times we can get the ball in the Salt Badger’s hands, the more special this season will be.
Last year Syracuse gained 377 yards per game, 195 on the ground and 183 on the air. We scored 23 points per game. Our defense gave up 367 yards per game, 137 on the ground and 230 in the air. We surrendered 25 points per game. We were +2 on turnovers.
Offense
The Passing Game
Terrell Hunt will be our quarterback this year. Period. He was the heir apparent to Ryan Nassib last year, having been in the program for two years, (one a redshirt year), and out-competed the other quarterbacks we had on the roster. But then Drew Allen became available. He was a top recruit out of the Texas high school ranks who had gone to Oklahoma and lost out on the prized quarterback job there to Landry Jones. He had one season of eligibility left and decided to spend it at Syracuse. There’s an NCAA rule that a player can transfer with a year left and play immediately if his new school offers a course of study not available at his old one. When interviewed here, Allen was asked what this course of study was and he had to pull a card out of his pocket to remember what it was called. (He then dropped it and had to pick it up.) It turned out to be a course all the 5th years seniors seem to take, probably to keep them eligible for that fifth year. I’m sure Oklahoma has something similar. They just call it something else. The whole “Searching for the course he wanted” thing was bogus.
So were Allen’s credentials as a blue chipper. Everybody assumed that we were getting a top-flight quarterback prospect, somebody way better than the sort of talents we normally get for that positon up here in the cold northeast, (including Hunt). Besides, Oklahoma’s highly productive offense was similar to ours, (or what we wanted to do). Who better to run it than an Oklahoma quarterback? There was talk of a completion for the job but no one was surprised when Allen was named the starting quarterback before the opener vs. Penn State. I’m sure he was sure that this was the start of his glorious senior year that would erase the frustrations he had in Norman and make him a high NFL draft choice. But some wondered why he fled Oklahoma when Jones had already moved on to the pros and the positon was open again. Didn’t he think he had a chance to win that job and wouldn’t he rather be the Oklahoma quarterback than the Syracuse quarterback? Apparently he came here because he could be assured of starting. His teammates might not be as good but his talent would overcome that.
He came out against Penn State and looked gigantic, (he’s 6-5 and 230), but very stiff. The game seemed to be swirling around him while he did everything in slow motion. He completed 16 of 37 for 189 yards. He did complete a 55 yarder to speedy Jeremiah Kobena but never found the end zone, throwing two interceptions in a 17-23 loss to SU’s old time rival, in a season where we couldn’t afford to let too many games get away. His defenders noted that he’d had only a few weeks to “learn the system”. But he was totally out-played by Penn State’s true freshman, Christian Hackenberg (22/31, 278 yards, 2YDs, 2int), who had those same few weeks and was four years younger and less mature. And besides, hadn’t Allen come here because our system was similar to what he was used to at Oklahoma?
Against Northwestern, Allen improved except in one critical area. He was 27 for 41 for 279 yards and 1 touchdown. But he threw 4interceptions in a game that became an embarrassing 7-34 rout by halftime. Hunt finally managed to get in late in the fourth quarter, long after the game had been decided. The team’s spirts immediately picked up and they drove down the field to score. Hunt completed a couple of passes for 22 yards and ran for 30 more. Allen supporters dismissed that as being against reserves late in a one-sided game but there were reports that Hunt was the guy the rest of the team wanted to play with all along and they were excited that he finally got a chance to get in there. They seemed to play with more enthusiasm and better coordination.
The next week a decision was made to start Hunt, rather than Allen against FCS opponent Wagner. It would have been a game for Allen to rack up some big stats, (we won 54-0), and get some confidence back. Instead, the staff had decided that Hunt’s development was more important. He had two more years of eligibility after this and Allen didn’t look like such an upgrade after all. Hunt ripped the Seahawks for 15/18, 265 yards and 3 scores with no picks while running for another 22 yards. Allen did OK in the late going, 8/11 for 62 yards and a score. But the die was cast. People wondered if we might have done better to keep Hunt the starter all along and begin his development earlier so he could peak earlier in the season. But Allen came here to start and he was a Texas kid and an Oklahoma quarterback, so he’d gotten the job.
Hunt had another big game against Tulane, who was thought to be a bad team but wound up 7-6, (Northwestern shockingly wound up 5-7), going 16 for 21 for 181 yards and 4 scores, again with no interceptions. He also ran for 39 yards and a score in a 52-17 win. A star had been born, it seemed.
Then he hit the wall. In the next six games, he was 59 for 130 (45%) for 553 yards (92 a game), NO touchdowns and 7 interceptions. We somehow split those games, thanks to injuries that crippled, Wake Forest and Maryland’s offensives, (those teams weren’t all that good when healthy), and allowed our defense to shut them down. But the losses were horrendous- to Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State by a combined 17-164. Meanwhile, Drew Allen didn’t exactly shine when he got a chance to relieve Hunt late in the blowouts, going 14 for 27 for 111 yards 0TDs and 3int. he’d done nothing to take the job back and with the rest of the games close, his season and his college career was over. He wasn’t drafted by the NFL.
At the end of the season, things started making more sense for Terrell Hunt and he looked more confident and was more productive. Against Pitt and Boston College, he was 47 for 71 for 429 yards, 3TDs and 1 int. He ran for 103 yards on 25 carries and scored once. We split those games and got into the Texas bowl, where he was 19 for 29 for 188 yards. He didn’t throw a TD pass but didn’t throw an interception, either and ran for 74 yards and 2TDs, including the winning score to give us a final record of 7-6 after a very difficult season. His final stats: 167 of 273 (61%) for 1,638 yards but for only 10TDs in 12 games, with 8 interceptions. He ran for 610 yards and 7 TDs but lost 110 yards on sacks for a net 500.
He’s a big guy, too at 6-3, 234. He’s much more mobile than Hunt. He’s not a track-star type quarterback but has a niftiness that allows him to pick his way through an open field. He looks to pass first but can take advantage of running opportunities when they are there. He doesn’t have a rifle arm but is accurate enough on short and medium passes when he’s not been put on the run by the defense of a national title contender. He seems like a good and vocal leader who has the confidence of his teammates and that can help a lot. What would help a lot more is an improvement in the receiving corps, (see below). He had very little to work with last season and badly needs some reliable and dynamic receivers to emerge. I agree with the notion that it might have helped if he’d been the starter from the beginning last year but that’s water under the bridge. He became a pretty good college quarterback by the end of the year and should be better this season. I could see him having a Nassib-like career: redshirt, doesn’t play much his first season, struggles his first year as a starter, begins to put some serious numbers up as a junior and explodes as a senior. This is Hunt’s junior year.
His back-ups are Austin Wlison, Mitch Kimble and AJ Long but the name to conjure with is freshman Alin Edouard from Florida who could be the “next big thing” here. But Hunt is “the man” here for the next two seasons.
Last year our leading receiver was Ashton Broyld, who, in 13 games, never scored. It was the first time in 40 years that SU’s leading receiver hadn’t scored. On that 1973 team, it was Bob Petchel, who caught 22 passes in 11 games for a team that wound up 2-9. It was Ben Schwartwalder’s last season. We lost our first 8 games and a national newspaper article declared SU to be “the worst team in the country”. Last year Broyld caught 52 passes in 13 games but still couldn’t score for a 7-6 team.
Ashton seems to be the classic “athlete without a position”. He came out of high school having led Rush-Henrietta of Rochester to the state title while looking like a Cam Newton clone as a quarterback. He’s a big dude at 6-3 216, (he must have slimmed down: I’ve seen him listed at 230), who was the biggest and fastest guy on the field in high school. And he could throw the ball. I thought maybe he might emerge as SU’s next QB after Nassib and we’d see if he looked like Cam Newton in college. Obviously, he isn’t. We used him as a running back in 2012 and he looked good in that role, (36 carries for 171 yards and an actual touchdown), but fumbled in a couple critical situations. That plus some immaturity he says he’s now put in the rear view mirror had him in Doug Marrone’s doghouse. Scott Shafter and George MacDonald put him in “the slot” where he served as a sort of extra tight end, (which is why he got only 452 yards, (8.7 a catch) on those 52 passes he caught and never found the end zone. This year, they tried putting him out on the flank to take better advantage of his speed but they’ve switched him back to the slot- and to his old role. I hope he scores this year.
Actually, he’s sharing the slot with a very different and, I think, a very special player. I first saw Brisley Estime, (“Esteem” seems to be the most popular pronunciation) in his You-Tube recruiting videos. I saw a water-sprite who zig-zagged all over the field and, when he got an opening, could burst through the defense like a laser beam. LSU’s Tyrone Mathieu was getting a lot of publicity as a great defensive back and return man for them. His nickname was “The Honey Badger”. I noted that Brisley was about the same size, (but a bit lighter) and actually had a better 40 yard time. I decide to dub him “The Salt Badger” and hoped he could do the things for us that the Honey Badger was doing for LSU- break up games with big plays.
He got off to a slow start. The coaches said he had to learn the offense. I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t returning kicks. How much is there to learn there? It has been years since we had any kind of a kick return game in Syracuse- and we’ve ended one because, other than 2012, our offense was often pitiful. But we started to see more and more of the SB late in the season. He had a 9 catch game vs. Wake Forest. He caught 2 passes for 35 yards vs. Boston College and 5 for 47 against Minnesota. But the big play of the season was his 70 yard punt return vs. Minnesota that set up Hunt’s winning score:
Was that Brisley making the block in the end zone when Hunt scored?
I think Estime will gain plenty of esteem this year. I think SU will do everything It can to get the ball into his hands on passes, kicks, even the occasional running play, (he’s be great on the end-around). He has the type of talent that elevate this team to more than just another .500 season. The Salt Badger may roar in 2014!
http://theshroom.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/badger.jpg
Jarrod West was the #3 receiver behind Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales in 2012. He played last year like he was still the #3 receiver. He went from 43 catches in 13 games to 26 in 11 and scored once. He’s a big target at 6-3 but not very fast or dynamic.
Jeremiah Kobena came to SU with a reputation as the sort of speedster we needed. But catching the ball has been a problem. He caught 16 of 30 passes thrown to him last year for 206 yards and- of course- no scores last year. He’s not even on the three deep at any wide receiver spot going into this year. Nunesmagician.com says : “There aren't a ton of teams in the conference with this type of experience this far down the depth chart, and that should help SU out immensely. Whether it's tutoring younger players or playing an active role off the bench, Kobena has ample chances to help out in 2014”. That’s not what we had in mind when he showed up here.
For seemingly years no we’ve heard about how talented Adrian Fleming is. He’s tall, (6-4) with good hands and speed. The problem is the rest of his body. Something keeps breaking down. Injuries have limited him to 20 games, (mostly on special teams, waiting for Lemon and Sales to graduate), and 2 catches for 18 yards. He didn’t last one half before getting hurt and out for the season last year. He’s going to give is another try this year.
It was a big deal when Quinta Funderburk transferred here from Arkansas. He’s as big as West or Fleming, (6-4 201), and coming out of high school he was a four star recruits described this way on At their request, this network is being blocked from this site.: “A big, strong receiver that’s an acrobat in the air adjusting to the ball. Has terrific body control and boxes out smaller defensive backs like he’s going for a rebound. More than just a jump ball specialist though, Funderburk runs crisp routes and is capable of breaking a tackle and running over, around, and by potential tacklers. A tough receiver that will cut inside looking for extra yards instead of hunting for the sidelines.” He rated the #35 receiver prospect coming out of high school. But he couldn’t seem to get on the field last year for reasons that were never specifically stated. He got into four games, got thrown to five times and caught three of them for 28 yards and no scores. Whatever his problem(s) was/were, I hope their over.
People who have attended practices have had good things to say about Alvin Cornelius and Ben Lewis for a couple years now. They too, have good size, (6-1 and 6-2) and some speed. Cornelius caught 9 passes for 142 yards and a score last year. Lewis has 1 catch for 7 yards. Sean Avant “has the team’s best hair” per NunesMagician. Keenen Hale was injured in the spring game and is “buried on the depth chart”.
There was supposed to be a wave of new talent descending on the wide receivers positons from the freshman class. KJ Williams was the highest rated but his grades weren’t rated as high so he’s in prep school and has opened up his recruiting again. Corey Cooper got homesick and went home. He’ll be transferring somewhere closer to home, (North Carolina). Adly Enoicy is coming off surgery. Corey Winfield was moved to defensive back. The one freshman wide-out left that might make an impression is Steve Ismael, if he doesn’t redshirt. (And it appears he won’t as he’s risen to #2 in the depth chart).
Tight end Josh Parris got hurt in pre-season practice and had surgery. He’ll be out at least 3-4 weeks. He caught 13 balls for 90 yards and two scores, both against Boston College in the bowl-clinching game. Kendall Moore caught a TD pass in the northwestern game. Tyler Provo is the brother of Nick Provo, one of Nassib’s favorite targets. Jamal Custis is 6-6, 225, supposedly with 4.37 speed in the forty yard dash, (I’ll believe it when I see it). Deandre Smith, SU’s running backs coach said of him: “He is as good as I've ever seen a kid look as a freshman. Oh my goodness, he's unbelievable." He could be a wide-out or a tight end, and a difficult match-up for anybody covering him in either capacity.
It will be up to returning players to turn this unit around and give Hunt the sort of wide receivers he can thrive with. They are not without ability but their accomplishments so far have been limited. We need at least a couple of guys to bust out this year. I think Estime will be one of them. Who will be the other?
The Running Game
I’ll spare you my annual plea to go back to a traditional fullback-halfback line-up with both as running threats. We don’t have a classic fullback type this year. Jerome Smith had graduated and decided to pass up his last year of eligibility to go to the pros. But they didn’t want him. He wasn’t drafted and has been cut by the Falcons who gave him a shot as a free agent. Last year Jerome, a powerful straight-ahead runner with breakaway speed, rushed for 914 yards and 12 scores after getting 1,019 yards the years before. It would have been nice to have him back this year but I don’t know that another year would have made him a better player or more attractive to the NFL. And we have plenty of talent coming back at running back.
Prince-Tyson Gulley isn’t big, (5-8, 193). He has some speed and some moves. He’s a veteran back capable of having some big games. In the Pinstripe Bowl vs. West Virginia, he ran for 213 yards and two long TDs and caught passes for 56 yards and another score. For his career, he’s gained 1,449 yards on 272 carries, (5.3) and 14 scores and caught 53 passes for 375 yards and 3TDs. Being the most experienced back, he’s probably the best blocker, something the fans ignore but coaches stress. And he’s become one of the leaders on the team and was elected one of four co-captains
Behind him George Morris and DeVante McFarland have shown obvious talent: good size, (both about 6 feet and 200 pounds), excellent speed and great instincts. Morris rushed for 334 yards and scored twice while McFarlane ran for 292 yards and a score but averaged 6.1 yards per carry. They are clearly the future of the position and will get a lot of touches this year.
Adonis Amin-Moore has a great name and a big body- too big. He was thought to be a major recruit. People thought he might start and star as a freshman but he ate his way out of job, blowing up to 5-11 and at least 260. He was used primarily in goal-line situation where his bulk might move the pile. He’s down to 246 this year and back in the mix at running back. He might make the kind of fullback I talk about each year but I promised I wasn’t going to get into that. And he hasn’t done enough to warrant such thinking, anyway.
A lot of people are talking about 5-11 179 speedster Ervin Phillips. It remains to be seen how much we’ll see of him this season with the people he has ahead of him but he’s a name to remember. Coach Shafer on his radio show called him “really explosive”. Maybe the fans will need helmets.
For years we were plagued by mediocre and then lousy offensive lines. Doug Marrone, a former All-East tackle, decided to change that and one characteristic of Syracuse in this decade is that we’ve had good offensive lines. Once you start having good lines you can get to a situation where 3-4 guys return each year who know what it takes and you can maintain that strength. We seem to be in that agreeable situation. We’ve got four returning starters, Sean Hickey, (named to the preseason All-ACC team), Ivan Foy, Rob Trudo and Nick Robinson. Robinson is nursing an injury to start the season and Omari Palmer, who seemed to be beating out Trudo, caused Rob to be moved to replace Robinson. It was thought that center Mackey McPherson would be replaced by Jason Emerich but he got beat out by John Miller. Hopefully, the rise of Palmer and Miller are due to their abilities, not due to weaknesses in Trudo or Emerich. I think it is and that we’ll have another fine offensive line. Hunt should have time to check down his receivers and throw to them against most opponents and the running backs should find holes waiting for them when they get to the line of scrimmage. That could not only lead to big plays but it means that our guys will having a running start when they get hit and will be more likely to “win” those collisions and gain extra yardage.
George MacDonald has promised that his offense will rev it up this year. We are going to get off more plays and get the defense gassed. That’s what we did two years ago. But that requires an efficient passing game and tends to put the running game, which will probably be our real strength, into the background. But a dynamic passing game can also open things up for the running attack. Stay tuned.
Defense
The Line
In 2010 we went 8-5 with a veteran defensive line. “Veteran” in college doesn’t simply mean that you have experienced players. Linemen do a lot of body building in their college careers. They are often about 250 when they are recruited, 260 after a redshirt year, 270 when they start getting playing time, then 280 when they become starters, then 290, then 300. That 2010 line was full of 300 pounders who could stuff the run.
Then they graduated and the next year’s line was full of those 270 pounders, (which used to be big in the old days but not now). They got pushed around a lot by offensive line 300 pounders. Our defense declined and we went 5-7. The next year those guys got stronger and went 8-5 again. Last year we seemed blessed in this area but top recruit Wayne Willaims, (who was already over 300 pounds), didn’t qualify, Davon Walls, another big guy, burglarized a fellow student’s apartment and got kicked off the team and John Raymon, a huge transfer from Iowa got his knee Theismaned in the Georgia Tech debacle. Two others , Jay Bromley, our best lineman and arguably the best player on the entire team, and Zian Jones graduated. Suddenly we didn’t seem so blessed. We wound up 7-6 but it wasn’t a strong 7-6 and the D-line wasn’t a strong reason we were 7-6.
What we have now is 296 pound Eric Crume, a good one, Ryan Sloan, a bigger one at 320 and Williams, who finally qualified but may be too a bit too big at 330, as well as talented but under-sized isaiah Washington (276), Marcus Coleman (286) and Ron Thompson, a former highly-recruited tight end prospect, who is listed at only 255 pounds. There’s not much proven ability or depth there and it’s a big concern.
We are in better shape at end where Robert Welch (248) is our best lineman. Micah Robinson(270) is pretty good and Thompson will play there, as well. At least I like the name value. Marcus Coleman, Isaiah Johnson and Micah Robinson all sound like defensive linemen, don’t they? And I guess Johnson, Robinson and Thompson will be the “My Three Sons” of football.
But if you’ve got problems up front, you’ve got problems, period.
The Linebackers
I’ve loved our linebackers the last few years and will love them again this year. Say the name Dyshawn Davis and I will always remember what he did to Rutgers as a freshman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XcYR_ky-c
He’s now a senior team leader. I’ll miss posting that highlight in next year’s preview.
Cameron Lynch of Georgia was one the early benefits of the announced switch to the ACC, (so was George Morris, who is from the same state). He always seems to be in the middle of every play. Marquez Hodge also showed a lot of good instincts as freshman last year. Josh Kirkland had a nose for the ball last year. Zaire Franklin was a top guy in our recruiting class. Luke Arciniega provides some much-need size at 240 pounds, (Davis is 221, Lynch 226, Hodge 216, Kirkland 201 and Franklin 215), and that is the one concern with this group, especially when undersized guys are manning the defensive line.
Defensive backfield
We’ve been recruiting defensive backs like mad in recent years and converting offensive players back there. It’s obvious Shafer and his staff know that competing in the ACC is all about speed and you need it most in the defensive backfield, where they have to keep up with fast guys who know where they are going when the defender doesn’t. Free safety Durell Eskridge will be our best all-around defensive player. Darius Kelly will be the other safety. Brandon Reddish and Wayne Morgan are fast friends- they are friends and they are fast- from the New York City area who play cornerback for us. So does Julius Whigham, who may be better than either one but suffered a ghastly injury during Florida State when the scar tissue from a previous internal operation came loose and he vomited blood in the end zone. It made me wonder if he should be playing football at all but he’s back and is supposed to be healthy enough to play. He’s listed as a starter above Morgan. Those guys will be good- if they remain healthy.
The Kicking Game
Ross Krautman appeared to be on his way to setting all kinds of kicking records here. As a freshman, he hit 16 field goals in a row and 18 of 19 overall, both tying SU records. But he was less steady 15 for 23 his second year and 1 for 2 last year until it was revealed he had a chronic hip injury. He announced just before this season that he was giving up his football career. Very sad. That leaves us with Ryan Norton, our kick-off man as our place-kicker. Last year, filling in for the injured Krautman he was 10 for 15. The coach said that he had the leg but not yet the timing. We’ll see if he has that timing down this season. Riley Dixon is an excellent punter, a rare one who can not only launch it when he has to but can place the ball, too, including coffin corner kicks.
For years our kick-off returns have tended to be interrupted very suddenly at the 20 yard line. Coach says he’s increased the number of linebackers on the roster from 8-9 to 13-14 to get better special teams coverage. Hopefully they can give us some good blocking as well. Meanwhile, our punt returners were raising their arms for a fair catch even before the punter’s foot made contact with the ball. Our kick returners were giving our struggling offense absolutely no help whatsoever. But now we have Brisley Estime, who will be returning punts and, from one report, may be returning kick-offs as well, (with Erv Phillips: they would make quite a combination). The more times we can get the ball in the Salt Badger’s hands, the more special this season will be.
Last year Syracuse gained 377 yards per game, 195 on the ground and 183 on the air. We scored 23 points per game. Our defense gave up 367 yards per game, 137 on the ground and 230 in the air. We surrendered 25 points per game. We were +2 on turnovers.
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