Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1853414, member: 289"] [I]The Kicking Game[/I] Besides being the scene of a never-ending aerial circus, the Carrier Dome should also be heaven for kickers. We’ve had some good ones over the years, and some mediocre ones. We lost one of the very good ones in punter Riley Dixon. He’ll be replaced by redshirt freshman Sterling Hofrichter. Chris Carlson wrote in the Post Standard: “Hofrichter won’t punt the ball as high as Riley Dixon. He won’t punt it as far. He will, however replace the former Syracuse star the best he can.” There’s a ringing endorsement. Cole Murphy is the placekicker. He’s been pretty good but not dazzling. . He’s hit 29 of 38 field goals in two years, 76%. He made a couple of 50 yarders two years ago but was 3 for 7 from the 40 or beyond last year. Brisley Estime is the primary kick returning threat. He averaged 18.2 yards per punt return and took two the distance, one from 74 yards out. He averaged 22 yards a kickoff return. With all the exciting runners and receivers we’ve collected we should have plenty of depth back there. I really wish we’d have two primary returners back on kick-offs. Brisley returned 30 of them last year and four other guys totaled 9 returns. There’s a lot of area to cover and I think two guys can cover it better and give us some versatility, including those reverse hand-offs we used to use so effectively back in the Kirby Dar Dar days. Heck, I wouldn’t mind seeing two guys back for punts, too. Why not? We have a bunch of guys who could do this. Why not use them? The injury to George Morris hurts our kicking units, as he was one of the most active players covering kick returns. We’ve also got a bunch of guys with the speed and toughness to be “gunners”, so we should be able to find a replacement here. Those same guys might be able to block some kicks. I wish we’d get more aggressive in that department than we have been in recent years. Let’s pull out all the stops. Overall, I think we’ll at least see “flashes”, (to use a Greg Robinson term), of what we are going to be someday on offense, have a lot of frustration getting off the field on defense but could make some big plays in the kicking game if we choose to go after them. I hope it will be enough. Last year’s stats and rankings, offensive and defensive: Rushing yards per game: 163 (77th) vs. 182 (78th) Passing yards per game: 157 (116th) vs. 257 (100th) Total Yards per game: 320 (118th) vs. 438.5 (98th) Scoring per game: 27 (77th) vs. 31 (90th) Turnover Margin: +5 (32nd) Total Sacks: 23 (78th) vs. 21 (49th) [I] (Tomorrow: Part 3: The Schedule)[/I] [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?