My Nawlin's and Game notes

[texascpa]

First off, once again thanks to TexanMark for organizing the SyracuseFan section of attendance. Met quite a few folks, though interestingly most were not posters to SyracuseFan.com. And not one, came from Syracuse...

- New Orleans, for as old and small as it was was fantastic. Weather was great, food was very good. Hit a hole in the wall called Town Car Cafe. One of those places that the "ring" up the sale and then pocket the money. I had a roast beef sandwich with the works - hand cut roast beef, not the packaged sliced kind. Was awesome. Wife had a gyro which was good as well. Fries were not fresh, but otherwise recommended. Hard to find a place that doesn't serve just crawfish, jumbalaya and gumbo.

- Superdome looked pretty nice, field was very good shape. Didn't see any remnants of Katrina. One thing that was funky was my eyes had a hard time adjusting in depth perception. Felt I couldn't always focus.

- I'm sure you recognized it, but SU had more fans than Tulane. I felt bad for Tulane's support. And this was a team that was ranked #7 just three years ago. Tulane probably had 100 students tops.

- If it wasn't already reported - 4 Tubas.

- If you come in on I-10 through Baton Rouge, make sure to time it that you don't hit LSU traffic. Tragically, I did not and got caught up in the congestion, adding two hours to our drive.

- Saw more SU fans than Florida Gator fans.

- My Honda Civic Hybrid finally proved some worth as I average 42.6 mpg!

- I know most of you have seen AAM up close, but this was my first time. We were standing over by the team during warm-ups and he had to chase a loose ball over where we were at. The dude is freaky huge! Yes, he's not defined like DC3, but he's not fat either. Just a big man.

- The SU crowd was in it for the first half, but second half we lost some steam. Not sure if it was from the atrocious 3rd quarter play or we were getting tired. Probably a little bit of both.

- Marrone is definitely a delegater. Only twice did I see him in a sideline huddle, once with ST and once with the Offense.

- DB's are soooooo inconsistent. One play they make a great breakup, the next they are tripping over their own feet because they are out of position.

- Goggins didn't play at all the 4th quarter and you could see in the first quarter he twisted his ankle. He left the field briefly and then came back to play the rest of the half and the third quarter, but then took himself out of the game in the 4th. Never came back.

- P. Thomas reminds me of my son when he played youth football - gets hurt, looks severe, comes out for a few plays, then wants back in, and this will happen a couple times a game. Not sure if it's because he's too soft or too hard.

- I thought the Oline played well, and really came alive the 4th quarter. Again, it's consistency that is the issue. Oh, and Mackey was NOT an issue.

- As someone said in the restroom after the game - 4 down, 2 to go and we're back in the Pinstripe Bowl!

 

[SURules]

Great write up. I hope we get the Pinstripe Bowl as that would be simply awesome again !!! I fear that Rutgers might get it this year though but I hope I'm wrong. We'll get to a bowl though some where some how.

 

[qdawgg]

Great write up. You made a few mistakes that you will need to correct though.

- AAM is fat whether you saw him with your own eyes or not. That means he will suck his entire career here
- Macky is a H.S. 2nd stringer at best. So to imply that he was not a problem despite seeing it live or watching the replay means you know less then the guys who probably don't even watch the game. He's already been determined a failure because of his size despite being a freshman. So that is what he will be

 

[SaltineWarrior]

First off, once again thanks to TexanMark for organizing the SyracuseFan section of attendance. Met quite a few folks, though interestingly most were not posters to SyracuseFan.com. And not one, came from Syracuse...

- I'm sure you recognized it, but SU had more fans than Tulane. I felt bad for Tulane's support. And this was a team that was ranked #7 just three years ago. Tulane probably had 100 students tops.

Huh? 3 years ago they were 2-10. In 2009 they improved to 3-9. Last time they had a winning record was 2002 when they were 8-5 and won the Hawaii Bowl. While that was a good year, they still managed to lose to Army that year, who was 1-11 in 2002.

They had an undefeated season back in 1998 under Tommy Bowden, when most of the current students were in nursery school or the beginning of elementary schoo and nobody really knew how slimy the offensive coordinator was (Rich Rodriguez)l. I think they finished that year in the Top 10. Is that the year you are referring to?

 

[texascpa]

Huh? 3 years ago they were 2-10. In 2009 they improved to 3-9. Last time they had a winning record was 2002 when they were 8-5 and won the Hawaii Bowl. While that was a good year, they still managed to lose to Army that year, who was 1-11 in 2002.

They had an undefeated season back in 1998 under Tommy Bowden, when most of the current students were in nursery school or the beginning of elementary schoo and nobody really knew how slimy the offensive coordinator was (Rich Rodriguez)l. I think they finished that year in the Top 10. Is that the year you are referring to?

LOL, it had to be 1998, which means the Tulane folks don't even know their own history. It was part of one of those quiz questions during the game. I didn't verify it's authenticity, but you're right, it was 1998, not 2008.

 

[Chip]

I didn't watch all of the game, other plans on Saturday. Watched the first half on DVR last night, and I thought the OL looked pretty good. They were driving Tulane's D backwards and with a bit better vision by the RBs could have been some huge gains. So I was surprised to see some of the negative comments. Of course, I haven't watched the 2nd half yet, where our offense completely shut down. Might not watch that.

The atmosphere at that game was so depressing on TV. The pbp guy was ok, the analyst was horrible and sleepy. And because the camera shoots toward the SU sideline you felt like Tulane didn't have a fan there. Another reason why I don't want to watch the 2nd half, felt like a scrimmage, and I'm sure that can be tough on the players to keep motivated. Not an excuse but still, that probably shouldn't be a 1A team.

The use of Dorian Graham in the first half was my favorite part of the game. Fast guy, get him in space, let him make plays. And that first TD shows how far he's come at this position.. Now figure out a way to work in Kobena, get him more reps, get him more comfortable catching ball. Keep Lemon in the slot, plays that role well. Keep working West in as a physical outside WR.

Rene looked quick. AAM looks fast enough to run the ball at that weight. But he better figure out who to pick up on a blitz. That's why he doesn't play more, Marrone said he told the RBs that if they can't block they won't see the field.

Tough day for the D, but Tulane did a lot of things outside their offense to combat their aggression in the first half, and I assume the second half as well. Great gameplan as Rahme mentioned. Going to have an even rougher night against WVU, but I think they'll still be better down the stretch.

 

[Cuseman78]

- Saw more SU fans than Florida Gator fans.

I will assume you got there Saturday because Friday night, I don't think you could walk 5 feet on Bourbon Street without running into a Gator fan. We had a really nice presence in New Orleans, probably a couple thousand fans. But the Florida presence was in-freakin-credible.

By the way, N'awlins was even better than everyone made it out to be. An absolutely incredible city. I really, really regret not going to the Final Four now in '03. That must've been an incredible weekend.

 

[texascpa]

I will assume you got there Saturday because Friday night, I don't think you could walk 5 feet on Bourbon Street without running into a Gator fan. We had a really nice presence in New Orleans, probably a couple thousand fans. But the Florida presence was in-freakin-credible.

By the way, N'awlins was even better than everyone made it out to be. An absolutely incredible city. I really, really regret not going to the Final Four now in '03. That must've been an incredible weekend.

Yes, that is correct. What is interesting, though, is that I listened to the LSU/Florida pre-game show for two hours (drove to NO) and they even mentioned what a low turnout of Florida fans there were. In any case, we did get a couple "Syracuse?" comments when we were walking down the street. It's obvious that no one else knew we were playing Tulane. LOL.

 

[Cuseman78]

Yes, that is correct. What is interesting, though, is that I listened to the LSU/Florida pre-game show for two hours (drove to NO) and they even mentioned what a low turnout of Florida fans there were. In any case, we did get a couple "Syracuse?" comments when we were walking down the street. It's obvious that no one else knew we were playing Tulane. LOL.

Yes, I got the same comment about why are there so many Syracuse fans here. I think that speaks to the fact that Tulane is completely irrelevant in NO and no one knew they were playing. As far as the Florida fans are concerned, they didn't seem to have a huge section in Baton Rouge but I'm telling you, Bourbon St Friday night was FILLED with them. FILLED. Very impressive showing. Saturday, after rolling out of bed, it was like they had all packed up and took off for Baton Rouge. Saturday morning Bourbon Street was predominantly Syracuse fans.

On another note, I got a nice "welcome to the ACC" from a Florida State fan. He was an older man (70s) and he was surprisingly very happy with the addition of us and Pitt. I assumed the football schools thought it would dilute their product. But he was bullish. Nice gent, we talked college football for about 15 minutes on the street corner. Another great thing about the South. They live and breathe CFB there.

 

[JJReddawg]

I kept asking the gator fans (on the way back to the hotel after the Cuse game) if Florida was able to pull out a win. The dejected faces they made were priceless.

Yes, Florida traveled well, but the campus is only a little over 500 miles from NOLA. Plus there's alot of gator fans in the Florida panhandle. I'd say our representation was at least equally impressive.

 

[TexanMark]

It only made sense for Gator fans to stay in NOLA...75 miles closer to FL. The FL panhandle is only 3-5 hrs away. I ran into a FSU fan and he didn't want Cuse or Pitt and was hoping to go to the SEC. I told him we will kick his ass in basketball. He wanted the SEC cuz they don't sellout ACC FB games. A Duke fan I met was happy to get another team to beat UNC.

 

[atcar]

Interesting we still saw plenty of Gator fans walking around the French Qtr after the FL game started. They were out in the street, not in a bar watching the game. Of course most of them were students (guys and girls) dressed head to toe in FL colors. My wife kept asking me why they were on Bourbon all dressed to up and not even watching the game (and it was before FL was up by more than 2 tds.)

 

[OburgCuse]

We tried to get early check in when we got to the hotel at about 11 am on fri and were told to come back at around 3 pm. So we started the boozin down the River Walk and up and around the Quarter. Tried checking in at 3 and were told to come back in 20 mins so we were like no prob went around corner had a couple more beers.

Then at about 3:30 as we were strolling back to the hotel 3 bus loads of Gator students were unloading and running into our hotel. There must have been about 200 plus rowdy students in the lobby of the hotel ahead of us and we were like What we're screwed trying to check in now, but we were just like fluck it and barged ahead of them all got our room key in like 5 mins...HaHa

 

[memcorsu]

Great write up. I hope we get the Pinstripe Bowl as that would be simply awesome again !!! I fear that Rutgers might get it this year though but I hope I'm wrong. We'll get to a bowl though some where some how.

Rutgers will choke it up here pretty soon. They got lucky to catch two better teams on their worst games of the season. Unfortunately, they will have bragging rights about beating us as they sit at home during bowl season. At least they can buy tickets and see us in the PSB again this year.