Not going to talk a lot about the game because it was such a domination and most of what I would talk about has already been talked to death.
Tailgate
Big crowd at the Fine Lot. I would guess at least 150 people participated. It is amazing how things have grown since a couple people started to tailgate together at the parking lot behind the Armory some 15 years ago. The TV is working great now, not choppy, very solid. Good work getting that in place. It will really be nice for afternoon and night games where there are other games being played while we are tailgating.
The food was good, there was excellent variety and with the hot weather, there were a lot of cold beverages to drink. The tailgate continues to get better and more professional. There are business cards now, coozies, cocktail tables, the ice in the coolers gets refreshed multiple times (as do the beverages), etc.
Niko filmed Matt as he tasted the good eats from the tailgate, dish by dish. Pretty cool.
My personal favorite was the ham. Very tasty.
A contingent of the SUMB arrived and played a couple of songs for us. They did a nice job and even sang the words to the fight song near the end of playing it. I am ashamed to admit I still don't know the words and could not sign along with them. If I don't, probably not a lot of other do either. We have to find a way to teach the fanbase the words to this.
It was really hot standing on asphalt in the sun (it was around 84 during the tailgate) so a bunch of us retreated to the canopies where we ate, drank and cooled off somewhat in the shade. While we were really excited to watch the game, we all knew what we would face in the Dome and were reluctant to head up too early. We talked about the game. I thought it was going to be really high scoring, predicted a 66-63 final score. I am glad I don't bet on sports.
As with the first game, we all passed through a metal detector just outside the Dome entrances. You need to put your phone and your keys in plastic bowls as you pass through but you can leave your shoes on, your belt on and even your change in your pockets (I dumped my change out for no reason). It didn't take long; the line was minimal.
When I got into the Dome, some dude gave me a little card. I thought it was an ad for some bogus business but thought he said voucher when he was heading it to me so I looked at it before tossing it. It was a voucher for 50% off concessions before kickoff. I stopped by the stand near 302 and indeed got 50% off what I bought (water and a sausage sub with peppers and onions; one of the tastiest things you can buy at the Dome). Good start.
The SUMB took the field soon afterwards. 9 tubas. It looked like there were less members than normal but I was told the new band director had recruited 31? new members, so I am probably wrong on this. I can say that they are marching more smartly and the band sounds a lot tighter, especially the drums. I thought they were better in year one of the new director last year and have improved markedly since then.
There were some technical issues with the production.
When the 3 time BE Champion class of 1998 football team walked on the field and was introduced, a ref jump in on his live mic and made a long explanation of one of the many penalties called. Were the refs paid using piece rate? At one point, they must have called a penalty 5 out of 7 plays. I am not saying they were wrong but I am saying it is frustrating to watch a game where the primary point of focus is an overweight middle aged man in a striped shirt and white pants.
The cheerleaders tried to get the crowd to chant 'Let's Go Orange'. While not as lame as their all time favorite (one side yell "Go", the other yell "Orange"; let's see who is louder), this was unsuccessful.
A group I am in has been trying and trying to get the powers that be to do a different one side/other side chant:
Whose house?
Our house!
They finally tried it. And it was really loud and really successful. I hope, no I pray that this will become the new standard cheer because it is unique to Syracuse, people really like it and it sounds great.
TaNesha and James continued to do their thing during some timeouts. James looked more at ease and I was better able to understand him this week compared to last week. They had some good conversations and I think they are getting better. Lisa was the woman in the crowd again. I am not enjoying her segments much. I struggle to understand her (the audio system in the Dome is bad) and I don't care to hear some person who got a seat upgrade give their thoughts on anything. But she is okay. I really didn't like another girl that they gave a mic to multiple times. She had a squeaky, high pitched voice and just screamed crazy stuff for really long time. Everyone near me looked horrified whenever she came on. I think we all feared she would cause us to have epileptic seizures. Is she in the student section? Can she be silenced and traded to Rutgers?
There are still problems with game stats. Looks like the attempts column is getting truncated to the rightmost digit, so you see stuff like RUSHING TOTALS FSU 1 43 YARDS PASSING TOTALS FSU 1 24 136 YARDS. C'mon, this needs to get fixed. Most of the stats are on the ribbon boards in a giant font that is perfect but the software does some stuff in a tiny, unreadable font that needs to be changed ASAP.
They need to be shown more too, when they figure out how to operate the ribbon boards properly.
The out of town scores are rotated too quickly on the ribbon boards. Don't show 5 ACC scores simultaneously for 5 seconds, then switch to page one of the Top 25 scores (5 games) for 5 seconds, then switch to page 2 for 5 seconds, etc. C'mon...give us to time read and process what we are seeing.
The SUAD is doing great work trying to get fans in their seats well before the game starts. But if you are going to do this, please give people stuff to occupy them while they wait. The best thing, the thing we really would like, is to show other games live on the main scoreboards. Focus on other ACC games. Maybe switch between games if one becomes a blowout and another is close down the stretch. That would be awesome.
I disliked the SU uniforms. White helmets only look okay with white shirts and white pants (storm trooper look). Use orange helmets with orange shirts and orange pants. Personally, I don't like orange pants and orange shirts. If you have to wear orange shirts, wear them with white pants, like the Broncos.
Thought it was interesting when the team came out in the 2nd half, DeVito and Welch warmed up. Not Culpepper. Maybe that means nothing. For those that do not know, Dungey did not come out for the second half.
Thought I saw Lakeim Williams on the sideline sans pads. I assume he is nicked up some.
Shy Cullen is. I think, our best special teams player since maybe JR Johnson. Great gunner, great coverage guy. Custis is not far behind and I think Riley has a couple blocked punts.
Sterling Hofricher is doing a great job on kickoffs. He is putting it 5 yards into the end zone pretty consistently, though he did kick one out of bounds on Saturday. But his kicks are high too and pretty much shut down any chance for the opposition to get big returns. He continues to punt it really well too. Since we got deep enough to not have to use walk ons much on special teams, the special teams have become special. Great to see. I think Justin Lustig took over special teams this year. Whoever is coaching them is doing some great things.
I don't remember the song that was played during the fourth quarter but whatever it was (not Thriller, not I Want to Dance with Somebody, not Don't Stop Believing. and not Sweet Caroline), it was played, then shut off so the crowd could sing it acapella, then turned back on, then turned off so the crowd could sing it again, etc. It worked and a lot of people sang whatever that song was. They should do that again.
Yes, I can confirm that they ran out of water in the concession stand below 302 but they still had Mountain Dew and lemonade (thanks Bob!) and the lemonade wasn't bad at all. My cell coverage was not bad at all, even at halftime and that was a very positive development.
I enjoyed the many videos they played at various timeouts during the game that honored the 1998 team. That was well done. The interviews with the players were good, though some were better interviews than others.
Most everyone played well on defense but I thought frosh FS Andre Cisco deserved special mention. He can hit, he can cover and he showed good discipline a number of times, especially on the WR trick pass play FSU ran.
Brian Burns and Dontavious Jackson were really impressive players on the FSU defense. Both are all conference level players. Speaking of all conference, I think Chris Frederick should get serious consideration. As should Chris Slayton. MaybeChris Elsmore should be moved back to defense as well? Seems like we are having good results with that name on that unit.
Despite how hot and humid it was in the Dome, I had a great time. It was really good to see FSU get stomped after they had beat us so many times in a row (and ruined the 1978 season). It is great to see the team not miss a beat when the starting QB gets hurt. It was great to see us wear down an opponent and to dominate the offensive and defensive lines most of the game. I think there are still a couple areas where depth is suspect but overall, this is the deepest SU team since the Coach P era. Hope they can stay injury free, or close to it, for the rest of the year.
3-0 in the first quarter of the regular season. Awesome. Let's see what we can do in quarter 2.
War Damn Otto!
