sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
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Another excellent tailgate, kudos to all involved. The highlights for me included a rice dish with sliced sausages in it and a brat that was drenched in a substance that might have been beer. Big turnout again and it was great to see the love for the military. We have a really good group in place right now.
It was a perfect day for tailgating. Sunny but not too hot. Probably 68 or 69 during the tailgate. That was warm enough that the Dome was a little warmer than ideal for me, but it wasn't bad at all.
The SUMB, now up to 10 tubas (yay) was joined by a military band (I assume it was from Fort Drum) in the pregame stuff. Nice. At half time, some other bands (HS I think, I believe one was from CNS) joined in a tribune to all branches of the military. It was really well done. The new band director is doing a terrific job.
Whose house? OUR HOUSE! was done twice. It has already become the most successful chant in the history of the Dome (the sound was thunderous) and I believe it will be that way for the next 100 years. Props to the Cuse Council and the SUAD for making it happen!
TaNesha and James are getting more comfortable and easier to understand as they continue to fill in some of the breaks between game action. Lisa also continues to do her roving reporter thing. This was the first game since the auxiliary scoreboards were retired some 10 years ago that I thought we did a decent job showing out of town scores, and that was good a lot of the scores were interesting and surprising.
Thought the game stats were better as well. Good to see things getting better.
I use the Rewards app. It is nice. I approve of it. Especially liked the in game stats, which were updated quickly and gave me the info I craved when I wanted it. Thought the trivia questions were actually a little hard and poorly done. Don't do how many total yards has Eric Dungey averaged during his career at Syracuse, and give 4 answers that are 20 yards apart from each other. People aren't going to know that and you just end up asking people to waste a lot of time looking through game notes and media guides. That isn't what we want to do when sitting in the stands during the game.
It would be better to ask questions like 'what is Joe Morris' home town?', or 'what school was also a finalist when Eric Dungey made his college decision?'. Make the questions touch on things fans might actually know. Small quibble, the questions are good and the app is well done and fun to use.
I thought the crowd was again very good. There might only be 36K in there but the people there really want to be there and want to make a difference and make a lot of noise during the games. I am on the same side as the students up high and don't have a great vantage point, but it looked like the students showed up in good numbers and most were actually there for the kickoff. Solid.
I don't want to rip them too much, but it was not a good turnout by the UConn fans. I didn't see any in their designated section. In fact, I didn't see any period, all game long. Not when I was walking around. Not in my section or the sections surrounding me. Not anywhere. Perhaps they were there and opted not to wear UConn gear. Not sure. I finally ran into 3 walking out of the Dome. I stayed until the end, so these fans were pretty hard core to watch that level of destruction for that long. I complimented them on that and told them better days were ahead. They said they hoped so.
I do think things will get better for them. Randy Edsall is too much of a meathead to ever allow a team he coaches to be great (too conservative) but he knows how to find raw talent and how to develop it and in a few years, I think they can contend for a bowl game and maybe upset the AAC powers now and again. I hope the UConn fans show patience and do not abandon the program completely.
On to the game itself...
UConn's defense was small, slow and confused. No surprise there. Early in the game, they appeared to be desperately concerned with getting beat deep, and gave the SU WRs a ton of room. Dino just kept running bubble screens and taking a guaranteed gain of 5-10 yards, throwing in a run up the middle now and again and getting easy TD drives and soon it was 21-0.
Their offense was better. I thought Pindell was fast and athletic and while he lacked a P5 arm, he was accurate and generally made good decisions throwing it. UConn has a couple WRs that could run and catch and had decent size. Their RB was undersized and not very fast but he ran hard and occasionally broke a tackle or moved the pile. If they had a decent offensive line, they could score pretty consistently against good P5 defenses.
When they fell behind, they refused to deviate from their game plan of throwing short passes in the flat and running up the middle, which made it impossible for them to ever really get back in the game (though a couple of questionable calls from the refs and a couple of big breaks made it a 24-14 game for a short period of time). Syracuse was content to let them scrap for a few crumbs and UConn almost always screwed up and ended their drives, so this was a good strategy. Props to the Huskies for seeing when our strong safety was taken out with a pulled groin and attacking his replacement (that appeared to be how they got the long run on the QB draw for a TD).
Thought Edsall was nuts when he praised his punter for having a great day (he kept out kicking the coverage). I don't know that he had one decent punt...just a bunch of low line drives that were easy to return. Unfortunately, he had such a weak leg, our return guy struggled to run up and catch most of his punts in the air.
Anyway, it was good to get the win in the books, get out with a minimum of injuries and move on to the meat of the schedule. I hope Foster will be ready for Clemson. If we don't have him, he will be missed against the Tigers.
I don't envision Riley or Nykeim having big days against Clemson. They will surely end up stuck on the big, physical CBs the Tigers have like bird ox on a wool sweater. It was disappointing to see Custis struggle against to make simple catches and I wish Butler was more of a factor in a game against CBs like the Huskies currently have. The more I watch, the most I think Taj Harris and Sharod Johnson might end up being our best WRs in conference play. Though maybe the mighty mites might prove me wrong.
It had to be really disappointing to Coach Babers to see what Jarveon Howard did after breaking free running down the middle of the Huskie defense. Last week, Howard sensed a defender was about to catch him from behind about 5 yards from the goalline, and threw away his chance to get a TD bt covering up to ensure he held on to the ball.
Coach Babers went out of his way to praise Jarveon after that game for putting aside his personal goals to do what was best for the team. That didn't happen Saturday. I wonder if it will cost him any playing time Saturday...
I am sorry so few UConn fans decided to visit the Dome. From personal experience, I know it is tough to find the enthusiasm to drive a few hours to watch a game where it is almost certain you are going to get drilled. Hopefully those days are gone for SU fans for a long time to come.
It will be interesting to see if any future games will be scheduled between the teams. I am pretty sure Syracuse is done scheduling UConn for basketball. My guess is that the SUAD will be more amenable to continuing to play in football, but I do not know this for certain. In case anyone cares what I think,I hope the teams continue to play. I like to play OOC games where the away game is a reasonable drive from Syracuse.
It was a perfect day for tailgating. Sunny but not too hot. Probably 68 or 69 during the tailgate. That was warm enough that the Dome was a little warmer than ideal for me, but it wasn't bad at all.
The SUMB, now up to 10 tubas (yay) was joined by a military band (I assume it was from Fort Drum) in the pregame stuff. Nice. At half time, some other bands (HS I think, I believe one was from CNS) joined in a tribune to all branches of the military. It was really well done. The new band director is doing a terrific job.
Whose house? OUR HOUSE! was done twice. It has already become the most successful chant in the history of the Dome (the sound was thunderous) and I believe it will be that way for the next 100 years. Props to the Cuse Council and the SUAD for making it happen!
TaNesha and James are getting more comfortable and easier to understand as they continue to fill in some of the breaks between game action. Lisa also continues to do her roving reporter thing. This was the first game since the auxiliary scoreboards were retired some 10 years ago that I thought we did a decent job showing out of town scores, and that was good a lot of the scores were interesting and surprising.
Thought the game stats were better as well. Good to see things getting better.
I use the Rewards app. It is nice. I approve of it. Especially liked the in game stats, which were updated quickly and gave me the info I craved when I wanted it. Thought the trivia questions were actually a little hard and poorly done. Don't do how many total yards has Eric Dungey averaged during his career at Syracuse, and give 4 answers that are 20 yards apart from each other. People aren't going to know that and you just end up asking people to waste a lot of time looking through game notes and media guides. That isn't what we want to do when sitting in the stands during the game.
It would be better to ask questions like 'what is Joe Morris' home town?', or 'what school was also a finalist when Eric Dungey made his college decision?'. Make the questions touch on things fans might actually know. Small quibble, the questions are good and the app is well done and fun to use.
I thought the crowd was again very good. There might only be 36K in there but the people there really want to be there and want to make a difference and make a lot of noise during the games. I am on the same side as the students up high and don't have a great vantage point, but it looked like the students showed up in good numbers and most were actually there for the kickoff. Solid.
I don't want to rip them too much, but it was not a good turnout by the UConn fans. I didn't see any in their designated section. In fact, I didn't see any period, all game long. Not when I was walking around. Not in my section or the sections surrounding me. Not anywhere. Perhaps they were there and opted not to wear UConn gear. Not sure. I finally ran into 3 walking out of the Dome. I stayed until the end, so these fans were pretty hard core to watch that level of destruction for that long. I complimented them on that and told them better days were ahead. They said they hoped so.
I do think things will get better for them. Randy Edsall is too much of a meathead to ever allow a team he coaches to be great (too conservative) but he knows how to find raw talent and how to develop it and in a few years, I think they can contend for a bowl game and maybe upset the AAC powers now and again. I hope the UConn fans show patience and do not abandon the program completely.
On to the game itself...
UConn's defense was small, slow and confused. No surprise there. Early in the game, they appeared to be desperately concerned with getting beat deep, and gave the SU WRs a ton of room. Dino just kept running bubble screens and taking a guaranteed gain of 5-10 yards, throwing in a run up the middle now and again and getting easy TD drives and soon it was 21-0.
Their offense was better. I thought Pindell was fast and athletic and while he lacked a P5 arm, he was accurate and generally made good decisions throwing it. UConn has a couple WRs that could run and catch and had decent size. Their RB was undersized and not very fast but he ran hard and occasionally broke a tackle or moved the pile. If they had a decent offensive line, they could score pretty consistently against good P5 defenses.
When they fell behind, they refused to deviate from their game plan of throwing short passes in the flat and running up the middle, which made it impossible for them to ever really get back in the game (though a couple of questionable calls from the refs and a couple of big breaks made it a 24-14 game for a short period of time). Syracuse was content to let them scrap for a few crumbs and UConn almost always screwed up and ended their drives, so this was a good strategy. Props to the Huskies for seeing when our strong safety was taken out with a pulled groin and attacking his replacement (that appeared to be how they got the long run on the QB draw for a TD).
Thought Edsall was nuts when he praised his punter for having a great day (he kept out kicking the coverage). I don't know that he had one decent punt...just a bunch of low line drives that were easy to return. Unfortunately, he had such a weak leg, our return guy struggled to run up and catch most of his punts in the air.
Anyway, it was good to get the win in the books, get out with a minimum of injuries and move on to the meat of the schedule. I hope Foster will be ready for Clemson. If we don't have him, he will be missed against the Tigers.
I don't envision Riley or Nykeim having big days against Clemson. They will surely end up stuck on the big, physical CBs the Tigers have like bird ox on a wool sweater. It was disappointing to see Custis struggle against to make simple catches and I wish Butler was more of a factor in a game against CBs like the Huskies currently have. The more I watch, the most I think Taj Harris and Sharod Johnson might end up being our best WRs in conference play. Though maybe the mighty mites might prove me wrong.
It had to be really disappointing to Coach Babers to see what Jarveon Howard did after breaking free running down the middle of the Huskie defense. Last week, Howard sensed a defender was about to catch him from behind about 5 yards from the goalline, and threw away his chance to get a TD bt covering up to ensure he held on to the ball.
Coach Babers went out of his way to praise Jarveon after that game for putting aside his personal goals to do what was best for the team. That didn't happen Saturday. I wonder if it will cost him any playing time Saturday...
I am sorry so few UConn fans decided to visit the Dome. From personal experience, I know it is tough to find the enthusiasm to drive a few hours to watch a game where it is almost certain you are going to get drilled. Hopefully those days are gone for SU fans for a long time to come.
It will be interesting to see if any future games will be scheduled between the teams. I am pretty sure Syracuse is done scheduling UConn for basketball. My guess is that the SUAD will be more amenable to continuing to play in football, but I do not know this for certain. In case anyone cares what I think,I hope the teams continue to play. I like to play OOC games where the away game is a reasonable drive from Syracuse.
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