My Take

[TheHaze315]

Good news TC, you've become famous over in delusional land.

https://rutgers.forums.r ivals.com/threads/sarah-fans-ruminating-about-us.223458/

The fact they think your 100% serious on some of your comments is hilarious. Still the most delusional fanbase I'm all of Div 1 sports. You'd think we were playing Ohio State on Saturday by reading some of those threads, not the school who didn't win a B10 game for 2+ years.

Man i want to win this game by 30

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

haha. They are so stupid. They don’t even realize that some of what Tom writes is for comedic or sarcastic value. Dorks.

Nor do they realize that Tom has been writing these for decades and there are a decent amount of board "inside jokes" in what he writes. What did Abe Lincoln say? "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Rutgers fans trolling this board apparently don't understand what they don't understand.

 

[tipphill]

Nor do they realize that Tom has been writing these for decades and there are a decent amount of board "inside jokes" in what he writes. What did Abe Lincoln say? "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Rutgers fans trolling this board apparently don't understand what they don't understand.

never heard that saying--thats great---- i did hear one that something to the effect"no one learned anything by hearing themselves speak " i will have to look it up

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Good news TC, you've become famous over in delusional land.

https://rutgers.forums.r ivals.com/threads/sarah-fans-ruminating-about-us.223458/

The fact they think your 100% serious on some of your comments is hilarious. Still the most delusional fanbase I'm all of Div 1 sports. You'd think we were playing Ohio State on Saturday by reading some of those threads, not the school who didn't win a B10 game for 2+ years.

I checked it out and it's truly a sad place to be.

 

[BillSU]

Sorry this is late. I went to the game. It is a hard place to get to.

Ohio University is located in Athens, Ohio. Athens is in the southeastern corner of Ohio, not far from the Ohio River, in a very hilly area that is part of the Appalachian Mountain range.

There aren’t many hotel rooms in Athens, so I stayed (along with a couple of board luminaries) in Marietta. Marietta is also in Ohio. It is right on the Ohio River, and was the first pemanent settlement in the US west of the Allegany. Check out David McCullough’s book “The Pioneers’ for more info on this. Credit to Roger N (get wells on). It was also a finalist site for the nation’s capital. Cool little city.

Marietta could have been nation’s capital

MARIETTA — To many current residents of Marietta, it’s a picture-perfect small town complete with local businesses, a community feel and a historic atmosphere. But Marietta almost wasn’t the small city situated along the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers that it is today. If but for a...

www.newsandsentinel.com

The hills make the trip between Athens and Marietta a bit of a challenge. Google Maps had me get to Athens by heading south from Marietta, crossing the Ohio and driving 10 miles into West Virginia, which made me very uncomfortable, bu I eventually got to the campus and the tailgate.

Sometimes, I like to include important life lessons in this posts. This is one of those times. I was driving on Route 50, which was supposed to be going west from Parkersburg, WV, but I was mostly going almost directly north, towards the Ohio River and Ohio. The speed limit was 70. The road was kind of curvy and there were some elevation changes, but I had my cruise control on 72, I was listening to college football on the radio, and all was well with the world.

Then I went over a big, quite impressive bridge over the Ohio River and was in Ohio. I was still on Route 50, things looked the same, but my running mate cars went right and left and I along continued north on 50, towards Athens. I resumed my cruise control and within 20 seconds, 2 very bad things happened.

I looked to my left. There was a police car there. With a police officer. With a radar gun. It was aimed at me. Then I looked to my right. Oh look, here comes a sign. What does it say? Speed limit 60. Uh oh. 10 minutes later, I resumed my trip to Athens, with a ticket from a very nice Ohio police officer. The life lesson is, never assume the speed limit will be the same when changing states riding on Route 50. Heed this lesson and you will do well in life.

Serious suggestion for the MAC: move some of the colleges in the conference to Eastern Ohio, especially Northeastern Ohio. It would be good for SU fans trying to get to God forsaken MAC stadiums, it would make it easier to entice students to enroll at these schools if more than 10 people live within 100 miles of the campus and I bet the bus driver for the UB athletic teams would like it too. If all the MAC schools can’t be relocated to NE Ohio, put some of them in Western NY. WNY needs more decent college sports teams to follow and most of it is empty anyway.

TexanMark and Cuseregular got a great parking lot next to some hall, about 5 blocks from the stadium. It was free, there was a space close to our tailgate for my to park at, it was close to the stadium and I thought it was great. Apparently no drinking of alcohol was allowed there, and the Syracuse folks broke some more Ohio rules here, but I thought it was very cool. Got there too late to eat or drink anything (another life lesson; don’t get to a tailgate 2 hours before game time if you want hot food), But Obie9 hooked me up with a bottle of DDP and a bottle of H2O which were greatly appreciated. Solid.

I liked the campus. It was all kind of derivative brick with white framed windows (I think the architecture folks call it Georgian), but it was well maintained and nice. There were lots of open green spaces, some ponds here and there and the rolling hills my heart always pines for.

Ohio is most definitely not New York. There was no mask requirement on campus. No mask requirement for the stadium. No temp checks. No need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative covid test. It was, as David Byrne once said, ‘ the same as it ever was’. A few students and SU fans were wearing masks. Otherwise, you would never know there was worldwide pandemic going on. So we aren’t going to learn any tricks from Ohio U to make hosting football games in a pandemic easier.

It was a black out. The Ohio football team wore all black uniforms. Some of their fans also wore black. And maybe all their students. There had to be 1 or 2 thousand of them at the game and I don’t remember even one that was not wearing black. That would never happen at Syracuse. Even if you gave every student a $100 gift certificate to Dinosaur BBQ to wear a specific color. So kudos to the Ohio University students for their awesome conformance. More on them later.

I knew going in that this was a MAC venue, and the quality of the video replays was not going to be at the level of our world class center hung scoreboard with its remarkable clarity and resolution. When I got my first look at their scoreboard, it was showing a photo. Bad resolution but not awful. Yes, there was a black square near the middle of the scoreboard that had decided to stop working, but I thought, this is big enough that we might be able to review some close calls. Only that was wrong. They showed zero replays. Though they did show live shots of fans in the crowd a few times. Weird.

The placement of fans was also weird. One sign of the stadium, the side I will call the respectable side, had the non student fans. You know, the older people. That was where they put the press box too. There is only one deck in this stadium. No private boxes that I could see, though some might be housed in the press box tower. The one deck they have doesn’t have a ton of rows either. There were no seats in one end zone and a grass mound in the other. I can’t believe there are more than 25K of seats in the place. Maybe if you packed the grass with people you could fit 30K in there. I think they announced a crowd of around 25K. Looked like about 80% of the seats were filled, but I didn’t look closely. The field turf looked faded and kind of old but it seemed to be fine. The seats were all, I believe, low end aluminum benches with no backs. Low budget, plain Jane type stuff. I am sure Ohio University, like all non-P5 schools, has major budget issues for its sports teams.
Not a bad setup at all.

So I talked about the respectable side of the stadium. The other side is where they put the visiting fans. And the students. But TexanMark somehow convinced them to sell us all the seats behind the Syracuse bench. So on TV, you see a small orange section behind the team, a big student section behind the small Syracuse section, and a few stray Syracuse fans on the edges. It was a weird setup. Some of the Ohio students spent much of their time standing in the aisle between the Syracuse section and the student section. You know, the DMZ.

A few observations on the Ohio students. Again, they were all in black. A lot of them seemed skinny. It was a frail looking group. Ohio natives, is there some kind of a rule here? Alcoholic HS students in Ohio go to OSU, students with mullets go to UC, and the frail, pale ones go to Ohio University? That is the way it looks to me.

They talked to us some. A few tried to talk trash. A few were nice. One told me my shirt was fire. It was actually an electric hunter orange color that I wore specifically so my wife could spot me in the crowd. Based on what Portnoy says, I think fire is good, but I am not 100% sure Portnoy is as hip as he thinks he is.

But I digress.

One of the Syracuse folks asked a student, what is up with the grassy knoll in the end zone? The student told him, ‘oh, that is where the stoners go to get high. They can smoke there and no one cares’. I did see a couple of families who set up ship there early and had their little kids running around doing cartwheels that might not agree. But again, I digress.

It was cool sitting so close to the players. Very unusual for me. Kingsley Jonathan looked like he was banged up and did not play most of the game, maybe all of the game. He was like a coach working with the DEs each time they came off the field. He might be a coach some day. Chris did the same, really focusing on helping Mang. The players were engaged, didn’t see any friction or disagreements, there was respect for the coaches….all the things you want to see. And the players repeatedly showed the Syracuse fans appreciation for our support. It seemed genuine. It has been a while since they have played in front of Syracuse fans, even if only a small section of the Syracusefan.com community.

Shrader got up and threw several times. A few players stopped by and gave him words of encouragement. He really looked like he wanted to get out there. One of the Ohio players gave Andre a late shot and knocked him on his butt. He hopped right up with a big grin on his face.

The only time I saw Dino get mad was after the Ohio QB completed a long pass down the sideline. The throw was very high in the air and hang there for a long time. A really long time. It looked like Simmons was in position to break the play up but he opted to let the WR catch it and then hit him. Dino ran after him and appeared to urge him to make the hit and break the play up next time.

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and had a 6.5 hour drive back so I am pretty tired but let’s talk about the game for a bit.

This was the first time in a long time that it looked like we wanted to impose on will on the defense, run the ball and wear the opponent down, and we were actually able to complete the game plan.

Ohio does not have a big or great set of DL or LBs. I talked about them being undersized and their struggles stopping the run last year. But they have a decent defense, with a lot of veterans back, and it is a good sign we were able to run the ball consistently against them. This was the first time in a long time I saw our OL move the DL a couple of yards back on each rush attempt. We were bigger, stronger and tougher than Ohio was. Our OL dominated their DL. It doesn’t mean we will be able to do it against better teams but you have to start somewhere, and this was a start.

This was the first game I have seen Tucker get better as the game went on. Most of the time last season, it seemed like he would get off to a good start, then get worn down and beaten up and the quality of his play would drop as the game continued. Great backs get better as games continue. All that work in the weight room paid off for Sean, at least for one game. Great to see.

I thought we used Harris poorly. Most of the balls thrown to him were hospital passes where the defender was there and leveled Taj as soon as the ball hit his hands. Looked like he played from the slot a lot. They called the same play too often. Gotta find ways to get him the ball in space. Ohio said they were going to take him away and they did.

I think (haven’t looked at the stats yet) we only threw to 3 guys: Harris, Queeley and Johnson. Check that, I do remember a throw to Tucker as well. That was the one Tommy screwed up the timing and threw it a second before he was supposed to. I wish we would try to get the ball to the TE, maybe an RB, and maybe to a tall WR some. It would make us harder to defend. Especially in the red zone.

Thought Tommy played pretty well. He managed the game well. I don’t think he made many bad decisions. It looked like he missed a couple of open players in the red zone, where he was at his worse, but I thought he showed more poise in the pocket than in the past. Thought he looked good running the ball and it was great to see him complete a couple of passes on the run. Big steps for him to become a complete QB.

It was strange to watch us run the ball so much and do so little play action off it. I think we only went deep once, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. All I can think off here is that they didn’t want to show Tommy’s ability to complete deep balls to Rutgers with the game coming up next week.

Gotta watch the replay of the game…looked like Tommy had the ball in Taj’s hands on that long pass and Taj dropped it but maybe it was just a tad overthrown?

Gotta get Darton out of the middle trying to field squib kicks and return them. To his credit, he did a decent job with that assignment but he isn’t in the top 50 in terms of qualifications for this task. On the subject of Darton, I ams going to assume with him cracking into the rotation at NT, he has been given a scholarship for this season. Can anyone confirm this?

I thought Williams did a better job kicking off and getting them into the end zone than Szmyt. Was surprised to see Andre kick off. Most did not reach the end zone, but I will say he got a lot of hang time on his kicks and that is probably why he has the job.

It looked like Cole did a very capable job filling in for Garrett when he was out in the second half at CB. Hope he is ok.

Mang played a ton. Way more than Benson. They had him out front leading Sean on many of his best runs. He did well blocking in his first extended playing time.

Ohio hit hard. 3 of their DBs are from the Miami area and they brought the wood.

LaBrosse had his first extended playing time as well. He did some really good things, especially with run support but he got beat deep and they were targeting him a lot. I am sure Rutgers is going to see the film and come after him as well. He is a really good athlete but is going to make the some mistakes too. Hope he learns from what happened yesterday.

Chestnut was all over the field and had a terrific game. If you have a chance, watch the dance he does after his interception with 5 minutes or so left in the game. My wife is not a football fan but she caught that dance and loved it. Someone from the press needs to ask him if it was choreographed or ad libbed.


The bathrooms at the stadium featured old school ceramic pee troughs. Solid. I can’t being myself to tour the new bathrooms at the dome and see what the bastards did to my pee troughs. Sigh.

Ohio University invited 4 or 5 HS marching bands to the game and they performed with the Ohio band before and at halftime of the game. SU does the same thing. Good practice. I assume tickets are free and the practice is about building relationships with young fans and helping improve marching bands in the state. One of the HS bands from Orange HS and their colors were orange and blue. Guess which HS Syracuse fans liked the best?

At halftime, I stayed to watch the Ohio band play. It had been a long time since I had seen a marching band in person and I heard Ohio had a good band. Truth.

They say they have 110 members. I counted 16 tubas once but then 24 later. They were tight, their arrangements were nice but the best thing about them was their showmanship. Looked like they have been watching some HBCU band films. Lots of dancing moves mixed into their performances. Flashy moves with cymbals and drummers.

The thing that made it really special though was the relationship between the students and the band, I am not sure a single student left the stands until the band finished their performance. It should be noted that more than half the students were female, and they seemed to react the most (mostly with delighted squeals) to the dynamic sections of the band performance.

I haven’t seen this kind of relationship between a marching band and a student body before. It was very cool, and I would love to see something like this happen at Syracuse.

Talked to an older Ohio alum afterwards. He said when he was a student, the students didn’t care about the band and no one watched them. So this can be turned around. Assuming the band director drove it. Gotta find out more on this,

Encouraging start to the season. Thought the defense showed signs of greatness but lack of discipline (a couple of stupid penalties) hurt a lot.

That said, Ohio has been a really good offense during the Solich era, and holding them to no TDs and less than 10 points on their hom field is a fine achievement. I think we took our foot off the petal and kept things vanilla in large part not to tip our hand to some aspects of our offense to that team from that swamp.

Hope so anyway.

Thank you Tom, great write up for everyone. In relation to a part of your discussion and remembrances of Athens and the game I believe there are four words to describe this game and the positive outlook for this season for us:

DUCE CHESNUT & SEAN TUCKER

 

[SUbear]

Awesome write up as usual. Sitting essentially next to you I can concur on seeing the best band I’ve EVER seen. Wow factor 10.

To add on to your stadium post yeah breezed right through the gates with virtually no checking us. The people of Ohio are the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Well most as That said quite a few of The students were brutal to me and mark with a lot of jawing at us with many a chant that started with a and ended with Syracuse! All in good fun.

That stadium felt like old time college football, nice enough and on a perfect night with a good Syracuse win made for a great day/night. A couple corrections must be made my friend, the seats did indeed have backs which this chiropractor really appreciated, we had hot food when you were there right up literally until 6pm, but you did not come over where it was before the news video clip, those folks you were talking to must’ve been very engaging!!

Devito showed some signs of improvement creating for the first time ever on the run pass options, but still missing some open receivers lacking the field vision which concerns me. A lot of stalled drives and points left on the board as a result, that is why many of us would like to have seen what the Mississippi State kid could’ve done.

That is OK against Ohio, but those inabilities are going to come back to bite us/them in some of the other more competitive games. While it is fantastic as we both noted with the line of scrimmage being pushed down the field by our offense of line virtually every single play (Bleich is a man), it is also worth noting this was the smallest defense line and front 7 I’ve ever seen at the div 1 level.

Great first step though, one that I’m willing to bet can be re-created in some of the future games. On the play on the long reception they made that Dino came out on the field. Here’s what happened from my perspective: there was no way the kid could make a play on it as it occurred as the kid legit beat him and Simmons could only make the tackle after the catch (vs trying to break it up).

Thankfully he did, but what I think Dino was so pissed off about was Simmons positioning, or lack thereof, in that he was supposed to be in that deep third center third of the field and bit up being caught up field in No mans land.

Overall as you noted this is a good first step with the chance for much improvement as well. Thats a very good position for us to be in, to dominate an inferior (but still good) MAC team was great to see.

Finally nice to go to a road game again, we saw maybe 400-500 Cuse fans there. Think, like the state fair, the numbers are down because of the pandemic to about half of what they normally would be.

Regardless great experience especially the fact for $25 a ticket we got to sit front and center around the 50 yard line to take it all in, what a day!

I sat right next to Tom, great seats procured by TexanMark. Great tailgate run by TexanMark. Major thanks to TexanMark and Cuseregular for all their efforts .

My son and I arrived much earlier than Tom by the same route, however we avoided any interaction with the Ohio constabulary, perhaps they were not out yet to increase funding from visitors, unfortunate that Tom fell victim to their dastardly plan.

Tom is very thorough in his reports, I for one do not know how he seems to get so many details so accurately, especially when he is rooting for his Orange with such wild abandon.

Very enjoyable day, met Bleichs and Williams parents along with many board members.

 

[CuyahogaCuse]

One of the HS bands from Orange HS and their colors were orange and blue. Guess which HS Syracuse fans liked the best?
.

We live one town over from Orange, in Solon, up in - you guessed it - northeast Ohio. Always thought it would be fun for this fan to live in Orange, but it wasn’t meant to be.

If you’re looking for other Ohio high schools to latch on to, may I suggest the Ellet Orangemen. Of course, Ellet, located near Akron, is pretty much terrible.

Sorry about the speeding ticket. Other than that, any road victory automatically qualifies as a great trip.

Gst some rest this week and be ready to bring the noise next week in The Dome.

 

[Trueblue25]

These threads have always been special and well done. I know the first cuse football game, win or loss, without will feel weird.

 

[sufandu]

About the Ohio speed limit stuff. My dad used to deliver campers as a way to make some extra money after he retired from factory work. Indiana is the RV capital of the country so, he had to drive through Ohio regularly. At the time, maybe it's still like this, on I-90 they had a 65mph limit for cars and 55mph limit for big trucks. He was told Ohio was offered federal funds to raise their truck limit to 65. They turned it down because they claimed they could make more money on the speeding tickets.

 

[tipphill]

i am not sold on td yet. i feel he still panics. will see as rutgers will surly try to visit him.
one thing i noticed was when shrader ran one he pitched out in what appeared to be an improvisation babers. it was the last play of the game. i believe babers started give him the lecture when he walked out on the field. he clearly did not like what he did. shrader had his back turned and continued to walk away.
i was hoping that did not play shrader as he did not want ru to see any new tape.---if that was not case he should have played shrader a lot more. the guy appears to me to have a dungyesque attitude.

 

[money3189]

i am not sold on td yet. i feel he still panics. will see as rutgers will surly try to visit him.
one thing i noticed was when shrader ran one he pitched out in what appeared to be an improvisation babers. it was the last play of the game. i believe babers started give him the lecture when he walked out on the field. he clearly did not like what he did. shrader had his back turned and continued to walk away.
i was hoping that did not play shrader as he did not want ru to see any new tape.---if that was not case he should have played shrader a lot more. the guy appears to me to have a dungyesque attitude.

It was definitely something Dino didnt like but that was just one of their common rpo plays. Maybe Dino preferred him to keep it and not throw it.

 

[SUskibum]

It was definitely something Dino didnt like but that was just one of their common rpo plays. Maybe Dino preferred him to keep it and not throw it.

I think thats exactly it, not to mention the throw was super delayed.

There was absolutley no upside to that shovel/pitch at that point in the game but he did it anyways.

For everyone wondering why DFB stuck with TD while we were steadily building our lead, that play was the epitome of what he is probably scared of.

Freelancing players cut both ways, lotta upside and lotta downside. There is a time for discipline and a time for creativity. I am sure DFB will use that as a perfect teaching moment.

 

[tipphill]

It was definitely something Dino didnt like but that was just one of their common rpo plays. Maybe Dino preferred him to keep it and not throw it.

i am sure that is what dino wanted. i was more interested in shraders response

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I can say there is no good reason SU can’t have a dynamic marching band too. We have more than our share of pasty, skinny guys.

Maybe Wildhack can hire their director

 

[AngryOtto]

I think thats exactly it, not to mention the throw was super delayed.

There was absolutley no upside to that shovel/pitch at that point in the game but he did it anyways.

For everyone wondering why DFB stuck with TD while we were steadily building our lead, that play was the epitome of what he is probably scared of.

Freelancing players cut both ways, lotta upside and lotta downside. There is a time for discipline and a time for creativity. I am sure DFB will use that as a perfect teaching moment.

My concern with DB not playing shrader more in the game is that when he gets in he will take more risks with ball security then if he knew he was going to play more. Might feel has to prove himself on every play. From his prior clips at miss st he’s a gamer and wants to play.

 

[sutomcat]

Good news TC, you've become famous over in delusional land.

https://rutgers.forums.r ivals.com/threads/sarah-fans-ruminating-about-us.223458/

The fact they think your 100% serious on some of your comments is hilarious. Still the most delusional fanbase I'm all of Div 1 sports. You'd think we were playing Ohio State on Saturday by reading some of those threads, not the school who didn't win a B10 game for 2+ years.

Yes, Rutgers fans are still stupid. I am glad they have continued that tradition.

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

Tom's discussion of the bridges spanning the Ohio made me think of this.

NSFW language

Good movie.

 

[MGDCuse]

About the Ohio speed limit stuff. My dad used to deliver campers as a way to make some extra money after he retired from factory work. Indiana is the RV capital of the country so, he had to drive through Ohio regularly. At the time, maybe it's still like this, on I-90 they had a 65mph limit for cars and 55mph limit for big trucks. He was told Ohio was offered federal funds to raise their truck limit to 65. They turned it down because they claimed they could make more money on the speeding tickets.

Ohio and Michigan did away with their separate speed limits for cars and trucks several years ago.

 

[MGDCuse]

Great write up Tom, as always. I knew you would enjoy the Ohio band. They've had that same showmanship since, at least, the 80's. My sister was in Toledo's marching band in the early 80's and Ohio's band would make the trip up whenever the game was at UT. I was hooked the first time I saw them and it's a real treat whenever they come up here, though it doesn't happen very often anymore. I spent Saturday night at the Toledo game and listened to the Cuse game on WAER. Great night. Both teams won. I look forward to your write ups after these games. Especially the games I don't get to see. The hard drive on my DISH receiver crashed this week, so I not only couldn't record the game, I couldn't watch any football this weekend period. Why do these things never happen in a week when there's absolutely nothing on tv worth watching?!

 

[TexanMark]

We live one town over from Orange, in Solon, up in - you guessed it - northeast Ohio. Always thought it would be fun for this fan to live in Orange, but it wasn’t meant to be.

If you’re looking for other Ohio high schools to latch on to, may I suggest the Ellet Orangemen. Of course, Ellet, located near Akron, is pretty much terrible.

Sorry about the speeding ticket. Other than that, any road victory automatically qualifies as a great trip.

Gst some rest this week and be ready to bring the noise next week in The Dome.

We missed you guys...but realize you had a more important engagement. Hopefully, we'll see after the D-3 playoffs at our bowl game.

Those Orange HS kids loved us when we started chanting, "Let's Go Orange".

 

[BrooklynCuse]

haha. They are so stupid. They don’t even realize that some of what Tom writes is for comedic or sarcastic value. Dorks.

I ventured over there for the first time in years and didn’t see any of the old usual suspects… New dorks took their place I guess

 

[CuyahogaCuse]

We missed you guys...but realize you had a more important engagement. Hopefully, we'll see after the D-3 playoffs at our bowl game.

Those Orange HS kids loved us when we started chanting, "Let's Go Orange".

That is awesome.

FWIW. Orange High School. Not good at lacrosse. A certain current D-3 lineman gave up exactly one goal to them last year in his senior season.

But I digress.

 

[CuseLegacy]

That is awesome.

FWIW. Orange High School. Not good at lacrosse. A certain current D-3 lineman gave up exactly one goal to them last year in his senior season.

But I digress.

Lol...well I feel dumb that it took me awhile to realize the Orange HS y'all were talking about...especially as I lived in Hudson, once upon a time, a long time ago.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Lol...well I feel dumb that it took me awhile to realize the Orange HS y'all were talking about...especially as I lived in Hudson, once upon a time, a long time ago.

Just went to a craft brew place there. Unfortunately, the hipster diffuses (or duffi) are over running the craft brewery scene in the area.

 

[Roger N]

Sorry this is late. I went to the game. It is a hard place to get to.

Ohio University is located in Athens, Ohio. Athens is in the southeastern corner of Ohio, not far from the Ohio River, in a very hilly area that is part of the Appalachian Mountain range.

There aren’t many hotel rooms in Athens, so I stayed (along with a couple of board luminaries) in Marietta. Marietta is also in Ohio. It is right on the Ohio River, and was the first pemanent settlement in the US west of the Allegany. Check out David McCullough’s book “The Pioneers’ for more info on this. Credit to Roger N (get wells on). It was also a finalist site for the nation’s capital. Cool little city.

Marietta could have been nation’s capital

MARIETTA — To many current residents of Marietta, it’s a picture-perfect small town complete with local businesses, a community feel and a historic atmosphere. But Marietta almost wasn’t the small city situated along the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers that it is today. If but for a...

www.newsandsentinel.com

The hills make the trip between Athens and Marietta a bit of a challenge. Google Maps had me get to Athens by heading south from Marietta, crossing the Ohio and driving 10 miles into West Virginia, which made me very uncomfortable, bu I eventually got to the campus and the tailgate.

Sometimes, I like to include important life lessons in this posts. This is one of those times. I was driving on Route 50, which was supposed to be going west from Parkersburg, WV, but I was mostly going almost directly north, towards the Ohio River and Ohio. The speed limit was 70. The road was kind of curvy and there were some elevation changes, but I had my cruise control on 72, I was listening to college football on the radio, and all was well with the world.

Then I went over a big, quite impressive bridge over the Ohio River and was in Ohio. I was still on Route 50, things looked the same, but my running mate cars went right and left and I along continued north on 50, towards Athens. I resumed my cruise control and within 20 seconds, 2 very bad things happened.

I looked to my left. There was a police car there. With a police officer. With a radar gun. It was aimed at me. Then I looked to my right. Oh look, here comes a sign. What does it say? Speed limit 60. Uh oh. 10 minutes later, I resumed my trip to Athens, with a ticket from a very nice Ohio police officer. The life lesson is, never assume the speed limit will be the same when changing states riding on Route 50. Heed this lesson and you will do well in life.

Serious suggestion for the MAC: move some of the colleges in the conference to Eastern Ohio, especially Northeastern Ohio. It would be good for SU fans trying to get to God forsaken MAC stadiums, it would make it easier to entice students to enroll at these schools if more than 10 people live within 100 miles of the campus and I bet the bus driver for the UB athletic teams would like it too. If all the MAC schools can’t be relocated to NE Ohio, put some of them in Western NY. WNY needs more decent college sports teams to follow and most of it is empty anyway.

TexanMark and Cuseregular got a great parking lot next to some hall, about 5 blocks from the stadium. It was free, there was a space close to our tailgate for my to park at, it was close to the stadium and I thought it was great. Apparently no drinking of alcohol was allowed there, and the Syracuse folks broke some more Ohio rules here, but I thought it was very cool. Got there too late to eat or drink anything (another life lesson; don’t get to a tailgate 2 hours before game time if you want hot food), But Obie9 hooked me up with a bottle of DDP and a bottle of H2O which were greatly appreciated. Solid.

I liked the campus. It was all kind of derivative brick with white framed windows (I think the architecture folks call it Georgian), but it was well maintained and nice. There were lots of open green spaces, some ponds here and there and the rolling hills my heart always pines for.

Ohio is most definitely not New York. There was no mask requirement on campus. No mask requirement for the stadium. No temp checks. No need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative covid test. It was, as David Byrne once said, ‘ the same as it ever was’. A few students and SU fans were wearing masks. Otherwise, you would never know there was worldwide pandemic going on. So we aren’t going to learn any tricks from Ohio U to make hosting football games in a pandemic easier.

It was a black out. The Ohio football team wore all black uniforms. Some of their fans also wore black. And maybe all their students. There had to be 1 or 2 thousand of them at the game and I don’t remember even one that was not wearing black. That would never happen at Syracuse. Even if you gave every student a $100 gift certificate to Dinosaur BBQ to wear a specific color. So kudos to the Ohio University students for their awesome conformance. More on them later.

I knew going in that this was a MAC venue, and the quality of the video replays was not going to be at the level of our world class center hung scoreboard with its remarkable clarity and resolution. When I got my first look at their scoreboard, it was showing a photo. Bad resolution but not awful. Yes, there was a black square near the middle of the scoreboard that had decided to stop working, but I thought, this is big enough that we might be able to review some close calls. Only that was wrong. They showed zero replays. Though they did show live shots of fans in the crowd a few times. Weird.

The placement of fans was also weird. One sign of the stadium, the side I will call the respectable side, had the non student fans. You know, the older people. That was where they put the press box too. There is only one deck in this stadium. No private boxes that I could see, though some might be housed in the press box tower. The one deck they have doesn’t have a ton of rows either. There were no seats in one end zone and a grass mound in the other. I can’t believe there are more than 25K of seats in the place. Maybe if you packed the grass with people you could fit 30K in there. I think they announced a crowd of around 25K. Looked like about 80% of the seats were filled, but I didn’t look closely. The field turf looked faded and kind of old but it seemed to be fine. The seats were all, I believe, low end aluminum benches with no backs. Low budget, plain Jane type stuff. I am sure Ohio University, like all non-P5 schools, has major budget issues for its sports teams.
Not a bad setup at all.

So I talked about the respectable side of the stadium. The other side is where they put the visiting fans. And the students. But TexanMark somehow convinced them to sell us all the seats behind the Syracuse bench. So on TV, you see a small orange section behind the team, a big student section behind the small Syracuse section, and a few stray Syracuse fans on the edges. It was a weird setup. Some of the Ohio students spent much of their time standing in the aisle between the Syracuse section and the student section. You know, the DMZ.

A few observations on the Ohio students. Again, they were all in black. A lot of them seemed skinny. It was a frail looking group. Ohio natives, is there some kind of a rule here? Alcoholic HS students in Ohio go to OSU, students with mullets go to UC, and the frail, pale ones go to Ohio University? That is the way it looks to me.

They talked to us some. A few tried to talk trash. A few were nice. One told me my shirt was fire. It was actually an electric hunter orange color that I wore specifically so my wife could spot me in the crowd. Based on what Portnoy says, I think fire is good, but I am not 100% sure Portnoy is as hip as he thinks he is.

But I digress.

One of the Syracuse folks asked a student, what is up with the grassy knoll in the end zone? The student told him, ‘oh, that is where the stoners go to get high. They can smoke there and no one cares’. I did see a couple of families who set up ship there early and had their little kids running around doing cartwheels that might not agree. But again, I digress.

It was cool sitting so close to the players. Very unusual for me. Kingsley Jonathan looked like he was banged up and did not play most of the game, maybe all of the game. He was like a coach working with the DEs each time they came off the field. He might be a coach some day. Chris did the same, really focusing on helping Mang. The players were engaged, didn’t see any friction or disagreements, there was respect for the coaches….all the things you want to see. And the players repeatedly showed the Syracuse fans appreciation for our support. It seemed genuine. It has been a while since they have played in front of Syracuse fans, even if only a small section of the Syracusefan.com community.

Shrader got up and threw several times. A few players stopped by and gave him words of encouragement. He really looked like he wanted to get out there. One of the Ohio players gave Andre a late shot and knocked him on his butt. He hopped right up with a big grin on his face.

The only time I saw Dino get mad was after the Ohio QB completed a long pass down the sideline. The throw was very high in the air and hang there for a long time. A really long time. It looked like Simmons was in position to break the play up but he opted to let the WR catch it and then hit him. Dino ran after him and appeared to urge him to make the hit and break the play up next time.

I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and had a 6.5 hour drive back so I am pretty tired but let’s talk about the game for a bit.

This was the first time in a long time that it looked like we wanted to impose on will on the defense, run the ball and wear the opponent down, and we were actually able to complete the game plan.

Ohio does not have a big or great set of DL or LBs. I talked about them being undersized and their struggles stopping the run last year. But they have a decent defense, with a lot of veterans back, and it is a good sign we were able to run the ball consistently against them. This was the first time in a long time I saw our OL move the DL a couple of yards back on each rush attempt. We were bigger, stronger and tougher than Ohio was. Our OL dominated their DL. It doesn’t mean we will be able to do it against better teams but you have to start somewhere, and this was a start.

This was the first game I have seen Tucker get better as the game went on. Most of the time last season, it seemed like he would get off to a good start, then get worn down and beaten up and the quality of his play would drop as the game continued. Great backs get better as games continue. All that work in the weight room paid off for Sean, at least for one game. Great to see.

I thought we used Harris poorly. Most of the balls thrown to him were hospital passes where the defender was there and leveled Taj as soon as the ball hit his hands. Looked like he played from the slot a lot. They called the same play too often. Gotta find ways to get him the ball in space. Ohio said they were going to take him away and they did.

I think (haven’t looked at the stats yet) we only threw to 3 guys: Harris, Queeley and Johnson. Check that, I do remember a throw to Tucker as well. That was the one Tommy screwed up the timing and threw it a second before he was supposed to. I wish we would try to get the ball to the TE, maybe an RB, and maybe to a tall WR some. It would make us harder to defend. Especially in the red zone.

Thought Tommy played pretty well. He managed the game well. I don’t think he made many bad decisions. It looked like he missed a couple of open players in the red zone, where he was at his worse, but I thought he showed more poise in the pocket than in the past. Thought he looked good running the ball and it was great to see him complete a couple of passes on the run. Big steps for him to become a complete QB.

It was strange to watch us run the ball so much and do so little play action off it. I think we only went deep once, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. All I can think off here is that they didn’t want to show Tommy’s ability to complete deep balls to Rutgers with the game coming up next week.

Gotta watch the replay of the game…looked like Tommy had the ball in Taj’s hands on that long pass and Taj dropped it but maybe it was just a tad overthrown?

Gotta get Darton out of the middle trying to field squib kicks and return them. To his credit, he did a decent job with that assignment but he isn’t in the top 50 in terms of qualifications for this task. On the subject of Darton, I ams going to assume with him cracking into the rotation at NT, he has been given a scholarship for this season. Can anyone confirm this?

I thought Williams did a better job kicking off and getting them into the end zone than Szmyt. Was surprised to see Andre kick off. Most did not reach the end zone, but I will say he got a lot of hang time on his kicks and that is probably why he has the job.

It looked like Cole did a very capable job filling in for Garrett when he was out in the second half at CB. Hope he is ok.

Mang played a ton. Way more than Benson. They had him out front leading Sean on many of his best runs. He did well blocking in his first extended playing time.

Ohio hit hard. 3 of their DBs are from the Miami area and they brought the wood.

LaBrosse had his first extended playing time as well. He did some really good things, especially with run support but he got beat deep and they were targeting him a lot. I am sure Rutgers is going to see the film and come after him as well. He is a really good athlete but is going to make the some mistakes too. Hope he learns from what happened yesterday.

Chestnut was all over the field and had a terrific game. If you have a chance, watch the dance he does after his interception with 5 minutes or so left in the game. My wife is not a football fan but she caught that dance and loved it. Someone from the press needs to ask him if it was choreographed or ad libbed.


The bathrooms at the stadium featured old school ceramic pee troughs. Solid. I can’t being myself to tour the new bathrooms at the dome and see what the bastards did to my pee troughs. Sigh.

Ohio University invited 4 or 5 HS marching bands to the game and they performed with the Ohio band before and at halftime of the game. SU does the same thing. Good practice. I assume tickets are free and the practice is about building relationships with young fans and helping improve marching bands in the state. One of the HS bands from Orange HS and their colors were orange and blue. Guess which HS Syracuse fans liked the best?

At halftime, I stayed to watch the Ohio band play. It had been a long time since I had seen a marching band in person and I heard Ohio had a good band. Truth.

They say they have 110 members. I counted 16 tubas once but then 24 later. They were tight, their arrangements were nice but the best thing about them was their showmanship. Looked like they have been watching some HBCU band films. Lots of dancing moves mixed into their performances. Flashy moves with cymbals and drummers.

The thing that made it really special though was the relationship between the students and the band, I am not sure a single student left the stands until the band finished their performance. It should be noted that more than half the students were female, and they seemed to react the most (mostly with delighted squeals) to the dynamic sections of the band performance.

I haven’t seen this kind of relationship between a marching band and a student body before. It was very cool, and I would love to see something like this happen at Syracuse.

Talked to an older Ohio alum afterwards. He said when he was a student, the students didn’t care about the band and no one watched them. So this can be turned around. Assuming the band director drove it. Gotta find out more on this,

Encouraging start to the season. Thought the defense showed signs of greatness but lack of discipline (a couple of stupid penalties) hurt a lot.

That said, Ohio has been a really good offense during the Solich era, and holding them to no TDs and less than 10 points on their hom field is a fine achievement. I think we took our foot off the petal and kept things vanilla in large part not to tip our hand to some aspects of our offense to that team from that swamp.

Hope so anyway.

Great report as always. Thanks for the shout out regarding Marietta. It's a nice little place. On the way into town to find a place to eat we ran into a couple of nice folks who told us we were in luck, it was the first Friday of the month, and all the businesses stay open until 9:00 o'clock. The town was jumping with lots of good places to eat.

Tom, regarding your citation, I don't use cruise control. I must have run into the same speed trap around 2:00 PM. It was right after 50 branched off from 32. I noticed a police car about 500 feet ahead parked on the side of the road and an officer standing near me at the side of the road. He then pointing his radar gun at me. I thought I was going over 65 but I wasn't stopped. I think what happened to you was it got to be near the end of his shift and he hadn't made his quota yet and he saw your nice car and NY plates..."Welcome to Ohio"