sutomcat
2024 Iggy Award (ACC Tournament Record)
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Sitting at Fort Lauderdale airport, waiting for
My flight back into Syracuse. Still
On time as of right now. Fingers crossed.
I have about 4 hours before my flight leaves for I expect this post to be a big one. Buckle up and if you don’t like long posts, please move on now.
Flew in on Allegiant Thursday night. Didn’t want to arrive until Fridsy but the process was right and it was direct flights both ways.
Flight was late. Didn’t get to my hotel room until a little after midnight. I hired you get what you pay for.
Stayed at a Sleep Inn. Not a bad hotel but their continental breakfast would have been better titled a carbohydrate breakfast. Cereal, toast, make your own waffles, orange juice, apple juice. No eggs, no bacon or sausage. The only thing I could eat was a nonfat yogurt. Oh well.
TexanMark and VTAaron arrived and after some shopping, we went to dinner at a restaurant called the Old Heidelberg. Yes, it was German food. I had the weiner sneitzel and it was very good. If we need a fullback for the SU women’s team, we know where to go to find her. She is waitressing there.
Also, if you ever go to this place, don’t order the 1 liter beer unless you are extremely thirsty.
It is hot down here. Even in November. There were coconuts up in the palm trees at the Sleep Inn. I think I sweat more in 2.5 days here than I did all summer in CNY.
We left really early for the tailgate. The lots are supposed to open at 10:30 and we got there around 10:15. Had to wait until 10:30 to get in.
The attendants wanted Mark to follow the UM fans to where he was standing but Mark made a command decision to drive hard left and get us a prime spot near trees and grass. He suspected the guy would not be mad enough to do anything and this proved to be the case. Some heroes do not wear capes.
It was very hot and humid early and I feared we might have some heat stroke victims. And we did lose one tailgater, who curled up on the ground in the shade and eventually was taken to a hospital as a precaution. She is fine and Mark still has not lost a single sheep on his watch as a SU tailgate captain.
After a while, some clouds moved in and we started tonget a gentle breeze. That was survival key.
The tailgate was a success. Many coneys and red hots were consumed and even some Hebrew Nationals. A variety of interesting beers were quaffed. Some Zevias for discerning keto conscious folks.
Props to Aaron and the mysterious Cane fan, who did a yeoman like job on the portable Blackstone. And props to the awesome blonde who distributed coneys and hot dogs to the masses. I wish I got her name. She was killing it on the grill at SMU as well. Legend.
The Cubanito sandwiches from Publix were also excellent. Though I didn’t try the Cuban bread….
Great to see some old friends and to meet people for the first time. When you meet someone from the board in person, it is always cool. And it is fun to meet lurkers too.
That is why these tailgates are the best.
I guess there is a race track that was built around the stadium a while ago. That complicates things when you enter the stadium from the lots. But we perservered and eventually got to the stadium.
Hard Rock is nice. We were in a block of seats Mark bought in section 127. Between the 30 and 35 27 rows from the field. The chairs were padded and there were cup holders. The cup holders are nice but personally i would rather hold my drink or put it on the ground instead of if I could get the leg room lost due to the cup holders.
There was one big nice replay scoreboard in an end zone. There weren’t a ton of scoreboards showing info and unbelievably,
I missed the setup at JMA over this pro football experience.
Hard Rock had some great high end food
Choices. Lobster rolls. Prime rib sandwiches. And there was an air conditioned club at field level where you could get roasted pork served in a sandwich or on nachos. Nice. I hope we add more high end stuff to it our menu at JMA soon. I know we served lobster rolls at MVC not long ago.
They had a DJ and played a lot of music very loudly. UM has a nice band with 22 tubas and I missed they were allowed to play more.
Of the 22 sousaphones, 19 were silver.
2 were gold and one was white. Haven’t seen that kind of ghetto marching band stuff since UConn made their first appearance in the dome.
They played ‘Sweet Caroline’ around
The start of the fourth quarter and a lot of people sang it properly. Gotta be a lot of people from the Northeast in attendance.
The UM fans were extremely quiet until they finally got a couple TDs late in the first half. Their students section was tiny and I could not even identify what section the students were sitting in. Really the only strong support came from a bunch of kids who got together and took over a section in an end zone upper deck and copied the Oklahoma State kids with the shirt off and spinning over your head. They made a decent amount of noise and confirmed people were alive at this very quiet stadium.
After then game, we walked back through a thick cloud of ganga smoke and Cane fan urine as we made our way back to our cars.
I feel the smell of urine and ganga are the smells of Miami but it is possible I was just frequenting the wrong places down here. The airport thankfully smells okay.
Let’s talk about the game. Matt Hawn started. I think he played one play and then was gone. I believe I saw Matt blocking in some special team units later so I don’t think he was hurt. What the hell?
The OL for most of the game was from left to right: Mack, Spoon, Cruz, Washington and Pringle.
Mack had a tough assignment and got abused. Thought Spoon did pretty well playing OG for us for the first time. Thought
Cruz was okay at center except for a penalty or two and a few bad snaps. Thought Washington did nice job run blocking and his pass blocking wasn’t truly bad. Pringle had his hands full pass blocking but I thought his run blocking looked okay. I have seen players struggle more with their first start and UM has top notch DEs.
Anyway, Collins sometimes had time to throw and sometimes did not. He made a few good throws, used his legs to get some badly needed yardage and made a few of his usual ghastly throws directly to the other team. He is who he is and I don’t think this is going to change. I wish our WRs fought harder for 50-50 balls. Guys that played last year would have gotten Rickie a few more catches yesterday. No JRS and no E Ross is no bueno.
We are playing a lot of youngsters at WR and they are not tough enough or strong enough to beat decent CBs. Someday Darien Williams, Boobie Johnson, Jaylen Hornsby, Daunte Bacheyie and Davion Kerr are going to be good. That day hasn’t happened yet. Though there are signs. Also should be noted Samuel played a little at WR yesterday. Expect more of that the rest of the season.
Nixon ran the ball really well. Unfortunately he was asked to block blitzers and got run over several times. He has cleat marks from #3 in UM all over his back. Gotta do better when you are a senior leader.
Another fumble from Willis, who had a good game otherwise. Do we miss LeQuint? Oh yes.
Great to see Elijah Washington-Baker get a TD. He looks like he might be a big part of the offense next season. Not sure Tremble is going to play TE again. Filardi played well and led the team to a TD. Might have been against subs but he needs some success to get his confidence back.
Carney didn’t even warm up today. I don’t think he is going to play a down for us the rest of the year.
Stonehouse was awesome. Had a couple great kicks inside the 5. I wish our special teams would catch it when he hits it in there.
Thought Samuel did well at CB. UM has some burners. Not an easy job. He needs to add 10 pounds of muscle and he will be very very good. Peal seems to quietly do a capable job week to week. He is another guy who will benefit from more time in the weight room. Singleton looks like he can play as well.
Long got reamed out by Fran after he gave up a long TD. We need to upgrade at safety and lose 3 guys so I think we will be active in the portal here.
Jobity made some nice plays as always. Thomas is playing more and it looked like he held his ground well.
AD and Bryant appeared to be playing hurt and still played quite well.
The defense was good for a long time but extreme incompetence from the offense eventually wore them down. What a shame.
My flight back into Syracuse. Still
On time as of right now. Fingers crossed.
I have about 4 hours before my flight leaves for I expect this post to be a big one. Buckle up and if you don’t like long posts, please move on now.
Flew in on Allegiant Thursday night. Didn’t want to arrive until Fridsy but the process was right and it was direct flights both ways.
Flight was late. Didn’t get to my hotel room until a little after midnight. I hired you get what you pay for.
Stayed at a Sleep Inn. Not a bad hotel but their continental breakfast would have been better titled a carbohydrate breakfast. Cereal, toast, make your own waffles, orange juice, apple juice. No eggs, no bacon or sausage. The only thing I could eat was a nonfat yogurt. Oh well.
TexanMark and VTAaron arrived and after some shopping, we went to dinner at a restaurant called the Old Heidelberg. Yes, it was German food. I had the weiner sneitzel and it was very good. If we need a fullback for the SU women’s team, we know where to go to find her. She is waitressing there.
Also, if you ever go to this place, don’t order the 1 liter beer unless you are extremely thirsty.
It is hot down here. Even in November. There were coconuts up in the palm trees at the Sleep Inn. I think I sweat more in 2.5 days here than I did all summer in CNY.
We left really early for the tailgate. The lots are supposed to open at 10:30 and we got there around 10:15. Had to wait until 10:30 to get in.
The attendants wanted Mark to follow the UM fans to where he was standing but Mark made a command decision to drive hard left and get us a prime spot near trees and grass. He suspected the guy would not be mad enough to do anything and this proved to be the case. Some heroes do not wear capes.
It was very hot and humid early and I feared we might have some heat stroke victims. And we did lose one tailgater, who curled up on the ground in the shade and eventually was taken to a hospital as a precaution. She is fine and Mark still has not lost a single sheep on his watch as a SU tailgate captain.
After a while, some clouds moved in and we started tonget a gentle breeze. That was survival key.
The tailgate was a success. Many coneys and red hots were consumed and even some Hebrew Nationals. A variety of interesting beers were quaffed. Some Zevias for discerning keto conscious folks.
Props to Aaron and the mysterious Cane fan, who did a yeoman like job on the portable Blackstone. And props to the awesome blonde who distributed coneys and hot dogs to the masses. I wish I got her name. She was killing it on the grill at SMU as well. Legend.
The Cubanito sandwiches from Publix were also excellent. Though I didn’t try the Cuban bread….
Great to see some old friends and to meet people for the first time. When you meet someone from the board in person, it is always cool. And it is fun to meet lurkers too.
That is why these tailgates are the best.
I guess there is a race track that was built around the stadium a while ago. That complicates things when you enter the stadium from the lots. But we perservered and eventually got to the stadium.
Hard Rock is nice. We were in a block of seats Mark bought in section 127. Between the 30 and 35 27 rows from the field. The chairs were padded and there were cup holders. The cup holders are nice but personally i would rather hold my drink or put it on the ground instead of if I could get the leg room lost due to the cup holders.
There was one big nice replay scoreboard in an end zone. There weren’t a ton of scoreboards showing info and unbelievably,
I missed the setup at JMA over this pro football experience.
Hard Rock had some great high end food
Choices. Lobster rolls. Prime rib sandwiches. And there was an air conditioned club at field level where you could get roasted pork served in a sandwich or on nachos. Nice. I hope we add more high end stuff to it our menu at JMA soon. I know we served lobster rolls at MVC not long ago.
They had a DJ and played a lot of music very loudly. UM has a nice band with 22 tubas and I missed they were allowed to play more.
Of the 22 sousaphones, 19 were silver.
2 were gold and one was white. Haven’t seen that kind of ghetto marching band stuff since UConn made their first appearance in the dome.
They played ‘Sweet Caroline’ around
The start of the fourth quarter and a lot of people sang it properly. Gotta be a lot of people from the Northeast in attendance.
The UM fans were extremely quiet until they finally got a couple TDs late in the first half. Their students section was tiny and I could not even identify what section the students were sitting in. Really the only strong support came from a bunch of kids who got together and took over a section in an end zone upper deck and copied the Oklahoma State kids with the shirt off and spinning over your head. They made a decent amount of noise and confirmed people were alive at this very quiet stadium.
After then game, we walked back through a thick cloud of ganga smoke and Cane fan urine as we made our way back to our cars.
I feel the smell of urine and ganga are the smells of Miami but it is possible I was just frequenting the wrong places down here. The airport thankfully smells okay.
Let’s talk about the game. Matt Hawn started. I think he played one play and then was gone. I believe I saw Matt blocking in some special team units later so I don’t think he was hurt. What the hell?
The OL for most of the game was from left to right: Mack, Spoon, Cruz, Washington and Pringle.
Mack had a tough assignment and got abused. Thought Spoon did pretty well playing OG for us for the first time. Thought
Cruz was okay at center except for a penalty or two and a few bad snaps. Thought Washington did nice job run blocking and his pass blocking wasn’t truly bad. Pringle had his hands full pass blocking but I thought his run blocking looked okay. I have seen players struggle more with their first start and UM has top notch DEs.
Anyway, Collins sometimes had time to throw and sometimes did not. He made a few good throws, used his legs to get some badly needed yardage and made a few of his usual ghastly throws directly to the other team. He is who he is and I don’t think this is going to change. I wish our WRs fought harder for 50-50 balls. Guys that played last year would have gotten Rickie a few more catches yesterday. No JRS and no E Ross is no bueno.
We are playing a lot of youngsters at WR and they are not tough enough or strong enough to beat decent CBs. Someday Darien Williams, Boobie Johnson, Jaylen Hornsby, Daunte Bacheyie and Davion Kerr are going to be good. That day hasn’t happened yet. Though there are signs. Also should be noted Samuel played a little at WR yesterday. Expect more of that the rest of the season.
Nixon ran the ball really well. Unfortunately he was asked to block blitzers and got run over several times. He has cleat marks from #3 in UM all over his back. Gotta do better when you are a senior leader.
Another fumble from Willis, who had a good game otherwise. Do we miss LeQuint? Oh yes.
Great to see Elijah Washington-Baker get a TD. He looks like he might be a big part of the offense next season. Not sure Tremble is going to play TE again. Filardi played well and led the team to a TD. Might have been against subs but he needs some success to get his confidence back.
Carney didn’t even warm up today. I don’t think he is going to play a down for us the rest of the year.
Stonehouse was awesome. Had a couple great kicks inside the 5. I wish our special teams would catch it when he hits it in there.
Thought Samuel did well at CB. UM has some burners. Not an easy job. He needs to add 10 pounds of muscle and he will be very very good. Peal seems to quietly do a capable job week to week. He is another guy who will benefit from more time in the weight room. Singleton looks like he can play as well.
Long got reamed out by Fran after he gave up a long TD. We need to upgrade at safety and lose 3 guys so I think we will be active in the portal here.
Jobity made some nice plays as always. Thomas is playing more and it looked like he held his ground well.
AD and Bryant appeared to be playing hurt and still played quite well.
The defense was good for a long time but extreme incompetence from the offense eventually wore them down. What a shame.
