I'll start with the tailgate, which was pretty extraordinary. It was a big one, the biggest we have had to date. At one point OE made a count and declared there were over 150 people in attendance. He is a world class head counter so the number should be accurate. With people coming and going all the time, I am quite sure we had over 200 participate during the pre game activities. It was quite a sight to see; 4 grills going at once, 4 tables filled with food, 7 or 8 coolers and kegs too. Solid work by everyone involved, especially Mark, Mike, Jeremy, Steve and up and comer Caz, whose recent emergence reminds me of the situation with Darius Kelly on the football team.
Otto made an appearance, as did Grande Dame Cto, Rob. dapper as always, and many more. Should mention DNabb, who won the long distance award for travel, driving from LA. Linda was a close second. Great to see so many old and new friends, home to see many of you again later this season and in the future.
A special mention to Jeremy's fiance for creating a magnificent Syracuse football cake, with a special tribute to Don McPherson and board fave Otto. It was the most impressive baked good I have ever seen at a tailgate, and worthy of first prize on those baking shows they have on the Food Channel. And it tasted great too.
It was great to see the Dome filled close to capacity again. There were some empty seats but not many and the crowd was very loud and into it early on. Clemson brought a lot of fans as expected, somewhere in the 4K to 5K range I think. WVU might have brought a few more once or twice, but if so, it was only by a small margin. Impressive showing by a team based in South Carolina.
I looked at this game as a good measuring stick to see where SU stands in the ACC hierarchy. I think we all knew the Tigers have some serious speed and athleticism on their team. My general feeling was that the ACC was faster and more athletic than the Big East but that the Big East was more physical and tougher.
Well, after watching them in action, I guess we have to hope and pray that the Tigers are the clear class of the conference, because as a fictional knight said in a movie some time ago, paraphased for convenience, "Syracuse, you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting".
Clemson has terrific athletics across the board. Their WRs are terrific, not only fast but physical, strong and tough. I haven't seen the closing speed, excellent technique and athletic ability on defense in the Dome since the glory days of Miami. Even when we made a good call on offense and drew a few Tigers away from the play so we in effect had a 10 on 8 situation, one of their players would consistently make a great play and limit the damage to a minimum.
They just might play for an NC this year. Experienced, excellent QB, good OL, great WRs (the 91 yard completion to Sammy was a thing of beauty; Boyd got crushed just after he released the ball and the pass was picture perfect), very solid defense across the board and excellent special teams as well. They are loaded. The only weaknesses I see are that the RBs are good but not great, the OL is not stellar (our defense did a good job shutting down their running game most of the game) and their secondary is a bit suspect (they blew some tackles and took awful angles on a couple long runs by the SU running backs and were beat deep a couple times on pass plays we were not able to take advantage of).
And then there is the whole Dabo thing. The guy appears to be a real wild card. He is the Charlie Kelly of college football head coaches.
Also wanted to briefly talk about the Clemson fans, who to a man all seemed like good people. Had a great time talking with them. They knew their football, they love it and they support it. No question about it, the better the football program, the better the fans. Hope everyone who came up here for the game had a good time.
Anyway. I hope they win the whole thing; it will be great for the conference. I think it is great to have a team this talented in the conference; am hopeful it will help elevate the rest of the teams to higher levels.
Regarding the game, here are some disjointed comments before I head out to golf.
Darius Kelly is the most special teams player I have ever seen at Syracuse. They says a lot given David Tyree played here. He is a heat seeking missile on the coverage teams; it is quite remarkable to behold.
He continues to earn more PT at FS as well. He has great anticipation, excellent speed and is a terrific tackler. Was a great pick up.
Riley did a really nice job again at punter. Love the crazy formations, the rugby style kicking, we are making teams spend a lot more time on special teams than they would ordinarily. The fake punt that resulted in the long run for McFarlane was beautifully executed and was maybe the highlight of the game for SU.
I hate to throw players under the bus but Eskridge is killing us out there right now. Continues to be far too aggressive, is the most gullible safety we have ever had. Every time they run play action and throw it long he gets beaten badly and the band is playing for the opposition. At some point, you have to learn to play your position or you sit on the bench. I am not sure what is more amazing, that he hasn't been benched yet or that the staff hasn't been able to teach him how to play his position. I think he has been beaten long 6 times in 5 games. It can't continue.
Thought Spruill was solid, played maybe the best game of his career. His stock for the NFL rose yesterday.
Cam Lynch continues to be picked on like he was against NW. He can't cover a big fast TE. is lost out there in those situations. Not sure we have someone better, but this is on film and we are going to see more of it the rest of the season. But wow, that 86 for Clemson can really run.
It really hurt not having Reddish for this game. He is the one guy we have that might have been able to handle their WRs one on one. Hope he is ready for next week.
Wayne Morgan needs to play more. We have to address the speed issue; he and Kelly will do that. Great hit on the special forces dude.
Remain really concerned over our WRs and their inability to get open and even fight for the ball. Kobena was just run right off his routes. Clark the same, though he did fight hard later in the game and ended up getting a PI call as a result. And West...I don't know what to say. Every time the ball is passed to him it appears he and the QB are on different pages and we are close to an interception. Broyld is the only WR I see getting open consistently and even though he continues to drop a ball seemingly every game, good things tend to happen when we throw the ball his way. Hope to see more of it.
What ever happened to our TEs? Did someone spill spaghetti sauce on the pages in the playbook that call for plays to them?
This was a great test for Hunt. He made a couple bad passes, lost his mechanics for a bit, and rushed a bunch of throws. Worse, he did a bad job with his counts and made it very easy for the Tigers to jump them and get in the backfield early.
But he also made a lot of plays with his feet, in general made good decisions, threw the ball well and showed me the leadership and toughness you look for in a QB. I bet he is one banged up kid today. Clemson hit him with some good shots.
Maybe the most encouraging things I saw yesterday were the play of our OL and DL. Both held their own against the Clemson lines. Hunt consistently had adequate time to get his throws off and the OL did a credible job opening holes in the Tiger DL.
Our DL put a pretty good rush on Boyd on a regular basis and I think we did a good job against their rushing attack as well.
Our linemen are good. Not great but certainly not bad. We need to continue to upgrade the skilled positions.
I like our RBs, and personally I think we have a better group than Clemson has. Smith is a player, McFarlane and Morris can play with anyone as well.
I continue to be very concerned over the defense, seeing the NW nightmare repeated is unacceptable. Bullough is off to a bad start and needs to get his act together.
Not impressed with McDonald to date. Not much rhyme or reason to what he is doing. He made a major mistake with the starting QB, the game plans have been flawed. To his credit, I think for the most part the adjustments made at half time have helped things but I am not sure if this is more because of good moves on his part or the other team letting up after getting a huge lead.
A bowl game is still possible. The game against NC State might will determine whether we go to a bowl or not...I think this is our best bet for win #6. Hope the team is ready next week.
