sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Couldn't post last night. Was in the Fine Lot until late celebrating. It has been a while since we had a home game like this one to enjoy.
Should start by saying the pregame tailgate was excellent, props to Jeremy and Mike for doing a great job grilling. There was a lot to eat, a lot to drink and we had a big turnout, as our little venture, our little project, continues to develop over time. I can see the day when we will routinely have 100 plus people attending each tailgate. Great to see so many new and old friends, too many to even consider trying to mention everyone. But the Fine Lot thing is a blast and I want to encourage lurkers and newbies to stop by and join us for future games.
9 tubas after a good season and a bowl win. It was a bitter pill to swallow. That being said, the SUMB was in fine form, sounded great, marched sharply and it was great to hear them again. They have 2 trumpets playing the flourishes (I am sure there is a better name but I am not a music major) during the NA this year. Sounded very nice.
Unsolicited complaint: someone needs to do something about whoever was playing the piped in music. They played way too long, often running into snap counts. Even the SUMB played a few times when Ryan was trying to snap the ball. But the worse after regulation time ended, and someone was trying earnestly to explain the rules of college football overtime, and to carry coverage of the coin flip to determine who had the ball first, and a Journey song (Midnight Train, nice try, it was about 11:27 PM then) was simultaneously being played at full volume. They allowed the two to run together on the PA system for well over a minute. Amateur hour, very unprofessional and embarassing.
Looking at the crowd just before kickoff, I thought there were about 34000 in the stands. Lots of silver between the goallines again this year, which tells me our ticket pricing remains woefully out of touch with market forces. Hopefully some day the tickets will again be worth what the AD is charging for them. Right now, it looks bad as a fan to see these seats empty.
On the positive side, we had one of the best turnouts of students in recent memory, helped in great part by the policy to give all frosh free tickets to the home opener. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the students were gone halfway through the 3rd quarter, and missed what might well be the most dramatic comeback victory that will be played on The Hill during their time as students at SU.
On to the game...
Thought WF was well prepared for us. Did a great job defending us, was exceptionally aggressive trying to take away our bread and butter short passing routes, and got great pressure on Nassib the whole first half. Their quick little NT gave Mackey fits and looked every bit the AA candidate WF fans think he is. Their corners are a little undersized but very fast and our WRs had problems getting open given the short amount of time WF was allowing Nassib before hitting him in the face. When we tried to roll from the pressure, their DEs showed great discipline, consistently got in Ryan's face and blew up a lot of plays with strong pressure.
Overall, I was very impressed with the speed of the Wake defense. We had TEs out in space many times and they really struggled to make catches, forget about getting big yards against the WF linebackers, who looked every bit as fast and athletic as our guys, if not more so. If not for the heat of the Dome and the constant pounding of an inspired SU OL in the second half, which I think really wore down their undersized defense, we might well have ended up with only 14 points last night.
I find a few things about this program really encouraging. One is the fight that DM teams have. All SU teams play hard, even the GRob ones. But DM's seem to me to continue to fight and compete better than many others. They just don't quit until the final whistle.
I love the ability of the staff to make adjustments at half time. Don't know what they did with the OL, especially Mackey, but there was a big difference in the amount of time Ryan had to throw the ball the second half. Suddenly Ant Bailey, who had no room to run and was a dancing fool in the first half, consistently got holes to run through and became a different player. And the defense, which struggled to get a hand on the QB in the first half, got quality pressure on him time and time again in the second half, ultimately resulting in knocking the heady Wake QB out of the game, which was certainly one of the major turning points of the game.
Also very encouraging how well we stopped the run against a very good RB. Harris had only 66 yards on 22 carries. That is a heck of a performance for a bunch of young DTs and LBs. We might be a lot better against the run this year than we have been thinking. Doubt we could have done that well against the run last year. But maybe a strong emphasis on stopping the game is a big reason why we were burned long several times. Hopefully we can get to a point where we can stop the run and avoid yielding multiple long completions.
I don't have a lot of time, but props to Van Chew for playing a great game and getting open for some big time catches against very tight coverage. I hope he can stay healthy all year. Props to Alec Lemon for a big game. The broken play early in the 3rd quarter where he say Ryan running for his life, broke off his route and ran all the way across the sideline to Ryan's side, where Ryan threw a perfect lob pass over a defender and around another to lead Alec perfectly for a desperately needed first down on a broken play...that was huge and one of my favorite SU plays ever. Alec (and Graham) did yeo-manlike work blocking downfield as well.
Props to Provo who overcame a bad start and some athletic LBs to have a solid game. Props to Bailey who struggled for a long time, all the way up to the bad fumble, and then was a man possessed from that point forward. A lot of his success comes down to the OL giving him a little room to run to. If they can block like they did in the second half all season...
The Natural had a big game. Showed leadership the whole fashion way, by setting an example on the field. His inspired power runs and blocks were great.
On defense, thought Spruill was good, Vaughn was all over the place, Jones had a great second half after a quiet start, Crume is living up to the hype, gonna be special, Davis was up and down, P Thomas really struggled but played hurt so I can't be that down on him. But you can't let people get that far behind you...no matter what.
Shamarko was all over the field, closes with remarkable speed, kept us in the game in the first half. We might have caught a break when P Thomas got hurt, Wilkes was all over the field and obviously had a couple of huge plays for us. Smart kid. Was also very impressed by the play of Lyn, who got picked on some when Anderson went down but came back strong and had some great coverages on long passing plays in the second half. Another future star. Lynch is a great blitzer, got some quality time in his first game and will get some sacks before the season is done.
We need to address the issue with the short snapping. Raupers did well as the punter, the long snapping was great, thought Kobena was excellent returning KOs and on the coverage units. The missed FG late was not Ross' fault, props to Loeb for making a couple of great saves on bad snaps (Ross too, the timing on those kicks was messed up).
Thought the refs gave a lot of close calls to Wake in the first half, lots of questionable marks too. That certainly changed some in the second half, though I think a big part of that was WF players getting exhausting and having to resort to holds and the like to complete their assignments.
Great win. I am happy for the fans, the coaches and more than anyone, the kids. Really believe they work as hard or harder than any team and they deserve to be rewarded for that. Really happy for the fans that stayed and got to see a remarked and truly inspired comeback. There have been too many times in the last 10 years or so when fans have come to a home opener full of hope and had that crushed for the season when the team laid an egg. I think this win will really help attendance the rest of the season.
How good was the win really? How good is Wake Forest? I like their QB, hope he is okay. He showed me a lot of poise and moxie standing in the pocket and waiting for receivers to get open. When rushed, he doesn't throw it that well but given time, he make some really nice throws and beat up deep too many times. They have some WRs who can run, a very good running back and what looks to me like a very servicable OL. Their defense looked very good in the first half, their pressure caused us a ton of problems and they have a nice group of athletes. Like us, they are a little undersized but play hard. I think they are headed for a 6-6 type year, minor bowl. Should be better than last year but not ACC champion quality. Edit: just found out their QB is out for the season. That is going to leave a mark..based on what I saw from the backup QB, they will be lucky if they can even beat BC. Sorry to hear that...he played a heck of a game for them.
Great to win an opener two years in a row. Great to beat an ACC team. We are well positioned now to go bowling two years in a row...this is the type of team we might competing against for a bowl bid. But most of all, wins like this breed confidence, something this program needs. There is much still to do, but this was a big step forward. I kept ranting last night about us being back. We aren't yet, but we are getting closer and someday, I think we might point back to this game as one of those crucial turning points in the history of the program.
I can't wait for the next game.
Should start by saying the pregame tailgate was excellent, props to Jeremy and Mike for doing a great job grilling. There was a lot to eat, a lot to drink and we had a big turnout, as our little venture, our little project, continues to develop over time. I can see the day when we will routinely have 100 plus people attending each tailgate. Great to see so many new and old friends, too many to even consider trying to mention everyone. But the Fine Lot thing is a blast and I want to encourage lurkers and newbies to stop by and join us for future games.
9 tubas after a good season and a bowl win. It was a bitter pill to swallow. That being said, the SUMB was in fine form, sounded great, marched sharply and it was great to hear them again. They have 2 trumpets playing the flourishes (I am sure there is a better name but I am not a music major) during the NA this year. Sounded very nice.
Unsolicited complaint: someone needs to do something about whoever was playing the piped in music. They played way too long, often running into snap counts. Even the SUMB played a few times when Ryan was trying to snap the ball. But the worse after regulation time ended, and someone was trying earnestly to explain the rules of college football overtime, and to carry coverage of the coin flip to determine who had the ball first, and a Journey song (Midnight Train, nice try, it was about 11:27 PM then) was simultaneously being played at full volume. They allowed the two to run together on the PA system for well over a minute. Amateur hour, very unprofessional and embarassing.
Looking at the crowd just before kickoff, I thought there were about 34000 in the stands. Lots of silver between the goallines again this year, which tells me our ticket pricing remains woefully out of touch with market forces. Hopefully some day the tickets will again be worth what the AD is charging for them. Right now, it looks bad as a fan to see these seats empty.
On the positive side, we had one of the best turnouts of students in recent memory, helped in great part by the policy to give all frosh free tickets to the home opener. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the students were gone halfway through the 3rd quarter, and missed what might well be the most dramatic comeback victory that will be played on The Hill during their time as students at SU.
On to the game...
Thought WF was well prepared for us. Did a great job defending us, was exceptionally aggressive trying to take away our bread and butter short passing routes, and got great pressure on Nassib the whole first half. Their quick little NT gave Mackey fits and looked every bit the AA candidate WF fans think he is. Their corners are a little undersized but very fast and our WRs had problems getting open given the short amount of time WF was allowing Nassib before hitting him in the face. When we tried to roll from the pressure, their DEs showed great discipline, consistently got in Ryan's face and blew up a lot of plays with strong pressure.
Overall, I was very impressed with the speed of the Wake defense. We had TEs out in space many times and they really struggled to make catches, forget about getting big yards against the WF linebackers, who looked every bit as fast and athletic as our guys, if not more so. If not for the heat of the Dome and the constant pounding of an inspired SU OL in the second half, which I think really wore down their undersized defense, we might well have ended up with only 14 points last night.
I find a few things about this program really encouraging. One is the fight that DM teams have. All SU teams play hard, even the GRob ones. But DM's seem to me to continue to fight and compete better than many others. They just don't quit until the final whistle.
I love the ability of the staff to make adjustments at half time. Don't know what they did with the OL, especially Mackey, but there was a big difference in the amount of time Ryan had to throw the ball the second half. Suddenly Ant Bailey, who had no room to run and was a dancing fool in the first half, consistently got holes to run through and became a different player. And the defense, which struggled to get a hand on the QB in the first half, got quality pressure on him time and time again in the second half, ultimately resulting in knocking the heady Wake QB out of the game, which was certainly one of the major turning points of the game.
Also very encouraging how well we stopped the run against a very good RB. Harris had only 66 yards on 22 carries. That is a heck of a performance for a bunch of young DTs and LBs. We might be a lot better against the run this year than we have been thinking. Doubt we could have done that well against the run last year. But maybe a strong emphasis on stopping the game is a big reason why we were burned long several times. Hopefully we can get to a point where we can stop the run and avoid yielding multiple long completions.
I don't have a lot of time, but props to Van Chew for playing a great game and getting open for some big time catches against very tight coverage. I hope he can stay healthy all year. Props to Alec Lemon for a big game. The broken play early in the 3rd quarter where he say Ryan running for his life, broke off his route and ran all the way across the sideline to Ryan's side, where Ryan threw a perfect lob pass over a defender and around another to lead Alec perfectly for a desperately needed first down on a broken play...that was huge and one of my favorite SU plays ever. Alec (and Graham) did yeo-manlike work blocking downfield as well.
Props to Provo who overcame a bad start and some athletic LBs to have a solid game. Props to Bailey who struggled for a long time, all the way up to the bad fumble, and then was a man possessed from that point forward. A lot of his success comes down to the OL giving him a little room to run to. If they can block like they did in the second half all season...
The Natural had a big game. Showed leadership the whole fashion way, by setting an example on the field. His inspired power runs and blocks were great.
On defense, thought Spruill was good, Vaughn was all over the place, Jones had a great second half after a quiet start, Crume is living up to the hype, gonna be special, Davis was up and down, P Thomas really struggled but played hurt so I can't be that down on him. But you can't let people get that far behind you...no matter what.
Shamarko was all over the field, closes with remarkable speed, kept us in the game in the first half. We might have caught a break when P Thomas got hurt, Wilkes was all over the field and obviously had a couple of huge plays for us. Smart kid. Was also very impressed by the play of Lyn, who got picked on some when Anderson went down but came back strong and had some great coverages on long passing plays in the second half. Another future star. Lynch is a great blitzer, got some quality time in his first game and will get some sacks before the season is done.
We need to address the issue with the short snapping. Raupers did well as the punter, the long snapping was great, thought Kobena was excellent returning KOs and on the coverage units. The missed FG late was not Ross' fault, props to Loeb for making a couple of great saves on bad snaps (Ross too, the timing on those kicks was messed up).
Thought the refs gave a lot of close calls to Wake in the first half, lots of questionable marks too. That certainly changed some in the second half, though I think a big part of that was WF players getting exhausting and having to resort to holds and the like to complete their assignments.
Great win. I am happy for the fans, the coaches and more than anyone, the kids. Really believe they work as hard or harder than any team and they deserve to be rewarded for that. Really happy for the fans that stayed and got to see a remarked and truly inspired comeback. There have been too many times in the last 10 years or so when fans have come to a home opener full of hope and had that crushed for the season when the team laid an egg. I think this win will really help attendance the rest of the season.
How good was the win really? How good is Wake Forest? I like their QB, hope he is okay. He showed me a lot of poise and moxie standing in the pocket and waiting for receivers to get open. When rushed, he doesn't throw it that well but given time, he make some really nice throws and beat up deep too many times. They have some WRs who can run, a very good running back and what looks to me like a very servicable OL. Their defense looked very good in the first half, their pressure caused us a ton of problems and they have a nice group of athletes. Like us, they are a little undersized but play hard. I think they are headed for a 6-6 type year, minor bowl. Should be better than last year but not ACC champion quality. Edit: just found out their QB is out for the season. That is going to leave a mark..based on what I saw from the backup QB, they will be lucky if they can even beat BC. Sorry to hear that...he played a heck of a game for them.
Great to win an opener two years in a row. Great to beat an ACC team. We are well positioned now to go bowling two years in a row...this is the type of team we might competing against for a bowl bid. But most of all, wins like this breed confidence, something this program needs. There is much still to do, but this was a big step forward. I kept ranting last night about us being back. We aren't yet, but we are getting closer and someday, I think we might point back to this game as one of those crucial turning points in the history of the program.
I can't wait for the next game.
