One thing that worries me is what are the goals now?

[zilo]

Playoff is still a possibility, just need to do well enough to make the ACC championship game. It will likely be Miami vs whoever. Win that and boom you're in. This loss just gives us less room for error for the rest of the reason. Meaning we need to beat BC. NC st, UNLV, and probably Miami last game of season. If we beat Stanford, we could have afforded to lose one of those games...now we really can't. Need to go like 6-3 at least from here on out.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Goal should be 6 wins and make a bowl.

That's the highest Syracuse football should realistically shoot for.

Nm

 

[Tony DeFranco]

Playoff is still a possibility, just need to do well enough to make the ACC championship game. It will likely be Miami vs whoever. Win that and boom you're in. This loss just gives us less room for error for the rest of the reason. Meaning we need to beat BC. NC st, UNLV, and probably Miami last game of season. If we beat Stanford, we could have afforded to lose one of those games...now we really can't. Need to go like 6-3 at least from here on out.

That’s why I love this playoff system - we are not done yet - I don’t want to waste McCords season - he is a total stud - the loss stung more last night - now maybe it’s a wake up call that there can be no mistakes - we lost - they converted the 4th and 9 - but that hold on Gadsen is what decided the game - and I’m not sold that Stanford is a bad team

 

[RandomGuy]

That’s why I love this playoff system - we are not done yet - I don’t want to waste McCords season - he is a total stud - the loss stung more last night - now maybe it’s a wake up call that there can be no mistakes - we lost - they converted the 4th and 9 - but that hold on Gadsen is what decided the game - and I’m not sold that Stanford is a bad team

Stanford was 118th vs. The pass. We shoulda wrecked them. We have the pieces, but we lack consistency.

Still grieving 24 hours later. Anyone saying 8 or 9 wins is OK, isn't a football player. Play to win, or you're not playing.

For GT, our offensive play calling, and execution was Immaculate. Why I was getting so damn excited. We have 2 weeks to put it all together. I think its possible, but we just took a MAJOR hit... I hope Fran can use that to elevate.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

Everyone now knows how to beat us. Pressure McCord and don't worry about our run game because we apparently don't have one.
Our secondary is weak.
We have a long way to go.

Any coach that has a clue would know this anyway, Stanfords game plan wasn’t groundbreaking stuff, solid yes. Its the exucution that matters.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

The team seemed to believe it. They talked about it during the ACC spotlight series.

Of course the team believed it, as bad as any team i ever played on I always thought we would win...until we didnt. I hope they still believe it. Stanford could be our only loss and thats what I will believe until it doesnt happen.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

Stanford was 118th vs. The pass. We shoulda wrecked them. We have the pieces, but we lack consistency.

Still grieving 24 hours later. Anyone saying 8 or 9 wins is OK, isn't a football player. Play to win, or you're not playing.

For GT, our offensive play calling, and execution was Immaculate. Why I was getting so damn excited. We have 2 weeks to put it all together. I think its possible, but we just took a MAJOR hit... I hope Fran can use that to elevate.

It sure seemed immaculate...but was it? Maybe GT defense was just soft and made us look good.
I was excited right there with you and still am but now there are alot of questions.
The teams respônse will tell us alot.
We need to smash Holy Cross and UNLV then I will feel alot better going forward.
Maybe we need "bulletin board" material every week.

 

[PoppyHart]

The goal every year, without fail, is to break even financially and make a bowl game. 6-6 suffices in this era where 2 conferences matter.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Given this schedule IMO going less than 5-2 at home is a failure. Ohio (who looks worse this year), Holy Cross, UConn should all be Ws. The four conference games only going 2-2 is really a disappointment. Yes, Miami look really good. But at home against GA Tech (who looks worse), Stanford, and VA Tech (who looks a lot worse) you should be able to go 3-0. Only going 2-1 against those 3 is a disappointment IMO.

Given this road schedule going less than 2-3 IMO is a disappointment. The actual quality of teams is about as easy as we can get. All five a extremely winnable. The real challenge is going cross country 2x, not who we play. IMO we have better players than any of the 5 teams we play.

So if you put two and two together the goal should be 7-5. Anything less than that is a disappointment, and IMO needs a reflection of where we are going.

 

[kcsu]

The teams that are in contention for the ACC championship game are Clemson Miami and Lousiville after that it is anyone guess. Losing to Stanford really hurts are chances as we basically need to run the table.

Each of the teams above us will have one loss as they play each other. We need to win out and beat Miami. Hope that Clemson and Ville each have two losses.

 

[Tony DeFranco]

The goal every year, without fail, is to break even financially and make a bowl game. 6-6 suffices in this era where 2 conferences matter.

That may be ur goal but with the playoff system my goal is to get in the playoffs - still my goal

 

[HRE Otto IV]

The teams that are in contention for the ACC championship game are Clemson Miami and Lousiville after that it is anyone guess. Losing to Stanford really hurts are chances as we basically need to run the table.

Each of the teams above us will have one loss as they play each other. We need to win out and beat Miami. Hope that Clemson and Ville each have two losses.

We have no shot whatsoever now. If things broke right we could have possibly been 9-2 going into Miami and had a mathematical shot at making the ACC CG should we have pulled off a major upset over Miami.

Before, going 4-0 at home against Stanford, Holy Cross, VA Tech, UConn while going 3-2 on the road vs UNLV, NC State, Cal, BC was unlikely but possible. Now 8-3 is the unlikely but possible mark and that has zero chance of making the ACC CG.

 

[0.2 YNdeeR]

Honestly, the goal for the season is to keep McCord upright, and a decent bowl game...Friday games look like they're favoring the visitors tonight...San Jose State which is a glorified Oswego State as a teacher's college (I'm an alum and can make this joke) went into Pullman, and is beating Wazzu at the end of the third quarter...Nebraska lost to f-ing Illinois in OT by a TD...Stanford rolled into here on Wednesday, and I believe they practiced at CBA Thursday...Felt like a 430 PM game for them...Gotta remember, these guys are 18-23,24 years old...Gadsen was off tonight. Could go, on and on...Just win this week and beat the pulp out of Holy Cross...

And that's a short list of the weirdness. Pretty strange that Barron didn't start and (despite a decent game) couldn't figure out where to be on a crucial pass play. Where was Tank Wilson (and our pass rush)? Where was Zeed Haynes? Why didn't Villari know where he was on the field? How could a mid-tier (at best) ACC team hold us to 26 yards on the ground? Why were we unprepared for their blitzes - especially after the second half of the GT game? Why are we unwilling to blitz? How could the top TE in the ACC finish with 2 catches for 12 yards? Etc. Etc.

Credit to Stanford. Credit to our D (except for the last play) for hanging in there. Credit to the guys who stepped up - Pena, Hatcher and Meeks. But hard to win when your best offensive players not named McCord don't show up.

 

[Bayside44]

And that's a short list of the weirdness. Pretty strange that Barron didn't start and (despite a decent game) couldn't figure out where to be on a crucial pass play. Where was Tank Wilson (and our pass rush)? Where was Zeed Haynes? Why didn't Villari know where he was on the field? How could a mid-tier (at best) ACC team hold us to 26 yards on the ground? Why were we unprepared for their blitzes - especially after the second half of the GT game? Why are we unwilling to blitz? How could the top TE in the ACC finish with 2 catches for 12 yards? Etc. Etc.

Credit to Stanford. Credit to our D (except for the last play) for hanging in there. Credit to the guys who stepped up - Pena, Hatcher and Meeks. But hard to win when your best offensive players not named McCord don't show up.

Is this rhetorical?

 

[djorange1989]

Winning record is a goal, hopefully 8-4, but the Stanford loss makes that tough. NC State looks bad but still a road game. Miami looks great, really tough. Cal is great defensively, BC is pretty damn good, Pitt can score and that is a Friday night Primetime road game. VaTech better be a win, they look mediocre. UNLV is not easy but Kansas and Houston both stink so while nice road wins for a MWC team, we are the better team. HC is a gimme and even a better than advertised U Conn damn well better be too. Not enough talent in the trenches to be a team that can make a run at the ACC title game, that was just delusional. I am glad the players have that mentality(hopefully) but fans angry that the dream of that being over need to wake up because it wasn’t happening. We haven’t made three straight bowls since 1996-98, and we have only had 8 or more regular season wins twice this century, so have a 7 plus win regular season and go from there. Talk all you want about an easy schedule this year, and yes we blew one of the easier ones, but it isn’t as easy as it looked

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Winning record is a goal, hopefully 8-4, but the Stanford loss makes that tough. NC State looks bad but still a road game. Miami looks great, really tough. Cal is great defensively, BC is pretty damn good, Pitt can score and that is a Friday night Primetime road game. VaTech better be a win, they look mediocre. UNLV is not easy but Kansas and Houston both stink so while nice road wins for a MWC team, we are the better team. HC is a gimme and even a better than advertised U Conn damn well better be too. Not enough talent in the trenches to be a team that can make a run at the ACC title game, that was just delusional. I am glad the players have that mentality(hopefully) but fans angry that the dream of that being over need to wake up because it wasn’t happening. We haven’t made three straight bowls since 1996-98, and we have only had 8 or more regular season wins twice this century, so have a 7 plus win regular season and go from there. Talk all you want about an easy schedule this year, and yes we blew one of the easier ones, but it isn’t as easy as it looked

We were 6-6 last year with no QB the last 4 games. We have a weaker schedule. We also "added" McCord, Nixon, Willis, Pena, Gadsden, Meeks, Haynes, Diggs, Duce, and depth on the OL. I don't think it was unrealistic to expect a bump in Ws this year.

 

[djorange1989]

We were 6-6 last year with no QB the last 4 games. We have a weaker schedule. We also "added" McCord, Nixon, Willis, Pena, Gadsden, Meeks, Haynes, Diggs, Duce, and depth on the OL. I don't think it was unrealistic to expect a bump in Ws this year.

Oh I agree, I was saying the making it to Charlotte dream was nuts. I am not so sure about the schedule this vs last. We played 4 crap teams OOC, UNLV is probably about as good as Purdue was last year, they were awful. Wake sucked, Pitt sucked, BC sucked all three were home/Yankee Stadium. Those should have been 7 wins no question and we got 6. And nothing else, which was understandable because the 4 game gauntlet plus Ga Tech, 4 of 5 on the road was rough. If you count Stanford as a gimme, or semi gimme, we have 4 of those this year. Cal, Pitt, BC, UNLV, NC State, Va Tech and sure as hell Miami are not easy in any case

 

[Crusty]

Any coach that has a clue would know this anyway, Stanfords game plan wasn’t groundbreaking stuff, solid yes. Its the exucution that matters.

Obviously my post was not about just Stanford. There was no way of knowing how good or bad our line play was going to be this year. Now they know for sure.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

How bad are we going to feel after next week when Stanford has to travel all the way back East to play Clemson and loses by 4 TDs?

 

[djorange1989]

How bad are we going to feel after next week when Stanford has to travel all the way back East to play Clemson and loses by 4 TDs?

5 TDs

 

[BillSU]

5 TDs

6 TDS.

Jeeezus - no big deal. Playoffs in our first year? Give the HCFB a chance and win as many games as we can. 8-4?
We have to be able to come up to Kyles level - he positioned us to WIN Friday, then we, for some reason, didn't stack the box and left the All Universe WR with 1 man coverage, DUH!

The coaches need to work better together - that was just plain idiotic - 4th down 9 yards to go and we don't pressure the QB and let Mr Universe WR run against 1 DB?????

 

[Millhouse]

Goal should be 6 wins and make a bowl.

That's the highest Syracuse football should realistically shoot for.

Why did they can babers

 

[FrancoPizza]

His should be to only have one loss on the ledger after playing NCSt. I think that will take:

- some lucky breaks and bounces
- coaches learning from their mistakes, making personnel adjustments.
- no more injuries
- getting key guys back

i don’t know how realistic it is to get to 5-1.

 

[baggerbob]

Why did they can babers

Don't answer trolls which that person is.

 

[orange_in_VA]

How bad are we going to feel after next week when Stanford has to travel all the way back East to play Clemson and loses by 4 TDs?

Travel has no impact according to some responses on Friday