Phil Steele

[TheCusian]

If by reckless you mean unable to be tracked down and tackled then yes, I agree

they allowed more sacks than we did - he was not untouchable

 

[Orijinal]

Goodness sakes, I hope this team proves Phil Steele very wrong.

I'm going to pick up his magazine, but until then I gave got to wonder how in the world he has Syracuse 82 in his power poll? I mean the Power 5 is composed of 65 teams!

Syracuse brings back a senior QB who is terrific (and Phil agrees) and starting experience along the offensive line that most teams would kill for, and just for perspective, the team's that usually bring back the most experience here do a lot of winning.

Gotta be the defense that is just a question mark Phil can't wrap his head around. But if this running game improves and Syracuse limits it's 3 and outs, this could be a significant boon to the defense.

And then to top it off, BC is in his top 20? Goodness

 

[orangepassion]

I think people are underestimating losing Ish and Erv on Offense-Those 2 were really good and we've got no proven receivers returning.

 

[SoBristol]

Credit to Steele for his detailed command of our roster. Easy to understand how Steele would project SU at the bottom of the ACC, after three 4 -8 results in a row.

Sure, we need to replace our top 4 LBs and top 2 receivers.

Otherwise, SU's line-up is better and deeper in every unit than it has been since 2012. There are senior starters at QB, RB, TE, both OTs. Steele notes we lost 4 back-up DBs (all 4 starters return) -- the young second-team DBs are bigger, better athletes than the ones who left.

Need to prove it on the field, and for a change, win some November games. To me, this team has the look of a bowl team.

 

[LeMoyneCuse]

I think people are underestimating losing Ish and Erv on Offense-Those 2 were really good and we've got no proven receivers returning.

There seems to be two ways of looking at this:

1) Babers' offense allows this position to be plug and play and we'll be fine.

2) We have four eligible scholarship wide receivers on the roster with game experience. Two have had their moments but lack consistency, one has been nothing but unproven potential, and one is young and raw and has thus far had questionable hands. Our only other returning wide out with career stats is a walk on from Cape Vincent. We have 7 scholarship and 6 non-scholarship wide receivers on the roster who have never played in a college game or least caught a collegiate pass.

All you can really do is pick a camp and pray.

 

[SmilinBob]

I think people are underestimating losing Ish and Erv on Offense-Those 2 were really good and we've got no proven receivers returning.

I agree that is a hole to plug but the running game and returning OL will help ease that pain. This is a wonderful opportunity for one of the freshmen to excel and be a #1 threat. Someone of this bunch HAS to stretch the field or at the very very least WR's that know how to find the open seams and hang onto the ball.

 

[Hoo's That]

Steele must live, eat and breathe college football to amass the kind of keen understanding of SU football he displays. And we're just 1 of 120+ college football teams he reports on. His mag alone is 352 pages.

IIRC he started all this because of betting. One of his big things was to look at the teams like the other preview mags did and then go into a discussion about their performance against the spread which the others didn't. There were years under Welsh when our team had a good "real" record but was terrible ATS, some when we had a not-so-good "real" record but were like 10-1 ATS, and others when when we just had terrible records period.

 

[upperdeck]

Ish and Irv were great, but I think we have better WRs in the program. the question is how long will it take them to learn the system to be effective? the 2-3 yr guys now have a huge jump on where Ish and Irv were even going into last yr. on where to be on the field. Can they catch the ball?

 

[shu 49]

I have said this a few times in that this year hinges on defense. Period. I have watched our o and I like it but I am sure this will be end of Tampa-2 after this year. As we all know, it’s based of 4 down linemen getting pressure. I noticed even with Clemson’s all acc dline, when they didn’t blitz, there wasn’t a lot of pressure. Know when they did, well we looked rough. I noticed that all year. So if Clemson’s dline has a hard time, who are all 4-5* guys , how the hell is it gonna work for us. My theory holds true that if u think offensively we need to be aggressive, why aren’t we super aggressive on defense. We ware giving up big plays later in year anyways. Also as u only pressure with 4 guys, ur leaving dbacks trying to stay with guys longer than normal. I want this team to do well and I hope new adjustments on defense help a lot. Let’s go.

 

[Orijinal]

Really feel Nyk and Sharod Johnson are gonna get a lot of run this year. We have had some looks at Nyk and he is going to be super dynamic.

Sharod we are blind on, but has surprised a lot of folks with his ability to get more practice reps than Jordan and Bishop on the outside.

High on these 2 this year, and my dark horse is Queeley

 

[orangepassion]

I think Nykeim is very dynamic. The key is whether he can hang onto the ball this year.

 

[TheCusian]

I have said this a few times in that this year hinges on defense. Period. I have watched our o and I like it but I am sure this will be end of Tampa-2 after this year. As we all know, it’s based of 4 down linemen getting pressure. I noticed even with Clemson’s all acc dline, when they didn’t blitz, there wasn’t a lot of pressure. Know when they did, well we looked rough. I noticed that all year. So if Clemson’s dline has a hard time, who are all 4-5* guys , how the hell is it gonna work for us. My theory holds true that if u think offensively we need to be aggressive, why aren’t we super aggressive on defense. We ware giving up big plays later in year anyways. Also as u only pressure with 4 guys, ur leaving dbacks trying to stay with guys longer than normal. I want this team to do well and I hope new adjustments on defense help a lot. Let’s go.

The reason you don't play aggressive on both sides is that the goal is to play with a lead, force teams to throw it a ton vs a zone and keep everything in front of you. We score quick, they score slow on methodical drives (see: Clemson game last year, VaTech 2 years ago). The first half of the year we looked alright on D and at the same time had ED on O. There's a reason that the flood gates opened up on D when our O got inefficient with ED out.

If we played a blitzing scheme ala Shafer - we'd see even more scoring and negate what were trying to do on O. Our mantra is "we can score more, and do it faster than you" and our D is built to reflect that.

Zones also allow the D to rest more - rather than chasing the opposing O all around for all of the extra possessions our tempo produces.

 

[TheCusian]

There's no way of knowing *who* will step up at WR. But I'm not nervous about it at all and here's why.

The tempo we practice and play at gets WR reps. The system creates open players and touches for guys. If you give a million reps and opportunities to an average player - they'll succeed in this system. They will know what they have at WR with the young guys pretty quickly.

 

[Trueblue25]

Lamar Jackson was pretty reckless and made it thru most of his yrs, sometimes its just pot luck

Lamar jackson is the roadrunner to Dungey’s wildy E.

 

[Chip]

With BC's resurgence (what a difference the right RB can make for that program) and Wake making progress each year, the Atlantic is just a really tough draw.

Clemson, FSU, NC State, Louisville generally have more talent than us from 1 to 85.

Have to hope that Louisville struggles to replace Lamar, Wake struggles in replacing Wolford, even though that backup has had plenty of snaps.

Stay relatively healthy, own the Dome, and we have a path to a 13th game.

 

[Orijinal]

The reason you don't play aggressive on both sides is that the goal is to play with a lead, force teams to throw it a ton vs a zone and keep everything in front of you. We score quick, they score slow on methodical drives (see: Clemson game last year, VaTech 2 years ago). The first half of the year we looked alright on D and at the same time had ED on O. There's a reason that the flood gates opened up on D when our O got inefficient with ED out.

If we played a blitzing scheme ala Shafer - we'd see even more scoring and negate what were trying to do on O. Our mantra is "we can score more, and do it faster than you" and our D is built to reflect that.

Zones also allow the D to rest more - rather than chasing the opposing O all around for all of the extra possessions our tempo produces.

Here's the problem with the system the past couple of years. You play this zone stuff on defense and it does keep your defense on the field longer ...and then the offense scores quickly or messes up quickly with 3 and outs and the defense is right back on the field. Then the defense has nothing left in the tank at the end of the season.

The defense isn't really "resting" in the zone. They are getting burned and chasing down receivers who are getting too many open grabs

 

[SoBristol]

Ish and Irv were great, but I think we have better WRs in the program. the question is how long will it take them to learn the system to be effective? the 2-3 yr guys now have a huge jump on where Ish and Irv were even going into last yr. on where to be on the field. Can they catch the ball?

Can't say what the underclassmen WRs will bring, but Pierce is our best TE in a while, and Butler looks like he can expand his impact now that Phillips and Ishmael have moved on. These two will get a lot of opportunities. For the other two receiver spots, the team has a lot of candidates. As good as Phillips and Ishmael were as possession receivers, they did not put up a lot of TDs.

For what it is worth, Babers has said his defense this season might be better than the offense. The DE unit is certainly better, and deeper, so we should see more pressure on opposing QBs.

 

[TheCusian]

Here's the problem with the system the past couple of years. You play this zone stuff on defense and it does keep your defense on the field longer ...and then the offense scores quickly or messes up quickly with 3 and outs and the defense is right back on the field. Then the defense has nothing left in the tank at the end of the season.

The defense isn't really "resting" in the zone. They are getting burned and chasing down receivers who are getting too many open grabs

The defense relies on our offense to score efficiently. When we've done that, they've played well enough to net two big upsets. Our offense hasn't really done what it's supposed to, consistently yet.

Man to man D is much more tiring than zone - by it's very nature. If the offense has to many 3 and outs at tempo - it really doesn't matter what D we play - they will be tired.

It's imperative that we get more efficient on O. That's converting yards to points and converting downs to first downs. With a more experienced OL and a SR QB - I expect it.

 

[djorange1989]

With BC's resurgence (what a difference the right RB can make for that program) and Wake making progress each year, the Atlantic is just a really tough draw.

Clemson, FSU, NC State, Louisville generally have more talent than us from 1 to 85.

Have to hope that Louisville struggles to replace Lamar, Wake struggles in replacing Wolford, even though that backup has had plenty of snaps.

Stay relatively healthy, own the Dome, and we have a path to a 13th game.

correct on all counts. A couple of prognosticators have us last in our division but at 6-6. 3-5 in conference and 3-1 OOC. 3-5 in the Atlantic would likely put us in last, or tied for last. So, being last in the division is certainly not a death knell to the postseason. We just can't screw up the WMU game like we did against MTSU last year. We definitely will not screw up UConn, so I won't even go there.

 

[elimunelson]

correct on all counts. A couple of prognosticators have us last in our division but at 6-6. 3-5 in conference and 3-1 OOC. 3-5 in the Atlantic would likely put us in last, or tied for last. So, being last in the division is certainly not a death knell to the postseason. We just can't screw up the WMU game like we did against MTSU last year. We definitely will not screw up UConn, so I won't even go there.

I'd sign up for 3-5 in the ACC right now. I think the good thing is at some point Clemson will fall back when Dabo takes over for Nick Saban when he retires. I think FSU is gonna be in a rebuilding mode of sorts and will be had over next few years. The rest of the teams we play we should compete with year in and year out.

We just need to put together a season where we can compete in November. I say it ad nauseum but the last time we dominated in November was like 2012. Before 2012 it was prob 2004 with that BC beat down.

 

[djorange1989]

I'd sign up for 3-5 in the ACC right now. I think the good thing is at some point Clemson will fall back when Dabo takes over for Nick Saban when he retires. I think FSU is gonna be in a rebuilding mode of sorts and will be had over next few years. The rest of the teams we play we should compete with year in and year out.

We just need to put together a season where we can compete in November. I say it ad nauseum but the last time we dominated in November was like 2012. Before 2012 it was prob 2004 with that BC beat down.

you can't even count 2004, we lost in November to a horrible Temple team who's only other win was against Florida A&M. It ended up costing us a BCS bowl berth (that is how big of a dumpster fire the Big East was in 2004).

 

[elimunelson]

you can't even count 2004, we lost in November to a horrible Temple team who's only other win was against Florida A&M. It ended up costing us a BCS bowl berth (that is how big of a dumpster fire the Big East was in 2004).

i get all that and it was a dumpster fire ending but that was a big league win for Syracuse to knock BC out of their first (and still elusive) BCS appearance.

Poor Paul Pasqualoni. If we somehow beat Temple, he would have had the biggest What BCS appearance in 2004 and probably a stay of execution till at least 2006.

 

[Orijinal]

Man to man D is much more tiring than zone - by it's very nature. If the offense has to many 3 and outs at tempo - it really doesn't matter what D we play - they will be tired.

It's imperative that we get more efficient on O. That's converting yards to points and converting downs to first downs. With a more experienced OL and a SR QB - I expect it.

That's exactly it right there

 

[shu 49]

The reason you don't play aggressive on both sides is that the goal is to play with a lead, force teams to throw it a ton vs a zone and keep everything in front of you. We score quick, they score slow on methodical drives (see: Clemson game last year, VaTech 2 years ago). The first half of the year we looked alright on D and at the same time had ED on O. There's a reason that the flood gates opened up on D when our O got inefficient with ED out.

If we played a blitzing scheme ala Shafer - we'd see even more scoring and negate what were trying to do on O. Our mantra is "we can score more, and do it faster than you" and our D is built to reflect that.

Zones also allow the D to rest more - rather than chasing the opposing O all around for all of the extra possessions our tempo produces.

I do understand the thinking on it. But what team at a high level has ever done this and be successful. As an athlete, when ur in attack mode ur more in a natural state. When ur in a defense like Tampa 2, ur a read and react mode which unless we have more talent than everyone isn’t good for us. The other problem is we didn’t score quickly a ton last year. Clemson is a good example. But know that if Watson was playing, it’s a blowout. That qb isn’t that good yet. U also seen us a little more blitz happy in Clemson game if I remember correctly. I guess it’s a philosophical difference. When I coached our hs Dline, early years we were read and react and 2gap dline. I hated it with a passion. We also were terrible with it. As soon as we switched to get in backfield and make play, we got better. I guess it’s just my mindset. Have a great Friday.

 

[SUskibum]

Can we please stop with this nonsense that the offense stresses the defense? We have not played an outsized number of defensive snaps per the last 10 years and 4 coaches (data below).

The reason we are injured and fall apart at the end of the season is not because of number of overall plays (see below). It is because we are so thin at every position that our starters don’t get to rotate because we have no depth behind them.

People always talk about depth being important so you can replace a hurt starter. Well depth is even more important (imo) to keep your starters HEALTHY by not running them into the ground every game.

I am of the opinion that our depth is getting better (but still young obviously) and as our depth gets better our November will get better.

Defensive plays per game
2017 - 72
2016 - 75
2015 - 75
2014 - 70
2013 - 73
2012 - 70
2011 - 74
2010 - 66
2009 - 65
2008 - 72