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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 338254, member: 289"] The Carrier Dome Era 　 1980’s 1980: 5-2-6-10-3-10-2-11-4-7-3 = 5.73 (This 5-6 team actually performed slightly better than the previous year’s 7-5 team- by this measure- even if Joe Morris missed several games with an injury. The first “10” was Kansas, the first game he missed. The others were Penn State and Pittsburgh, which had one of the best teams I‘ve ever seen that year. Still, every opponent but one did better than to lose to them 6-43.) 1981: 7-7-6-7-7-7-4-1-8-5-3 = 5.64 (Coach Mac’s first year was considered a disappointment. He took over a veteran team with a healthy Joe Morris and went 4-6-1, a worse record than Maloney’s last. But his team actually performed at a slightly higher level- by this measure. It was also an amazingly consistent team, if not a consistently good team, being the 7th best team 5 of our first 6 opponents played- and we were #6 to the other team. The #1 was Colgate.) 1982- 4-8-11-9-10-10-6-6-6-9 = 7.90 (Coach Mac found the cupboard bare in his second year and had to play young players with dire results. The Colgate game is not included as they were not a Division 1A team- they had been when we played them the previous year.) 1983- 10-4-5-7-12-10-10-6-7-1-3 = 6.82 (We were growing up. The 1980 Pitt may have been the best college defensive team I’ve ever seen. This year’s Nebraska team might have been the best offensive team. But our 7-63 margin of defeat was topped by one team: Minnesota, an 84-13 victim. ) 1984- 1-9-9-2-7-7-10-2-5-1-4 = 5.18 (A very inconsistent team. The Nebraska game fell short of being a #1 game by the virtue of that unnecessary safety we took at the end of the game: Oklahoma beat the Huskers 17-7. This was our first ranked team in 17 years, #22 by Dokter.) 1985- 11-1-6-1-5-1-3-3-3-4-6-7 = 4.25 (Our best team since 1966. And after the dreadful opener, were 3.64 for the rest of the season. The same as ‘66. Getting to the Cherry Bowl turned our recruiting around and set us up for what happened two years later. But no one ranked us.) 1986- 9-7-10-8-2-12-5-4-7-10-5 = 7.18 (The ball rolled back down the hill- temporarily. The #12 game was Penn State. Our average rating vs. them during their 16 game winning streak over us was 8.63- we were on average, the 8th or 9th best team they played. They were certainly better than us but the other teams they played were a lot better against them than we were.) 1987- 4-2-3-3-3-1-1-3-1-6-2 = 2.64 (Again, Colgate was 1AA so they weren’t included. If they were, they‘d have joined Penn State, Colgate, Pittsburgh and Boston College, giving up four #1 punch-outs in five games. Ranma had us as high as #2. ) 1988- 6-10-1-3-1-3-1-2-3-7-2-2 = 3.42 (A strong follow-up to our “dream year” and an indication that we were in for a good, long run. Except for the lousy performance at Ohio State, this team was very similar to the previous year’s team, both incredibly consistent. Of 24 games in 1987-88 we were one of the top three teams each opponent faced- by this measure- 19 times. ESPN ranked us #10.) 1989- 2-4-7-9-11-1-5-4-3-7-1-6 = 5.00 (A step backwards. Florida State and Penn State were certainly very good teams but we weren’t very good against them.) Summary: 1980 5.73; 1981 5.63; 1982 7.90; 1983 6.82; 1984 5.18; 1985 4.25; 1986 7.18; 1987; 2.64; 1988; 3.42; 1989 5.00 Average for decade: 5.38 1990’s 1990 12-4-4-8-3-6-1-3-2-8-1-5-2 = 4.54 (We opened in the Kick-off classic losing to USC 16-34. Well, it was USC. But it was a lousy performance and we should have beaten that team and added them to our list of famous scalps: Nebraska, Penn State, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Miami, etc.; we lifted in this era. It was a much worse performance than our 7-33 loss to Miami at the end of the season. UPI had us #21.) 1991 3-5-1-5-12-3-4-4-4-1-4-2 = 4.00 (See above. The “12” is, of course, that baffling Florida State game that started me down this road. We were #7 in Mark.) 1992 3-3-10-4-1-4-5-3-2-2-5-2 = 3.66 (Our most consistently good team since 1987-88, spoiled only by the Ohio State game in the Dome, another game where we kept running the near-side option over and over again even though it wasn’t working. Without that, we were 2.83. UPI had us at #6.) 1993 2-6-6-3-5-8-12-12-4-8-4 = 6.36 (This team had high expectations but totally fell apart in mid-season. The Miami and West Virginia games were consecutive “worst” performances- 12th of 12.) 1994 7-5-5-4-4-2-9-6-12-6-10 = 6.36 (This team didn’t have the horrendous losses of the previous year, although the Mike Mamula game at BC was another 12, but it also didn’t have much in the way of strong performances.) 1995 3-4-5-5-5-2-2-9-2-3-7-1 = 4.00 (This was a very consistent team until the trip to Blacksburg. I remember we gave the ball to Rob Konrad several times and he punched a hole in the Hokie’s 8 man line repeatedly until we scored on the opening drive. A second Csonka had arrived!. He never got the ball the rest of the game. We went into “near-side option” mode and gave up 31 unanswered points. The Gator Bowl blow-out of Clemson was the first #1 performance by the Orange since Rutgers back in 1992.Marsee had us at #13.) 1996 5-8-1-2-3-2-1-1-1-4-5-3 = 3.00 (The best Pasqualoni team and the best Syracuse team in the years since the 1987 “dream” year. After fumbling away the Minnesota game, the went on tremendous tear, going 1.57 over their next seven games. The four #1 performances- VPI, West Virginia, Tulane, Army, who was 9-0 at the time- were the most since the 1959 team. I recall Coach P crediting the success to his being converted by his assistants to the concept of an “attack” defense, rather than “read and cover“, something Scott Shafer is trying to create now. We were #12 in Bassett, Dokter and Dolphin) 1997 1-6-9-9-4-1-2-1-1-5-3-2-4 = 3.69 (Similar to the previous year’s team, after a 1-3 start we strung together 8 wins in a row. This one wasn’t quite as good, although it got four more #1’s - Wisconsin, East Carolina, Temple, West Virginia. Oklahoma was another big-time scalp we should have gotten, either in 1994 or this year. Bassett had us at #17.) 1998 1-2-1-12-1-4-5-5-3-2-1-7 = 3.67 (The last McNabb team got off to a great start, nearly beating this year’s national champion, Tennessee, in the opener and thumping last year’s national champion, Michigan, in the second game. Then we scored 10 touchdowns on Rutgers. There were hopes of national championship and a Heisman Trophy. Both disappeared that awful night in Raleigh. Later came the ritual slaughter of Miami in the Dome, 66-13, and the dismal Orange Bowl performance vs. Florida, 10-31. Bassett ignored the bad stuff and ranked us #6.) 1999 1-2-6-2-4-4-12-5-6-11-8-4 = 5.42 (We got off to a good start but the collapse vs. Va Tech and the loss to Rutgers- like the 1954 Illinois team, the 1969 Kansas team and the 1978 Illinois team, we were the only team they could beat- ruined the season.) Summary: 1990 4.54; 1991 4.00; 1992 3.66; 1993 6.36; 1994 6.36; 1995 4.00; 1996 3.00; 1997 3.69; 1998 3.67; 1999 5.42 Average for the decade: 4.47 2000 3-6-8-1-3-6-3-5-4-6-5 = 4.55 (Not an outstanding team but at least they were fairly consistent. The season was most memorable for the attempted to gain revenge on Va Tech, which Troy Nunes, in a classic performance, literally threw away. Dwight Freeney also got hurt in that game, the third straight season ended or limited by a significant injury. Anmar had us #18.) 2001 7-11-2-3-1-8-2-1-3-4-11-3-1 = 4.38 (Our last winning season and our last really good team. The team was actually outgained on the year but went 10-3 thanks to a +15 turnover margin that was largely the product of having a healthy Dwight Freeney for the entire season for the first time. Without the two 11’s- both the Tennessee and Miami games were classic examples of playing strong teams in tough places to win and doing it poorly- this was a 3.16 team. Bassett has us at #7.) 2002 11-12-5-12-9-11-3-3-2-8-12 = 8.00 (This was the year things fell apart- the first time. The Rhode Island game was vs. a 1AA opponent and thus is not included. A series of horrible performances was broken up only by a strong first half at Auburn and Troy Nunes’ unexpected resurgence. The ship got righted- sort of- but this year was a harbinger of things to come.) 2003 9-7-3-1-12-1-11-2-6-7-11-4 = 7.00 (A marginally better team with no consistency at all, as shown by the midseason stretch of 1-12-1-11 vs. Toledo, VPI, BC and Pitt. I remember I was visiting my parents down south during the VPI game, which we lost 8-51, a sort of inferior sequel to the ‘99 game. My Mom, who isn’t a football fan, watched the game for a bit while sorting laundry in the next room. As she was passing me with the laundry basket she laughed and said, “They aren’t really very good, are they? No they weren’t, Mom.) 2004 11-7-4-8-5-5-8-3-3-10-1-12= 6.42 (The year of the book-end blow-outs. We opened on national TV with a 0-51 loss to Purdue and closed out the Pasqualoni era with a 14-51 loss to a Georgia Tech team that had been averaging 19 points a game in the Champ Sports Bowl. We also hit double figures vs. Temple, whose only other win was vs. Florida A&M. But the season will be forever remembered for the amazing performance of Diamond Ferri in the 43-17 win at Boston College.) 2005 4-3-6-11-8-10-8-10-10-11-8 = 8.09 (The G-Rob disaster got off to a decent start but then we unraveled badly. Most people, including me, recall that the really disappointing stretch began at Connecticut but by this measure it really began the previous week at Florida State, still another game where a tough opponent and a road game was no excuse for stinking up the joint. 2006 9-8-6-1-5-7-9-5-9-9-7-10 = 7.08 (Three wins in a row over bad teams to get us to 3-2 created some excitement early but 6 losses in the remaining seven games brought us back down to earth with a thud. The #1 game was Miami of Ohio, our only #1 performance of the G-Rob era. We at least managed to avoid any double figure games until the trip to Rutgers. ) 2007 13-12-12-6-8-11-10-6-8-11-10-7 = 9.50 (Modern teams play more games so a bad performance gets penalized more in this system than in previous eras. The Washington opener was our first-ever “13” game. But by any measure the 2007 Syracuse is a major contender for the worse team ever to take the field in a Syracuse uniform. They were never better than the 6th best team any opponent played- even in the Louisville upset. It basically sealed G-Rob’s fate although he was allowed to dangle for another year.) 2008 11-10-11-9-8-12-6-8-11-6-11 = 9.36 (To paraphrase Mark Twain, better to not play a game and be thought to stink than to play one and remove all doubt. G-Rob absolutely had to win- and win now- to continue his career here. So he starts out with 11-10-11, the “10” being the Akron game- and they only question was: who would be our new coach? Greg’s two “greatest” wins were at Louisville and at Notre Dame. Both were #6’s. The Northeastern game is excluded because they were 1AA, or FCS if you prefer.) 2009 8-7-4-9-13-7-9-10-9-2-12 = 8.18 (A marginally improved team in HCDM”s first year. This is one year where my system may be slightly deceiving. West Virginia had an odd, but entertaining year in which every other game was either won or lost by 15 points or less so our modest 13-34 loss to them gets a #13. And, of course, we know what happened at UCONN. The Maine game is not included as it was a 1AA game.) Summary: 2000 4.55; 2001 4.38; 2002 8.00; 2003 7.00; 2004 6.42; 2005 8.09; 2006 7.08; 2007 9.50; 2008 9.36; 2009 8.18 Average for the Decade: 7.26 2010’s 2010 5-13-4-13-3-2-8-6-9-10-6 = 7.18 (We went from 4-8 to 8-5 because we won close games and did it on the road. But we still made the bottom 25 thanks to “worst” performances vs. Washington and Pittsburgh and being shoved around by strong, veteran offensive lines at the end of the season. The Maine and Colgate games are excluded because they were FCS teams.) 2011- 4-8-3-6-11-1-13-9-9-9-10 = 7.55 (Rhode Island is an FCS team so they aren’t included: I’m sure they would have helped, as UMASS, Brown, Old Dominion, James Madison and Towson all beat the Rams by more than we did. I knew the Tulane game was a lousy performance but everyone Louisville played did better against them than we did. Our 20 point loss to South Florida in the Dome was the only win they had in their last games.) [/QUOTE]

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