OttoinGrotto
2023-24 Iggy Award Most 3 Pointers Made
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- 63,445
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Let me begin by saying that TexanMark is a fanbase treasure. I don't know of anyone that can run a top notch event remotely as well as he can. He got everyone in order and made sure they were clear on what they had to do to make the afternoon a success. He makes the experience of being a Syracuse fan better. People kept congratulating me on pulling off the tailgate. Look, I know it's hard to tell from how awesome my posts are, but really, I'm pretty lame and had nothing to do with how great things turned out. This was all TexanMark and the collective efforts of our awesome fan community.
Special shout out also to the set up crew - they could not have staked out a better place. MarcusPitt, Shenexon, Crusty and Mrs. Crusty (who is not at all Crusty, and rather lovely), CuseJuicy and Mrs. CuseJuicy, Arundeal and Mrs. Arundeal, and JSOrange97 among others did an exceptional job with the set up and cooking. Mrs. Crusty took upon herself the role of hostess, greeting everyone and providing them with a nametag, and also provided top notch service making sure that everyone consumed their fair share of the delicious hot protein selections, which Hoffman snappy grillers and dogs and JSOrange's spiedies which I'm still drooling over thinking about. Not only did JS make some mean chicken spiedies, but he also provided us with tv, a sound system, and the photos included in this post.
Upon entering lot 4b, there was no question that a Syracuse fan was in the right place:
The sea of Orange was glorious and plentiful (especially in contrast to our game uniforms - hey oh!), and it was pleasing to the eye to see the many other Syracuse faithful tailgate groups filling the lot. Our section occupied one full end of a row of cars in the lot. This was the view from the other end:
It was difficult to get a count of how many people participated, but at two different times I circled our group and each time counted over 90. I would guess that over the course of the afternoon we saw about 150 unique Orange fans that belonged to our crew. Our presence was felt in the lot by Maryland fans and impossible to ignore, and it foreshadowed what was to come during the game.
In addition to the grill wizardry I mentioned earlier, we also enjoyed chili, baked beans, fine cheese and crackers, assorted chips and pretzels, fresh vegetables, leftover Halloween candy, an assortment of Wegman's and Jimmy John's subs, bowtie pesto salad with tomatoes and feta, thai pasta, brownies and apple brownies, some awesome Syracuse themed cookies, and a wide selection of refreshing beverages for the young and those over the age of 21. I'm absolutely forgetting some really good things we ate and drank in there too. I am confident that no one left hungry.
If I may entertain a tangent briefly... I have spent a significant part of my life with this community going all the way back to a moment in high school when I realized that people talking on the internet mattered (I'm referring to a small scale scandal involving an injury to Quentin Spotwood that broke on the syracuse.com message board) and following through to different iterations of the board, but until this weekend had never had the privilege of meeting anyone from this community and message board in person. It was a thrill to come across people I recognized from the board, including those mentioned that set up and got things started the right away. Other folks of note included the great Tomcat, SUFaninNJ (who immediately knew how to endear himself to me, and who I wish I had gotten a chance to talk with a little more), SUalldway, JoeSU and fam (awesome group), LemoyneCuse (keep the faith, brother), ebucklewis, Orange_in_va, Bnoro and Nails, Retro, Bayside, Frozen and many others (I should have taken notes, and if we chatted and I've neglected to mention you, my sincerest apologies). We count ourselves among a great group of people. I commented to my family yesterday that because of our connection to SU sports, and the ridiculous amount of time I spend reading your posts and trying to make my own worthwhile contributions to the board, I consider you friends. Close friends at that, and having the experience to see the real people behind the handles and avatars strengthened that a bit.
To close my remarks on the tailgate, this picture of everyone says it all:
That's a good looking group.
After a pleasant walk through the Comcast Center and parts of the campus we arrived at the visitor's gate. Crusty observed that if you're a Maryland fan it must be difficult to know what color to wear, and that was evident walking up to the game. The Orange and blue was well represented. The Maryland fans, sadly, were not.
The stadium itself had a fairly utilitarian feel to it. Not a lot of aesthetic, although the view from the stands was nice. One of the advantages of living in the high elevations of Utah as I do is that, despite being kind of a fat guy, I have the endurance of a marathon runner once I return to sea level. That paid off as we approached our seats. Now, make no mistake, they were up high but they weren't bad seats - the seats provided a great view of the field, and placed us solidly between the 40 and 50. This is what the game looked like for our group:
You'll notice a staggering amount of empty seats. This wasn't much before game time. While it did fill in some, as the game progressed it appeared to me that many a Terrapin fan realized they had left some leaves on their front lawn that badly needed to be raked, and prioritized the rest of their evening accordingly, but more on that in a bit.
Maryland's intro stuff was really weird. It tied in to Under Armour, which I guess makes sense, and also Iron Man. Maybe I'm ignorant to the connection there, but I didn't really get it. The pregame intro video spliced scenes of Iron Man putting his armor on with images of the Maryland players putting their helmets and gloves on. I did not feel compelled to protect this house or shave my facial hair to look like Tony Stark. I can only begin to imagine what it does for the Maryland players and fans. Thankfully, some kickin' pyrotechnics really saved the whole presentation (not really). They also did a great job of keeping their concession stands stocked with ideal cool weather items like hot cocoa (they did a terrible job).
I was pleased to see that we would start the game with the ball. The first drive was extremely encouraging. On the downside, we committed a couple of dumb penalties. On the plus side, we overcame those penalties and sustained drives. On the downside, we weren't very effective on 3rd down. On the plus side, we converted twice on 4th down, including Jerome's first TD run of the game. It was exciting to see us start the game with a solid drive, with a good mix of run and pass, with touches early for Estime and our other playmaker Hickey (no idea what that was about), that ate 8 minutes of clock. I was especially pleased to see us go for it on 4th twice.
Maryland's offense seemed just a little bit dangerous early on, but it didn't take long for our defense to assert itself. The run defense was stout all day, and the pass defense, while not really challenged, was also solid. It looks like we can impose our will on teams with inferior offensive talent, but aren't quite up to being able to do that on teams with more dangerous playmakers. We did a nice job of timing blitzes, and it seemed like we played more aggressive pass coverage than I'm used to seeing. Not to say we didn't run zone schemes, but there was a good mix and Maryland wasn't really able to find much success either way. We also did a nice job of forcing turnovers, which prevented the game from devolving into puntapalooza.
A few notes on the offense - staggering that we're unable to throw for TDs, but I think things are moving in the right direction with the passing offense. Jerome saw the ball a lot, and McFarlane and Morris were effective as backups once PTG left the game. Our offensive line does a nice job of giving our guys some room to run. I thought the playcalling was pretty good, but I think we missed some opportunities. We don't really run any play action or roll outs, and I'm not sure why, because there's all kinds of room for those types of plays to be successful and Hunt's mobility seem suited to them. It felt like all game we were loosening things up to get some big chunks of yardage with those kinds of plays, but we just didn't really try it.
One thing I did like seeing from the offense was a formation with a lineman split wide to each side. This is something Chip Kelly has been running with the Eagles a little bit (see http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/74191/the-power-of-the-chip-kelly-offense and scroll about halfway for Barnwell's take on this type of formation). Anyway, I'm a sucker for this kind of weird stuff, and hope to see this kind of experimentation continue. It looks like our communication issues from earlier this season have been fixed, as for the most part the team looked very quick to the line and clear on their assignments. We're playing pretty fast, which I think is a difference maker we need to be successful.
Two minor complaints on the offense. First, we rushed up to the line a couple of times to get a quick snap, and each time we threw a pass immediately to the sideline. When you rush up like that I think a quick hitter's a great idea, but that's also a great time to stretch the field. When you make a defense run and set they don't have time to make a personnel change or do much fancy defensively - what you're going to see will be pretty vanilla, and I think there are opportunities to go vertical. Second, late in the game with a healthy lead we decided to work on our passing game, I guess, when we could have just run the ball a little and burn clock.
Maryland wasn't ever really in this game, come to think of it. We looked like the more talented and better coached team all game. If not for two costly turnovers while we were driving and in the Maryland end this game might have gotten ugly. The Maryland faithful didn't show much spirit, as every setback or positive play for the Orange sent another chunk home. At the start of the 4th quarter, with a stadium full of Syracuse fans, they played a strange motivational video with clips from football movies. With the way the game was going and the number of fans that had left, it just came across as... sad.
The officiating... we have another shutout if not for the assistance of the zebras. Beginning with the extremely questionable special teams flag, Maryland didn't so much march down the field as much as they were dragged in to scoring position by the refs. I'm not going to say that we didn't commit some penalties, but the PI looked like a bad call, and I'm not sold on the one Johnson was flagged for. On the plus side, the flags did produce some spirited reactions from our section. My favorite may have been "Elevator, elevator, we got the shaft!" and a good time was had by all as we enjoyed the fireworks when Maryland hit their field goal and we continued to, um, discuss the officiating amongst ourselves.
All said though, a whole lot went right. The weather was perfect, the food was good, the game was fun, and the good guys walked away with a win. We now have a winning record and have two conference road wins under our belt. Despite some very shaky moments on both sides of the ball this season we're in very good position to secure a bowl bid. This ship's heading in the right direction, sports fans.
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