Syracuse Football in the Late 80's and 90's

[baggerbob]

Amazing video, thanks for sharing !

McNabb was the Maestro, but Konrad was the heart and soul. He really should have gotten the ball more on handoff and passes.

 

[elimunelson]

McNabb was the Maestro, but Konrad was the heart and soul. He really should have gotten the ball more on handoff and passes.

Konrad was incredible. They almost had too many options during Konrad's run with the team. Had he been on the 99 team there may have been more featuring him with Nunes under center.

He could have put up Mike Alstott like numbers I bet.

 

[FrancoPizza]

McNabb was the Maestro, but Konrad was the heart and soul. He really should have gotten the ball more on handoff and passes.

I think Konrad was underused as a receiver out of the backfield, but his running style never really stood out to me. For a guy with his size and power, he always seemed to be tackled or tripped up too easily. I think he would've been a better fit at TE, but alas, Deleone had to keep the linebackers honest with the fullback dive in the freeze option.

 

[pattycuse]

Check out this video. It’s a good one to show the kids.

That brings back a LOT of great memories. What a find- thank you!

 

[money3189]

Nice cannot believe I’ve never seen that. Thanks for posting

You aint the only one. There's a bunch of players from that team that havent seen it until now.

 

[OrangePA]

First game: 1968 - SU v. Pitt at Archbold.

The Orange won the game 50-17.

Cliff Ensley was all over the field that day for the Orange defense. The orange and blue uniforms. The green grass of Archbold Stadium. The Pilgrim Franks hot dogs.

I loved everything about it.

And, I have loved it ever since.

 

[Chip]

The 1992 season was my coming-of-age season for SU football when I was 10 -- the Texas game specifically. I lost my mind when we ran that trick play with Graves catching a two-point conversion (and then the stands fell down)

A young, tall, spindly JKinPhilly was in the front row and brought the stands down on top of Graves.

That was a wild, and underrated play in our history.

 

[JKinPhilly]

A young, tall, spindly JKinPhilly was in the front row and brought the stands down on top of Graves.

That was a wild, and underrated play in our history.

I thought we killed our QB...what an intro to football in the Dome for me. I'd been to many bball games but that was my first taste of big time football.

 

[cusefan88]

I never had a choice. My family has been going since the Archbold days.

 

[Scooch]

I'm one of the very small group of people who can legitimately claim that they were students for 2 consecutive years where the football team saw far more success than the hoops team.

1991 and 1992, my freshman and sophomore years at SU.

I imagine you gotta go back to the 60s to find another two years that meet the criteria.

 

[NoFullHouse]

My son is 9 and has a friend over who plays for the clay panthers. My son plays high level travel hockey but not football. I played football in college at Albany myself and was talking to his friend about what drove me into loving football. It was Syracuse football and subsequently the New York Giants that drove me into football. Joe Morris went to the Giants in the early 80's and I was only 6 then in but Syracuse football was just beginning to turn the corner at that point.

Dick MacPherson had just taken over and struggled the first couple of years but then Don McPherson showed up and we started to see signs of life. Even in 1985 and 1986 we were close in all games outside of that dreadful Penn State thrashing. Then in 1987 as we all know it all came together for that amazing season (Still mad at that tie, what a jerk that Auburn coach was). Running the freeze option and the wishbone is what drove me hard into football. In highschool at Liverpool we mirrored Syracuse with almost everything we did. Right down to the reverse option (split end comes around to cut in front of RB) and the trips out and out and up. I was playing Running Back at the time and loved every second of it.

My son's friend play running back for Clay Panthers and I see myself in him and it makes me wish he could have a taste of that Cuse success. My point is that these kids today don't get to experience any of that. The dome was deafening...I almost got into a fight with a Miami fan when I was 14 and I loved it. My Dad had to break it up. It was electric and the atmosphere of Syracuse sports with Basketball, Football and Lacrosse was insane. I know the atmosphere has changed and I know that I am rambling and reminiscing about my sports childhood but I feel bad for the kids especially those who love football.

I still bring my kids to the dome but it's not the same and will they ever feel what we all felt in the late 80s and 90s. I feel if it was the same my son maybe would have played football, who knows maybe not because he really loves hockey. I want to see the dome back to the loudhouse. We need meaningful football this year. The winning brings the fans and fans bring more winning. As a community, for the kids in the area to understand that magic.

Very similar timeline for me, though a bit older, I first watched games at Archbold where we always stunk. Though that made me appreciate the success all the more, what a gift it was to suffer thru something only to see it succeed, that has made me an anomaly - an SU Fan who's favorite sport is Football. So your son has a chance to fall deeply in love with this team as it reminds me of how we took off in the 80's, it started with the Independence Bowl in '79 with the Dome on the horizon it got us some recruits to where we got some wins, pulled off the Nebraska win, the Cherry Bowl, another level of recruits & home town guy Tim Green & we were off and running. I loved the Dome in the 80's & then slowly watched the apathy creep in during the 90's where people wouldn't show up for 9-3 teams> A buddy of my Dad's was a booster who said Coach P was hired because he was "married to football," but then he got married & had kids & there went the focus. The Rutgers game in the wind was the end, Kicking off into the wind Rutgers got 2 kicks back because the wind only let the ball go 10-15 yards & we had guys on the Goal line BOTH times. Coach Mac on the radio was yelling to call time out at the end of the 3rd Q when Rutgers was about to punt into the wind from their own 15 or something (so it might have gone 20yards...instead P let the clock run out & they kicked WITH the wind & had a 70 yard punt. That's when it was obvious he had checked out. Then poor GRob, had to fight the administration & Nancy who hated "the jocks," blocked Grob from getting his QB Colt Brennan, who went on to set every record they had at Hawaii. I was walking with that hag at Notre Dame that year & said, gee at 1-8 it's too bad we couldn't get Colt Brennan, she sneered at me "We didn't need THAT here!" (Colt got kicked out of Colorado b/c he basically went streaking-Colorado had just got in trouble for hiring hookers for recruits, so they couldn't have anything that sounded like sexual misconduct) But I digress...here we are in a similar spot to 1984 (should be 1987) if we can get some good recruits in the door, your son is in for a helluva ride. (Clay was in my back yard & I played hockey at Midstate & Liverpool HS) We hung with Clemson who had 16 of 17 recruits being 5 star, while we got one a few years ago (a punter in 2019) Syracuse football snags 1st 5-star recruit in over 18 years

 

[OburgOrange]

There are ups and downs. I was a kid during Ben's magical years. Then, I was an SU student and then grad student during Ben's "declining years" What fun that was...sitting in a sparsely attended Archbold Stadium on cold, wet steps while the rain poured down on my forlorn head. Let's go Orange! Cough, cough.

Then came the relative mediocrity of the Maloney years although, to be fair, he had 3 winning seasons in seven years with facilities that were decrepit, to put it charitably.

Then came The Dome and Mac. The Dome was great but Mac wasn't a success right out of the box. He was over .500 for three of his first six years but The Sack Mac Pack was a real thing. I can recall standing at a gate at Hancock field waiting to fly somewhere and Mac was at the next gate over. He was looking around with a slight smile and NOBODY went up to him to say hi. He was considered a dead man walking. As beloved as he is now, he was not a big hit until 1987. Then everything changed, and he finished his SU career with four winning seasons and 36 wins.

Then came the continuation with the 1990's being some real SU glory years. Coach P, in his first eleven years, never had a losing season. In fact, he had an 8-win season, three 9-win seasons, and three 10-win seasons. We went to eight bowls, winning six of them. These days, we would have qualified for a bowl in the other three years as well.

In his last three years, P leveled off. Even then, only one of the three was a losing season. Kind of puts the past 17 years in perspective, doesn't it?

Since then, things have been varying degrees of mediocre to crappy. The Robinson years were bad beyond belief but even after that we have only had four winning seasons total in the past 13 years under three different coaches. Thank God for 2018, but it has been a real outlier.

Will we have good years again? Of course. It is almost inevitable. The tide comes in and it goes out. "This too shall pass" and all that stuff. We have been good in the past, we have been bad in the past, and we have been in the middle in the past. Right now, we are in the midst of a prolonged spell that is varying degrees of...well, I'll let you fill in the adjective that best applies to your view on the matter. It will turn around at some point. When and for how long is not for us to know.

When will Coach P be honored at a game? It needs to happen