SWC75
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The coach’s show is on TK99, (FM 99.5) in the Syracuse area and can also be heard through Orange All-Access on the SU Athletic website. This year it’s 7PM Thursdays- or two days before each game, when they are not on Saturday. They have a link to their “Radio Mailbox” for submitting E-Mail questions on the SU Athletic website. You also can call in questions at 1-888-746-2873 or locally at 315-424-8599. You can also tweet them at hash tag CDMS. The show is broadcast from the Red Robin in Fayetteville.
It can take a while but pod casts of the show are eventually posted here:
http://www.suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
“Coach, last week, I asked you to compare the attitude of the team following the West Virginia game last year to that of the current team following the Connecticut game. That question really didn’t get answered that night but it sure got answered Saturday Night. I congratulate you, the staff and the team on the greatest comeback for a victory in Syracuse history. Ironically it was the team’s second biggest comeback the season as we were down 22 vs. Northwestern, so I guess it wasn’t a surprise that this team could do that.
I’d like to ask about Ryan Nassib. People are always breaking down his game, saying he can’t throw deep, that he has no touch on the short passes, that he lacks “pocket presence”, etc.. But the passing section of the SU record book might as well be named the “Ryan Nassib Section” and draft experts are starting to put him on their short lists of top quarterbacks. You know more about him than anyone. What does he do well that produces these numbers?. What might he have to work on to make it in the NFL?”
COACH MARRONE
(I’ve re-arranged the order of some of the comments based on the subject.)
Since Matt Park was doing the basketball game at the Dome, Brian Higgins was the host of the show. He talked about how excited the team was with their comeback victory at South Florida. HCDM: I have to give the credit to the kids. There was no yelling and screaming in the halftime locker room. We worked our way back into it and then finished well.” Brian noted how clam the team looked on the sidelines. DM: “We focused on executing and the defense did a good job of stopping them the rest of the game. We’ve been working on late game offensive situations, such as what we’d do with 1:10 left and one timeout. Here it was 1:25 with no time-outs.”
Later in the show, Brian asked how important it was to have a successful first play on the first play of that final drive. DM: “Really, it was the first two plays. You get yourself going, get into a rhythm . The first two throws were outstanding. The receivers did a good job of getting open and then getting out of bounds. The backs did a good job of protecting. We went 19 yards to West and then 20 to Sales and suddenly we were on the 36.
Brian asked how hard it was to keep track of what was going on at the very end of the game. HCDM: “I knew exactly what was going on and expressed my opinion on it. I was worried about a clock issue no one has talked about. I won’t go back over it here. I was not sure if Marcus had scored. They should have called a time out and reviewed it. But we were on ESPN3 and we didn’t have the cameras they have on ESPN1. I saw the ball snapped, a flag and a late time-out- I didn’t see anyone acknowledge the time out at first. . We’ve worked on our two point play at least twice a week.” (Not that we scored on the two point attempt but the TD came on what was basically the same sort of play.) Brian noted that Ryan had told Alec “Make sure you are in the end zone!” That would have been a faux pas.
I called in my question, including the preamble. Coach apologized “if I didn’t answer your question because you are a very loyal caller.” (He had simply apologized for doing a bad job last year and not described or compared the attitude of the team at the two junctures at all. I think things must have gone so badly wrong last year he simply doesn‘t want to talk about it.)
Regarding Nassib: “There are two plays in recent games that illustrate Ryan’s increasing maturity. Again Connecticut, we had a 3rd and 10 or 12. The play was supposed to go long but was covered and he checked down to a 6-7 yard pass. We got a field goal out of it. In the past, he would have thrown long anyway and gotten an incompletion or interception. I don’t remember if that was the 47 or 42 yarder. Last week when Jarrod West was wide open on that first pass of the last drive, in the past, Ryan would have sped up his footwork and gunned it. But he kept his tempo and did the same thing on the throw to Sales.”
“The NFL likes his intelligence and his background in an NFL type system. They like his arm strength. There isn’t a throw he can’t make. He does have to work on some things, as you mentioned. The fade, the deep touch. He will look better when the people around him play better. After the Rutgers game Coach Moore challenged the receivers to play better, especially Alec Lemon. He’s played better, Marcus Sales is showing some enthusiasm. Ryan isn’t looking past Cincinnati. We have to make sure he keeps getting better.”
Brian suggested that Ryan’s intelligence plus his willingness to look at film for hours and the additional time to do it he’ll get in the NFL will help him. HCDM expressed admiration for the way Troy Aikman took his lumps early in his career but studied the game and came back strong to become a championship quarterback. He noted Steve Spurrier’s comment on Alabama being better than the worst NFL team. “It’s really difficult to be successful in the NFL. The game is so fast. The special thing about Peyton Manning is his mental toughness. People have no idea the amount the NFL puts on a quarterback. There’s 100-150 plays in the game plan. People don’t know how much goes into it.“
A Red Robin customer named Emma asked what inspired the coach to become a coach. “The people who coached me. And not necessarily in the same sport. I was an inner city kid and got involved in a youth baseball program where they stressed not just what happened on the field but what happened off of it- the practice, working hard, not getting too frustrated. When you’re young there’s a fine line between working hard and having fun. You can turn kids off by applying too much pressure, having elite teams, travel teams. I was inspired by my coaches to be a good coach and a good person.”
Two other restaurant patrons, Jake and Katie, wanted to know what was the biggest obstacle to success for the SU football program. HCDM: “Recruiting. We have to do a good job and increase our recruiting area. The overall numbers in the Northeast are down. Eastern Pennsylvania and Jersey are over-recruited. The Big 10 and SEC are there. Being in the ACC will help. We can get recruits from Georgia, North Carolina- they haven’t had a lot of players but they are getting better and better every year. People think if you transition a coaching staff….” (He didn’t really finish that thought.) “They have a pretty good foundation at Alabama. We have to re-create the foundation that Coach Mac and coaches before him had built up.”
Brian asked how many recruits might come in early for the spring semester. HCDM: “That‘s the trend now. We hope for 4-5. It’s different depending on what state they come from. In New York the difficulty is the regents exam. It’s ironic, (chuckles), but the states with the most players have the most players come out early. When they do, they tend to be more successful over a long period.” (His emphasis was on the different standards and different degrees of emphasizing football in different states.)
Again, the coach wondered if we were putting too much pressure on young athletes. “When I was in grammar schools I wanted to get to high school and play football. When I was in high school I wanted to get to college. When I was in college, I wanted to get to the pros. I didn’t really spend time to appreciate things. I missed senior trips, the prom. You can’t go back and do it. We are pushing kids so fast.”
Brian wondered how the pressure put on kids affects them transferring out. HCDM: “Our contact is limited, (in the recruiting phase). We spend time with the kids to get to know what they are about. Then comes the structure and discipline.”
Tom in Rochester called to ask about the quarterback position next year. “It’s early but everybody is starting to think about it.” So has Coach Marrone: “Sooner or later you have to play someone who hasn’t played much.“ (Like Ryan Nassib in 2010.) “We are practicing our second string quarterback which we couldn’t do before because we didn’t have enough players.” (?!?) “Terrell Hunt did a great job in the spring and John Kinder is very talented. Ashton Broyld is a running back this year but he can play quarterback We have two guys coming in, one very highly rated. We will be looking at this in the spring. Eventually you have to play one guy. Whoever it is, they will be surrounded by a lot of talent on the outside. There’s also a lot of people back on the line.”
A caller wanted to know what was the coach’s favorite place to play other than the Dome. The answer, predictably, was Yankee Stadium, from Coach’s home town and the home of his favorite baseball team. He cited “the history of that stadium”. Of course the history of the current Yankee Stadium is just beginning to be written. But we know what he meant. He also remembers coaching in the SEC at Georgia, (2000) and Tennessee (2001). “We’d have 100,000 people in the stands and the stadium would shake with the cheered and stomping and I’d wonder ’How old is this place?’ And at Georgia we played Florida in Jacksonville at the ’World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party’. I used to think to myself, ’Will I ever get a chance to come to one of these games and enjoy it as these people do instead of having to worry about schedules and game plans?”
The got down to a discussion of Cincinnati, starting with a comparison of Munchie Legaux and BJ Daniels. “What they do to get their quarterbacks running the ball is schematically different. BJ makes people miss. Munchie can take it vertically and has better downfield speed. We have to wrap up and bring them down. We had too much in for the USF game. We cut it down at halftime and did much better. Munchie can beat you with his arm. If you put too many people up front, you are putting too much pressure on your backfield. If you have too many people back, you put too much pressure on the people up front. . They don’t pass a lot but when they do they get huge chunks. We need to keep the ball out of Abernathy’s hands. He can line up anywhere and is a dangerous kick returner. Winn is a bigger back who runs well.”
Brian asked about the status of Jay Bromley. “I was asked in the press conference about players whom nobody really knows about who are having big years for us. I said ‘Goggins and Bromley.’ Jason felt better today and that’s a good sign. We are giving him aggressive treatment. He got injured in the first drill on Tuesday and hasn’t practiced all week. We’ve got Z Jones and Davon Walls could play. Goggins could get increased time. Micah Robinson can move over. We have it covered but Jason Bromley has had a hell of a year for us.“ (I’ll bet he wishes he had Ryan Sloan and John Raymon available.)
Brian praised the team for having zero turnovers in consecutive games after so many problems in that area earlier in the season. “Since I’ve been here we’ve been -30 in our losses and +16 in our wins in turnovers. That and being able to tackle has been key. A lot of times we make this game harder than it has to be.”
Brian suggested that getting “a sense of winning on the road” at South Florida will help the team. HCDM: “I don’t know about the sense of winning on the road, especially late in the year. Going into their stadium will be a great challenge for us. It’s hard to win on the road late in the season. We just have to keep fighting.”
Brian closed by asking how the hurricane had affect the team and coaching staff and their family members, with so many people, including HCDM, being from the new York City and New Jersey areas. “We’ve dealt with things on an individual basis. My Mom probably called me 100 times. I don’t think she looked at a map and she couldn’t figure out the distance. (chuckles) The people down there are resilient. They get up the next day and make it work.”
It can take a while but pod casts of the show are eventually posted here:
http://www.suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
“Coach, last week, I asked you to compare the attitude of the team following the West Virginia game last year to that of the current team following the Connecticut game. That question really didn’t get answered that night but it sure got answered Saturday Night. I congratulate you, the staff and the team on the greatest comeback for a victory in Syracuse history. Ironically it was the team’s second biggest comeback the season as we were down 22 vs. Northwestern, so I guess it wasn’t a surprise that this team could do that.
I’d like to ask about Ryan Nassib. People are always breaking down his game, saying he can’t throw deep, that he has no touch on the short passes, that he lacks “pocket presence”, etc.. But the passing section of the SU record book might as well be named the “Ryan Nassib Section” and draft experts are starting to put him on their short lists of top quarterbacks. You know more about him than anyone. What does he do well that produces these numbers?. What might he have to work on to make it in the NFL?”
COACH MARRONE
(I’ve re-arranged the order of some of the comments based on the subject.)
Since Matt Park was doing the basketball game at the Dome, Brian Higgins was the host of the show. He talked about how excited the team was with their comeback victory at South Florida. HCDM: I have to give the credit to the kids. There was no yelling and screaming in the halftime locker room. We worked our way back into it and then finished well.” Brian noted how clam the team looked on the sidelines. DM: “We focused on executing and the defense did a good job of stopping them the rest of the game. We’ve been working on late game offensive situations, such as what we’d do with 1:10 left and one timeout. Here it was 1:25 with no time-outs.”
Later in the show, Brian asked how important it was to have a successful first play on the first play of that final drive. DM: “Really, it was the first two plays. You get yourself going, get into a rhythm . The first two throws were outstanding. The receivers did a good job of getting open and then getting out of bounds. The backs did a good job of protecting. We went 19 yards to West and then 20 to Sales and suddenly we were on the 36.
Brian asked how hard it was to keep track of what was going on at the very end of the game. HCDM: “I knew exactly what was going on and expressed my opinion on it. I was worried about a clock issue no one has talked about. I won’t go back over it here. I was not sure if Marcus had scored. They should have called a time out and reviewed it. But we were on ESPN3 and we didn’t have the cameras they have on ESPN1. I saw the ball snapped, a flag and a late time-out- I didn’t see anyone acknowledge the time out at first. . We’ve worked on our two point play at least twice a week.” (Not that we scored on the two point attempt but the TD came on what was basically the same sort of play.) Brian noted that Ryan had told Alec “Make sure you are in the end zone!” That would have been a faux pas.
I called in my question, including the preamble. Coach apologized “if I didn’t answer your question because you are a very loyal caller.” (He had simply apologized for doing a bad job last year and not described or compared the attitude of the team at the two junctures at all. I think things must have gone so badly wrong last year he simply doesn‘t want to talk about it.)
Regarding Nassib: “There are two plays in recent games that illustrate Ryan’s increasing maturity. Again Connecticut, we had a 3rd and 10 or 12. The play was supposed to go long but was covered and he checked down to a 6-7 yard pass. We got a field goal out of it. In the past, he would have thrown long anyway and gotten an incompletion or interception. I don’t remember if that was the 47 or 42 yarder. Last week when Jarrod West was wide open on that first pass of the last drive, in the past, Ryan would have sped up his footwork and gunned it. But he kept his tempo and did the same thing on the throw to Sales.”
“The NFL likes his intelligence and his background in an NFL type system. They like his arm strength. There isn’t a throw he can’t make. He does have to work on some things, as you mentioned. The fade, the deep touch. He will look better when the people around him play better. After the Rutgers game Coach Moore challenged the receivers to play better, especially Alec Lemon. He’s played better, Marcus Sales is showing some enthusiasm. Ryan isn’t looking past Cincinnati. We have to make sure he keeps getting better.”
Brian suggested that Ryan’s intelligence plus his willingness to look at film for hours and the additional time to do it he’ll get in the NFL will help him. HCDM expressed admiration for the way Troy Aikman took his lumps early in his career but studied the game and came back strong to become a championship quarterback. He noted Steve Spurrier’s comment on Alabama being better than the worst NFL team. “It’s really difficult to be successful in the NFL. The game is so fast. The special thing about Peyton Manning is his mental toughness. People have no idea the amount the NFL puts on a quarterback. There’s 100-150 plays in the game plan. People don’t know how much goes into it.“
A Red Robin customer named Emma asked what inspired the coach to become a coach. “The people who coached me. And not necessarily in the same sport. I was an inner city kid and got involved in a youth baseball program where they stressed not just what happened on the field but what happened off of it- the practice, working hard, not getting too frustrated. When you’re young there’s a fine line between working hard and having fun. You can turn kids off by applying too much pressure, having elite teams, travel teams. I was inspired by my coaches to be a good coach and a good person.”
Two other restaurant patrons, Jake and Katie, wanted to know what was the biggest obstacle to success for the SU football program. HCDM: “Recruiting. We have to do a good job and increase our recruiting area. The overall numbers in the Northeast are down. Eastern Pennsylvania and Jersey are over-recruited. The Big 10 and SEC are there. Being in the ACC will help. We can get recruits from Georgia, North Carolina- they haven’t had a lot of players but they are getting better and better every year. People think if you transition a coaching staff….” (He didn’t really finish that thought.) “They have a pretty good foundation at Alabama. We have to re-create the foundation that Coach Mac and coaches before him had built up.”
Brian asked how many recruits might come in early for the spring semester. HCDM: “That‘s the trend now. We hope for 4-5. It’s different depending on what state they come from. In New York the difficulty is the regents exam. It’s ironic, (chuckles), but the states with the most players have the most players come out early. When they do, they tend to be more successful over a long period.” (His emphasis was on the different standards and different degrees of emphasizing football in different states.)
Again, the coach wondered if we were putting too much pressure on young athletes. “When I was in grammar schools I wanted to get to high school and play football. When I was in high school I wanted to get to college. When I was in college, I wanted to get to the pros. I didn’t really spend time to appreciate things. I missed senior trips, the prom. You can’t go back and do it. We are pushing kids so fast.”
Brian wondered how the pressure put on kids affects them transferring out. HCDM: “Our contact is limited, (in the recruiting phase). We spend time with the kids to get to know what they are about. Then comes the structure and discipline.”
Tom in Rochester called to ask about the quarterback position next year. “It’s early but everybody is starting to think about it.” So has Coach Marrone: “Sooner or later you have to play someone who hasn’t played much.“ (Like Ryan Nassib in 2010.) “We are practicing our second string quarterback which we couldn’t do before because we didn’t have enough players.” (?!?) “Terrell Hunt did a great job in the spring and John Kinder is very talented. Ashton Broyld is a running back this year but he can play quarterback We have two guys coming in, one very highly rated. We will be looking at this in the spring. Eventually you have to play one guy. Whoever it is, they will be surrounded by a lot of talent on the outside. There’s also a lot of people back on the line.”
A caller wanted to know what was the coach’s favorite place to play other than the Dome. The answer, predictably, was Yankee Stadium, from Coach’s home town and the home of his favorite baseball team. He cited “the history of that stadium”. Of course the history of the current Yankee Stadium is just beginning to be written. But we know what he meant. He also remembers coaching in the SEC at Georgia, (2000) and Tennessee (2001). “We’d have 100,000 people in the stands and the stadium would shake with the cheered and stomping and I’d wonder ’How old is this place?’ And at Georgia we played Florida in Jacksonville at the ’World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party’. I used to think to myself, ’Will I ever get a chance to come to one of these games and enjoy it as these people do instead of having to worry about schedules and game plans?”
The got down to a discussion of Cincinnati, starting with a comparison of Munchie Legaux and BJ Daniels. “What they do to get their quarterbacks running the ball is schematically different. BJ makes people miss. Munchie can take it vertically and has better downfield speed. We have to wrap up and bring them down. We had too much in for the USF game. We cut it down at halftime and did much better. Munchie can beat you with his arm. If you put too many people up front, you are putting too much pressure on your backfield. If you have too many people back, you put too much pressure on the people up front. . They don’t pass a lot but when they do they get huge chunks. We need to keep the ball out of Abernathy’s hands. He can line up anywhere and is a dangerous kick returner. Winn is a bigger back who runs well.”
Brian asked about the status of Jay Bromley. “I was asked in the press conference about players whom nobody really knows about who are having big years for us. I said ‘Goggins and Bromley.’ Jason felt better today and that’s a good sign. We are giving him aggressive treatment. He got injured in the first drill on Tuesday and hasn’t practiced all week. We’ve got Z Jones and Davon Walls could play. Goggins could get increased time. Micah Robinson can move over. We have it covered but Jason Bromley has had a hell of a year for us.“ (I’ll bet he wishes he had Ryan Sloan and John Raymon available.)
Brian praised the team for having zero turnovers in consecutive games after so many problems in that area earlier in the season. “Since I’ve been here we’ve been -30 in our losses and +16 in our wins in turnovers. That and being able to tackle has been key. A lot of times we make this game harder than it has to be.”
Brian suggested that getting “a sense of winning on the road” at South Florida will help the team. HCDM: “I don’t know about the sense of winning on the road, especially late in the year. Going into their stadium will be a great challenge for us. It’s hard to win on the road late in the season. We just have to keep fighting.”
Brian closed by asking how the hurricane had affect the team and coaching staff and their family members, with so many people, including HCDM, being from the new York City and New Jersey areas. “We’ve dealt with things on an individual basis. My Mom probably called me 100 times. I don’t think she looked at a map and she couldn’t figure out the distance. (chuckles) The people down there are resilient. They get up the next day and make it work.”
