The Downside (Maryland)

[SWC75]

- What do Wagner, Tulane, NC State, Wake Forest and Maryland have in common? Two things: we beat them and they all suck. (Tulane? They have lost to Florida Atlantic and Texas San-Antonio in their last two games) The ACCC has programs that have been playing big-time football a lot longer than some of the schools in the Big East but when you get past the top teams, it’s not that strong a conference. We may be the “best of the rest” in our division but it’s a dubious prize.


- If we are to make things at all interesting next week, we’ve got to “control the controllables”, another favorite [phrase of Coach Chafer’s. We’ve done a lousy job of that all season. At least we’ve now drawn even on turnovers, 18-18 on the year with a +2 today. But we have been called for, (a phrase I will use instead of “have committed”), 74 penalties for 619 yards this year compared to 36 for 290 yards for our opponents. We have given our opponents a net 329 yards in penalties, not counting any yardage we gained that was cancelled out by penalties. Florida State does not need our help. We can’t have tur5novers. We can’t have penalties. We can’t have missed tackles. We can’t whiff on blocks. We can’t have dropped passes. We can’t have blown coverages. But we will.


- I wish I could understand why were passing the ball when we were trying to run out the clock. We could have put this one away much earlier than we did.

 

[IHeartSUFball]

Why do I need to see this post tonight

 

[upperdeck]

It looked even worse when Hunt made bad throws on those late passes.

 

[riskylogic]

A word to the wise:

Beating teams that suck is way better than not doing so.

 

[cuseinchina]

Best of the rest is good enough for now. If Rutgers gets pounded into oblivion in the Big10 as we all hope, and if we can be viewed as 'decent' in the ACC - we'll get the talent we need to get to the next level. What the next level looks like I'm not sure - I'd say it's somewhere between Miami and Georgia Tech and involves winning between 8 and 10 games a year typically and 11 in a very very special year. But we are well positioned for that level of success in the not too distant future if Macdonald can learn to run an offense.

 

[orangeinjersey]

- What do Wagner, Tulane, NC State, Wake Forest and Maryland have in common? Two things: we beat them and they all suck. (Tulane? They have lost to Florida Atlantic and Texas San-Antonio in their last two games) The ACCC has programs that have been playing big-time football a lot longer than some of the schools in the Big East but when you get past the top teams, it’s not that strong a conference. We may be the “best of the rest” in our division but it’s a dubious prize.

I was thinking this same thing. But you know what, a lot of folks DONT watch the games like we watch them. What I mean is, if Rutgers can gain the perception of being a SOLID team becuase they beat up on Howards and Norfolks etc, then you know what, it, we should get all the credit and perception of being a solid team for beating the Wakes, Md's and NCStates of the ACC. As someone mentioned above, you win 7 games, constantly, get better recruits, then move that to 9-10, get better recruits etc. Thats the key.

At the end of the day, folks wont remember that Wake, State, Md, Tulane, and Wagner stunk, they'll remember that SU went 7/8 wins in their first season of the ACC, with a new staff, without their NFL QB.

LGO!!

 

[Antiprodigy]

Not starting out 0-2 every year might go a long way toward improving Syracuse's perception as a team.

 

[CuseOnly]

We can only beat who is on our schedule, we can't control how good or bad they are or how good or bad they are perceived to be.

I would rather be considered the best of the rest and climbing than one of the bottom teams.

 

[baggerbob]

What needs to happen is for the ACC bowl teams to win this year like we did last year, winning in the bowl games against the power conferences changes perception.