I think our recruiting has been incredibly bad. All of the recruiting services show us this. Regardless if you go by amount of stars, amount of other P5 offers or avg recruit rating on 2-4-7. Bottom 3 or 4 of ACC every single year. But even worse has been the performance on the field. So again if you think the recruiting is lets just say at a average to above avg level, why have we been soooooooo bad under HCDB? To help you in this argument let's throw out the records. Like a MAC team every year we have had a surprise upset win each year under HCDB. Like a MAC, or non P5 team we have been totally annihilated by other P5 teams every single year. Every single year in humiliating fashion were we didnt even belong on the field. Lets look at a couple to review
Games under HCDB
Year 1
*Lamar Jackson had 610yds from scrimmage on us. The most in ACC (and Big East) history for a single game. And a school record for both teams for and against. Let's just move on from this place in history we will hold probably forever.
*Deshone Kizer threw for 465yds vs us a near all time record for ND
*Clemson beat us 54-0 playing walkons late in 3rd quarter
*FLST had 45 rushes 334 7.4ypr
Pitt 79 points. Set a ACC, Big EAST, P5 and FBS record for points vs a P5 team. 79points. Another history book entry for Syracuse under HCDB
Year 2
*Mid Tenn ST came into the dome beat us and carried him off like he won the national championship. He literally had a victory cigar at the post game presser. UNBELIEVABLE!
*A 6 win Wake Forest team comes into the dome and rattles off 734yards from scrimmage. Yet another record vs us. Their qb had 499 yds total offense
*The next week Louisville sets a record vs us. 727yds total offense on us
Year 3
In a WIN over a MAC team. We give up 621 yds to a MAC team. A receiver has 240yds receiving vs us and the starting rb 11rusher 120yds 2tds. This is a MAC team smh. Guess how many team records they recorder vs us.
* Quadree Ollison from Buffalo NY ( lightly recruited by HCSS) kills us for 192 rushing yards and heartbreaking OT loss for Syracuse. I dont really blame HCDB as it wasnt his staff that by in large passed on the local kid. It was his team that Ollison embarrassed
* This game is only listed because of the final drive when Dabo in his words "looked at his O-line and rb (top ACC) and looked at our defense (MAC) and decided to literally run it down our throats the whole field for the game winning TD. Final Drive 13 plays 96yds. 12 rushes for 76yds with clock winding down and our coaches not taking timeouts to preserve clock for a comeback attempt.
* NC win. I am only including this game because like a MAC team we were almost upset by a team with 1 FBS win at home and gave up 500yds offense and had to rally to force OT behind backup qb. If not for Tommy "TD" Devito
*ND in another humiliating loss that encapsulates the need to improve our recruiting ESPECIALLY in the trenches (O-line, DT's) after this game alot of the our recruiting is great bunch took notice. It was impossible to miss. They totally dominated the trenches. We looked worse with 105yds total offense in the 4th quarter and them up 29-0 with backup linemen. In fact they beat us soooooo bad that in the post presser and ND paper, Kelly and some of the players remarked it was the easiest game of the season for them. And it was. Pitt and MAC team Ball St were 1 possession wins for them.
Year 4- Coming off a 10 win season and with many people on this very thread screaming we would win 10-12 games and challenge Clemson for ACC supremacy, I analyzed our 3 recruiting classes under HCDB and predicted a 6 win season ONLY because we had a light light easy schedule. The funny thing is many of the people now engaged in this very thread roasted me relentlessly. Totally ignored the recruiting warnings that I raised and would literally say "look at all the offers our recruits had when a guy had ZERO P5 offers and some MAC and a bunch of Stonybrook type offers. Our schedule last year consisted of
UMD-a total mess! Player died, coaches fired, players transferring total nightmare program which would ultimately win 3 games all year
Liberty, Holy Cross, Western Michigan (MAC sacrifical lamb) FLST coming of a 5 win season new coach, qb uncertainty, and a bunch of teams that basically were .500 +Clemson, which would be tough. If we were good, it should've been a easy 8 win year. If our prior recruiting classes weren't bottom 4 ACC and P5 every year it would've been. But here is what is never mentioned on here. Those 9 or 10 ACC teams that had higher rated recruiting class the two years would be better than us because they were getting better players. I saw that, I said that and it happened. Year 4 was a unmitigated disaster. Our trench play literally was among the worst in all of FBS. Week in and week out we were thrashed and many of the records teams put up vs us in the previous 3 years under HCDB were threatened and some fell. Folkse I see it happening again with THIS recruiting class. Its not over but we need to fill out this class with ACC 10 level recruits with 7 or more P5 offers. Again I dont care about the stars BUT look at what the other SCC teams are doing in recruiting. Look at the insane class NC is putting together (top 5 at the moment) and they have a few 5 star and high 4 stars they are yet to add. Look at Pitt#23, Lousiville #29, GT#30 FLST (they are back)! Each of these teams have difference makers who will start or contribute vs us next year. We have to add a couple players that will break into out 2deep. At the moment I dont see 1. So we essentially will be relying on the same guys from last year minus our best O-lineman and 2 stud defensive linemen. Hate to say i but at the moment I see another 5 win season
