SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- First, some highlights from today’s game:
- Dino’s mantra is “be consistently good, not occasionally great”. I think it should be “consistently good AND occasionally great”, acknowledging that being consistently good makes it more likely that you will be occasionally great. I’m sure Dino wants his team to maintain a high level of performance regardless of the opposition and this team did that today. Garrett Shrader in the post game press conference, remarked on how well and with what intensity the team practiced this week, despite knowing that they would be facing an over-matched opponent. I think this team realizes that, being 5-0, great things, not just good ones, are possible this year and they are full focused on greatness.
- I have to admit that, while beating up on a team this bad is meaningless except it gives us one of the six victories we need to be eligible for a bowl game, it can be pleasant to watch you team running up and down the field and scoring touchdown after touchdown. The difference between this and beating a Power-Five level team is the difference between being loved and self-love. It will do for now.
- People speculated that Sean Tucker, who had twice been down on the turf but returned to games, might be hurt and that was the reason he wasn’t having break-away runs or big games. He answered that question tonight, running for 232 yards and 3 touchdowns on 23 carries. Matt Park, on the radio broadcast, suggested that Dino Babers left him in the game as a “confidence booster” heading into the rest of the schedule, which includes five teams currently in the top 25. Tucker was not looking for his confidence. He was looking for some daylight. In the previous games, defenders were coming at him in waves. He was trying to get past the first wave when the second wave would inundate him. Tonight, the sea was calm and his blockers were able to get him to the second level, where he could make his moves and start out-running people and the big plays came. We have to figure out how to get him to the second level against ranked Power-Five teams. Today gave no clue that we will be able to do that. But Sean is not the problem.
- His back-up, freshman LeQuint Allen finally got into the game in the second half and showed why he was named Player of the Year in new jersey last season, bursting for 90 yards from the Syracuse 4 to the Wagner 6. It was the longest run by a Syracuse player in 73 years, since George Davis scored from his own 5 vs. Rutgers. The play was reminiscent of James Mungro’s 86 yard non-scoring run against Kentucky in the 1999 Music City Bowl. I assume Allen heard it, (good-naturedly from Tucker after the game about getting tackled short of the end zone. Third string Juwan Price came in after that and looked strong gaining 32 yards on 5 carries, lowering his shoulder into tacklers. All told, Syracuse ran for 394 yards and 5 scores on 39 carries, better than 10 yards a carry.
- But that paled compared to Garrett Shrader’s numbers. The ‘Shreder’ was 17 for 17 passing, (a number you’ll see in the record for book for a long time) for 238 yards and 2 TDs with no interceptions. His back-up, Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, (although it said Del-Rio Wilson on the back of his jersey because…. We are SU!), was 1 for 1 so we were 18 for 18 on the day. The SU record books says that Don McPherson holds the SU single game record for passing efficiency with a 379.1 rating against Colgate in 1987, (a game that was 42-0 at halftime and wound up 52-6). ESPN has Garrett’s “QBR” at 90.1, so obviously they are using a different system. Donnie Mac set the previous record for completion percentage, (minimum 10 throws) in that game with 10 for 11 for 244 yards and 4TDs, so that seems like a comparable performance. Dino Babers was happy that his receivers had no drops and that the line had given Garrett the protection for his throws.
- We out-gained Wagner 631-50, (not a misprint), and had 26 first downs to 4 and 59 points to 0. We held them to 31 yards rushing: 74 gained, 43 lost, (29 on sacks). Consider that our 1959 national championship team gave up 96 yards a game and 19 rushing yards. (We gained 451 yards per game, 313 rushing). Every game was against what was considered a major college team at that time. And on defense, every game looked like this, (and almost like this on offense).
- Duce Chestnut had a great pick 6, jumping the route and motoring down the sidelines.
- Dino had commented on his radio show that the big difference in these games is often in special teams. We had no big special teams plays but made no errors there. The big special teams stats: We kicked off 10 times to their once. They punted 9 times and we never did.
5-0 with 7+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- Dino’s mantra is “be consistently good, not occasionally great”. I think it should be “consistently good AND occasionally great”, acknowledging that being consistently good makes it more likely that you will be occasionally great. I’m sure Dino wants his team to maintain a high level of performance regardless of the opposition and this team did that today. Garrett Shrader in the post game press conference, remarked on how well and with what intensity the team practiced this week, despite knowing that they would be facing an over-matched opponent. I think this team realizes that, being 5-0, great things, not just good ones, are possible this year and they are full focused on greatness.
- I have to admit that, while beating up on a team this bad is meaningless except it gives us one of the six victories we need to be eligible for a bowl game, it can be pleasant to watch you team running up and down the field and scoring touchdown after touchdown. The difference between this and beating a Power-Five level team is the difference between being loved and self-love. It will do for now.
- People speculated that Sean Tucker, who had twice been down on the turf but returned to games, might be hurt and that was the reason he wasn’t having break-away runs or big games. He answered that question tonight, running for 232 yards and 3 touchdowns on 23 carries. Matt Park, on the radio broadcast, suggested that Dino Babers left him in the game as a “confidence booster” heading into the rest of the schedule, which includes five teams currently in the top 25. Tucker was not looking for his confidence. He was looking for some daylight. In the previous games, defenders were coming at him in waves. He was trying to get past the first wave when the second wave would inundate him. Tonight, the sea was calm and his blockers were able to get him to the second level, where he could make his moves and start out-running people and the big plays came. We have to figure out how to get him to the second level against ranked Power-Five teams. Today gave no clue that we will be able to do that. But Sean is not the problem.
- His back-up, freshman LeQuint Allen finally got into the game in the second half and showed why he was named Player of the Year in new jersey last season, bursting for 90 yards from the Syracuse 4 to the Wagner 6. It was the longest run by a Syracuse player in 73 years, since George Davis scored from his own 5 vs. Rutgers. The play was reminiscent of James Mungro’s 86 yard non-scoring run against Kentucky in the 1999 Music City Bowl. I assume Allen heard it, (good-naturedly from Tucker after the game about getting tackled short of the end zone. Third string Juwan Price came in after that and looked strong gaining 32 yards on 5 carries, lowering his shoulder into tacklers. All told, Syracuse ran for 394 yards and 5 scores on 39 carries, better than 10 yards a carry.
- But that paled compared to Garrett Shrader’s numbers. The ‘Shreder’ was 17 for 17 passing, (a number you’ll see in the record for book for a long time) for 238 yards and 2 TDs with no interceptions. His back-up, Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, (although it said Del-Rio Wilson on the back of his jersey because…. We are SU!), was 1 for 1 so we were 18 for 18 on the day. The SU record books says that Don McPherson holds the SU single game record for passing efficiency with a 379.1 rating against Colgate in 1987, (a game that was 42-0 at halftime and wound up 52-6). ESPN has Garrett’s “QBR” at 90.1, so obviously they are using a different system. Donnie Mac set the previous record for completion percentage, (minimum 10 throws) in that game with 10 for 11 for 244 yards and 4TDs, so that seems like a comparable performance. Dino Babers was happy that his receivers had no drops and that the line had given Garrett the protection for his throws.
- We out-gained Wagner 631-50, (not a misprint), and had 26 first downs to 4 and 59 points to 0. We held them to 31 yards rushing: 74 gained, 43 lost, (29 on sacks). Consider that our 1959 national championship team gave up 96 yards a game and 19 rushing yards. (We gained 451 yards per game, 313 rushing). Every game was against what was considered a major college team at that time. And on defense, every game looked like this, (and almost like this on offense).
- Duce Chestnut had a great pick 6, jumping the route and motoring down the sidelines.
- Dino had commented on his radio show that the big difference in these games is often in special teams. We had no big special teams plays but made no errors there. The big special teams stats: We kicked off 10 times to their once. They punted 9 times and we never did.
5-0 with 7+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
