Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3564, member: 289"] Van Chew’s colleague at starting wide receiver will be Alec Lemon. Chew is skinny 6-1 175 and quick but is surprisingly strong, (he can bench press over 400 pounds). Lemon is a big receiver at 6-2 202 and was good enough to catch 103 passes for 1616 yards and 23 TDS as a high school senior. He hasn’t been that spectacular at Syracuse but has put together a solid career despite battling injuries. In two years he has 61 catches for 692 yards and 5 scores. He’s considered a “possession” receiver, despite some memorable drops. But it will be interesting to see what he can do with two years of experience behind him and fully healthy. But the best receiver in the fall camp was Jarrod West, whom Marrone managed to get away from Stanford at the last moment and was thought to be a potentially big factor last year until he broke a bone in his foot just before the season began. He’s healthy now and could turn out to be the surprise star of the year. He’s another big receiver, 6-2 204 and can catch over the middle or go deep. Sophomore Adrian Flemming, at 6-3 196 is another and “showed flashes” last year, to use a favorite G-Rob term. Freshmen Keenan Hale (6-3 185) and Kyle Foster (6-2 205) are in the same mold and impressed in camp. Nassib will have plenty of tall targets to throw to. But Marrone wants a real burner in the mix. The fastest guy on the team and the best athlete is Dorian Graham, a 4.3 man in the 40, is somewhat smaller than the others at 5-10 185. He was switched from the defensive backfield last year after all the injuries but never actually caught a pass in a game. Many of us wondered if he couldn’t do the team more good on the other side of the line of scrimmage but the coaches love his speed and his downfield blocking, (which is probably the most under-rated thing in football: blocking by a wide receiver can make the difference between a 10 yard gain and a 50 yard gain). And in the spring game, they were running a play with more than two wide-outs where Graham stayed in the flat and caught an easy pass behind the wide-out on that side who went deep. It worked for a couple of pretty good gains so we may see some of that this year. Graham was an explosive kick-returner. We just need to find ways of getting him the ball. Another speedster is freshman Jeremiah Kobena, (5-11 174), who looked like a laser beam in the spring game. I thought he looked even faster than Graham. But he’s had a series of drops in practice that puts him in the same boat as Graham. Marrone likes to throw to tight ends and he has a good one in Nick Provo, who caught 33 balls last year. Nick has the reputation of a pass-catching rather than a blocking tight end but he’s built himself up to 6-4 250 and may be a pro prospect. There’s talk of him catching 50 passes this year. His back-ups are Becket Wales, who seems to have a lot of potential and David Stevens, a surprising discovery- a guy who was thought to just be a blocker but has been found to have very good hands, (maybe he could lend them to Graham or Kobena). But maybe the real key to an offense is the line. It might be the most important unit of any team. If they can dominate the line of scrimmage, your team can dominate the game. If they get dominated, the other team is going to have the ball most of the time and with a great advantage in field position. (We found that out last year against Pittsburgh, Louisville, Connecticut and Boston College.) We haven’t had a really good offensive line in years, which is a big reason why, despite our constant attempts to run the ball in the Pasqualoni/Deleone era, we were never one of the most productive running teams. The last really good O-line we had was the group that was recruited after the Cherry Bowl. That moved in and basically took over the line in 1987. They were a huge reason for our turn-around from 5-6 to 11-0 that year. They graduated after Coach Mac’s last year and all of them were drafted or signed as free agents by pro teams. We’ve had four offensive linemen drafted by the NFL and twelve signed as free agents in the two decades since. Doug Marrone was an All-East offensive tackle and I’m sure he’s making it his business to see that his team has a quality offensive line. He has a fine coach, Greg Atkins, with considerable experience in the SEC at Georgia and Tennessee but I imagine Marrone is taking a special interest in his work, (and he’s having to fill in for him while Atkins is dealing with some health problems). They’ve almost had to start from scratch from the disaster of the G-Rob era where the linemen were heavy, (320 pounds+ from tackle to tackle but with much of that spilling over their belts). Andrew Tiller came in from junior college at 6-6 and 380. They’ve got him down to 334 and he’s said to have quick feet for such a big man. I’m hoping he’ll make it big so we can give him the nickname he was born to have: “Roto”. But Justin Pugh 6-6 292 is probably our best guy. Michael Hay 6-5 283 could be good if he controls his temper. Zach Chibane (6-5 293) is said to have pro potential. All started last year. The big question is at center. Ryan Bartholomew, a former guard, started at center and was a hell of blocker but somehow couldn’t snap the ball backwards unless the quarterback was under him. It eliminated the shotgun and wildcat from our offense. Late in the season, Marrone started inserting Mackey MacPherson, Dick’s grandson, into the line-up because he could snap the ball back the necessary 10 feet, (or whatever it is). Mackey was originally considered just a long snapper for kicks, (and maybe just a favor to Dick). Seeing him in for a regular offensive play was a surprise. He’s listed as 6-2 269 but those who have stood next to him estimate he’s more like 5-11 255. A few years ago that would have been fine but Bartholomew was 6-2 298 and weight room warrior, (the strongest O-linemen at the NFL combine). When Mackey was in not only did the other team know that we were going to the shotgun or wildcat but It seemed to me that the blocking scheme was geared to help Mackey out, with an emphasis to the inside. There was no penetration up the middle at all. But the edge rushers had an open lane to the quarterback. Now Mackey is going to be the starter. There are statements from camp that he’s a “great technician” and is “smart and has quick feet and is an accomplished shotgun snapper”. An offensive line is as strong as it’s weakest link. Let’s hope Mackey isn’t a weak link. There’s depth here but the injury bug really hit the reserves, including two concussions, (those practices must really be something), so there’s some unexpected uncertainty here. With all the losses on defense and uncertain punting situation, the offense may have to carry this team. But even if they are improved, last year this team was the 76th best rushing team, the 91st best passing team, the 97th best total offensive team and the 93rd best scoring team in the country. They could be a lot better and still be nothing special. Meanwhile the conference is thinking offense with Dana Holgerson, the offensive coordinator for Texas Tech, Houston and last year Oklahoma State taking over at West Virginia and Todd Graham, whose Tulsa teams set records the new head man at Pittsburgh. It will take a lot for our offense to give us an advantage over our opponents this year. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?