SWC75
Bored Historian
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This is my annual look back at comments I made about SU’s football team in my annual preview, (which I posted September 1st). “Then” is what I said back then. “Now” is what I am saying now.
Then: I opened my preview with a quotation about the Greek myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun in his wax wings and fell to his death. I was thinking that we had such focus on the third game of the season, the home game against Clemson against whom we’d performed so well the previous couple of years – better than anyone else, including Alabama- that I feared we’d find out the hard way that we aren’t really a rival for the Tigers and a one-sided loss in such an anticipated game could get every- players, coaches, fans, feeling so down that we wouldn’t take advantage of our opportunity to still have a terrific, maybe an historically great season, if we win the games after that:
“Now comes the much longed-for lightening up of the non-conference schedule. We aren’t playing Notre Dame or LSU. Instead it’s an opener at Liberty, who recently jumped up from FCS, another road game with Maryland, coming off a scandal and player rebellion and home dates with Western Michigan, who we handled in their own place last year and Holy Cross our old punching bag from the 60’s, who is still in FCS. Clemson, the big game of the year, is in the Dome. It will be the most anticipated game in years, with the retirement of Tim Green’s #72 and the possibility that ESPN’s College Gameday will finally be in Syracuse, something that had previously been a football pipe dream. The rest of the division is in various stages of rebuilding. NC State lost its star quarterback to the NFL. Florida State and Louisville will come back but it won’t happen immediately. We’ve got Pitt, BC and Wake Forest at home. Duke is our other cross-over and they were 8-5 last year but have lost some key players. It is, at least, a schedule we can sink our teeth into. If we can get to 3-0, meaning another upset of Clemson, anything is possible, even running the table. We’d be favored to beat the coastal champs for the ACC tile and get into the playoff. I think the chances of that happening are probably in single digits but the fact that such a season is even on our radar is a sea change from the 2002-2017 period…
The important thing this season isn’t to have a dream year, although that is possible. The important thing in this and every year will be to continue the momentum: get to a bowl game and get out on the recruiting trail and bring in more talent. I think this team will peak not this year but in a year or two when Babers has a team of his own recruits and the key players are all juniors and seniors and he has the depth he really wants…. Most dream seasons never materialize. What if this one doesn’t? Will we be crushed if we lose to Maryland? What if Clemson spoils the big show- in a big way? How will we react? The teams I mentioned above overcame those disappointments to move on to other triumphs. If we, (the fans and the players- I don’t worry about the coaches. They are the ultimate realists), get too focused on the possibility of a “dream season”, it could send us in the other direction if our wings suddenly melt. North Carolina had an 11-3 season in 2015, giving Clemson all they could handle in the ACC title game. They went to 8-5 the next year, then 3-9, then 2-9 and their coach got fired. I don’t expect that here but it shows how things can turn sour quickly. Dream seasons are nice but we’ve to remember that the real goal is to have another good season and then go out and get the recruits that will keep us having good teams and increase the likelihood of someday having a great one. “
Now: We were crushed by Maryland, a team that only won a single game- against Rutgers- after that. That spoiled the party against Clemson, who pulled away to win by another big score. We beat up on the non-conference teams but bad offensive starts cost us games against NC State, Pitt and Florida State. Then a horrible second quarter against Boston College caused Dino Babers to fire his long-time defensive coordinator. We’d gone from dreaming of knocking off Clemson again and maybe winding up in the playoff to a possibility we could make the Orange Bowl to just hoping we could make a bowl. A shocking demolition of Duke on the road raised hopes but another defensive collapse against Louisville sealed our fate. The final game, in the Dome against Wake Forest, was dismissed as “meaningless” by local media and most of the fans but turned out to be one of greatest games ever in the Dome. It wasn’t meaningless to the coaches, players and the die-hards who created a lot of noise in the stands that day. It still should have been a loss but Trill Williams made a play people will remember for years to clinch the win.
But that win still left us at 5-7 with no bowl. Was that enough to maintain recruiting momentum? We’ll see but that certainly was not the goal this year.
Then: I quoted my 2017 preview:
“More importantly, from Syracuse’ perspective, having three national title contenders and a bunch of southern teams in our divisions puts us at quite a disadvantage. In this division a good Syracuse team will have a fair record at best. A mediocre Syracuse team will have a poor record and a bad Syracuse team will get pounded into the turf. Even if Babers can somehow return Syracuse to the talent level we had in under Coach Mac and Coach P, I think the very best they could do in this situation is 9-3 or maybe 10-2. There will be no 11-0 breakthrough season. Much more likely is that our ceiling will be what it was in the three winning seasons we’ve had in this decade: 8-5, 8-5, 7-6. A team that is less than our best will have records like the ones we are having now. If things go really sour, it will be worse than that. This puts me back in 70’s mode, feeling that our glory years are past and occasional escapes from mediocrity are the best we can hope for. I hope again to be proven wrong.”
After winning 10 games in 2018, I decided that assessment was unduly pessimistic. But I still felt that optimism had to be mixed with realism:
“But I don’t see this great new era as involving a streak of winning seasons. The ACC Atlantic is down right now but they proved in previous years that they could challenge the SEC West and the Big 10 East for the title of the strongest football conference in America. Not only are Clemson and Florida State capable of winning national championships but everybody else can be tough, as we’ve experienced. It’s a tougher row to hoe than Ben or Mac ever had. I think we are entering an era when a very good Syracuse team will win 9-10 games, a good Syracuse team will win 7-8 games. A mediocre Syracuse team will win 5-6 games if they don’t’ have a lot of injuries. We’re going to be a respected program and occasionally more than that. We aren’t going to be Clemson or Alabama, at least not every year.”
Now: A mediocre Syracuse team won 5 games. We are back to being a program capable of producing 10 win seasons but we are not a program capable of guaranteeing a winning season, (and these days, a bowl game) every years. We’re going to have to build up to those 10 win seasons, just like Louisville and NC State and everyone we are really competing against, (behind Clemson and when they get their act back together, Florida State). Mediocrity in this conference will get us nothing.
Then: “We had a lot of success last year but I don’t feel that we were a Dino Babers team yet. His previous quarterbacks tended not to run the ball much, as these stats will show and when he came he announced that he didn’t like running quarterbacks as they get injured too often. But Eric Dungey was easily the best quarterback on his roster and Dungey’s game was a mix of running and passing….Well he’s gone now and in his place is Tommy DeVito, a much superior passer who is unlikely to be the running threat Dungey was, even though Tommy is nearly as big (6-2 212 vs. 6-4 226) and is said to be faster of foot than Dungey. Tommy is more likely to scramble to make a first down or to give a receiver a chance to get open for a pass than Dungey, who liked to bowl people over, (or jump over them). He was recruited by Babers to run the offense he likes, with the quarterback dissecting the defense from the pocket and leaving the running to the running backs. I think Tommy is going to totally re-write the SU record book. The gold standard for SU is currently Ryan Nassib’s 2012 season where he completed 294 passes, (of 471: 62.4%), for 3,749 yards and 26 touchdowns, (with 10 interceptions), all school records.”
Now: Tommy wound up 213/337 (63.2%) for 2,360 yards and 19TD with 5 interceptions. Ryan Nassib’s records are intact but you’d have to say that Tommy had a good year, considering that we had trouble protecting him all season. We suffered 50 sacks for 297 yards. Not all of those were against Tommy but most were. The stats show him with 274 lost rushing yards and Clayton Welch had 36. That’s 310 lost yards and Tommy had 88% of that. Tommy rushed for 396 positive yards, most of them in the second half of the season after the coaching staff asked him to use his legs more. Tommy showed good straight ahead speed when things were wide open. He’s not a natural scrambler and he doesn’t throw well on the run but if he can just stick a dagger into the defense with a planned run from time to time, we can get some big plays. He had trouble sensing a rush and knowing when and how to throw the ball away. But this year was a learning experience and there were many ‘teachable moments’.
I made a reference to looking at what Dino’s quarterbacks did in their first two years starting in his system at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green. AT EUI in 2012, Jimmy Garoppolo had 331 completions for 3,823 yards, (61.3%). He had 31TD passes and 15 interceptions. That’s his junior year and it was closer to what Nassib did here the same year. in 2011 Jimmy, under their previous coach, Bob Spoo, was 217/349 (62.2%) for 2,644 with 20TDs and 14 int. That’s closer to what DeVito did this year and both were their sophomore years. In his final year, Jimmy broke the machine: 375/568 for 5,050 yards and 53TDs and 9 int. At Bowling Green, Matt Johnson the year before Dino, (under none other than Dave Clawson, the Wake Forest coach), was 237/369 (64.2%) for 3,467 yards 25TDs and 7 picks, a bit better than Tommy did this year. Matt was injured in 2014’s opener but came back the next year to go 383/569 (67.3%) for 4,946 yards 46TDs and 8 interceptions. Hopefully Tommy is headed for a senior year like Jimmy’s and Matt’s, with a junior year that is a step up from this year.
Then: “When Sean Riley came here, I was not impressed. He was a water-sprite type with some moves but without much size or great speed. He was replacing one of my favorite players, Brisley Estime, “The Salt Badger”, who was short but strong with exceptional moves and speed who had just led the country in punt returns. In his first couple of years, Riley did little to change my impression. He returned 101 kicks but never broke one and caught 19 passes at 12 yards a catch, not scoring by that route, either. But last year, he seemed like a different player. He averaged 16.4 yards a punt return and scored on one. He caught 64 passes for 756 yards and 3 scores. He had speed to go with his moves and was physically stronger so he could break tackles or even block people. He also was a gunner on the punt unit. He was all football player and now he’s another one of my favorite players. “
Now: Sean went back to not being one of my favorite players this year. He caught 36 balls for just 275 yards and 1 score. He returned 15 punts for 139 yards, (9.3), and 15 kickoffs for 237 yards (15.8) and had more fumbles (1) than touchdowns (0). He also let too many kicks he could have fielded bounce past him. He seemed to have lost his nerve, or at least his confidence. He just didn’t play with the verve he did in 2018.
Then: I copied a section from my 2018 preview describing the the young pass receiving talent we had on the team, including Russell Thompson-Bishop (6-1 223) who had led Connecticut HS basketball in blocked shots with 4.6 per game, Cameron Jordan (6-3 216), who, as a high school senior had averaged 27.9 yards per catch, Taj Harris, (6-2 175), who alternated between receiver and quarterback in high school, Ed Hendrix (6-3 208), the highest rated WR recruit who had averaged 22.4 yards per catch in his high school career, Anthony Queeley (6-2 197), a recruit from Florida who had caught 150 passes in his last two HS seasons and Cooper Lutz, (6-0, 205), a converted running back who had run for 55TDs in HS. Then there was Trishton Jackson (6-1 191), a former four star recruit who had transferred in from Michigan State.
“The guy who emerged from this group, (in 2018), was Harris, who by the end of the year was arguably our best receiver. He had great hands and could run with the ball after the catch. He just seemed to have good instincts for the position. He would up with 40 catches for 565 yards and 3TDs and left people believing he could do a lot more.”
I also mentioned a couple of new recruits: Courtney Jackson, (5-1 171) and Kevin Mital (6-2-210). “Nunesmagician: “Jackson’s an impressive athlete, playing both on both offense and defense in football, while also playing basketball. That sort of experience will be put to the test soon on the field, as he seems an heir apparent to the slot receiver position….. If he’s even, he’s leavin’. And he can see the whole field and knows what seams to hit.” Mital has “got size at 6-2, 210 and was “Division I Offensive Player of the Year, logging a division-record 17 touchdowns and 1,058 yards… He seems like a very physical player, one who could grow into a tight end, a linebacker or defensive end. Yet he clearly has good speed and pass catching skills.“
Now: Harris put up about the same numbers this year: 37 catches for 559 yards and 2TDs. But that was not progress. I thought he would have a break-out year and put up maybe twice those numbers. Not only was his statistical output disappointing but he showed signs of immaturity, pouting and having tantrums when he didn’t get the throw or was pulled out of games. And he got knocked around by physical defenders, leading many fans to wish we had a bigger and stronger receivers who could fight for catches. It seemed to me that we had a roster full of them, (see above). But Thompson-Bishop, Jordan, Hendrix, Queeley, Lutz and Mital totaled 3 catches for 20 yards, all by Jordan. (Hendrix was hurt and for the second year in a row missed the entire season while Mital red-shirted. The other guys suited up for games but were never used).
Triston Jackson emerged as our ace receiver and had a fine year with 66 catches for 1,023 yards and 11 TDs. He showed all the qualities you’d like to see: speed, strength, smarts, toughness, etc. but he didn’t rise to the level of previous aces Amba Etta-Tawo (94r/1,482y/14TD) or Steve Ismael (105r/1,347y/7TD). Maybe next year. I just think this group is going to explode at some point and DeVito’s numbers will “break the machine” as a result.
Then: I wasn’t much impressed with our tight end group, which had a total of 6 catches the year before, 1 by Gabe Horan, who had to give up the sport and another by Chris Elmore, who was a lead blocker more than a pass catcher. The other four were by Aaron Hackett, a back-up TE the previous year.
Now: I was completely wrong about our tight ends and Dino’s willingness to use them. Hackett had 23 catches for 205 yards and 6 scores. The much more heralded Ravian Pierce had had only 16/105/3 the previous year. Hackett, (6-3 234), was a prime weapon around the goal line. His back-up Luke Benson, was a prime threat from anywhere. At 6-3 210, he was more like a wide receiver and had been a track star in high school. He had only 8 catches but gained 176 yards on them, (22 a pop) and scored 3 times. How they graded out as blockers I don’t know but as pass catchers they are the best tight ends we’ve had in years. Outside of T. Jackson, they were more productive than our wide-outs and slots. I hope to see much more and bigger numbers from them in future years, (Hackett will be a senior next seasons, Benson a sophomore). Tommy DeVito will have plenty of interesting targets to throw two the next two years.
Then: “The first couple years of Dino Baber’s tenure here we had no conventional running game to speak of. Dontae Strickland and Moe Neal ran seemingly the same draw play over and over again, right into the waiting arms of the defense. But they improved and the line in front of them improved and last year they both performed well. Strickland, who had averaged 3.6 yards per carry his first three years, carried the ball 121 times for 588 yards, (4.9) and 6TDs and Neal, whom Babers had once criticized for “having a high school body” really emerged as a quality tailback with 869 yards in 155 carries, (5.6) and 5TDs. Of course it helped that Eric Dungey rushed for 754 yards and 15 scores. How we replace that will be a huge question this year. Strickland is also gone but Neal returns for what should be a big senior year. He started out as a speedster but has become a fully rounded and versatile running back. We haven’t had a 1,000 yard rusher in 7 years but he could be it.”
Now: He wasn’t but it wasn’t his fault. Running behind an inept offensive line, he rushed for 450 yards on 113 carries, (4.0), in the first 9 games. When the line was re-organized, he was able to run for 396 yards on 57 carries in the last three games (6.9). Someone commented that he was “three yards up the middle back”. In fact he averaged 5.3 yards per carry as a freshman, 5.3 as a sophomore, 5.6 as a junior and 5.0 as a senior. He never got to 1,000 yards in a season but had 859 and 846 in his last two seasons. Originally he seemed a slightly built, fast but basically straight ahead runner. But as he filled out, he developed some power and in his last game had one of the great runs I’ve seen: he took a pass running to the right sideline, pulled up, ran back toward the center of the field, then turned again to run to the right sideline and outran several defenders to gain the first down. It wouldn’t shock me to see him playing on Sunday.
Then: “So could Abdul Adams, a transfer from Oklahoma who got to play in the bowl game against West Virginia and scored twice. Adams’ numbers at Oklahoma were nothing short of fabulous. In two years at Oklahoma he carried the ball 112 times for 825 yards, (7.4 per carry)…. He and Neal will probably alternate at the running back position this season and make quite a duo.
Jarveon Howard, who came here from Mississippi…(In his high school highlight film), He showed everything you’d want to see in a running back: power, moves, vision, a nice change of pace stutter-step, and explosive burst and the ability to put defenders in the rear view mirror. He was used mostly as a goal line and short yardage back as a freshman but managed to squirt free on some runs. Unlike his high school tape, he could never get away from those pesky college defensive backs who are just a bit faster than those high school kids. But he gained 315 yards at 4.6 per pop, including a 52 yarder and scored 7 times.”
Now: Adams started out alternating with Neal and had the same problems with the lack of a strong line in front of him. His carries were reduced as the season progressed and Howard, initially used only in goal line or short yardage situations, started getting his carries. Adams didn’t play at all in the final game and was said to be injured. They wound up with similar numbers: Adams 87c 336y (3.9) 3TDs, Howard 76c 337y (4.4) 3TDs. Howard had a huge game against Duke with 115 yards in 9 carries and a TD. Adams never ran for more than 56 yards in a game. With Neal gone, they will be the incumbents for the running back rotation. But they have some new completion.
Then: “And here comes Jawhar Jordan, not a big guy at 5-9 167, (but neither was Joe Morris). Jordan is said by the people who have seen him that he’s got the best combination of speed and moves of anybody on the team.”
Now: Late in the season Jordan got into the limit of four games, gaining 105 yards in 15 carries (7.0). he ran like greased lightning. He added a level of excitement to the game just by being in it. Something big could happen on every play. And he wasn’t just a watersprite. Despite his size he knocked over some tacklers. He looked like a football player. A very quick one. We can look forward to these three operating behind an improved line for 12 games next year.
Then: Here is what I said about the offensive line: “This is the one unit of the team that raises the most concern but it’s not because it’s likely to be a weakness. We lost three starters and are having to shuffle players around and have once again brought in a grad transfer to shore up the unit. It doesn’t mean they won be an asset to the team. The players cross-train at multiple positions to give Babers versatility. A unit of Servais back at center surrounded by Adams or Heckel and Dakota Davis and then Vettorello and Alexander could be a strong one.”
Now: Nope. Vettorello and Alexander were both disasters at tackle. Heckel was hurt in the opener and never returned. Servias, despite his previous experience at center, was not as effective, perhaps because he’d lost 20 pounds from last season. It would be a good idea for me to lose 20 pounds from last season but it was not such a good idea for him. I don’t know Evan Adams grade for the season because I didn’t watch him on every play, (I’ve always though issuing grades for players who don’t have their own statistics would be a good idea: credit and blame needs to be properly assessed and anonymity doesn’t really protect them). But I recall some plays were the 6-6 352 Adams was somehow “blown up” by a defensive lineman and shoved back into the developing play. Dakota Davis was a somewhat cocky young lineman starting for the first time. He got schooled early but was receiving praise by the end of the year. His un-related backup Pat Davis seemed to perform well. An unusual position switch of Serviais and Vettorello seemed somehow to work. Alexander never did seem to understand our offense. it may have been significant that he was a grad transfer from South Alabama while last year’s grad transfer tackle, Koda Martin , was from Texas A&M and was used to a higher level of completion. Alexander was demoted in favor of true freshman Matthew Bergeron, a confident, aggressive guy from Canada who seemed to make an immediate difference. Alexander then left the team.
Next year, with Servias and Vettorello in their proper positions and Bergeron and the Davises being the probable starters, we should be able to look forward to some solid line-play, although depth is still needed.
Then: I opened my preview with a quotation about the Greek myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun in his wax wings and fell to his death. I was thinking that we had such focus on the third game of the season, the home game against Clemson against whom we’d performed so well the previous couple of years – better than anyone else, including Alabama- that I feared we’d find out the hard way that we aren’t really a rival for the Tigers and a one-sided loss in such an anticipated game could get every- players, coaches, fans, feeling so down that we wouldn’t take advantage of our opportunity to still have a terrific, maybe an historically great season, if we win the games after that:
“Now comes the much longed-for lightening up of the non-conference schedule. We aren’t playing Notre Dame or LSU. Instead it’s an opener at Liberty, who recently jumped up from FCS, another road game with Maryland, coming off a scandal and player rebellion and home dates with Western Michigan, who we handled in their own place last year and Holy Cross our old punching bag from the 60’s, who is still in FCS. Clemson, the big game of the year, is in the Dome. It will be the most anticipated game in years, with the retirement of Tim Green’s #72 and the possibility that ESPN’s College Gameday will finally be in Syracuse, something that had previously been a football pipe dream. The rest of the division is in various stages of rebuilding. NC State lost its star quarterback to the NFL. Florida State and Louisville will come back but it won’t happen immediately. We’ve got Pitt, BC and Wake Forest at home. Duke is our other cross-over and they were 8-5 last year but have lost some key players. It is, at least, a schedule we can sink our teeth into. If we can get to 3-0, meaning another upset of Clemson, anything is possible, even running the table. We’d be favored to beat the coastal champs for the ACC tile and get into the playoff. I think the chances of that happening are probably in single digits but the fact that such a season is even on our radar is a sea change from the 2002-2017 period…
The important thing this season isn’t to have a dream year, although that is possible. The important thing in this and every year will be to continue the momentum: get to a bowl game and get out on the recruiting trail and bring in more talent. I think this team will peak not this year but in a year or two when Babers has a team of his own recruits and the key players are all juniors and seniors and he has the depth he really wants…. Most dream seasons never materialize. What if this one doesn’t? Will we be crushed if we lose to Maryland? What if Clemson spoils the big show- in a big way? How will we react? The teams I mentioned above overcame those disappointments to move on to other triumphs. If we, (the fans and the players- I don’t worry about the coaches. They are the ultimate realists), get too focused on the possibility of a “dream season”, it could send us in the other direction if our wings suddenly melt. North Carolina had an 11-3 season in 2015, giving Clemson all they could handle in the ACC title game. They went to 8-5 the next year, then 3-9, then 2-9 and their coach got fired. I don’t expect that here but it shows how things can turn sour quickly. Dream seasons are nice but we’ve to remember that the real goal is to have another good season and then go out and get the recruits that will keep us having good teams and increase the likelihood of someday having a great one. “
Now: We were crushed by Maryland, a team that only won a single game- against Rutgers- after that. That spoiled the party against Clemson, who pulled away to win by another big score. We beat up on the non-conference teams but bad offensive starts cost us games against NC State, Pitt and Florida State. Then a horrible second quarter against Boston College caused Dino Babers to fire his long-time defensive coordinator. We’d gone from dreaming of knocking off Clemson again and maybe winding up in the playoff to a possibility we could make the Orange Bowl to just hoping we could make a bowl. A shocking demolition of Duke on the road raised hopes but another defensive collapse against Louisville sealed our fate. The final game, in the Dome against Wake Forest, was dismissed as “meaningless” by local media and most of the fans but turned out to be one of greatest games ever in the Dome. It wasn’t meaningless to the coaches, players and the die-hards who created a lot of noise in the stands that day. It still should have been a loss but Trill Williams made a play people will remember for years to clinch the win.
But that win still left us at 5-7 with no bowl. Was that enough to maintain recruiting momentum? We’ll see but that certainly was not the goal this year.
Then: I quoted my 2017 preview:
“More importantly, from Syracuse’ perspective, having three national title contenders and a bunch of southern teams in our divisions puts us at quite a disadvantage. In this division a good Syracuse team will have a fair record at best. A mediocre Syracuse team will have a poor record and a bad Syracuse team will get pounded into the turf. Even if Babers can somehow return Syracuse to the talent level we had in under Coach Mac and Coach P, I think the very best they could do in this situation is 9-3 or maybe 10-2. There will be no 11-0 breakthrough season. Much more likely is that our ceiling will be what it was in the three winning seasons we’ve had in this decade: 8-5, 8-5, 7-6. A team that is less than our best will have records like the ones we are having now. If things go really sour, it will be worse than that. This puts me back in 70’s mode, feeling that our glory years are past and occasional escapes from mediocrity are the best we can hope for. I hope again to be proven wrong.”
After winning 10 games in 2018, I decided that assessment was unduly pessimistic. But I still felt that optimism had to be mixed with realism:
“But I don’t see this great new era as involving a streak of winning seasons. The ACC Atlantic is down right now but they proved in previous years that they could challenge the SEC West and the Big 10 East for the title of the strongest football conference in America. Not only are Clemson and Florida State capable of winning national championships but everybody else can be tough, as we’ve experienced. It’s a tougher row to hoe than Ben or Mac ever had. I think we are entering an era when a very good Syracuse team will win 9-10 games, a good Syracuse team will win 7-8 games. A mediocre Syracuse team will win 5-6 games if they don’t’ have a lot of injuries. We’re going to be a respected program and occasionally more than that. We aren’t going to be Clemson or Alabama, at least not every year.”
Now: A mediocre Syracuse team won 5 games. We are back to being a program capable of producing 10 win seasons but we are not a program capable of guaranteeing a winning season, (and these days, a bowl game) every years. We’re going to have to build up to those 10 win seasons, just like Louisville and NC State and everyone we are really competing against, (behind Clemson and when they get their act back together, Florida State). Mediocrity in this conference will get us nothing.
Then: “We had a lot of success last year but I don’t feel that we were a Dino Babers team yet. His previous quarterbacks tended not to run the ball much, as these stats will show and when he came he announced that he didn’t like running quarterbacks as they get injured too often. But Eric Dungey was easily the best quarterback on his roster and Dungey’s game was a mix of running and passing….Well he’s gone now and in his place is Tommy DeVito, a much superior passer who is unlikely to be the running threat Dungey was, even though Tommy is nearly as big (6-2 212 vs. 6-4 226) and is said to be faster of foot than Dungey. Tommy is more likely to scramble to make a first down or to give a receiver a chance to get open for a pass than Dungey, who liked to bowl people over, (or jump over them). He was recruited by Babers to run the offense he likes, with the quarterback dissecting the defense from the pocket and leaving the running to the running backs. I think Tommy is going to totally re-write the SU record book. The gold standard for SU is currently Ryan Nassib’s 2012 season where he completed 294 passes, (of 471: 62.4%), for 3,749 yards and 26 touchdowns, (with 10 interceptions), all school records.”
Now: Tommy wound up 213/337 (63.2%) for 2,360 yards and 19TD with 5 interceptions. Ryan Nassib’s records are intact but you’d have to say that Tommy had a good year, considering that we had trouble protecting him all season. We suffered 50 sacks for 297 yards. Not all of those were against Tommy but most were. The stats show him with 274 lost rushing yards and Clayton Welch had 36. That’s 310 lost yards and Tommy had 88% of that. Tommy rushed for 396 positive yards, most of them in the second half of the season after the coaching staff asked him to use his legs more. Tommy showed good straight ahead speed when things were wide open. He’s not a natural scrambler and he doesn’t throw well on the run but if he can just stick a dagger into the defense with a planned run from time to time, we can get some big plays. He had trouble sensing a rush and knowing when and how to throw the ball away. But this year was a learning experience and there were many ‘teachable moments’.
I made a reference to looking at what Dino’s quarterbacks did in their first two years starting in his system at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green. AT EUI in 2012, Jimmy Garoppolo had 331 completions for 3,823 yards, (61.3%). He had 31TD passes and 15 interceptions. That’s his junior year and it was closer to what Nassib did here the same year. in 2011 Jimmy, under their previous coach, Bob Spoo, was 217/349 (62.2%) for 2,644 with 20TDs and 14 int. That’s closer to what DeVito did this year and both were their sophomore years. In his final year, Jimmy broke the machine: 375/568 for 5,050 yards and 53TDs and 9 int. At Bowling Green, Matt Johnson the year before Dino, (under none other than Dave Clawson, the Wake Forest coach), was 237/369 (64.2%) for 3,467 yards 25TDs and 7 picks, a bit better than Tommy did this year. Matt was injured in 2014’s opener but came back the next year to go 383/569 (67.3%) for 4,946 yards 46TDs and 8 interceptions. Hopefully Tommy is headed for a senior year like Jimmy’s and Matt’s, with a junior year that is a step up from this year.
Then: “When Sean Riley came here, I was not impressed. He was a water-sprite type with some moves but without much size or great speed. He was replacing one of my favorite players, Brisley Estime, “The Salt Badger”, who was short but strong with exceptional moves and speed who had just led the country in punt returns. In his first couple of years, Riley did little to change my impression. He returned 101 kicks but never broke one and caught 19 passes at 12 yards a catch, not scoring by that route, either. But last year, he seemed like a different player. He averaged 16.4 yards a punt return and scored on one. He caught 64 passes for 756 yards and 3 scores. He had speed to go with his moves and was physically stronger so he could break tackles or even block people. He also was a gunner on the punt unit. He was all football player and now he’s another one of my favorite players. “
Now: Sean went back to not being one of my favorite players this year. He caught 36 balls for just 275 yards and 1 score. He returned 15 punts for 139 yards, (9.3), and 15 kickoffs for 237 yards (15.8) and had more fumbles (1) than touchdowns (0). He also let too many kicks he could have fielded bounce past him. He seemed to have lost his nerve, or at least his confidence. He just didn’t play with the verve he did in 2018.
Then: I copied a section from my 2018 preview describing the the young pass receiving talent we had on the team, including Russell Thompson-Bishop (6-1 223) who had led Connecticut HS basketball in blocked shots with 4.6 per game, Cameron Jordan (6-3 216), who, as a high school senior had averaged 27.9 yards per catch, Taj Harris, (6-2 175), who alternated between receiver and quarterback in high school, Ed Hendrix (6-3 208), the highest rated WR recruit who had averaged 22.4 yards per catch in his high school career, Anthony Queeley (6-2 197), a recruit from Florida who had caught 150 passes in his last two HS seasons and Cooper Lutz, (6-0, 205), a converted running back who had run for 55TDs in HS. Then there was Trishton Jackson (6-1 191), a former four star recruit who had transferred in from Michigan State.
“The guy who emerged from this group, (in 2018), was Harris, who by the end of the year was arguably our best receiver. He had great hands and could run with the ball after the catch. He just seemed to have good instincts for the position. He would up with 40 catches for 565 yards and 3TDs and left people believing he could do a lot more.”
I also mentioned a couple of new recruits: Courtney Jackson, (5-1 171) and Kevin Mital (6-2-210). “Nunesmagician: “Jackson’s an impressive athlete, playing both on both offense and defense in football, while also playing basketball. That sort of experience will be put to the test soon on the field, as he seems an heir apparent to the slot receiver position….. If he’s even, he’s leavin’. And he can see the whole field and knows what seams to hit.” Mital has “got size at 6-2, 210 and was “Division I Offensive Player of the Year, logging a division-record 17 touchdowns and 1,058 yards… He seems like a very physical player, one who could grow into a tight end, a linebacker or defensive end. Yet he clearly has good speed and pass catching skills.“
Now: Harris put up about the same numbers this year: 37 catches for 559 yards and 2TDs. But that was not progress. I thought he would have a break-out year and put up maybe twice those numbers. Not only was his statistical output disappointing but he showed signs of immaturity, pouting and having tantrums when he didn’t get the throw or was pulled out of games. And he got knocked around by physical defenders, leading many fans to wish we had a bigger and stronger receivers who could fight for catches. It seemed to me that we had a roster full of them, (see above). But Thompson-Bishop, Jordan, Hendrix, Queeley, Lutz and Mital totaled 3 catches for 20 yards, all by Jordan. (Hendrix was hurt and for the second year in a row missed the entire season while Mital red-shirted. The other guys suited up for games but were never used).
Triston Jackson emerged as our ace receiver and had a fine year with 66 catches for 1,023 yards and 11 TDs. He showed all the qualities you’d like to see: speed, strength, smarts, toughness, etc. but he didn’t rise to the level of previous aces Amba Etta-Tawo (94r/1,482y/14TD) or Steve Ismael (105r/1,347y/7TD). Maybe next year. I just think this group is going to explode at some point and DeVito’s numbers will “break the machine” as a result.
Then: I wasn’t much impressed with our tight end group, which had a total of 6 catches the year before, 1 by Gabe Horan, who had to give up the sport and another by Chris Elmore, who was a lead blocker more than a pass catcher. The other four were by Aaron Hackett, a back-up TE the previous year.
Now: I was completely wrong about our tight ends and Dino’s willingness to use them. Hackett had 23 catches for 205 yards and 6 scores. The much more heralded Ravian Pierce had had only 16/105/3 the previous year. Hackett, (6-3 234), was a prime weapon around the goal line. His back-up Luke Benson, was a prime threat from anywhere. At 6-3 210, he was more like a wide receiver and had been a track star in high school. He had only 8 catches but gained 176 yards on them, (22 a pop) and scored 3 times. How they graded out as blockers I don’t know but as pass catchers they are the best tight ends we’ve had in years. Outside of T. Jackson, they were more productive than our wide-outs and slots. I hope to see much more and bigger numbers from them in future years, (Hackett will be a senior next seasons, Benson a sophomore). Tommy DeVito will have plenty of interesting targets to throw two the next two years.
Then: “The first couple years of Dino Baber’s tenure here we had no conventional running game to speak of. Dontae Strickland and Moe Neal ran seemingly the same draw play over and over again, right into the waiting arms of the defense. But they improved and the line in front of them improved and last year they both performed well. Strickland, who had averaged 3.6 yards per carry his first three years, carried the ball 121 times for 588 yards, (4.9) and 6TDs and Neal, whom Babers had once criticized for “having a high school body” really emerged as a quality tailback with 869 yards in 155 carries, (5.6) and 5TDs. Of course it helped that Eric Dungey rushed for 754 yards and 15 scores. How we replace that will be a huge question this year. Strickland is also gone but Neal returns for what should be a big senior year. He started out as a speedster but has become a fully rounded and versatile running back. We haven’t had a 1,000 yard rusher in 7 years but he could be it.”
Now: He wasn’t but it wasn’t his fault. Running behind an inept offensive line, he rushed for 450 yards on 113 carries, (4.0), in the first 9 games. When the line was re-organized, he was able to run for 396 yards on 57 carries in the last three games (6.9). Someone commented that he was “three yards up the middle back”. In fact he averaged 5.3 yards per carry as a freshman, 5.3 as a sophomore, 5.6 as a junior and 5.0 as a senior. He never got to 1,000 yards in a season but had 859 and 846 in his last two seasons. Originally he seemed a slightly built, fast but basically straight ahead runner. But as he filled out, he developed some power and in his last game had one of the great runs I’ve seen: he took a pass running to the right sideline, pulled up, ran back toward the center of the field, then turned again to run to the right sideline and outran several defenders to gain the first down. It wouldn’t shock me to see him playing on Sunday.
Then: “So could Abdul Adams, a transfer from Oklahoma who got to play in the bowl game against West Virginia and scored twice. Adams’ numbers at Oklahoma were nothing short of fabulous. In two years at Oklahoma he carried the ball 112 times for 825 yards, (7.4 per carry)…. He and Neal will probably alternate at the running back position this season and make quite a duo.
Jarveon Howard, who came here from Mississippi…(In his high school highlight film), He showed everything you’d want to see in a running back: power, moves, vision, a nice change of pace stutter-step, and explosive burst and the ability to put defenders in the rear view mirror. He was used mostly as a goal line and short yardage back as a freshman but managed to squirt free on some runs. Unlike his high school tape, he could never get away from those pesky college defensive backs who are just a bit faster than those high school kids. But he gained 315 yards at 4.6 per pop, including a 52 yarder and scored 7 times.”
Now: Adams started out alternating with Neal and had the same problems with the lack of a strong line in front of him. His carries were reduced as the season progressed and Howard, initially used only in goal line or short yardage situations, started getting his carries. Adams didn’t play at all in the final game and was said to be injured. They wound up with similar numbers: Adams 87c 336y (3.9) 3TDs, Howard 76c 337y (4.4) 3TDs. Howard had a huge game against Duke with 115 yards in 9 carries and a TD. Adams never ran for more than 56 yards in a game. With Neal gone, they will be the incumbents for the running back rotation. But they have some new completion.
Then: “And here comes Jawhar Jordan, not a big guy at 5-9 167, (but neither was Joe Morris). Jordan is said by the people who have seen him that he’s got the best combination of speed and moves of anybody on the team.”
Now: Late in the season Jordan got into the limit of four games, gaining 105 yards in 15 carries (7.0). he ran like greased lightning. He added a level of excitement to the game just by being in it. Something big could happen on every play. And he wasn’t just a watersprite. Despite his size he knocked over some tacklers. He looked like a football player. A very quick one. We can look forward to these three operating behind an improved line for 12 games next year.
Then: Here is what I said about the offensive line: “This is the one unit of the team that raises the most concern but it’s not because it’s likely to be a weakness. We lost three starters and are having to shuffle players around and have once again brought in a grad transfer to shore up the unit. It doesn’t mean they won be an asset to the team. The players cross-train at multiple positions to give Babers versatility. A unit of Servais back at center surrounded by Adams or Heckel and Dakota Davis and then Vettorello and Alexander could be a strong one.”
Now: Nope. Vettorello and Alexander were both disasters at tackle. Heckel was hurt in the opener and never returned. Servias, despite his previous experience at center, was not as effective, perhaps because he’d lost 20 pounds from last season. It would be a good idea for me to lose 20 pounds from last season but it was not such a good idea for him. I don’t know Evan Adams grade for the season because I didn’t watch him on every play, (I’ve always though issuing grades for players who don’t have their own statistics would be a good idea: credit and blame needs to be properly assessed and anonymity doesn’t really protect them). But I recall some plays were the 6-6 352 Adams was somehow “blown up” by a defensive lineman and shoved back into the developing play. Dakota Davis was a somewhat cocky young lineman starting for the first time. He got schooled early but was receiving praise by the end of the year. His un-related backup Pat Davis seemed to perform well. An unusual position switch of Serviais and Vettorello seemed somehow to work. Alexander never did seem to understand our offense. it may have been significant that he was a grad transfer from South Alabama while last year’s grad transfer tackle, Koda Martin , was from Texas A&M and was used to a higher level of completion. Alexander was demoted in favor of true freshman Matthew Bergeron, a confident, aggressive guy from Canada who seemed to make an immediate difference. Alexander then left the team.
Next year, with Servias and Vettorello in their proper positions and Bergeron and the Davises being the probable starters, we should be able to look forward to some solid line-play, although depth is still needed.
