Then and Now

[SWC75]

Once again I decided to look at excerpts from my pre-season football preview and , four months later, comment on what I had right and what turned out to be wrong.

Then:

The staff may have been learning on the job but they did a fine job on the recruiting trail, securing a full class of commitments at the earliest date ever. They are already working toward the 2016 class. It’s a sign the program is on the rise. The reason we joined the ACC is because it meant more money and we’re using that to upgrade the facilities, (again). The future looks bright. People are anticipating the next “breakthrough season” when we again thrust Syracuse, NY into the football limelight….

Now we are in a conference division with a locked and loaded perennial national power, Florida State and another strong program in Clemson. I think Louisville has the potential to at least be at Clemson’s level. They will certainly be better than the school they replaced, Maryland. Several of the teams we played in the conference last year had suffered significant injuries to their offensive teams and we were able to beat NC State 24-10, Wake Forest 13-0 and Maryland 20-3. That saved us from what was going to be a disastrous season. We can’t depend on such good fortune this year. And there’s another division in this conference, one with Miami. You know they’ll come back just like Florida State did. They are in the right place and have the right history. If we ever found a way to win our division, they’d likely be waiting for us. I think this places a glass ceiling on what can accomplish that wasn’t there before. We may have another “breakthrough year” but it’s more likely to be 11-2 than 11-0.

And It’s not going to be this year. Not yet.

Now:

It sure wasn’t. The team got off to a stumbling start, then got crushed by the injury bug and we finished 3-9. Many fans were willing to give the coaching staff a pass because of the injuries but many were not, feeling that there was more wrong than that. The team never seemed very potent or efficient, even when healthy and the excessive conservatism in the decision making, (such as punting in the other team’s territory) was very frustrating to watch.

It was particularly frustrating to watch all of the top college games at the end of the season and see really dynamic offenses at work. Even Alabama and Texas Christian, who had been known for winning the old fashioned way with defense and the running game, were playing games with scores like 55-44 and 58-61. Meanwhile we were scoring 7-10 points a game, punting form the other team’s 30 yard line and “hoping for a turnover”. I’ve commented that football is undergoing the sort of transformation in our time that basketball did in the 1940’s: from 40-30 games to 80-70 games. Basketball coaches of the time had to adjust or lose their jobs. Our coach, who made his name as a defensive coordinator but who once was a quarterback, will have to adjust as well or his tenure here will be a failure. Either Tim Lester will have to be a revelation next year or we need to get someone who knows how to run a dynamic offense in here to be a coordinator, (probably either a positon coach at a high scoring FBS school or a coordinator at a high scoring FCS school), or we need to replace Shafer with one, (probably an FBS coordinator or an FCS head coach from a school that’s been lighting up the scoreboard). But we need to get away from punt and hope they turn it over football.

The conference proved to be stronger than last year, largely because all those injuries that crippled other teams hit un s instead. The ACC is an unforgiving conference for a team on Syracuse’s level. You need to be good to compete. When you fall back into mediocrity or worse, that will translate into losses.

In the meantime, the best thing that was happening with the Syracuse program- the increase from year to year in the talent level due to better recruiting classes- is threatened by this. Shafer demoted his offensive coordinator, George MacDonald, who was also his leading recruiter, with a specialty in bringing recruits from Florida, the place everyone goes to get the sort or speedy, athletic players that are needed to compete in a conference like the ACC. Will MacDonald, who came here to be a coordinator, now leave? Our offense didn’t get better after Tim Lester took over. Was the switch a mistake? How will the 3-9 record, in which our only wins were over FCS Villanova, an injury crippled Central Michigan team and Wake Forest, the only team in the ACC worse than we were, impact recruits decision? Finally, with all the discontent and resulting speculation over how long Shafer will be here and who might replace him, will that bring recruiting to a halt. That’s what happened with Paul Pasqualoni and Greg Robinson. It could certainly happen again. It’s vitally important that we prove next year that this year was an anomaly, not the beginning of a trend.

So we’ve gone from wondering when the breakthrough will take place to wondering where we are and where we are going.

 

[SWC75]

The Passing Game

Then:

Terrell Hunt will be our quarterback this year. Period. He was the heir apparent to Ryan Nassib last year, having been in the program for two years, (one a redshirt year), and out-competed the other quarterbacks we had on the roster. (I went on to tell the Drew Allen story.)

The next week a decision was made to start Hunt, rather than Allen against FCS opponent Wagner. It would have been a game for Allen to rack up some big stats, (we won 54-0), and get some confidence back. Instead, the staff had decided that Hunt’s development was more important. He had two more years of eligibility after this and Allen didn’t look like such an upgrade after all. Hunt ripped the Seahawks for 15/18, 265 yards and 3 scores with no picks while running for another 22 yards….

Hunt had another big game against Tulane, who was thought to be a bad team but wound up 7-6, (Northwestern shockingly wound up 5-7), going 16 for 21 for 181 yards and 4 scores, again with no interceptions. He also ran for 39 yards and a score in a 52-17 win. A star had been born, it seemed.

Then he hit the wall. In the next six games, he was 59 for 130 (45%) for 553 yards (92 a game), NO touchdowns and 7 interceptions. We somehow split those games, thanks to injuries that crippled, Wake Forest and Maryland’s offensives, (those teams weren’t all that good when healthy), and allowed our defense to shut them down. But the losses were horrendous- to Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State by a combined 17-164.

At the end of the season, things started making more sense for Terrell Hunt and he looked more confident and was more productive. Against Pitt and Boston College, he was 47 for 71 for 429 yards, 3TDs and 1 int. He ran for 103 yards on 25 carries and scored once. We split those games and got into the Texas bowl, where he was 19 for 29 for 188 yards. He didn’t throw a TD pass but didn’t throw an interception, either and ran for 74 yards and 2TDs, including the winning score to give us a final record of 7-6 after a very difficult season. His final stats: 167 of 273 (61%) for 1,638 yards but for only 10TDs in 12 games, with 8 interceptions. He ran for 610 yards and 7 TDs but lost 110 yards on sacks for a net 500.

He’s a big guy, too at 6-3, 234. He’s much more mobile than Allen. He’s not a track-star type quarterback but has a niftiness that allows him to pick his way through an open field. He looks to pass first but can take advantage of running opportunities when they are there. He doesn’t have a rifle arm but is accurate enough on short and medium passes when he’s not been put on the run by the defense of a national title contender. He seems like a good and vocal leader who has the confidence of his teammates and that can help a lot. What would help a lot more is an improvement in the receiving corps, (see below). He had very little to work with last season and badly needs some reliable and dynamic receivers to emerge. I agree with the notion that it might have helped if he’d been the starter from the beginning last year but that’s water under the bridge. He became a pretty good college quarterback by the end of the year and should be better this season. I could see him having a Nassib-like career: redshirt, doesn’t play much his first season, struggles his first year as a starter, begins to put some serious numbers up as a junior and explodes as a senior. This is Hunt’s junior year.

His back-ups are Austin Wlison, Mitch Kimble and AJ Long but the name to conjure with is freshman Alin Edouard from Florida who could be the “next big thing” here. But Hunt is “the man” here for the next two seasons.

Now:

Hunt got our season off to a bad start, getting ejected in the second quarter of the opener against Villanova for punching a guy who had tackled him. He came back from that to put up decent passing numbers, passing for 175, 219, 294, and 201 yards. He completed 57% of his passes in those games, which would have been good in the old days of throwing the ball down the field but was poor in the short passing game. He threw the ball behind his receivers, over their heads or on the ground in front of them so often he looked as if he needed glasses. The most telling stat was his touchdown to interception ratio: 1-4, in three full games and parts of two others. He greatly resembled RJ Anderson in 2002 or Andrew Robinson in 2008: quarterbacks who had been at least competent the year before but came out the next year and didn’t look like the same player.

One thing Hunt did do well was run the ball. He was huge, (6-3, 233) and nifty enough to pick his way through a field of blockers and tacklers. All he lacked as a runner was break-away speed. And we used him a lot because in these modern one back offenses, the only deception available to a team is to have the quarterback fake a handoff and run the ball himself. Terrel ran for 92 yards vs. Central Michigan and scored three times. He ran for 156 yards and scored twice against Maryland. But even a big quarterback takes a beating carrying the ball as much as 23 times in a game. That may have bene a factor in his inaccurate passing. And, although his injury came on a sack, running the ball so much might have been a factor in the eventual injury against Louisville that ended his season.

That turned it over to Austin Wilson, a guy who had the most powerful arm on the team and was also a big guy at 6-3 210. But unlike Hunt, he was no runner. And he also had accuracy problems, hitting 56% and never threw a TD pass, being intercepted four times. His season basically ended when he was sacked from behind and suffered a concussion. He came back briefly when AJ Long got hurt but never got back the #1 spot.

Long was a confident, talented buy in a rather small body for modern big-time football, generously listed at 6-0 184, (he might be 5-11 and 175 but I doubt it. He seemed to throw a soft, catchable pass. And he has some speed and elusiveness as a runner. He started against Florida State, the #1 team in the country and performed credibly, 16 for 27 for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns. Going into that game our punter, Riley Dixon was tied with Terrel Hunt for the season lead in touchdown passes with 1, 6 games into the year. In one game, Long had taken the lead. He later had a 302 yard passing game against Wake Forest. But then he developed some kind of nerve problem and lost feeling in his fingers. He sat out the Duke game and had a bye week. But after coming back, he was mediocre.

Mitch Kimble got a shot when Wilson replaced Long and was again injured. He could run the ball some and even scored a touchdown but was awful at throwing it. He eventually decided not to return to school next year, obviously feeling he couldn’t win a completion against Hunt, Wilson or Long. He’s looking to reenroll at an FCS school so he can play immediately next year. He’ll have to get a lot better at throwing the ball, even at that level.

I hear on the radio recently that the quarterback positon next year will be Hunt’s to lose. I think he has to regain it. What we saw last season will not give us the turn-around we desperately need. I think Wilson has potential because of that arm but he needs a lot of work and experience- and he needs to stay healthy for that. Long could someday be a good quarterback for us but he’s got to get stronger. Alain Edouard, who returned home for personal reasons, is supposed to be enrolling in January. His high school, film looks great, like he’s better than any of these guys. But it’s high school film. The next recruiting class has one quarterback in it, Eric Dungy but I highly doubt he’ll see any action next year. But off of this season, you never know.

Then:

Last year our leading receiver was Ashton Broyld, who, in 13 games, never scored. It was the first time in 40 years that SU’s leading receiver hadn’t scored. On that 1973 team, it was Bob Petchel, who caught 22 passes in 11 games for a team that wound up 2-9. It was Ben Schwartwalder’s last season. We lost our first 8 games and a national newspaper article declared SU to be “the worst team in the country”. Last year Broyld caught 52 passes in 13 games but still couldn’t score for a 7-6 team.

Ashton seems to be the classic “athlete without a position”. He came out of high school having led Rush-Henrietta of Rochester to the state title while looking like a Cam Newton clone as a quarterback. He’s a big dude at 6-3 216, (he must have slimmed down: I’ve seen him listed at 230), who was the biggest and fastest guy on the field in high school. And he could throw the ball. I thought maybe he might emerge as SU’s next QB after Nassib and we’d see if he looked like Cam Newton in college. Obviously, he isn’t. We used him as a running back in 2012 and he looked good in that role, (36 carries for 171 yards and an actual touchdown), but fumbled in a couple critical situations. That plus some immaturity he says he’s now put in the rear view mirror had him in Doug Marrone’s doghouse. Scott Shafter and George MacDonald put him in “the slot” where he served as a sort of extra tight end, (which is why he got only 452 yards, (8.7 a catch) on those 52 passes he caught and never found the end zone. This year, they tried putting him out on the flank to take better advantage of his speed but they’ve switched him back to the slot- and to his old role. I hope he scores this year.

Actually, he’s sharing the slot with a very different and, I think, a very special player. I first saw Brisley Estime, (“Esteem” seems to be the most popular pronunciation) in his You-Tube recruiting videos. I saw a water-sprite who zig-zagged all over the field and, when he got an opening, could burst through the defense like a laser beam. LSU’s Tyrone Mathieu was getting a lot of publicity as a great defensive back and return man for them. His nickname was “The Honey Badger”. I noted that Brisley was about the same size, (but a bit lighter) and actually had a better 40 yard time. I decide to dub him “The Salt Badger” and hoped he could do the things for us that the Honey Badger was doing for LSU- break up games with big plays.

I think Estime will gain plenty of esteem this year. I think SU will do everything It can to get the ball into his hands on passes, kicks, even the occasional running play, (he’s be great on the end-around). He has the type of talent that elevate this team to more than just another .500 season. The Salt Badger may roar in 2014!

Jarrod West was the #3 receiver behind Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales in 2012. He played last year like he was still the #3 receiver. He went from 43 catches in 13 games to 26 in 11 and scored once. He’s a big target at 6-3 but not very fast or dynamic.

Jeremiah Kobena came to SU with a reputation as the sort of speedster we needed. But catching the ball has been a problem. He caught 16 of 30 passes thrown to him last year for 206 yards and- of course- no scores last year. He’s not even on the three deep at any wide receiver spot going into this year. Nunesmagician.com says : “There aren't a ton of teams in the conference with this type of experience this far down the depth chart, and that should help SU out immensely. Whether it's tutoring younger players or playing an active role off the bench, Kobena has ample chances to help out in 2014”. That’s not what we had in mind when he showed up here.

For seemingly years no we’ve heard about how talented Adrian Fleming is. He’s tall, (6-4) with good hands and speed. The problem is the rest of his body. Something keeps breaking down. Injuries have limited him to 20 games, (mostly on special teams, waiting for Lemon and Sales to graduate), and 2 catches for 18 yards. He didn’t last one half before getting hurt and out for the season last year. He’s going to give is another try this year.

It was a big deal when Quinta Funderburk transferred here from Arkansas. He’s as big as West or Fleming, (6-4 201), and coming out of high school he was a four star recruits described this way on At their request, this network is being blocked from this site.: “A big, strong receiver that’s an acrobat in the air adjusting to the ball. Has terrific body control and boxes out smaller defensive backs like he’s going for a rebound. More than just a jump ball specialist though, Funderburk runs crisp routes and is capable of breaking a tackle and running over, around, and by potential tacklers. A tough receiver that will cut inside looking for extra yards instead of hunting for the sidelines .” He rated the #35 receiver prospect coming out of high school. But he couldn’t seem to get on the field last year for reasons that were never specifically stated. He got into four games, got thrown to five times and caught three of them for 28 yards and no scores. Whatever his problem(s) was/were, I hope their over.

People who have attended practices have had good things to say about Alvin Cornelius and Ben Lewis for a couple years now. They too, have good size, (6-1 and 6-2) and some speed. Cornelius caught 9 passes for 142 yards and a score last year. Lewis has 1 catch for 7 yards. Sean Avant “has the team’s best hair” per NunesMagician. Keenen Hale was injured in the spring game and is “buried on the depth chart”.

There was supposed to be a wave of new talent descending on the wide receivers positons from the freshman class. KJ Williams was the highest rated but his grades weren’t rated as high so he’s in prep school and has opened up his recruiting again. Corey Cooper got homesick and went home. He’ll be transferring somewhere closer to home, (North Carolina). Adly Enoicy is coming off surgery. Corey Winfield was moved to defensive back. The one freshman wide-out left that might make an impression is Steve Ismael, if he doesn’t redshirt. (And it appears he won’t as he’s risen to #2 in the depth chart).

Tight end Josh Parris got hurt in pre-season practice and had surgery. He’ll be out at least 3-4 weeks. He caught 13 balls for 90 yards and two scores, both against Boston College in the bowl-clinching game. Kendall Moore caught a TD pass in the northwestern game. Tyler Provo is the brother of Nick Provo, one of Nassib’s favorite targets. Jamal Custis is 6-6, 225, supposedly with 4.37 speed in the forty yard dash, (I’ll believe it when I see it). Deandre Smith, SU’s running backs coach said of him: “He is as good as I've ever seen a kid look as a freshman. Oh my goodness, he's unbelievable." He could be a wide-out or a tight end, and a difficult match-up for anybody covering him in either capacity.

It will be up to returning players to turn this unit around and give Hunt the sort of wide receivers he can thrive with. They are not without ability but their accomplishments so far have been limited. We need at least a couple of guys to bust out this year. I think Estime will be one of them. Who will be the other?

Now:

For the second straight year, our leading receiver never found the end zone. This year it was Jarrod West, who actually had a good year with 49 catches for 700 yards. But if your leading receiver isn’t getting into the end one, (now for two years in a row), then there’s something wrong with your scheme.

Broyld and Estime both had stillborn seasons due to injury. They combined for 25 catches, 314 yards and one score, (by Estime). Estime hurt his ankle in preseason drills and never had the speed or elusiveness that his game is all about. Broyld went down hard after a catch against Maryland and pounded the ground, knowing that he’s had a serious leg injury that basically ended his season, although he did play briefly later at Clemson. Neither player has come close to their potential at Syracuse, although Broyld’s problem is that they have never found a positon he’s comfortable with. Estime’s is that he’s not very big at 5-9, 172.

Kobena, Fleming, Funderburke, Cornelius and Avant combined for 20 catches for 175 yards. None of them scored. Funderburke had none- nada. He now has 3 catches in two years here. Ben Lewis looked impressive at times but had a couple of big drops as well. He was about our only receiver who could actually slip or break tackles and turn a bubble screen into a decent gain, (the play was a basis for the offense, at least at the start of the season. He had 24 catches for 275 yards and a score.

Steve Ismael gave us hope for the future, catching 27 passes for 415 yards and two scores. He looked like a genuine star in the making. Corey Winfield was shifted to defense. Custis was barley sued with 4 catches for 15 yards and Enoicy not at all.

Josh Parris got hurt and then came back. But he caught only 9 passes. Kendall Moore caught only 4 before he got a bad concussion and didn’t play again. Tyler Provo appeared in six games and never caught a pass. I wish we threw to our tight ends more. They can be big targets in a tight situation.

To be honest, with all the quarterback changes and the injuries to Broyld and Estime, we can’t really be sure what we have here. Having one offensive coordinator and one quarterback for the whole season might help. Ismael could be an emerging star. Custis combination of size and speed is interesting. And I want to see what a healthy Estime can do.

 

[SWC75]

The Running Game

Then:

Prince-Tyson Gulley isn’t big, (5-8, 193). He has some speed and some moves. He’s a veteran back capable of having some big games. In the Pinstripe Bowl vs. West Virginia, he ran for 213 yards and two long TDs and caught passes for 56 yards and another score. For his career, he’s gained 1,449 yards on 272 carries, (5.3) and 14 scores and caught 53 passes for 375 yards and 3TDs. Being the most experienced back, he’s probably the best blocker, something the fans ignore but coaches stress. And he’s become one of the leaders on the team and was elected one of four co-captains

Behind him George Morris and DeVante McFarland have shown obvious talent: good size, (both about 6 feet and 200 pounds), excellent speed and great instincts. Morris rushed for 334 yards and scored twice while McFarlane ran for 292 yards and a score but averaged 6.1 yards per carry. They are clearly the future of the position and will get a lot of touches this year.

Adonis Amin-Moore has a great name and a big body- too big. He was thought to be a major recruit. People thought he might start and star as a freshman but he ate his way out of job, blowing up to 5-11 and at least 260. He was used primarily in goal-line situation where his bulk might move the pile. He’s down to 246 this year and back in the mix at running back. He might make the kind of fullback I talk about each year but I promised I wasn’t going to get into that. And he hasn’t done enough to warrant such thinking, anyway.

A lot of people are talking about 5-11 179 speedster Ervin Phillips. It remains to be seen how much we’ll see of him this season with the people he has ahead of him but he’s a name to remember. Coach Shafer on his radio show called him “really explosive”. Maybe the fans will need helmets.

For years we were plagued by mediocre and then lousy offensive lines. Doug Marrone, a former All-East tackle, decided to change that and one characteristic of Syracuse in this decade is that we’ve had good offensive lines. Once you start having good lines you can get to a situation where 3-4 guys return each year who know what it takes and you can maintain that strength. We seem to be in that agreeable situation. We’ve got four returning starters, Sean Hickey, (named to the preseason All-ACC team), Ivan Foy, Rob Trudo and Nick Robinson. Robinson is nursing an injury to start the season and Omari Palmer, who seemed to be beating out Trudo, caused Rob to be moved to replace Robinson. It was thought that center Mackey McPherson would be replaced by Jason Emerich but he got beat out by John Miller. Hopefully, the rise of Palmer and Miller are due to their abilities, not due to weaknesses in Trudo or Emerich. I think it is and that we’ll have another fine offensive line. Hunt should have time to check down his receivers and throw to them against most opponents and the running backs should find holes waiting for them when they get to the line of scrimmage. That could not only lead to big plays but it means that our guys will having a running start when they get hit and will be more likely to “win” those collisions and gain extra yardage.

Now:

We should have had a strong running game, particularly with Hunt in there. Early on, we did. We rushed for 289 yards against Central Michigan and 370 against Maryland. But then we lost Hunt and our offensive linemen went down like wheat before a thresher. At one point we had no starters in the offensive line. We also played some of the better defenses in the country. Louisville wound up #3 in the country in rushing defense. Boston College was #4. Clemson was #7. It didn’t give us a chance to mount much of a rushing attack, at least not enough to win games.

Gulley had a solid year with 607 yards in 127 carries (4.8) but his only touchdown of the year came on a 65 yard burst in the first quarter of the opener against Villanova. Who, watching that play, would have thought that they’d seen his only score of the season? Ameen-Moore actually had a pretty good year with 337 yards in 62 carries, a 5.4 average that beat Gulley’s. But his only score came in the second quarter of that same Villanova game. And his most memorable play was a sweep from his own end zone that never got to the playing field against Louisville. People wondered why we were running a sweep from the end zone with a 234 pound back rather than someone faster.

We did have someone faster in freshman Erv Phillips who showed plenty of zip and good running instincts, although his stats weren’t spectacular at 42 carries for 192 yards and, of course 0 touchdowns. He became our leading kick-off returner with 25 for 476 yards but, again we couldn’t spring him for the big one. Meanwhile the highly promising DeVante McFarland and George Morris seemed to fade, although McFarlane had an 86 yard burst against Wake Forest that tire James Mungro’s strange record for the longest non-scoring run in SYU history, (vs. Kentucky in the ’99 Music City Bowl). MacFarlane never did score this season and in his other carries, he gained only 55 yards in 27 carries after getting 292 in 48 carries last year. Morris actually did somewhat better than that with 101 yards in 35 carries but that’s only 2.9 and he never scored, either.

The line will lose tackle Sean Hickey and center John miller so the line will need some rebuilding. The “
Hyphenated Backfield” of Prince-Tyson Gulley and Adonis Ameen-Moore, (ideal for an old fashioned HB-FB combo but of course we never used them together), will be gone. MacFarlane and Morris have to live up to their potential and Phillips needs to get the ball more.

Then:

George MacDonald has promised that his offense will rev it up this year. We are going to get off more plays and get the defense gassed. That’s what we did two years ago. But that requires an efficient passing game and tends to put the running game, which will probably be our real strength, into the background. But a dynamic passing game can also open things up for the running attack. Stay tuned.

Now:

We were tuned in but to the wrong station.

 

[SWC75]

DEFENSE

Then:

What we have now is 296 pound Eric Crume, a good one, Ryan Sloan, a bigger one at 320 and Wayne Williams, who finally qualified but may be too a bit too big at 330, as well as talented but under-sized isaiah Washington (276), Marcus Coleman (286) and Ron Thompson, a former highly-recruited tight end prospect, who is listed at only 255 pounds. There’s not much proven ability or depth there and it’s a big concern.

We are in better shape at end where Robert Welch (248) is our best lineman. Micah Robinson(270) is pretty good and Thompson will play there, as well. At least I like the name value. Marcus Coleman, Isaiah Johnson and Micah Robinson all sound like defensive linemen, don’t they? And I guess Johnson, Robinson and Thompson will be the “My Three Sons” of football.

But if you’ve got problems up front, you’ve got problems, period.

Now:

The Injury bug that bit the offensive line also hit the defensive line, but not as strongly. Crume and Williams battled injuries, Williams missing the last 7 games and Crume 2. Marcus Coleman also missed a game. But the unit held up well through the season. We were the 32nd ranked rushing defense in FBS, out of 125 teams. Crume, Micah Robinson and Robert Welch are all graduating. But Ron Thompson emerged as a star- quality lineman this year and should only get better. I also like Isaiah Johnson.

Then:

I’ve loved our linebackers the last few years and will love them again this year. Say the name Dyshawn Davis and I will always remember what he did to Rutgers as a freshman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XcYR_ky-c
He’s now a senior team leader. I’ll miss posting that highlight in next year’s preview.

Cameron Lynch of Georgia was one the early benefits of the announced switch to the ACC, (so was George Morris, who is from the same state). He always seems to be in the middle of every play. Marquez Hodge also showed a lot of good instincts as freshman last year. Josh Kirkland had a nose for the ball last year. Zaire Franklin was a top guy in our recruiting class. Luke Arciniega provides some much-need size at 240 pounds, (Davis is 221, Lynch 226, Hodge 216, Kirkland 201 and Franklin 215), and that is the one concern with this group, especially when undersized guys are manning the defensive line.

Now:

This was also a solid unit for us. Lynch had a tremendous year, leading the team with 97 tackles. 12 for a loss, including 7 sacks as well as a forced fumble and safety. Davis had 71 tackles, 6 for a loss and forced 3 fumbles. Both were seniors and will be hard to replace, as will Kirkland and Arciniega , who came here from junior college two years ago. Zaire Franklin as a freshman looked like a coming star. Marquez Hodge, who started as an undersized middle linebacker, could move outside.

Then:

We’ve been recruiting defensive backs like mad in recent years and converting offensive players back there. It’s obvious Shafer and his staff know that competing in the ACC is all about speed and you need it most in the defensive backfield, where they have to keep up with fast guys who know where they are going when the defender doesn’t. Free safety Durell Eskridge will be our best all-around defensive player. Darius Kelly will be the other safety. Brandon Reddish and Wayne Morgan are fast friends- they are friends and they are fast- from the New York City area who play cornerback for us. So does Julian Whigham, who may be better than either one but suffered a ghastly injury during Florida State when the scar tissue from a previous internal operation came loose and he vomited blood in the end zone. It made me wonder if he should be playing football at all but he’s back and is supposed to be healthy enough to play. He’s listed as a starter above Morgan. Those guys will be good- if they remain healthy.

Now:

Eskridge also battled injuries and didn’t have a great junior year. Nonetheless, he opted to declare for the draft so we’ll lose him along with Brandon Reddish, who had a tremendous year at cornerback, Darius Kelly and Ritchy Desir, both good safeties. Juliam Whigham, probably the weakest of the four starters will be the only open to return. But Wayne Morgan, who played only three games due to injury, will be back. Corey Winfield saw some action here after switching from offense. Freshman Antwan Cordy looked good in limited action. That recruiting will have to bear fruit. We have 7 D-backs listed as freshmen or sophomores on the roster and 4 more in the incoming class.

With Shafer and Bullough in charge, I’m not worried about the defense. We’ll be OK. It’s the offense that has to get much, much better.

 

[SWC75]

THE KICKING GAME

Then:

Ross Krautman appeared to be on his way to setting all kinds of kicking records here. As a freshman, he hit 16 field goals in a row and 18 of 19 overall, both tying SU records. But he was less steady 15 for 23 his second year and 1 for 2 last year until it was revealed he had a chronic hip injury. He announced just before this season that he was giving up his football career. Very sad. That leaves us with Ryan Norton, our kick-off man as our place-kicker. Last year, filling in for the injured Krautman he was 10 for 15. The coach said that he had the leg but not yet the timing. We’ll see if he has that timing down this season. Riley Dixon is an excellent punter, a rare one who can not only launch it when he has to but can place the ball, too, including coffin corner kicks.

For years our kick-off returns have tended to be interrupted very suddenly at the 20 yard line. Coach says he’s increased the number of linebackers on the roster from 8-9 to 13-14 to get better special teams coverage. Hopefully they can give us some good blocking as well. Meanwhile, our punt returners were raising their arms for a fair catch even before the punter’s foot made contact with the ball. Our kick returners were giving our struggling offense absolutely no help whatsoever. But now we have Brisley Estime, who will be returning punts and, from one report, may be returning kick-offs as well, (with Erv Phillips: they would make quite a combination). The more times we can get the ball in the Salt Badger’s hands, the more special this season will be.

Now:

Ryan Norton was quickly disposed of after missing three of 7 field goals. Cole Murphy was not automatic, (unlike Norton, he missed an extra point), but clearly better at 13 for 16, with two rom 50+. He’s a freshman so we should be in good shape for several years to come with the place-kicking.

Unfortunately, we have a history of teams in recent years whose MVP was probably the punter and his was one of them. Riley Dixon was a versatile punter who could boom it or place it. He also held for place-kicks and won the Villanova game with a fake field goal and pass for a score, (he’s our emergency quarterback and almost got pressed into service). He also ran 42 yards on another fake. However, the ACC had some exceptional punters this year and Riley, who became somewhat erratic down the stretch, was out-punted by several of them. Still, he finished second in the conference at 42.4. He’ll be back next year so our kicking should be very good again.

Brisley Estime never got a chance to do much due to his ankle injuries. Erv Phillips tried his best but we could never spring him on the kick-offs. Ritchy Desir took over the punt return duties, (which he had prior to Estime), but mostly fair caught the ball, (we retuned only 23 of 63 punts on the season). It’s very frustrating when we can’t give a struggling offense help with big plays on special teams. All those injuries didn’t help because when guys play in both scrimmage plays and special teams plays, as happens when you have a lot of injuries and you have to use your back-ups for those scrimmage plays. We not only didn’t score on any return but gave up three TDs on kick returns.

OVERALL:

Next year we’ll play the first three games in the Dome. The first two are against Rhode Island and central Michigan. We should win those. (We’d better!). The third is a likely loss against LSU. Then we go on the road to play a South Florida team that was 4-8 last year. That’s a good chance to go into conference play 3-1. There will probably be a bye somewhere in there. Having a bye after the first game and not again until after the 10th game was an issue this year and hopefully they will be better positioned next year. We will have to go on the road to play Louisville and Florida State. I don’t know who we will play in the other division. I think the goal will be to come into the conference 3-1 and at least earn a split in the conference. That will put us in a bowl game and hopefully we can win it. That will signal to recruits that 2014 was an anomaly and the talent level will continue to increase. I think if we get good luck with the injuries, he have a chance to do that. But there’s not a lot of room for error and the consequences of another failure could be dire. We can be a lot better than we were this year with the talent we’ve got and then we could recruit the talent we need to get a lot better than that. Or not.

 

[richard levy]

Once again I decided to look at excerpts from my pre-season football preview and , four months later, comment on what I had right and what turned out to be wrong.

Then:

The staff may have been learning on the job but they did a fine job on the recruiting trail, securing a full class of commitments at the earliest date ever. They are already working toward the 2016 class. It’s a sign the program is on the rise. The reason we joined the ACC is because it meant more money and we’re using that to upgrade the facilities, (again). The future looks bright. People are anticipating the next “breakthrough season” when we again thrust Syracuse, NY into the football limelight….

Now we are in a conference division with a locked and loaded perennial national power, Florida State and another strong program in Clemson. I think Louisville has the potential to at least be at Clemson’s level. They will certainly be better than the school they replaced, Maryland. Several of the teams we played in the conference last year had suffered significant injuries to their offensive teams and we were able to beat NC State 24-10, Wake Forest 13-0 and Maryland 20-3. That saved us from what was going to be a disastrous season. We can’t depend on such good fortune this year. And there’s another division in this conference, one with Miami. You know they’ll come back just like Florida State did. They are in the right place and have the right history. If we ever found a way to win our division, they’d likely be waiting for us. I think this places a glass ceiling on what can accomplish that wasn’t there before. We may have another “breakthrough year” but it’s more likely to be 11-2 than 11-0.

And It’s not going to be this year. Not yet.

Now:

It sure wasn’t. The team got off to a stumbling start, then got crushed by the injury bug and we finished 3-9. Many fans were willing to give the coaching staff a pass because of the injuries but many were not, feeling that there was more wrong than that. The team never seemed very potent or efficient, even when healthy and the excessive conservatism in the decision making, (such as punting in the other team’s territory) was very frustrating to watch.

It was particularly frustrating to watch all of the top college games at the end of the season and see really dynamic offenses at work. Even Alabama and Texas Christian, who had been known for winning the old fashioned way with defense and the running game, were playing games with scores like 55-44 and 58-61. Meanwhile we were scoring 7-10 points a game, punting form the other team’s 30 yard line and “hoping for a turnover”. I’ve commented that football is undergoing the sort of transformation in our time that basketball did in the 1940’s: from 40-30 games to 80-70 games. Basketball coaches of the time had to adjust or lose their jobs. Our coach, who made his name as a defensive coordinator but who once was a quarterback, will have to adjust as well or his tenure here will be a failure. Either Tim Lester will have to be a revelation next year or we need to get someone who knows how to run a dynamic offense in here to be a coordinator, (probably either a positon coach at a high scoring FBS school or a coordinator at a high scoring FCS school), or we need to replace Shafer with one, (probably an FBS coordinator or an FCS head coach from a school that’s been lighting up the scoreboard). But we need to get away from punt and hope they turn it over football.

The conference proved to be stronger than last year, largely because all those injuries that crippled other teams hit un s instead. The ACC is an unforgiving conference for a team on Syracuse’s level. You need to be good to compete. When you fall back into mediocrity or worse, that will translate into losses.

In the meantime, the best thing that was happening with the Syracuse program- the increase from year to year in the talent level due to better recruiting classes- is threatened by this. Shafer demoted his offensive coordinator, George MacDonald, who was also his leading recruiter, with a specialty in bringing recruits from Florida, the place everyone goes to get the sort or speedy, athletic players that are needed to compete in a conference like the ACC. Will MacDonald, who came here to be a coordinator, now leave? Our offense didn’t get better after Tim Lester took over. Was the switch a mistake? How will the 3-9 record, in which our only wins were over FCS Villanova, an injury crippled Central Michigan team and Wake Forest, the only team in the ACC worse than we were, impact recruits decision? Finally, with all the discontent and resulting speculation over how long Shafer will be here and who might replace him, will that bring recruiting to a halt. That’s what happened with Paul Pasqualoni and Greg Robinson. It could certainly happen again. It’s vitally important that we prove next year that this year was an anomaly, not the beginning of a trend.

So we’ve gone from wondering when the breakthrough will take place to wondering where we are and where we are going.

When i read people singling out other programs or players on other teams that are successful, and why don't we have that, it reminds me of watching golf on sunday afternoons. All you see are the 10-15 guys who are playing well, not the 100 other guys who are not playing well

 

[OrangeTarheel]

Good idea with the retrospective. We are losing so much on defense that I can't imagine what next year is going to look like. With all the injuries we had on both sides of the ball I would imagine we got some good experience for our young upcoming talent ... but it is harder for me to see on the defensive side (outside of Franklin) who gets counted in this category.

 

[chakka3421]

SWC75 - just some things on my part (talking to some of the players & coaches) - expect AB, Estime, Custis & Ishmael to be our leading receivers next year (assuming we don't get hit by the injury bug again) finally giving us enough decent WR weapons in a long long time to exploit D weaknesses based upon matchup problems and I'll go out on a limb to say that Ishmael will have the most yards, AB the most YPC after catching the ball, Estime the longest yards per catch and Custis will have the most TDs than all of them (expect to see a few exciting 1 handed catches in the corner of the end zone).

Secondly, I have more faith in Lester than most everyone on this Board. He's fortunately or unfortunately depending upon your viewpoint (is all SU will pay for next year - money is not available to pay anything more for anyone else) is the right guy at the right time with the right scheme given our current talent. I expect much better O performance but most likely a 7 win team next year - plus Hunt's "year in the box" - expect to see a different Hunt next year as he has watched & conversed with Lester on all the ACC defenses he will be facing next year.

My only question would be to figure out is if we will be facing all of the ranked ACC defenses next year or will they have lost a lot due to graduation?

Thanks for the now and then - Go Cuse!

 

[SWC75]

He's fortunately or unfortunately depending upon your viewpoint (is all SU will pay for next year - money is not available to pay anything more for anyone else) is the right guy at the right time with the right scheme given our current talent.

Where did all that ACC money go that was supposed to enable us to upgrade everything?

 

[chakka3421]

Where did all that ACC money go that was supposed to enable us to upgrade everything?

This. I think that the SUAD is on full accounting now like transfer pricing of scholarships, facilities, operations - no hiding of cost of operations including AD bonus for being #1 in national rank for all sports. The good doctor gets a huge bonus for that and if his bonus is based upon performance of all sports but not primary for football or bball, the 2 that drive the bus, more money will be allocated to our Olympic sports coaching comp at the expense mainly right now football coaching compensation. That's how whacked out SUAD overall goals have been during last decade under Cantor & Gross. You get what you pay for and that's what SU football has deserved in all reality.

I heard something like SUAD has to be revenue neutral which is code for a retrenchment in spending. It becomes important for the AD to focus more on donor relations which has been largely neglected up until now - the "ask" by staff has increased. Plus some back bills like the Melo center need paid first along with the new IPF - so budget is tight right now.

Here is my biggest beef is - either change the AD goals to allocate more money to your revenue programs or change the AD. It's really that simple.

 

[baggerbob]

SWC75 - just some things on my part (talking to some of the players & coaches) - expect AB, Estime, Custis & Ishmael to be our leading receivers next year (assuming we don't get hit by the injury bug again) finally giving us enough decent WR weapons in a long long time to exploit D weaknesses based upon matchup problems and I'll go out on a limb to say that Ishmael will have the most yards, AB the most YPC after catching the ball, Estime the longest yards per catch and Custis will have the most TDs than all of them (expect to see a few exciting 1 handed catches in the corner of the end zone).

Secondly, I have more faith in Lester than most everyone on this Board. He's fortunately or unfortunately depending upon your viewpoint (is all SU will pay for next year - money is not available to pay anything more for anyone else) is the right guy at the right time with the right scheme given our current talent. I expect much better O performance but most likely a 7 win team next year - plus Hunt's "year in the box" - expect to see a different Hunt next year as he has watched & conversed with Lester on all the ACC defenses he will be facing next year.

My only question would be to figure out is if we will be facing all of the ranked ACC defenses next year or will they have lost a lot due to graduation?

Thanks for the now and then - Go Cuse!

Really believe Enoicy, along with Custis are going to give whoever the QB is, 2 big targets, who can run over people, a big mismatch problem, for opposing teams.