OttoinGrotto
2023-24 Iggy Award Most 3 Pointers Made
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Given my posting history, lack of Marrone hero worship and general lack of approval in the past on many of the decisions our staff has made with the football program, I'm probably one of the last people expected to rally the troops in Marrone's support. It's about to happen though. Here goes...
I wasn't supposed to be able to watch the game yesterday due to family commitments. Those commitments got pushed back to later in the day. I stopped watching the games last season because I got tired of seeing the "kill clock and play for later" offensive philosophy. But, with a new season and some cautious optimism I decided to tune in.
For the first time in over a decade I saw an actual college offense in Syracuse. And not just any college offense, but one that potentially looks really good, one that is suited to the Dome and to our talent level. I saw an offense that took control of the defense, and I saw an offense that performed at an extremely high level without 3 of its 5 best players (Pugh, Lemon, Stevens). I could not have asked for any more. I stated before the season that I had low expectations for wins and mostly wanted to see some progress on offense to be content. Yesterday was a difficult loss to stomach, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
I have to hand it to Marrone and Hackett. I really did not believe that they would ever get it, but man, it sure looks to me like they figured it out. That offense is exactly what we need to be able to compete, and to be able to recruit. The Dome is conducive to playing fast and throwing the ball a lot. We played fast and threw the ball an absurd amount. We had an offense that was almost able to overcome all of their own mistakes, plus mistakes on defense, plus mistakes on specials. There isn't anybody in the Northeast running anything quite like what we saw yesterday. We've finally matched our unique stadium to a regionally unique offense. Recruits will see Marcus Sales haul in double figure passes and realize that could be them. They'll see Wales make a lot of catches out of the TE spot and realize that TEs that see the ball that much can't help but attract the attention of NFL scouts. They'll see that a team that plays that fast must have a capable line with guys in great shape, and any offense that moves the ball that well must have a solid line, and they can be a part of that solid line. They'll see that a team that plays that fast is going to need to cycle a lot of guys in to be successful (10 different players carried or caught a pass yesterday), so there's a lot of PT to be had and a lot of balls to go around. Quarterbacks will see that offense and envision themselves standing at the statistical peak of the conference, and dare I say, NCAA. Defensive players will see that offense and know that they're free to perform without having to carry a team.
In short, this new offense will pay enormous recruiting dividends. While people say that star rankings don't matter, the % of our classes made of three star recruits or better has improved each season under Marrone. I believe that trend will continue and will be heavily bolstered by our, wait for it, OFFENSIVE SYSTEM.
Yes, for the first time in forever we actually have an offensive identity not defined by vague things like "out tough" or "ball control." We are a no huddle, pass based offense. HELL YES. Let me run some numbers by you - 58, 62, 59, 66, 64, 74, 74, 60, 73, 79, 78, 67 for an average of 67.83. Does anybody know what that is? Those are the number of offensive plays we tallied per game last season, including OT periods. We ran 95 plays yesterday.
Let that sink in for a minute. 95 plays. 95! In regulation! That's Oregon territory my friends. We ran 27 more plays yesterday than we averaged last season. That is a 40% improvement. That is a balls out fantastic development. We even won in time of possession! We got off a crap ton of snaps and won TOP.
Two things really make me happy though. 1, the staff had excuses yesterday to not commit to this offense but they stuck with it. With their best OL, receiver and receiving TE out, the staff could have made the choice to try to grind it out again. People probably would have understood. Instead, they committed to what they're doing with the new offense, and lo and behold, it performed. Those three guys, we're going to get them back, and that's going to make the offense even better and even more dangerous. 2, the mentality changed. I know a lot of people were frustrated by the false start at the end of the first quarter. I can understand the frustration, but you're missing the big picture. The fact that we tried to get that play off indicates a major, much needed philosophical shift in our offense. We now value opportunities to make plays more than we value clock. Valuing clock didn't get us anywhere. Valuing opportunities to make plays will put points on the board.
I don't know what these developments mean for wins and losses this season. I see Go revised his prediction up. I may revise my prediction up as well, although it won't be as bold a thing to do because I only predicted 4 wins since I really did not believe our staff would adapt an honest to goodness kick ass college offense. I view the new developments on offense as being more big picture stuff that will pay off over time. Now is not the time to lose faith in the staff. I think there were some times last season where it might have been justified, but now of all times you should not be hopping off the bandwagon. We have a college team to route for now, not a team of players that happen to be in college that are trying to look like they're NFL. Let's support this and see it through.
That said, there are a couple of things that concern me going forward:
1. I don't think Smith or PTG are the answer going forward. I was disappointed that AAM and Morris didn't see the ball. I believe our best talent at running back is the youngest talent. Marrone has said in the past that if two players are pretty much tied performance wise, he'll play the younger one because their youth gives them a better chance to improve. Supposedly there wasn't much separation at RB this preseason. If that's true, let's see the young bucks.
2. We committed to this offense for one game. We need that commitment to last all season.
3. We finally have a punter that can blast the piss out of the ball. Fisher averaged 52 yards on his three punts. That tells me two things. One, we were punting from the right place on the field, and two, he can really boom it. Unfortunately, punt coverage was an absolute trainwreck. I saw people complaining about Fisher outkicking his coverage. That's nonsense. Fisher's kicks aren't the thing that need to change on the punting unit. Some people have mentioned that we may not have ideal personnel out there. Whatever it is, that badly needs to be fixed.
4. Our personnel and coverage on the last drive were extremely questionable. That was the wrong time to get conservative. A new QB in the 4th quarter that has to score a TD in a very loud venue? To me that feels like the right time to be creatively aggressive.
5. For a coach that's big on discipline and accountability, we don't really play disciplined and accountable. That needs to improve. Some of it will - the false starts and stuff don't really bother me. That's a consequence of what we're doing on offense now. I can live that. Some of the other stuff though... I don't understand why certain things aren't sinking in, 4 years into it. They hurt us on a regular basis. We should be able to fix that stuff, but we've been saying that for a long time now.
6. Glad to see they're letting Nassib run. I think he ran too much to be all that effective. Let's hope for a happy medium between last year where he wouldn't run at all and yesterday when he carried it more than anyone (really, he did. 12 carries for Nassib to 10 for Smith).
Anyway fellow Orange people, I am on the road to conversion. We've been an abused fan base for a long time. I can understand why some would feel that yesterday's loss was just another merciless punch to the gut. That's not what I'm taking away from yesterday though. I'm taking away the growth in our staff, new offensive identity, and hope for the future, not just in game performance but also for what our offense should mean to recruits. This is the time to believe.
I wasn't supposed to be able to watch the game yesterday due to family commitments. Those commitments got pushed back to later in the day. I stopped watching the games last season because I got tired of seeing the "kill clock and play for later" offensive philosophy. But, with a new season and some cautious optimism I decided to tune in.
For the first time in over a decade I saw an actual college offense in Syracuse. And not just any college offense, but one that potentially looks really good, one that is suited to the Dome and to our talent level. I saw an offense that took control of the defense, and I saw an offense that performed at an extremely high level without 3 of its 5 best players (Pugh, Lemon, Stevens). I could not have asked for any more. I stated before the season that I had low expectations for wins and mostly wanted to see some progress on offense to be content. Yesterday was a difficult loss to stomach, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
I have to hand it to Marrone and Hackett. I really did not believe that they would ever get it, but man, it sure looks to me like they figured it out. That offense is exactly what we need to be able to compete, and to be able to recruit. The Dome is conducive to playing fast and throwing the ball a lot. We played fast and threw the ball an absurd amount. We had an offense that was almost able to overcome all of their own mistakes, plus mistakes on defense, plus mistakes on specials. There isn't anybody in the Northeast running anything quite like what we saw yesterday. We've finally matched our unique stadium to a regionally unique offense. Recruits will see Marcus Sales haul in double figure passes and realize that could be them. They'll see Wales make a lot of catches out of the TE spot and realize that TEs that see the ball that much can't help but attract the attention of NFL scouts. They'll see that a team that plays that fast must have a capable line with guys in great shape, and any offense that moves the ball that well must have a solid line, and they can be a part of that solid line. They'll see that a team that plays that fast is going to need to cycle a lot of guys in to be successful (10 different players carried or caught a pass yesterday), so there's a lot of PT to be had and a lot of balls to go around. Quarterbacks will see that offense and envision themselves standing at the statistical peak of the conference, and dare I say, NCAA. Defensive players will see that offense and know that they're free to perform without having to carry a team.
In short, this new offense will pay enormous recruiting dividends. While people say that star rankings don't matter, the % of our classes made of three star recruits or better has improved each season under Marrone. I believe that trend will continue and will be heavily bolstered by our, wait for it, OFFENSIVE SYSTEM.
Yes, for the first time in forever we actually have an offensive identity not defined by vague things like "out tough" or "ball control." We are a no huddle, pass based offense. HELL YES. Let me run some numbers by you - 58, 62, 59, 66, 64, 74, 74, 60, 73, 79, 78, 67 for an average of 67.83. Does anybody know what that is? Those are the number of offensive plays we tallied per game last season, including OT periods. We ran 95 plays yesterday.
Let that sink in for a minute. 95 plays. 95! In regulation! That's Oregon territory my friends. We ran 27 more plays yesterday than we averaged last season. That is a 40% improvement. That is a balls out fantastic development. We even won in time of possession! We got off a crap ton of snaps and won TOP.
Two things really make me happy though. 1, the staff had excuses yesterday to not commit to this offense but they stuck with it. With their best OL, receiver and receiving TE out, the staff could have made the choice to try to grind it out again. People probably would have understood. Instead, they committed to what they're doing with the new offense, and lo and behold, it performed. Those three guys, we're going to get them back, and that's going to make the offense even better and even more dangerous. 2, the mentality changed. I know a lot of people were frustrated by the false start at the end of the first quarter. I can understand the frustration, but you're missing the big picture. The fact that we tried to get that play off indicates a major, much needed philosophical shift in our offense. We now value opportunities to make plays more than we value clock. Valuing clock didn't get us anywhere. Valuing opportunities to make plays will put points on the board.
I don't know what these developments mean for wins and losses this season. I see Go revised his prediction up. I may revise my prediction up as well, although it won't be as bold a thing to do because I only predicted 4 wins since I really did not believe our staff would adapt an honest to goodness kick ass college offense. I view the new developments on offense as being more big picture stuff that will pay off over time. Now is not the time to lose faith in the staff. I think there were some times last season where it might have been justified, but now of all times you should not be hopping off the bandwagon. We have a college team to route for now, not a team of players that happen to be in college that are trying to look like they're NFL. Let's support this and see it through.
That said, there are a couple of things that concern me going forward:
1. I don't think Smith or PTG are the answer going forward. I was disappointed that AAM and Morris didn't see the ball. I believe our best talent at running back is the youngest talent. Marrone has said in the past that if two players are pretty much tied performance wise, he'll play the younger one because their youth gives them a better chance to improve. Supposedly there wasn't much separation at RB this preseason. If that's true, let's see the young bucks.
2. We committed to this offense for one game. We need that commitment to last all season.
3. We finally have a punter that can blast the piss out of the ball. Fisher averaged 52 yards on his three punts. That tells me two things. One, we were punting from the right place on the field, and two, he can really boom it. Unfortunately, punt coverage was an absolute trainwreck. I saw people complaining about Fisher outkicking his coverage. That's nonsense. Fisher's kicks aren't the thing that need to change on the punting unit. Some people have mentioned that we may not have ideal personnel out there. Whatever it is, that badly needs to be fixed.
4. Our personnel and coverage on the last drive were extremely questionable. That was the wrong time to get conservative. A new QB in the 4th quarter that has to score a TD in a very loud venue? To me that feels like the right time to be creatively aggressive.
5. For a coach that's big on discipline and accountability, we don't really play disciplined and accountable. That needs to improve. Some of it will - the false starts and stuff don't really bother me. That's a consequence of what we're doing on offense now. I can live that. Some of the other stuff though... I don't understand why certain things aren't sinking in, 4 years into it. They hurt us on a regular basis. We should be able to fix that stuff, but we've been saying that for a long time now.
6. Glad to see they're letting Nassib run. I think he ran too much to be all that effective. Let's hope for a happy medium between last year where he wouldn't run at all and yesterday when he carried it more than anyone (really, he did. 12 carries for Nassib to 10 for Smith).
Anyway fellow Orange people, I am on the road to conversion. We've been an abused fan base for a long time. I can understand why some would feel that yesterday's loss was just another merciless punch to the gut. That's not what I'm taking away from yesterday though. I'm taking away the growth in our staff, new offensive identity, and hope for the future, not just in game performance but also for what our offense should mean to recruits. This is the time to believe.
