Thoughts While Driving Home to Philly

[OrangePA]

For much of the game I thought I was watching a Greg Robinson Orange squad - no hitting, poor tackling, inept offense, stupid mistakes and easy TDs given up to the opponent.

The crowd was ready for the game - it was very loud in the beginning and by the time the fourth quarter came around the place was in fact the Loud House.

The Carrier Dome remains a great football facility - a really fun place - when the game the crowd is into the game. I think it will get better and better.

This team is really young - I think I counted at least 22 sophomores and freshman getting quality time. WF on the other hand was the more experienced team by a mile, and I think that had a lot to do with the flow of the game early on. I'm sure that not having guys like Holmes, Merk, Hogue and especially Derrell Smith - and all of the experience they brought to the table last year - impacted the defensive play last night - the lack of experience likely slowed down a group that has a lot of quickness to the ball. And I'm sure that affected the hitting and tackling.

I was really surprised by Shane Raupers - he was terrific.

I was hoping that with a second down and six at the WF eleven with 3 minutes to go, the Orange would go to the endzone - WF was on its heels and was ready to be defeated right there.

Was good to see the Fine Mess group - that has really become a nice SU Football tradition.

 

[SoBristol]

Are we actually "really young"?
Not on offense -- veterans everywhere, with Macky the only exception.
On defense, we are "young" at three spots -- DT (Bromley), Wil (Davis), and one CB. Goggins is a new starter, but by age, he must be a senior after a couple of years at JC and a redshirt last year. Spruill is a returning starter, and a junior by age. The LBs are inexperienced as a group -- I suspect it is more a talent issue than a youth issue.

There are a lot of true frosh and sophs on our coverage teams -- maybe more than average, but I suspect a lot of teams are playing their younger guys on coverage.

 

[JoeSU]

I was hoping that with a second down and six at the WF eleven with 3 minutes to go, the Orange would go to the endzone - WF was on its heels and was ready to be defeated right there.

Yea, it sure seemed that way at the time.

But to look at the opposing point of view, we were easily in FG range for a kicker who had hit his last 16 attempts, the Wake offense would have needed to mount a long drive with a shaky back-up QB, in a hostile environment, with only 2:00 to work with and no TOs left. In hind sight, a FG there would have won it in regulation. If Price was still in the game, taking a shot or 2 in the end zone would have made more sense.

 

[qdawgg]

That must have taken awhile to type into your phone while driving - great job, no major mistakes that I could see.

 

[OrangePA]

Are we actually "really young"?
Not on offense -- veterans everywhere, with Macky the only exception.
On defense, we are "young" at three spots -- DT (Bromley), Wil (Davis), and one CB. Goggins is a new starter, but by age, he must be a senior after a couple of years at JC and a redshirt last year. Spruill is a returning starter, and a junior by age. The LBs are inexperienced as a group -- I suspect it is more a talent issue than a youth issue.

There are a lot of true frosh and sophs on our coverage teams -- maybe more than average, but I suspect a lot of teams are playing their younger guys on coverage.

On defense the following played: (1) Reddish - frosh; (2) Anderson - soph; (3) Lynch - frosh; (4) Davis - frosh; (5) Wilkes - soph; (6) Bromley -soph; (7) Spruill - soph; (8) Crume - frosh; (9) Lyn - soph; (10) Goggins - first college game, et al.

Also: (1) Raupers - frosh or soph; (2) Rogers - soph; (3) Macky - soph; (4) West - frosh; (5) Gulley - soph; (6) Krautman - soph; (7) Kobena - frosh; (8) Jerome Smith et al;

We are very young.

 

[upperdeck]

another way to look at it is how many guys we had playing that have really one season or less of starting.. other than the DE and Safeties. the rest of the D has no more than 12 games of experience. 3 tackles two with no experience. LBs with no experience, DB's all over with very little prime time expeerience,. even with the oline back you had macky with not much. tiller has a yr, Hay has 1 yr, you had 2 snappers with no experience..