What was it like in the Heyday

[44cuse]

The Dome got stale, Coach P rested on his laurels, the rise of RU and UConn, Mike Vick spurning us for VTech, Grob was the nail. A bad hire really derails a program.

You are forgetting Deleone. If you're talking the demise of SU Football, he has to be in the equation. Of yeah...and "Get a life." He's not much better.

44cuse

 

[baggerbob]

The night Troy Nunes trotted out to start against Toledo was the beginning of the end. I remember being so incredulous that Syracuse was sending out a guy that looked like The Great Kazoo to play QB. I was expecting Madei Williams and the continuation of out athletic QB dominating our opponents.

Yes, I had absolutely taken our success for granted. I think at some point we were one of only a handful of teams with greater than 10 consecutive winning seasons. I mean, we were a fixture in the preseason polls, even when we lost a lot of guys to graduation.

We weren't Miami or Florida state, but we were the equivalent to say a current day Michigan State. It's amazing how far we've fallen, for so long.

Our run from 1956-1967 wasn't bad either, Jim's last year, and Larry's last year, then things went downhill from there. Then 19 years as an also ran, 1987-1998 we're back, then we went downhill again. Its time for the next great era to begin. This time lets get it right, and make it continue for a long time.

 

[Jake]

You are forgetting Deleone. If you're talking the demise of SU Football, he has to be in the equation. Of yeah...and "Get a life." He's not much better. 44cuse

Bullshit. He was our OC from 87-96. You know...the heyday of the program.

Did he not change and evolve with the game...probably. But he built the offense that we rode to success.

 

[javadoc]

Bullshit. He was our OC from 87-96. You know...the heyday of the program.

Did he not change and evolve with the game...probably. But he built the offense that we rode to success.

This needs to be emphasized.

In the 1980's, we had a national brand in hoops and football. Hoops had the Carrier Dome and the 2-3 zone. Plus the early days of the Big East, and the incredible coaches in the league.

Starting in 1987, we became known for our freeze-option offense in football. Deleone was widely regarded as an innovator and top-notch OC. I'll harp on it again, in the 1992 game against #1 Miami, we were getting killed by the Miami D-line, and the announcer on TV said that the only thing he could think of was to line up in a very non-standard, almost academic mad-scientist formation on the OL. And we came out of halftime in that formation. Chills.

Even in those years, we would typically lose a What game each year. So I was never comfortable or confident. But we had ground-breaking QB's and NFL talent on display.

 

[Millhouse]

Bullshit. He was our OC from 87-96. You know...the heyday of the program.

Did he not change and evolve with the game...probably. But he built the offense that we rode to success.

where does he rank among defensive coordinators?

it's still hilarious to me. let's hope dungey plays four years and lets hope tim lester isn't his coordinator senior year.

even during the heyday, we do a bunch of stupid . other schools have offensive coordinators be offensive coordinators. but not us!

now we see other schools using wide receivers as wide receivers. but not us!

 

[donniesyracuse]

Hoops had the Carrier Dome and the 2-3 zone.

I don't recall the 2-3 zone being the team's signature defense until the early 2000s.

 

[nycfan]

Can the old timers give us new bucks a little insight as to what the vibe was like in the heyday of syracuse football. Specifically what it was like in the late 80's early 90's when we had this thing rolling. Did you ever think it would come to an end? Did you ever take it for granted? What was it like when every year we were spoken about like potential conference champs? We just seem so damn far removed from the last of our glory days, the Graves and Mcnabb years, when I first became a fan, that you start to forget what it was like to good

A lot of good feedback on here already. The only 2 things I'll add:

1) not only was the team so good, but the offense was so much fun to watch during the McNabb era that I would drive up for just about every game from NYC as I had season tix all through the Mac and Pasqualoni years.

2) since you asked if we ever took it for granted---during that era a bowl game was always a given--the only question was whether it would be a BCS bowl. Since it was an every year thing, the trips started getting expensive to do year after year--so I started cutting back to only trips to BCS Bowls. And I did take two really nice trips thanks to Donovan & company---Fiesta for Kansas State and the Orange Bowl for Florida. (btw I have since broadened my rules to attend all Cuse bowl appearances in NYC...)

 

[OrangeDW]

Can the old timers give us new bucks a little insight as to what the vibe was like in the heyday of syracuse football. Specifically what it was like in the late 80's early 90's when we had this thing rolling. Did you ever think it would come to an end? Did you ever take it for granted? What was it like when every year we were spoken about like potential conference champs? We just seem so damn far removed from the last of our glory days, the Graves and Mcnabb years, when I first became a fan, that you start to forget what it was like to good

I remember talking college football with my uncle(not a huge college football guy, but obviously had a much wider perspective on things than me) I believe after the 96 season, and he said something like "Syracuse is good right now but I don't think they'll ever get to the perennial powerhouse Notre Dame level. I think they'll always be the type of program that has stretches of good years and stretches of bad years." I scoffed that we were already better than Notre Dame, and thought of Notre Dame as a stale, boring former powerhouse whose best days were in the past, and assumed we would keep progressing as we had speed and athletes everywhere, the most exciting QB in college football, and a team that had destroyed every opponent for like 2 months straight the previous year and looked to be even better the coming year. I thought it would keep on rolling(the NC state loss the next year would shake my faith in P, and the 99-00 years would destroy it), and now I just hope he was correct on that "good stretches" thing coming back around.

 

[Ozcuse]

People were on Internet forums starting in the early/mid 90s. Where were you guys?

a/s/l ?

 

[OrangeDW]

 

[djorange1989]

Honestly? At the time it was incredibly frustrating. We had SOOOO much talent but would inevitably run into an even more loaded Miami (or similar program) and then blow a game against an inferior team. Honestly i think the best "team" we had was prob 1992.

Totally agree that 1992 team was loaded

 

[djorange1989]

Oh man thank you. 1991 Florida was a game I could never find. Wow did we smoke them, from the opening kickoff onward.

 

[wooddoc]

The game was different, "back then." By back then, I mean I can remember what things were like in the late 50s - early 60s. The first SU game I ever went to was at Archbold, against Miami, in '65 - not a good day for the Orangemen. I can remember the cold concrete stands and the walk back to my father's car. Syracuse lost, but as a first timer, it was something you just don't forget. I'm not that much a student of the game, but back then, it was more about football than going to an overpriced circus. Hard to explain the environment, really, but it just seemed more like a workingman's game, and beers were probably a quarter. Csonka and Little were in the backfield and Rick Cassata played QB. He went to Canada to play, and I can't remember if he played any NFL - don't think so. It was different - athletes were different - the crowd was different... Sitting on that concrete on a cool fall day, out in the open... that was different.

 

[OrangeDW]

Oh man thank you. 1991 Florida was a game I could never find. Wow did we smoke them, from the opening kickoff onward.

This and Michigan '98 were ones that I would occasionally check for and never find. Florida '91 finally showed up, though not in great quality. But I'll take it. Still waiting on Michigan to show up.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Still waiting on Michigan to show up.

 

[mvorange]

There was a minor bowl win or two, and then the Penn State game happened. Somehow, Mac had recruited guys who could really play. Who was it? Donnie Mac? Who passed to some freshman named Rob Moore who took it to the house and the rout was on. Mac never looked back.

This was one of the best games that I've attended. I had seats in nose bleed country just outside the Penn St. section. Every time the dome erupted I would slap the air vent. A Penn St fan asked me to stop because she had a headache, I'm sure I made it worse.

Gotta rank WVU later that year at the top of my list! I still get emotional watching it on Youtube.

We need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start the journey back to that level. It's been way too long.

 

[mvorange]

The losses hurt a lot more back then. Now they are expected and taken for granted,

 

[tipphill]

When you talk Old Timers, we also had a nice run in the 50's-60's. Both were good times, and eventually we will get back there.

that was my heyday---game day much more fun.some greeks had live bands on their porches post game, big signs hung everywhere much more spirit---different time and culture, more comraderie (sp)

 

[Ringostar57]

Back in the 50s it was still a game not a business and it was fun. Ben assembled a staff that was as good as any in the country. Winning became easy and the crowds started getting bigger. Saturdays in Syracuse meant football.
This changed little (no pun intended) in the 60s however expectations were higher after 59 nc but 2 platoon football and unlimited substitution established I think in response to Syracuse and Ben's approach of developing his second and third string "teams"killed any hope of winning another nc. It gave rise to "football factories" and started college football onto the path of businessification. 50s and 60s were the real good old days.

 

[tipphill]

The Dome got stale, Coach P rested on his laurels, the rise of RU and UConn, Mike Vick spurning us for VTech, Grob was the nail. A bad hire really derails a program.

p did not rest on his laurels jake and the chancellor did. they did not invest in the program while others, like rutgers did.

 

[Finwad32]

 

[elimunelson]

If present day rules applied we go bowling in 93 and 94 the supposed down years of the 90s. Not to mention we would have two auto wins on schedule.

Team was dynamic capable of playing anyone anywhere anytime.

 

[JoeSU]

I miss checking the scoreboard to see who above us in the polls lost, and anticipating how far we might move up.

 

[CuseCPT]

Can the old timers give us new bucks a little insight as to what the vibe was like in the heyday of syracuse football. Specifically what it was like in the late 80's early 90's when we had this thing rolling. Did you ever think it would come to an end? Did you ever take it for granted? What was it like when every year we were spoken about like potential conference champs? We just seem so damn far removed from the last of our glory days, the Graves and Mcnabb years, when I first became a fan, that you start to forget what it was like to good

I was 10 years old in 1987. My first solid SU football memory was SU thrashing Penn State in the Dome and Tommy Kane's ridiculous TD catch. I was in the Dome when Kirby Dar Dar took the opening kickoff from #5 Florida Gators 95 yards to the house en route to a 38-21 win. I was a freshmen on the hill the same year SU hoops went the title game against Kentucky and the football team had a freshman QB named Donovan McNabb. Looking back, yeah, I took it for granted. In 1997 I couldn't even envision a scenario where SU football would ever lose to Rutgers. They were a D+ on NCAA 1997 for crying out loud. I remember thinking that we weren't the best basketball school or the best football school but that only a handful of schools where as consistently good in both as we were.

 

[tbonezone]

gedney stopped at the 3 . the dee brown fumble. PI call against the vols. sure those losses hurt. but there was hope.