When I take off my Orange colored glasses...

[Crusty]

What I see is that the present is mediocre, which is a big step up from cellar dwelling and the future looks better – not great, but better. Better leads to good and then really good - with which I would be thrilled.

The thing of it is that it will take years to claw back our credibility from decades of complacency and underspending. We are much better at the top with Syverud and certainly with Wlidhack. The ACC money has been a Godsend.

• At this point we know exactly who Babers is and who he isn’t. He is a good CEO type Head Coach but beyond that there is not much to get excited about. He is a poor game coach, poor recruiter and average game planner. As I have previously said that is OK with really good coordinators and position coaches, which we now have. He has proven to be able to hire pretty good coaches when he has the budget.
• Beck may be just what the doctor ordered. A young energetic OC with excellent QB coaching credentials. He will attract other Justin Sellers types – maybe even Sellers on a portal rebound if he doesn’t play at USC. His Pinstripe Bowl game plan was well-planned given the turf conditions. He put up 477 balanced total yards against the 4th best D in the B1G that gave up an average of less than 300 ypg. No matter how you look at it that is impressive.
• LaQuint Allen was impressive with 94 yards on 15 carries for a 6.3 average. He will be bigger, stronger and faster in the Spring.
• Rocky and Nick make a great combination – who better to learn the 3-3-5 from that Rocky? Continuity in our defense is big. We have a good style that seems to work with rotation of younger players building depth. It is amazing what has been accomplished over the past few years in terms of growing new shark teeth in the D. We were 22nd in the nation in total d and in the ACC 3rd vs the pass and 10th vs the run. Makes sense as teams felt they could run better than pass against our secondary. Next year we might be better against the run. Just [edit pass] pay Swag to be patient.
• It is possible that Shrader makes another jump next season. He seems to coach up well and Beck is the right guy to do it. If he can stay healthy, he could even become a low draft pick or perhaps an undrafted Free Agent. A healthy Shrader is probably worth an extra game or two.
• I have no idea if the transfer and recruits are better than the past few years, but they look bigger, and we finally have at least gotten serious about linemen. A decent haul in terms of numbers if not quality. Who knows, maybe quality also.
• The QB room is a question mark in my mind. I have greater hopes for Lamson than I do for CDRW, who look to me like another raw big arm that is nowhere near ready. But again, another year makes a difference

Next year’s schedule is far less daunting than this year's was. We should be able to better our 2022 record. I get 8-9 wins.
(Not in order)

1. Saturday, Sep 2. Colgate. W
2. Saturday, Sep 9. Western Michigan. W
3. Saturday, Sep 23. At Purdue. W (Their talented QB (O’Connell) and big-mouthed TE (Jones) are headed to the NFL)
4. Saturday, Sep 23. Army. W
5. At Florida State L
6. At North Carolina L (They lose their entire starting OL)
7. Clemson L
8. Pitt W (Slovis and backup Patti are both gone as well as 2 RS SR and 1 GR TR Offensive Lineman)
9. Wake Forest W (Sam Hartman is gone as well as 3 RS SR Offensive Lineman)
10. At Georgia Tech W (Very young team)
11. At Virginia Tech W (probably will not improve enought to beat us.)
12. Boston College W (Jurkovec is gone)

 

[BKCuse]

I agree on all of this but if we’ve taken the orange glasses off we need to be realistic on recruiting expectations.

I don’t buy the “Dino can’t recruit” take. It doesn’t take into account the position Syracuse is in when recruiting kids to the ACC. We have been a bottom tier team. Our recruiting classes are always at the bottom of the league. Same when SS was here.

It’s not like we’re losing recruits we want to UMass or UConn. We’re missing on kids who choose more prestigious P5 programs than us.

I just dont think it’s realistic to think we will regularly land 4 stars until we put back to back ranked seasons and bowl games.

Even then the bigger schools offer more NIL money so we have to stay focused on developing 3 stars and pounding the portal for kids that are looking for an opportunity to play.

 

[buffalorange]

What I see is that the present is mediocre, which is a big step up from cellar dwelling and the future looks better – not great, but better. Better leads to good and then really good - with which I would be thrilled.

The thing of it is that it will take years to claw back our credibility from decades of complacency and underspending. We are much better at the top with Syverud and certainly with Wlidhack. The ACC money has been a godsend.

• At this point we know exactly who Babers is and who he isn’t. He is a good CEO type Head Coach but beyond that there is not much to get excited about. He is a poor game coach, poor recruiter and average game planner. As I have previously said that is OK with really good coordinators and position coaches, which we now have. He has proven to be able to hire pretty good coaches when he has the budget.
• Beck may be just what the doctor ordered. A young energetic OC with excellent QB coaching credentials. He will attract other Justin Sellers types – maybe even Sellers on a portal rebound if he doesn’t play at USC. His Pinstripe Bowl game plan was well-planned given the turf conditions. He put up 477 balanced total yards against the 4th best D in the B1G that gave up an average of less than 300 ypg. No matter how you look at it that is impressive.
• LaQuint Allen was impressive with 94 yards on 15 carries for a 6.3 average. He will be bigger, stronger and faster in the Spring.
• Rocky and Nick make a great combination – who better to learn the 3-3-5 from that Rocky? Continuity in our defense is big. We have a good style that seems to work with rotation of younger players building depth. It is amazing what has been accomplished over the past few years in terms of growing new shark teeth in the D. We were 22nd in the nation in total d and in the ACC 3rd vs the pass and 10th vs the run. Makes sense as teams felt they could run better than pass against our secondary. Next year we might be better against the run. Just pass Swag to be patient.
• It is possible that Shrader makes another jump next season. He seems to coach up well and Beck is the right guy to do it. If he can stay healthy, he could even become a low draft pick or perhaps an undrafted Free Agent. A healthy Shrader is probably worth an extra game or two.
• I have no idea if the transfer and recruits are better than the past few years, but they look bigger, and we finally have at least gotten serious about linemen. A decent haul in terms of numbers if not quality. Who knows, maybe quality also.
• The QB room is a question mark in my mind. I have greater hopes for Lamson than I do for CDRW, who look to me like another raw big arm that is nowhere near ready. But again, another year makes a difference

Next year’s schedule is far less daunting than this year's was. We should be able to better our 2022 record. I get 8-9 wins.
(Not in order)

1. Saturday, Sep 2. Colgate. W
2. Saturday, Sep 9. Western Michigan. W
3. Saturday, Sep 23. At Purdue. W (Their talented QB (O’Connell) and big-mouthed TE (Jones) are headed to the NFL)
4. Saturday, Sep 23. Army. W
5. At Florida State L
6. At North Carolina L (They lose their entire starting OL)
7. Clemson L
8. Pitt W (Slovis and backup Patti are both gone as well as 2 RS SR and 1 GR TR Offensive Lineman)
9. Wake Forest W (Sam Hartman is gone as well as 3 RS SR Offensive Lineman)
10. At Georgia Tech W (Very young team)
11. At Virginia Tech W (probably will not improve enought to beat us.)
12. Boston College W (Jurkovec is gone)

"Jurkovec is gone"
Yes, but we look forward to giving a warm welcome to #6 - Donovan Ereiruaku. You know, the spittin' image of a real football player. Heh,heh,heh.

 

[SmilinBob]

The toughest game to me is FSU and the rest are quite winnable. This team is not losing to Clemson at home next year.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think Dino can recruit I just think Syracuse is that tough to recruit too for reasons discussed at nauseum

tremendous opportunity with these portal guys and where Dino will do well the 2nd time around, knew them from high school, message doesn’t change and Dino will shoot straight and the transfers want playing time and less empty promises. love to see 5-6 kids a year like this and grab 2-3 FCS grad transfers like the kid from Richmond and the CB from Dartmouth. We need to as much depth as possible

SYRACUSE recruiting is never going to overwhelm on paper, I don’t think we have a huge talent gap compared to 9 teams or so a year but we do need to build better depth and the portal can help there as well

 

[NYCCuse826]

That's who Syracuse has been for the past two decades. Overall, they're a mid-tier team that may have a great year or two sprinkled in just above .500 play. There's nothing wrong with that. I think they have a K-State ceiling; a program that is consistently solid with an anomaly year like 2022.

 

[Crusty]

I

That's who Syracuse has been for the past two decades. Overall, they're a mid-tier team that may have a great year or two sprinkled in just above .500 play. There's nothing wrong with that. I think they have a K-State ceiling; a program that is consistently solid with an anomaly year like 2022.

I would be happy with KSU level.

 

[GoSU96]

I think Dino can recruit I just think Syracuse is that tough to recruit too for reasons discussed at nauseum

tremendous opportunity with these portal guys and where Dino will do well the 2nd time around, knew them from high school, message doesn’t change and Dino will shoot straight and the transfers want playing time and less empty promises. love to see 5-6 kids a year like this and grab 2-3 FCS grad transfers like the kid from Richmond and the CB from Dartmouth. We need to as much depth as possible

SYRACUSE recruiting is never going to overwhelm on paper, I don’t think we have a huge talent gap compared to 9 teams or so a year but we do need to build better depth and the portal can help there as well

If you go by the 247 ratings, not counting the kickers, the average for the projected roster is .85 (carrying it out to the 1/10000 is stupid). The only hs 4 stars are 3 SEC transfers and 1 ND.

The four kids declaring where all mid 3 stars. The only outlier leaving is Duce, he was .89.

What Dino has done the last two cycles is raise the overall talent level of the incoming players and shedding most of the bottom of the roster. Right now there are two kids from the 18 class and 3 from 19.

The number of reaches to fill the class are much lower, the roster balance is much better. Even with the losses the roster 1-85 should be better than this year.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

If you go by the 247 ratings, not counting the kickers, the average for the projected roster is .85 (carrying it out to the 1/10000 is stupid). The only hs 4 stars are 3 SEC transfers and 1 ND.

The four kids declaring where all mid 3 stars. The only outlier leaving is Duce, he was .89.

What Dino has done the last two cycles is raise the overall talent level of the incoming players and shedding most of the bottom of the roster. Right now there are two kids from the 18 class and 3 from 19.

The number of reaches to fill the class are much lower, the roster balance is much better. Even with the losses the roster 1-85 should be better than this year.

agreed, there will be defections that hurt more than others but it’s just the way it’s going to go but I think it’s pretty clear to see that continuing to recruit the portal hard and building talent in that area is a big plus for Syracuse. I also like the FCS a kid from Richmond for a year, big dude who is 5th year type at worst you just built your 2 deep stronger which is great but maybe he competes for a starting role who knows?

 

[money3189]

If you go by the 247 ratings, not counting the kickers, the average for the projected roster is .85 (carrying it out to the 1/10000 is stupid). The only hs 4 stars are 3 SEC transfers and 1 ND.

The four kids declaring where all mid 3 stars. The only outlier leaving is Duce, he was .89.

What Dino has done the last two cycles is raise the overall talent level of the incoming players and shedding most of the bottom of the roster. Right now there are two kids from the 18 class and 3 from 19.

The number of reaches to fill the class are much lower, the roster balance is much better. Even with the losses the roster 1-85 should be better than this year.

This is true but some are just tired of the losing and hope SU can come up with these miracle top 25 recruiting classes. I don’t understand why anyone expects us to convince 4/5 star recruits to come to snowy Syracuse. Selling them a chance to win. Something they haven’t shown in 20 years. That’s just not happening.

 

[orangepassion]

This is true but some are just tired of the losing and hope SU can come up with these miracle top 25 recruiting classes. I don’t understand why anyone expects us to convince 4/5 star recruits to come to snowy Syracuse. Selling them a chance to win. Something they haven’t shown in 20 years. That’s just not happening.

I don't think most people are expecting top 25 classes. i think some are just discouraged when it seems we're last or next to last in the conference many years. I personally liked some of the previous classes, but am not as psyched about this HS class. I am happy with the transfers and JC guys.

 

[NJneer12]

Right now there are two kids from the 18 class and 3 from 19.

I knew it was low but wow.

 

[money3189]

I don't think most people are expecting top 25 classes. i think some are just discouraged when it seems we're last or next to last in the conference many years. I personally liked some of the previous classes, but am not as psyched about this HS class. I am happy with the transfers and JC guys.

I said some people.

 

[orangenauburn]

Purdue brought in Card from Texas at QB, plus it's at Purdue. That one I'll mark as an L for now.

 

[orangenauburn]

The toughest game to me is FSU and the rest are quite winnable. This team is not losing to Clemson at home next year.

Klubnick will be well seasoned by then. DJ transfered. Clemson will win 10 again next year.

 

[kingtidge]

I think our next big step forward will be when/if we can end October with enough team depth and focus to make November a positive month for once.

If there is an Achilles' heel Dino needs to solve, it's this... I am skeptical he can at this point, however. Year 8 we know how we roll... And it will be put together with bubblegum and paperclips come November... It's a BIG issue in putting together any sort of continuity in competitiveness, unfortunately and I highly doubt Dino year 8 (or any Dino subsequent year) will solve it. It is what it is, and why we will continue in mediocrity-at-best mode.

Would love to be wrong on that, of course...

 

[Shenexon]

I think it can be useful to recall a strategy used by Doug Marrone to overcome the challenges of attracting talent to Syracuse.

I don’t know how true this is, but an Orangefizz article from 2011 talks of character & leadership being as important to Marrone as talent. If he couldn’t get top talent, at least he could attract players that could be team leaders. One year, every member of his recruiting class had been captains of their HS teams.

I was impressed at the time and think sometimes we’ve thrived largely when players have outperformed their abilities by displays of discipline & focus. Until we re-establish a winning tradition at Syracuse and become an attractive option for 4 & 5 star talent, Marrone’s perspective could be useful.

 

[Xanadu]

This is true but some are just tired of the losing and hope SU can come up with these miracle top 25 recruiting classes. I don’t understand why anyone expects us to convince 4/5 star recruits to come to snowy Syracuse. Selling them a chance to win. Something they haven’t shown in 20 years. That’s just not happening.

Stay away from the Bleacher Report SU “community” section

 

[anomander]

What I see is that the present is mediocre, which is a big step up from cellar dwelling and the future looks better – not great, but better. Better leads to good and then really good - with which I would be thrilled.

The thing of it is that it will take years to claw back our credibility from decades of complacency and underspending. We are much better at the top with Syverud and certainly with Wlidhack. The ACC money has been a Godsend.

• At this point we know exactly who Babers is and who he isn’t. He is a good CEO type Head Coach but beyond that there is not much to get excited about. He is a poor game coach, poor recruiter and average game planner. As I have previously said that is OK with really good coordinators and position coaches, which we now have. He has proven to be able to hire pretty good coaches when he has the budget.
• Beck may be just what the doctor ordered. A young energetic OC with excellent QB coaching credentials. He will attract other Justin Sellers types – maybe even Sellers on a portal rebound if he doesn’t play at USC. His Pinstripe Bowl game plan was well-planned given the turf conditions. He put up 477 balanced total yards against the 4th best D in the B1G that gave up an average of less than 300 ypg. No matter how you look at it that is impressive.
• LaQuint Allen was impressive with 94 yards on 15 carries for a 6.3 average. He will be bigger, stronger and faster in the Spring.
• Rocky and Nick make a great combination – who better to learn the 3-3-5 from that Rocky? Continuity in our defense is big. We have a good style that seems to work with rotation of younger players building depth. It is amazing what has been accomplished over the past few years in terms of growing new shark teeth in the D. We were 22nd in the nation in total d and in the ACC 3rd vs the pass and 10th vs the run. Makes sense as teams felt they could run better than pass against our secondary. Next year we might be better against the run. Just [edit pass] pay Swag to be patient.
• It is possible that Shrader makes another jump next season. He seems to coach up well and Beck is the right guy to do it. If he can stay healthy, he could even become a low draft pick or perhaps an undrafted Free Agent. A healthy Shrader is probably worth an extra game or two.
• I have no idea if the transfer and recruits are better than the past few years, but they look bigger, and we finally have at least gotten serious about linemen. A decent haul in terms of numbers if not quality. Who knows, maybe quality also.
• The QB room is a question mark in my mind. I have greater hopes for Lamson than I do for CDRW, who look to me like another raw big arm that is nowhere near ready. But again, another year makes a difference

Next year’s schedule is far less daunting than this year's was. We should be able to better our 2022 record. I get 8-9 wins.
(Not in order)

1. Saturday, Sep 2. Colgate. W
2. Saturday, Sep 9. Western Michigan. W
3. Saturday, Sep 23. At Purdue. W (Their talented QB (O’Connell) and big-mouthed TE (Jones) are headed to the NFL)
4. Saturday, Sep 23. Army. W
5. At Florida State L
6. At North Carolina L (They lose their entire starting OL)
7. Clemson L
8. Pitt W (Slovis and backup Patti are both gone as well as 2 RS SR and 1 GR TR Offensive Lineman)
9. Wake Forest W (Sam Hartman is gone as well as 3 RS SR Offensive Lineman)
10. At Georgia Tech W (Very young team)
11. At Virginia Tech W (probably will not improve enought to beat us.)
12. Boston College W (Jurkovec is gone)

Very honest take. I agree with everything you said. As for next year we got a tough conference draw. The only way it would be tougher if they swapped out GT for Duke. We have to figure out a way to beat Pitt. Right now with our 3 teams we play every year FSU is typically a loss, Pitt has been a loss, and BC a toss up with a slight lean to us. I think we will expand on that. It’s at least getting even with Pitt so we’re not at a constant deficit each year.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I think it can be useful to recall a strategy used by Doug Marrone to overcome the challenges of attracting talent to Syracuse.

I don’t know how true this is, but an Orangefizz article from 2011 talks of character & leadership being as important to Marrone as talent. If he couldn’t get top talent, at least he could attract players that could be team leaders. One year, every member of his recruiting class had been captains of their HS teams.

I was impressed at the time and think sometimes we’ve thrived largely when players have outperformed their abilities by displays of discipline & focus. Until we re-establish a winning tradition at Syracuse and become an attractive option for 4 & 5 star talent, Marrone’s perspective could be useful.

when has Syracuse attracted 4 and 5 star talent? A few here and there when we were really good but that’s about it, even back then it may be a stretch. I just think people are always going to be disappointed if they are star and ranking mongers with regard to recruiting. have to assemble Enough talent to have a consistently competitive football team that gets to bowl games very regularly

 

[SmilinBob]

Klubnick will be well seasoned by then. DJ transfered. Clemson will win 10 again next year.

As will Rocky and the Cuse D be orangenauburn and I have more faith in him than the Clemson O.

 

[zjscuse]

That's who Syracuse has been for the past two decades. Overall, they're a mid-tier team that may have a great year or two sprinkled in just above .500 play. There's nothing wrong with that. I think they have a K-State ceiling; a program that is consistently solid with an anomaly year like 2022.

I would be over the moon with that outcome. Just wish the majority of doom and gloom fair weather fans would accept and support this team knowing these facts.

 

[Cuse12]

What’s crazy is how our recruiting rankings like this year and others are not great, i get that. They really aren’t much different the Shafers recruiting classes if you go by ranking. But, holy cow it’s sooooo obvious how much better the talent is that Dino is bringing in. So I don’t know how much I value those rankings. Anything after top 35-40 is really just BS let’s be honest. So I must say I actually think the recruiting is not as bad as the rankings say.

Now that being said, that leaves us with middle of the pack roster in the landscape of CFB, which middle of the pack rosters need excellent coaching to be above average teams.

In my opinion to get to the next level of recruiting(top 40 class), At this point we need a few (2-3 straight) over achieving seasons in my opinion. Where we are ranked or flirting with being ranked and finishing 8-4 or 9-3. We need to change our approach I think like many here said, where we decrease our HS recruiting classes and focus heavily on talented transfers.

To wrap up this rant, I guess it all comes down to over achieving when you have medium level talent, and stringing together multiple seasons of that over achieving, which brings more $$ to the program, more exposure, better recruiting, etc.

Just freaking win! And right now to be a consistently good winning team we need to “over achieve”. Let’s hope we over achieve in 23, because technically we did in 22. That would be a start to getting where we all want this to go.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

What’s crazy is how our recruiting rankings like this year and others are not great, i get that. They really aren’t much different the Shafers recruiting classes if you go by ranking. But, holy cow it’s sooooo obvious how much better the talent is that Dino is bringing in. So I don’t know how much I value those rankings. Anything after top 35-40 is really just BS let’s be honest. So I must say I actually think the recruiting is not as bad as the rankings say.

Now that being said, that leaves us with middle of the pack roster in the landscape of CFB, which middle of the pack rosters need excellent coaching to be above average teams.

In my opinion to get to the next level of recruiting(top 40 class), At this point we need a few (2-3 straight) over achieving seasons in my opinion. Where we are ranked or flirting with being ranked and finishing 8-4 or 9-3. We need to change our approach I think like many here said, where we decrease our HS recruiting classes and focus heavily on talented transfers.

To wrap up this rant, I guess it all comes down to over achieving when you have medium level talent, and stringing together multiple seasons of that over achieving, which brings more $$ to the program, more exposure, better recruiting, etc.

Just freaking win! And right now to be a consistently good winning team we need to “over achieve”. Let’s hope we over achieve in 23, because technically we did in 22. That would be a start to getting where we all want this to go.

I think what you're seeing is how a big part of recruiting is fit.

We're getting guys in that fit what we do and it's giving them the opportunity to shine.

They don't need to be 4 star kids. We can put them in position to outplay their recruiting ranking.

And really, that's what we need to be about. Find guys that we can develop into a player over their high school projection.

 

[ECE '76]

1. Pitt W (Slovis and backup Patti are both gone as well as 2 RS SR and 1 GR TR Offensive Lineman)
2. Wake Forest W (Sam Hartman is gone as well as 3 RS SR Offensive Lineman)
3. At Georgia Tech W (Very young team)
4. At Virginia Tech W (probably will not improve enought to beat us.)
5. Boston College W (Jurkovec is gone)

If you're worried about Phil Jurkovec, he's at Pitt now. BC is moving forward with Emmett Morehead at QB.