Which program, right now at this singular moment in time, do you feel worse about?

[AZOrange]

Tuesday will tell us a lot. It’s been a brutal schedule without our best player. Good coaches get their teams to bounce back and fight. If we have no fight Tuesday it says alot

 

[AZOrange]

Football was an abomination. Every team has injuries. The way we lost was pathetic.

 

[Marsh01]

Im too old to pick sides. We as fans have no control so i just watch and hope for the best. If we succeed then great. If not it is what it is.

 

[Surfan06001]

I still believe Fran is our guy and he has already shown results.

 

[RedtheGOB]

The similarities are eerily parallel

Autry and Fran. Zero previous head coaching experience. Both have unimpressive coaching staff. Fail to make meaningful adjustments after halftime. Get blown out in second to half. No offensive scheme. Basically quit in second the half.

Freeman and Angeli. Complete collapse after star player goes down. One guy shouldn't have team go from solid B+ to an . Can't score anymore.

Recruiting. Primarily middling prospects. Looking for bargains instead of proven entities.

Outlook. Life support for both.

100%. Imagine the seasons played out in different orders too ha.

What if Fran bombed year 1 and Autry had the great first year? Bizarro.

 

[jdubs30]

M

The similarities are eerily parallel

Autry and Fran. Zero previous head coaching experience. Both have unimpressive coaching staff. Fail to make meaningful adjustments after halftime. Get blown out in second half. No offensive scheme.

Freeman and Angeli. Both injured. Complete collapse after star player goes down. One injured guy should not precipitate complete team failure, gonig from solid B+ to an . Can't score anymore.

Recruiting. Primarily middling prospects. Looking for bargains instead of proven entities.

Outlook. Life support for both.

The big difference is Fran actually went through the process. Red was handed the job with no national search. And at that time, the CBB program still had some sort of relevance.

When Fran came in, our last 2 bowl wins were 2018 and 2013. We had only finished over .500 once in ACC play since 2013.

The end of JB didn’t go well but we had the recent S16 and at that point the Cuse name still had luster. We could have gotten so many coaches with more credentials than Red - and we didn’t even interview anyone

 

[orange79]

Because your poll didn't include an option that captured how I felt.

 

[JeffCuse]

60% so far feel worse about basketball.

I get it.

Football has been absolutely dreadful this season. But we also have a coach who comes from outside the "fam" and has showsn he can succeed and can recruit. Lots of reason to be concerned here, but at least the program doesnt feel mired in cheapness, locality, and tradition like hoops does.

 

[atlanticuse]

 

[Consigliere]

Counterpoint...Syracuse has already expressed a willingness to go outside the program to hire for football. Whether Brown works out or not, it is clear that for football, Cuse is willing to do a national search rather than just stay cheap and local. That means there will always be many more good options for football.

This cheap and local, no national search diatribe is tiresome and couldn’t be farther from the truth. Really ignorant to think John Wildhack wouldn’t rely on his “world class Rolodex” per Mike Tirico and do his due diligence before determining Autry should succeed JB. Just because the denizens of the web didn’t post rumors of dozens of candidates outside family traipsing through Central NY doesn’t mean agents and others in the business weren’t consulted or that phone interviews didn’t transpire. Fact of the matter is there was an almost universal response that the best person to manage the transition from a legend was already on the bench.

You’re better than this.!

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Not really a simple question. I don’t know how to answer.

I can ignore football. When we are good in football, i enjoy it. When we aren’t, i can just shrug and deal.

I need basketball to be good.

But, I don’t know which is going to be easier to fix. Don’t really know about Fran, and don’t have the rabid enthusiasm for him as so many here have, and even if he’s a genius, we just saw what can happen. He needs 50 players, while Red needs 10.

Easier to build a hoops roster than a football powerhouse outside of the south where football is culture. I guess I feel better about the promise and potential the players showed in Vegas, even if I’m still certain Red can’t maximize that potential.

Gotta vote Worse about Football, though it’s with a ton of hesitancies and conditions.

 

[JeffCuse]

This cheap and local, no national search diatribe is tiresome and couldn’t be farther from the truth. Really ignorant to think John Wildhack wouldn’t rely on his “world class Rolodex” per Mike Tirico and do his due diligence before determining Autry should succeed JB. Just because the denizens of the web didn’t post rumors of dozens of candidates outside family traipsing through Central NY doesn’t mean agents and others in the business weren’t consulted or that phone interviews didn’t transpire. Fact of the matter is there was an almost universal response that the best person to manage the transition from a legend was already on the bench.

You’re better than this.!

I never thought that. We had a fading program that desperately needed a jolt from the outside. If we didnt find a better candidate from the outside it likely meant we weren't willing to commit enough budget to enticing them. Ultimately, Autry was a convenient hire who was willing to stay within the budget.

Make an inconvenient hire next time.

 

[Briancuse]

I dont like what fran did this year, but I really believe he is the guy who is capable of turning this around. He will learn from this. Red is dead man walking.

 

[elimunelson]

Both are in bad shape w the current non coaching.

If either guy can figure out how to coach up talent then this can turn around.

At gun point it’s hoops for me because red is clearly over his head and feel like he won’t figure this out in time.

 

[BeetleCuse]

I’m going with football because I don’t think we’re far off from being shut out of playing in a P5 conference. As mentioned, the money isn’t there, and we’re situated in an area without many big time recruiting prospects.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Aside from coaching, basketball has major tailwinds...great history, facilities, fan support, nil support, national recognition, fertile recruiting area, biggest stadium in america, powerful ex-nba alumni and sportscaster alumni, etc. We have just had one hand tied behind our backs for a decade.

Football is all headwinds - poor recruiting area, low fan support, insufficient NIL, few traditions, higher than average academic standards, injury-prone turf stadium, poor-average facilities, hard to attract quality coaching, etc.

No brainer as far as I'm concerned.

Higher than average academic standards???

 

[NineOneSeven]

Im too old to pick sides. We as fans have no control so i just watch and hope for the best. If we succeed then great. If not it is what it is.

It’s a fair sentiment to have and as you age you gain added perspective about what matters and what you can’t control in life. But there’s also a degree of apathy at play here in your older age because the team is far from what it was at your younger age.

 

[Marsh01]

It’s a fair sentiment to have and as you age you gain added perspective about what matters and what you can’t control in life. But there’s also a degree of apathy at play here in your older age because the team is far from what it was at your younger age.

The entire college landscape in all sports have changed for the worse. The Syracuse University's of the world are just going to continue to get lapped financially. Its going to be so much harder to compete than 30 years ago when we could almost win alone on name recognition and past success.

 

[Blanko97]

Higher than average academic standards???

must be a different SU

 

[NKR1978]

Pretty easy q. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Right now. All things equal.

If you feel good about both, send me some of what you are having and vote for the one you FEEL LESS good about

Even with the horrible last two month, Fran has actually achieved far greater success than Red. Red is a bad coach. Fran has a lot to prove after the debacle of a season, but if he can keep the class together and recruit the way he has, I'm not worried about football.

Basketball, I just don't see going anywhere.

 

[NineOneSeven]

The entire college landscape in all sports have changed for the worse. The Syracuse University's of the world are just going to continue to get lapped financially. Its going to be so much harder to compete than 30 years ago when we could almost win alone on name recognition and past success.

No doubt the college landscape has changed. In football I agree there are simple challenges we have many other schools don’t.

I simply don’t buy it in basketball. Not the same extent at least.

 

[Scooch]

Hoops. And it’s not even close.

SU isn’t supposed to be great at football. We haven’t had so much as two consecutive seasons of being nationally relevant in 27 years.

However, we’re supposed to be great at basketball. We’re supposed to compete for conference and national titles. We have all of the fan and financial conditions present to be a national player.

And yet we haven’t been in nearly a decade. The current state of our basketball program makes me sad.

 

[Ottoman]

Higher than average academic standards???

The average academic standards are probably something like NC State, so higher than that. Syracuse is still a great university.

 

[JFly10]

Football overall because it's much more difficult to turn around. But the doomer feeling with basketball is even though there's more hope that the ship can eventually be righted...it's so clear that Red is not the guy to take it to great heights. It's hard to feel good about when you know even if we have a solid season, we don't have the right guy leading the charge and that he could stay if we have a solid season.

 

[Ottoman]

Right on. This is the reality today for Syracuse athletics. I would also add that the ACC is heavily skewed towards basketball, even though the last few years have been pretty abysmal. The ACC isn't the fit that the Big East was for basketball, but it can work.

The unfortunate part of big time college athletics is that football drives the money train, and it would take a miracle for a program like us to become a major player.

It's a tough call, for sure. I think you are spot on - we are built like a basketball school that is playing football to keep the money rolling. Unfortunately, I worry that the financial demands of trying to compete equally in every sport ensures that we will be mediocre in all of them.

If we could go back in time, I'm not sure we would join the ACC. I think we all can agree that the Big East fan experience was significantly better. Syracuse playing in Madison Square Garden was a national treasure as far as I'm concerned.