Questions from a Syracuse fan

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PartoPitinosPosse said:
100% false? Not 50% or 75% or even 95%?? lol


I've watched a lot of football, and I've seen RBs more often than not get their biggest yards of the game in the 4th quarter. Something about the defenses getting wore down. And as for the 90% being on one carry?! lol, you've watched enough football to know that sometimes, a RB plugs away 3-6 yards at a time until he goes over 100, but often times he struggles to get 1-3 yards per carry, even gets negative yards on some plays, and then breaks for a big run. It happens alot. I'm not saying that he would have surely gone over 100 yards had he not gotten injured, its a good chance the Orange would have kept them under 100, but we just don't know, now do we?
One additional note, can you explain more in detail what you mean when you say your opponents players get injured a lot?
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I'm just pointing out that Andre Williams very likely wasn't doing anything that day. Rumors leaked out from the BC people after the game that he was injured going into the game. Who knows if that was true. Sounds a lot like when a recruit decides to go somewhere else, some people will speculate that their team pulled their offer (If that doesn't sound familiar, wait until you meet Rutgers' fans. They've never lost a recruit to anyone ever).

In the game against Syracuse, we were really selling out big time to stop the rush. Andre Williams averaged 247 yards/game over the previous five games (UNC, VA Tech, NMS, NC State, Maryland). The first drive was a 4 and out where he had one carry for -2 yards. Second drive was 3 and out with two carries for 1 yard. Third drive he had 1 carry for -1 yards until BC finally did a playaction, our safeties bit, and their tight end streaked down the field for ~60 yards (I told you we bite on that). They then ran a quick hurry up offense (this hurts us too) and ran Williams to the strong side where they had numbers and thus, tackles reached the secondary and Williams bounced into the end zone untouched from 20+ out. Next drive they went 3 and out with Williams having 2 carries for 1 yard. Next drive they went 4 and out with Williams having 2 carries for -2 yards.

That was the first half. The defense wasn't beat up. They weren't exhausted. I can't imagine the second half going much better for him. He had one big run that was more scheme than anything else.

As far as our guys injuring opponent's players, our secondary and linebackers sell out on big hits. They miss a ton of tackles because of it. It's akin to that type of basketball player that goes for a tomahawk dunk on the fast break. Looks great sometimes and other times they miss.

I think the big things to take away from this as it applies to Minnesota is that if you can establish Cobb early on in the first few plays, then a big gainer from a playaction will be there for you soon after. And it will likely be there all day long. There's a link to the Clemson game on YouTube somewhere and they did a lot of playaction early on and wheel routes. Worked like a charm. The second thing is that Nelson and Leidner (if he plays) should have career days running the ball. BC's QB came into the game with -5 yards on the year and he went for 85. Your guys are more mobile than him so they could easily do as well. Just call fly routes, tuck the ball and take off.
 

Do you have a sense as to whether many of the Cuse fans will be making the trip?
 

rawphenomenon, I see Syracuse will be without 3 secondary players for the bowl game: Eskridge, Lyn, and Whigham. How much of an impact will this have on the game?
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
Do you have a sense as to whether many of the Cuse fans will be making the trip?
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If I had to guess, probably 3k through the school and another 2k through third party sales, scattered through the stadium. As you're probably aware, airfare is quite ridiculous right now. And the you factor in how spoiled we've been with the recent Pinstripe Bowls (we got 15k or so in those), and it makes for a less than impressive showing.

jaymil said:
rawphenomenon, I see Syracuse will be without 3 secondary players for the bowl game: Eskridge, Lyn, and Whigham. How much of an impact will this have on the game?
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Devastating to be honest. Lyn was our best corner and we lost him mid-season. There were rumors of him making it back for the bowl if we made one. He was replaced by Whigham, a freshman who turned out to be our (new) best corner. We lost him too (hit in the chest by his own teammate who was selling out on a big hit). Eskridge is our strong safety and has NFL aspirations. He is absolutely essential to run support. I didn't even realize he was that hurt. They put him in as a wide receiver in the BC game. He made a great catch and then we haven't seen him since.

We are down to maybe five defensive backs total and our vaunted rush D just took a huge hit. This is depressing
 

rawphenomenon said:
If I had to guess, probably 3k through the school and another 2k through third party sales, scattered through the stadium. As you're probably aware, airfare is quite ridiculous right now. And the you factor in how spoiled we've been with the recent Pinstripe Bowls (we got 15k or so in those), and it makes for a less than impressive showing.



Devastating to be honest. Lyn was our best corner and we lost him mid-season. There were rumors of him making it back for the bowl if we made one. He was replaced by Whigham, a freshman who turned out to be our (new) best corner. We lost him too (hit in the chest by his own teammate who was selling out on a big hit). Eskridge is our strong safety and has NFL aspirations. He is absolutely essential to run support. I didn't even realize he was that hurt. They put him in as a wide receiver in the BC game. He made a great catch and then we haven't seen him since.

We are down to maybe five defensive backs total and our vaunted rush D just took a huge hit. This is depressing
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I know you have mentioned a couple of times that your d-backs apparently sell out for stopping the run. I take it that these three played a big part in that and perhaps Eskridge in particular since a safety usually provides more support in stopping the run than do corners. If this is an accurate assessment, how much will your d-line and linebacking corps miss these guys when it comes to stopping the run? Can your d-line and linebackers hold their own?

Do you guys have any other noteworthy injuries on O or D? Injuries are obviously a big deal and it is usually this time of year that teams get a chance to heal guys up before the bowl game. It sounds like that might not be the case for at least a couple of your players.

Thanks for the updates.
 


MNGoldenGophers1 said:
I know you have mentioned a couple of times that your d-backs apparently sell out for stopping the run. I take it that these three played a big part in that and perhaps Eskridge in particular since a safety usually provides more support in stopping the run than do corners. If this is an accurate assessment, how much will your d-line and linebacking corps miss these guys when it comes to stopping the run? Can your d-line and linebackers hold their own?

Do you guys have any other noteworthy injuries on O or D? Injuries are obviously a big deal and it is usually this time of year that teams get a chance to heal guys up before the bowl game. It sounds like that might not be the case for at least a couple of your players.

Thanks for the updates.
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The entire secondary glances inside the backfield and gets beat downfield. It's endemic to the team. Eskridge probably did it the least out of the safeties. So you can still feed us a steady diet of playaction. Eskridge was also essential in helping stop the run. If I'm not mistaken, I believe he led our team in tackles, which isn't so much of an indication that a lot of plays went for 10+ yards and thus, the safety made the tackle, as much as it was him making stops at the line of scrimmage. That is a huge blow for our team and our rush defense. We will probably sub in a Juco transfer Darius Kelly for him. Kelly, like most Syracuse players, makes big hits but needs to work on his reads/instincts.

The freshman, Whigham, was probably our only corner that could man up on a receiver and stay on an island. The other ones like to give big cushions. One thing I noticed in the Clemson game was that when we had the ball on a 3rd and 8 or so, all of their defensive backs were a step inside of the "first down line" on tv. When they had a similar situation, all of our defensive backs (this was before Whigham played) were about 5 yards behind the line. Quick slants are always good for 5-10 yards against us when we line up like that.

As far as the linebackers/D-line holding their own, it kind of all depends on how Minnesota comes out. If you come out and smack us in the mouth in the opening possession or so, our front seven tends to play very dispirited for the rest of the game. Georgia Tech did that. Clemson did it. Florida State did it. If you guys struggle, they build confidence. Haven't seen a Syracuse squad play like that before, but this group does.

I think those 3 are the only real injuries we have. Our #1 kicker is injured but he's been gone all year. Our original starting receivers are injured, but the replacements have been better anyways. Our starting left tackle got injured in our second last game, but he played against BC anyways. He's still practicing no-contact though. I think it was an ankle injury. Our athletic department is all cryptic in labeling things either an "upper body injury" or a "lower body injury".

Some Syracuse videos you might find interesting:
From our Head Coach where he briefly talks about Coach Kill (they both coached at Northern Illinois)
http://videos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2013/12/su_coach_scott_shafer_1.html

From our version of Ra'shede Hageman (Jay Bromley #96) where he talks about Minnesota
http://videos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2013/12/jay_bromley_talks_texas_bowl.html


*I was watching some Gopher highlights on YouTube and I kept hearing what sounded like "Hangman". Is that how Hageman is pronounced?
 

^ more like hag-a-men.

It's unfortunate your secondary is so banged up. It may not matter if our passing attack does not get on track. Like a lot of teams that struggle passing, we look for the short outs to build confidence. If your guys play off the line of scrimmage too much, it may help to get things going. However, it is usually the run that sets up the pass. If your D is stout against the run, that will probably do more to limit the passing game than anything else. I'm sure both coaching staffs are game planning like there is no tomorrow.

Bromley did a nice job in the interview. Pretty much said all the right things. I'm guessing a fairly smart kid.
 

I have to say raw, from what I discovered over at Syracusefan dot com, you are unique. A sports fan willing to show his opponent some respect.

I had a hard time finding any fans over there who weren't disrespectful and kind of ignorant.

But its the internet, so I will not put it against your school or any SU fans I ever meet in real life.

Keep being cool!!! We appreciate it.
 

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