According to Greggers – this team still has bowl plans…gonna need to win em all to even be eligible. Time to look into this weekends “make or break” game for Syracuse to stay alive in the International Bowl hunt!

When: Saturday November 1st, 2008 – 7:00 PM Eastern

Where: Syracuse, New York at the Carrier Dome

Capacity: 50,000

Television: ESPNU

The Spread: The line opened at Louisville -13 but has crept up to Louisville -14.5 and the O/U sits around 55. Thus far approximately 58% of the spread action is on Louisville with 68% of the moneyline on Syracuse. 

Rivalry info: Syracuse leads the all-time series against Louisville with a 4-3 edge. Syracuse is 1-2 against Louisville in Big East play but 3-0 against the spread in those same games.

Did you know? Syracuse and Louisville played a regular season game in Tokyo, Japan in 1989 in what was then called the Coca Cola Classic. Syracuse won that game 24-13.

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Welcome to The Rind With TFG and lvilleorange! Two avid SU hoops fans with little better to do than spend their days posting on Syracuse message boards have joined forces to create what they hope won’t be the worst Orange basketball blog on the Intertron. Although we’re still a month away from the start of the regular season, it’s not to too early for Steve, better known to some of you as lvilleorange, and myself to attempt to bring you up to speed and ready for a season of Orange basketball filled with promise. We’re going to start off with a very rudimentary 2007-08 recap, mix in some offseason events and give a general outlook towards the 2008-09 campaign before delving into some much more in-depth player previews and projections as the season nears. By that point, we hope that just enough of you aren’t too bored by us to stop reading.

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Well, the familiar theme occurred on Saturday for the Syracuse football team.  The offense looked pretty decent for one half and then failed to register a single first down in the second half.  The defense played its usual consistent game of non-existent resistance.  The results:  a typical run of the mill beat down to the tune of 45-13.  (Some props to Reyes for his close 42-10 prediction).

The game went completely awry in the second half when Cam “The Pez Dispenser” Dantley, coughed up the ball, or should I say pezzed,  on a 3rd down pass play; gift wrapping a Bulls touchdown that made the score 28-13 and in effect put the game away.  It is not the first time that Dantley has shown little regard for ball security and it likely won’t be the last.

There was yet another coaching snafu when Greg Robinson failed to insert Andrew Robinson for the last couple of series basically because, “What happened was, I’m coaching over on the (defensive) side. I run over there (to the offensive side), and it’s too late. We’re already out. I think that Andrew deserves to get in there and do something like that.”  You would think somewhere amid all that driving that USF did in the 2nd half that he could have said, “Start warming up ARob and get him in next series.”  But he forgot.  It is comments like this that will seal GRob’s fate.  The man just can’t stay in the moment as the head coach.  Clearly he is in over his head.  Even when he has the chance to look over the film he still gets confused – “I watched very, very closely. I went back and I watched it quite a bit,” Robinson said of Dantley’s performance (11-of-17 passing for 129 yards) against USF. “And I don’t know there’s a whole lot there…”  Oh really?  It looked to me and to Dantley that he was completely off his game.  “I really just panicked – not panicked – I just didn’t think on my feet.”  Quotes are compliments of Donnie Webb’s blog.

Now the grades:

The good: Another solid performance by Curtis Brinkley, gaining over 100 yards in the first half alone and finishing with a buck twelve.  Curtis is on pace to be the first 1000 yard gainer since Walter Reyes in 2003.  He ran hard and his 24 yard TD burst in the 2nd quarter was about the last salvo that SU threw at USF on Saturday.

Dante Davis and Marcus Sales also played decently.  They both seem to excel on the slant patterns.

The bad: Penalties came and reared their ugly head.  I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but this was the most penalties that SU had all season.  A recall a Ryan Durand hands to the face penatly negated a nice Sales catch.  Jonathan Meldrum was in over his head against George Selvie.  The offensive line did next to nothing to stop the Bulls in the second half.  They seemed completely overwhelmed.

The ugly: It has to be the defense, as if this is a surprise.  Aside from the fumble that stopped USF’s first drive of the second half, they could do nothing right.  Most glaring was the blown coverage on first and goal following Dantley’s aforementioned pezzing.  There was no one and I mean no one on the outside to cover USF wide receiver AJ Love and he easily scored the touchdown.  The defense also couldn’t contain Matt Grothe and his patented draw play.  I almost stopped watching when he coverted a 3rd and 10 with a 20 yard scamper.  Thanks to alcohol and my trusty espn360 replay, I was able to endure.

Fortunately the footballers are on bye next week and I know that for some that means the hope of a Grob firing.  But don’t count on it.  The administration has shown no signs of pulling the ejection seat yet, even though this plane has not only started going down it has already crashed.  If we are all lucky the black box won’t be recovered either.  No one really wants or needs to dissect just what the hell has happened these last four years do they?

It’s tough to think that if we had a somewhat decent Head Coach - the Orange might be 2-0 in the Big East – and possibly playing a meaningful game this weekend in terms of how the conference will shake out. Now we’re headed to Tampa to try and play spoiler to the Bulls – which probably means the Orange wont notch a Big East victory until November…if at all.

When: Saturday October 18th, 2008 – 12:00 PM Eastern

Where: Tampa, Florida at Raymond James Stadium.

Capacity: 65,857

Television: Time Warner Sports - Channel 26

The Spread: The Line opened at Syracuse +25 – but has since fell to Syracuse +23.5 with just about 46% of the money going on Syracuse to cover.

Rivalry info: Rivalry? Since South Florida has joined the Big East - they have had no problem with the Orange. The Bulls are 3-0 all time against the Orange – outscoring them by an average of 32-7.

Coaches: South Florida - Jim Leavitt - 12th season at South Florida (84-47 overall.) Syracuse- Greg Robinson – 4th season at Syracuse (8-33 overall.)

Syracuse Offense ranked #106 vs South Florida Defense ranked #11: Want to see how much Curtis Brinkley and our Offensive Line has really improved? You’ll get your chance this weekend. South Florida ranks among the best at #6 against the run thus far this season. Only once have the Bulls allowed a opposing rusher to gain more than 60 yards against them this year – that being Pitt RB LeSean McCoy (142 yards) - who ran against a Bulls defense without star DE George Selvie and starting LB Brouce Mompremier. Both are expected to be suited up and ready to go this Saturday -which doesnt bode well for the Orange.

The only chance the Orange have in this game lies again in the hands of Curtis Brinkley - who has looked stellar gaining 100+ yards in his last three outings and averaging nearly 5.5 yards a carry this season. The Orange dont have nearly the speed or athleticism to try and get into a shoot-out with the Bulls so they’re best shot is to do what they’ve done best – run the ball. The Orange were able to hold onto the ball for nearly 12 minutes more than the Mountaineers and were able to churn out a total of 20 first downs – and that probably played a big part as to why the Mountaineers were held to 17 points (Pat White or not, WVU should have scored in the 30′s.) It’ll be hard to run the ball on the Bulls – seeing as they’ll attack the ball better than anyone we’ve seen this season, but you cant take the ball out of Brinkleys hands with how he’s ran the ball.

The Bulls have been somewhat decent against the pass ranking 47th in the nation – but thats not saying much considering some of the passing attacks they’ve faced (Tenn Martin, FIU, UCF, NC State.) No matter who you bring in it’s tough to replace CB’s like Jenkins and Williams who were lost to the NFL Draft. Lobdell finally broke out and grabbed a few nice balls and Donte Davis was solid as well grabbing a game leading 7 receptions last week. If Dantley is unable to put together a few things in the air the Orange will be dead in the water. I expect the Bulls to bring the house starting early and it’s important Dantley burns them once or twice to keep them as honest as possible.

South Florida Offense ranked #25 vs Syracuse Defense ranked #107: Once again – the Orange are just simply outmatched. We got a break last weekend without having to face White – but now we’re faced with an even tougher task in the name of Matt Grothe. Grothe has racked up just over 1500 yards all purpose and has accounted for a total of 11 TD’s six games into the season (9 passing, 2 rushing.) He can burn you with either his arm or his legs and probably has his best set of recievers to throw to since hes been in South Florida (primarily Taurus Johnson and Jessie Hester.)

There really is no way for us to stop Grothe – but if we can avoid making the same type of mistakes that we did against Penn State weeks ago (primarily missed tackles and mis-reads) then we might be able to at least contain Grothe and Co. to an extent.

South Florida defensive coaches phones were off the hook this offseason with calls from college coaches dying to know how they were able to stop West Virginia and the spread – their answer? Speed and fundamentals. Since the spread is geared to create 11 one-on-one matchups and to exploit individual speed – form tackling is a must. If the Orange make the same weak arm tackle attempts against South Florida its going to result in a ton of big plays (since you really have no defensive back up) and the scoreboard is going to roll.

There really isnt one scheme or trick to stopping the spread – if you have a few playmakers its going to be quite easy to rack up yardage inbetween the 30′s. Once you hit the 30 its tough to really utilize the spread to your advantage because theres not as much field to work with. The Orange are going to have to hold strong during that time and hope to cut a few South Florida TD drives into FG attempts.

Why Syracuse will win: The South Florida Defense is still banged up and Brinkley is able to take advantage and continues his hot streak. Ball Control! Last week Syracuse held the ball for 36 minutes and were in the game deep into the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh held the ball for 37 minutes against the Bulls (resulting in 16 more plays) and were able to hold the Bulls to 21 points and win the game.

Why South Florida will win: South Florida is just too fast for the Orange. Grothe has no problem burning an undermanned Syracuse Defense and jump out to an early first half lead. Mike Ford and the Bulls ball control the second half and still end up beating the Orange big.

Syracuse player to watch: RB Curtis Brinkley – 621yards rushing – 3 rushing TD’s – 8 receptions for 41 yards

South Florida player to watch: QB Matt Grothe – 63.9% completion – 1,304 passing yards – 9 TD’s 3 INT’s – 258 yards rushing – 2 rushing TD’s

Reyes39 Prediction: South Florida 42 – Syracuse 10

-Stats thanks to ncaa.org and cfbdatawarehouse.com

-Lavarr Lobdell photo from Frank Ordonez/The Post Standard

Well its a little late here on the game recap.  But I wanted to get out ahead of the upcoming Reyes preview of the USF game.  Some thoughts…

I thought this was the type of game earlier that would actually score GROB points.  You know, hang with the conference heavyweights, show improvement, make a strong showing on the road etc.  But since we’ve hung the “lame duck” moniker on Greg Robinson all that is out the window.  He again gets skewered for game management.  Should he have kicked a FG to make it 10-9?  Hell, shouln’t he have kicked at 4th and 18 when you need two scores?

I can’t really fault either decision frankly.  I think you need to try and get a TD when you are inside the 5 and the game is in the balance.  West Virginia had more 3 and outs against us then we probably allowed all season.  I think the pressure would have been on if we could have gotten ahead 13-10.  On the 4th and 18 decision there was under a minute left while of course we could have gotten the onside kick and had a short field, the reality was we had no timeouts and would have needed to go down the field in a hurry.  Hard to see that happening with this club.  But either way, our lame duck was damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Now let’s look ahead:

The good:  I will say that outgaining the Mountaineers was both a surpise for both our offense (ie over 300 yards/20 first downs) and our defense (holding an opponent under 300!).  These are building blocks for the rest of the season.

Curtis Brinkley continues to be a beast on the ground.  He showed alot of fight while getting the bulk of the carries.  He has been nothing short of a workhorse for this team.

Hello WR play!  Donte Davis continues to grow in his role and we finally started seeing Lobdell have the kind of impact we needed on Day One.  His terrific catch helped sustain that long first quarter drive.  Van Chew and Marcus Sales have played well.

3 and outs!  The defense finally registered some three and outs and you can see how key that is to game management.  I’ll have some more of that please!  If they can do that this week, I may start to agree that this could be a good defense Gregger.  Game ball to Derrell Smith.  The kid is getting better each week.

Bad:  Still light on sacks allowed and gotten.  Pressure needs to be better.  On O, I don’t think the end of the Corey Chavers era can begin soon enough.

Ugly:  What is going on in the underbelly of the program?  First, an incident with an undergrad and multiple players and now the Doug Hogue saga?  While the first is out of a coach’s control, the 2nd is directly related.  What is going on Greg?

Anyway, if we continue to show improvement it appears that we can still get a win.  The number of possibilities are growing.  Louisville:  needed all the special teams help they could get to win at Memphis.  Cincy is in the mix now, ekeing out a 13-10 win over Rutgers.  How motivated will they be to finish the season off with us?  Rutgers is clearly at our level.  The spread will be manageable.  I still think UConn is doable.  They are one dimensional and just don’t make alot of mistakes.  We can hang around.

Hope everyone enjoyed the bye week! At least we didnt have anything to complain about (besides G-Rob not being fired.) Time to get back to buisness as we hit the road to face off against the Mountaineers. 

When: Saturday October 11th, 2008 – 12:00 PM Eastern

Where: Morgantown, West Virginia at Mountaineer Field

Capacity: 63,500

Television: ESPNU

The Spread: Opened at West Virginia -24. Currently sits at West Virginia -23.5. The Over/Under currently sits at 48.5.

Rivalry info: Syracuse owns a 30-25 overall advantage over the Mountaineers since they began play in 1945…but Syracuse has not been able to beat the Mountaineers in the last 6 years losing by an average of 34-11.

Coaches: West Virginia - Bill Stewart - 1st full season at West Virginia (4-2 overall.) Syracuse- Greg Robinson – 4th season at Syracuse (8-32 overall.)

Syracuse Offense ranked #110 vs West Virginia Defense ranked #35: To win this game the Orange are going to need everyone healthy and ready to go. Good thing is – Rahme let us know on Tuesday that Carter is going to be back agains the Mountaineers this Saturday. West Virginia has been pretty good against the run this year - only allowing just over 3 yards a carry thus far – but its arguable that the combination of Brinkley, Hogue, and a healthy Carter will be the best stable the Mountaineers have seen yet this year. The only way we’re going to beat the Mountaineers is by keeping Pat White off the field. Brinkley has obviously earned the majority of the carries – but its important for us to control the ball and churn a few long drives - which means always keeping fresh legs on the field. Robinson already burnt Baileys red-shirt, so theres no point in keeping him on the sidelines – but Robinson has to stop throwing these freshman to the dogs (like we saw with Graham in the Penn State game.) Ease Bailey into the game for a few carries in the 2nd-3rd quarter in non-pressure situations and let Boonah and Carter take a breather or extended halftime. West Virginia doesnt really present any big-time run stuffers especially since LB Reed Williams is out for the year and Johnny Dingle and Malik were lost to graduation, but expect the Mountaineers to stuff an extra man or two into the box and bring the pressure. Four of the Mountaineers 9 sacks on the season are from DB blitzes (3 from DB John Holmes.)

The offense did show a bit more imagination against Pittsburgh and it looked like Lobdell possibly might be close to breaking out of his shell. Browning finally opened things up a bit and challenged an opponent downfield and it seemed to work – both Chew and Davis caught long TD passes and showed great athleticism making pretty tough grabs inside the pylon. I, like modman97, hope Browning opens it up a bit more and tries to catch the Mountaineers off-guard a few times. What to we have to lose?

In the Mountaineers two losses – opponents were able to go a combined 45/62 for 422 yards 4 TD’s and an interception – showing the Mountaineers are susceptible to a good passing game. If Brinkley and Co are able to establish a ground game early and put us in good field position I believe Dantley can produce. It seems if our ground game starts to sputter…everyone else falls apart. Dantley is off target, guys are dropping passes, and the offense as a whole just seems rushed. Take some pressue off of Dantley and he seems to flow – not to mention he’s shown some great touch in and around the red-zone.

West Virginia Offense ranked T-#66 vs Syracuse Defense ranked #114: Thank god this is the last year we’ll have to deal with Pat White. In his time at West Virginia, White has piled up 356 rushing yards on 35 carries (10 yards a carry) and 6 total touchdowns (1 passing) against the Orange. Pat White was injured (head) last week for the second week in a row against Rutgers but is expected to start against the Orange this Saturday. Our only chance at beating White probably means we’ll have to knock him out of the game for the third straight week. Since Robinson rarely blitzes (or at least presents anything resembling a blitz) White will probably shred our Defense just like in years past. I expect White to actually do most of his damage in the air – since he can in fact throw the ball and can do so at will against our secondary. Theres really no point in risking your star QB who has had a few injury problems by making him run the ball when he can get the job done in the pocket. Whatever running that needs to be done will be taken care of by Sophomore speedburner Noel Devine. IMO Devine is one of the better backs on the East Coast and will be the face of the Mountaineer program over the next two years. The Mountaineer offense should have no problem getting on track and putting up the points – but I wouldnt be surprised to see backup QB Jarret Brown relief Pat White to avoid further injury.

Why Syracuse will win: The Defense steps up and actually makes this a low scoring affair holding the Mountaineers and injured Pat White in the 17-24 point range (WVU has only scored over 30 points in 1 game – against Villanova.) Brinkley and the Offense put together a few long scoring drives keeping the WVU offense off the field. Shadle knocks in the game winner to propel the Orange and Greg Robinson to their biggest victory in years.

Why West Virginia will win: White comes out hot like the past two years and ends the game in the first half. Brinkley is stuffed and the entire offense falls apart taking us out of the game early.

Syracuse player to watch: QB Cameron Dantley – 49/86 – 549 yards – 7 TD’s – 2 INT’s

Pittsburgh player to watch: RB Noel Devine – 80 carries – 468 yards – 1 TD- 14 rec 66 yards

Reyes39 Prediction: West Virginia 38 – Syracuse 21

-Stats thanks to ncaa.org and cfbdatawarehouse.com

-Curtis Brinkley photo from Frank Ordonez/The Post Standard

Don’t Forget! “The Express” hits theatres nationwide this Friday October 10th!

The ZHK has been notably asleep at the wheel at a time when everyone is weighing in with their two cents on anything and everything about Orange football.  So read on brave readers for what can only be a regurgitation of what you must already be aware of.  Its what the ZHK does best.

Ok, its October and if you already haven’t figured it out, the Big East is completely mediocre.  Completely.  As if we needed last night’s game to remind us of that.

Now when I started doing preseason analysis, I predicted that we would be 3-2 after the Pitt game and as we know, we are not.  But the sad reality is, that with a decent coach we would have been!  A decent coach would have figured out how to stick it to Akron.  A decent coach would have gone for the kill on 4th down (or hell attempted a 55 yd FG which should be doable for Shadle), remembered to insert their stud RB instead of burning the frosh year of Antwon Baily especially when Fiametta or Daniel Bailey (who had already gotten carries in the Pitt game) were available or managed to make one in game adjustment.  Now to complete the fantasy, imagine being 3-2 right now knowing the team you just beat went to the supposed best team in the BE and handled them.  What would we be thinking now?  Hey we have a chance to compete with anyone.  We could hang with one dimensional UConn, and mistake prone Louisville both at home.  We could catch a WV or USF sleeping, or stick it to a struggling Rutgers.  Cincy is on to their 3rd string QB, that game could have value to us.

Hey recruits, we are looking good!  Get on the bandwagon now!

But alas that is not what we are thinking right now.  We are focused on our future head coach search.  On who’s been seen on campus (Lloyd Carr?) and who hasn’t?  Where’s Gross today and why?  We all have our lists, our timetables for change (face it its November, whether you like it or not).  Hell we are even distracted by our feel good Express star Ernie Davis’ hacked up statue.

So now what is a fan to do with so much season left to do?  Well, this fan is going to the cabinet to mix a batch of kool-aid.  Anyone want a drink?  Did I forget to mention that I will be adding some liquor as well?

The kool-aid:  I have been pleasantly surprised by Curtis Brinkley.  I am the first to admit that I had him 3rd in the triumvirate of Hogue/Carter/Brinkley.  He has shown a ton of heart and his performance on the field has been a revelation for a team in need of a spark.  Brinkley has averaged 95 yards per game and is on pace to eclipse 1000 yds this season.  I will watch the rest of the season just to see this kid wrap up his career.

Mitch Browning is the next person to tip my hat to.  If you would have told me that the offensive line would have given up only 7 sacks through 5 games (it was 22 at this point last year).  I would have understood why we should be 3-2.  He has done a great job with line and the running game.

The young receivers are improving.  Yes they really are!  We see Marcus Sales, Van Chew and Dante Davis incrementally getting better.  (I refuse to say flash!)  They will prove to provide nice depth for the next coach to work with.

The offense does have some promise for the future.  Now the defense….

What a new coach should do: Focus on the D please!  There will be some parts to work with – namely Arthur Jones and Anthony Perkins.  But everything else is in need of an overhaul.  Holmes has regressed, and Merkerson has looked lost jumping back and forth now to both sides of the ball last week.  Since this recruiting year could be a total loss, why not troll the JC arena looking for some linebackers and someone who can legitimately rush the passer?  Look for someone who can step in immediately and compete.  Louisville did that (and found Ron English) and they are much improved from a year ago.  The tackling has to improve and maybe it will.  The unit all around is pretty young and maybe it just needs to grow in experience.  What I think it needs is someone who hasn’t been a part of it, tackling machine with a high motor to step in change the personality.  This defense has been nothing more than bend don’t break for 4 seasons.  It needs a new mindset and personality to run it.

So will we win again this season? Good question, with no good answer.  We could in theory hang around with UConn or Louisville.  These are our best shots since they are at home.  Well the best hope on the road is Rutgers, who have taken a big step back without Ray Rice.  Something tells me we will steal a win in one of those games.  But logic says don’t bank on it.  We are still being lead by Greg Robinson after all.

Some trends to watch: Since we are in lame duck mode, and tracking improvement by wins and losses isn’t likely to occur, we will have to reach deep to see if the team is actually improving.  So here a few things that aren’t so hot now that can still be improved on.

Kickoffs:  Still aren’t very deep.  Most of the kickoffs in the Pitt game were caught at the 5 or ten yard line.  That isn’t helpful to coverage units.  C’mon Nico, you were supposed to be the best of this bunch!

Dropped passes:  Seeing less of this, with Merkerson’s drop last week the most obvious in his brief return to the WR group.  Can you imagine having a team like USF with 14 receivers catching passes and 11 different players having scored a TD?

3rd Down conversions:  Still stink.  We don’t have a bread and butter play to execute to keep the chains moving, whether its short yardage runs or a quick slant.  It just isn’t there.  You can tell the staff has been trying the unexpected with its 3 deep throws on 3rd down that resulted in 2 TDs and a should have been pass interference.  Keep an eye on this in BE play for any improving trends.

3rd Down stops:  Getting off the field has been a challenge.  It seems as if opponents can do whatever they want on 1st and 2nd downs, safely knowing that they have good old 3rd down to convert against us.  Whether it was Akron’s give-up draw plays, Penn St’s sweeps, or Pitt’s passes to Derek Kinder, the SU defense has been very accommodating to opposing offenses.  It is the sole reason why Greg Robinson will be out of a job this year.

Sacks:  Hello?  Where is the pass rush.  It just doesn’t exist and the lack of pressure is the key to helping fix the 3rd down problem above.  Outside of an occasional Anthony Perkins siting in the backfield, we just aren’t getting a consistent presence on the edge.  Which leads me to…

Too much “flashing”:  All right I said it.  Greg’s favorite word is out there.  Players have flashed.  Well we have to get passed the occasional good play and more consistency.  Better blocking, better throwing, better tackling.  We look good for 1Q or even a half, then the wheels come off.  There has to be more than the occasional good shot to get fans to come back to this product.  This isn’t like golf.  The bags need to come off the fans heads.  Alums like Jim Brown need to be proud of the effort even in defeat.

That’s all for now fans.  Let us know what you think!