Welcome to the next installment of offseason look ins.  This edition we focus on our first Big East opponent, the South Florida Bulls.

What We Know

Last season, the Bulls finished with an 8-5 record.  Sadly for them, all 5 of those losses came in Big East conference play.   For the record, the wins were to Tennessee Martin, Central Florida, Kansas, Florida International, NC St, Cuse, Connecticut and Memphis in the St Petersburg Bowl, basically the equivalent of us winning the mythical Carrier Bowl or Saltine Warrior Bowl.

Losses were to Pitt, Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers and West Virginia.

Last year’s game against the Orange was one of those perfect games that epitomized the Greg Robinson Era.  The 45-13 beat down had it’s positive moments, like Boonah rushing for over 100 yards in the first half.  But mostly it was what you expected from the GRE, poor defense – anyone remember that no coverage TD in the second half  – horrible OL play, the 3rd quarter was basically 6 plays for minus 13 yards and an out of touch with reality coach – refresh yourself here.

Spring Developments:

When one thinks about the USF Bulls two players come to mind, QB Matt Grothe and DE George Selvie, the alpha and omega.  Grothe, finally a senior, leads the team in rushing and passing.  You know the offense is going through him.  Selvie is the two time All America sack machine who needs just 14 to match the all time NCAA record for tackles for loss.

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Jonny Flynn is ready for the Minnesota Timberwolves, but it’s hard to tell if Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations David Kahn is ready to run a team. After selecting Spaniard Ricky Rubio with the fifth pick, Kahn plucked Flynn’s name off the draft board, selecting two NBA-ready point guards consecutively. If the WaMu Theater crowd wasn’t too busy booing the Warriors’ selection (or if you’re a Knicks fan, theft) of Stephen Curry, they were scratching their heads as to how Minnesota’s selections make sense from a roster assembly standpoint.

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One of the basic tenets of draft prognostication is that the NBA’s version involves far less guesswork as far as which college players will be successful at the professional level than its football, baseball and hockey counterparts. Predicting where that young talent goes, however, can be a tougher nut to crack. And with this year’s class of point guards being as deep as its been in recent memory, the possibilities for Jonny Flynn seem endless.

At first considered a fringe lottery pick, Flynn has impressed enough scouts and coaching staffs to have the honor of being included in the draft’s Green Room on Thursday, reserved for those perceived as the top 16 picks. On top of that, mock drafts across the blogosphere have Flynn going no lower than 10th overall to the Milwaukee Bucks. Dollar dollar bills, indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

The offseason previews continue with Syracuse’s Week 4 opponent, the Maine Black Bears.    Maine represents SU’s foray into FCS play that is now all the rage in college football.   What that means is that this is a game that is supposed to be a gimmee, a slam dunk,  a no brainer, the auto W. You get the picture.  However we’ve seen in the past couple years just how dangerous playing a quality FCS foe can be.  Just ask Michigan who two years ago couldn’t get out of  Appalachian St’s way in the Big House.  So much for the easy W.

Well Maine could be that sort of team this year for the Orange.   How do I know that Maine will be a tough foe?  They are on Twitter!  Ok seriously, I was able to learn some facts such as this:

NOTEBOOK: Maine returns 5 of its top 6 rushers from last season when it finished 3rd in the CAA and 23rd nationally in rushing (187.5 ypg)

Yikes, I hope we have the draw figured out this season!

FB Jared Turcotte (2nd Tm), QB Mike Brusko (Hon Men), LB Mark Masterson (Hon Men) named preseason All-Americans by Consensus Draft Services

Not only will we not be facing inexperience at QB, they have a pretty good one.

Black Bears ranked in three preseason polls…14th Sporting News; 15th Any Given Saturday; 17th Athlon’s.

And as you would figure at this point, this will be a solid club.  They finished last season ranked in the top 20.  So now that I have scared the bejesus out of you.  Or at least gave you cause to ponder, let’s continue our dive into the Black Bears.

What we know

Last year Maine finished with a record of 8-5.  Wins were to: Monmouth, Stony Brook, Delaware, Hofstra, Northeastern (more impressively than us last year), Iona, UMass, Rhode Island.  Losses: Iowa, Richmond, James Madison, New Hampshire, and Northern Iowa in the first round the FCS playoffs.

On offense the Black Bears return 8 starters, they will need to replace two lineman and their RB.  On Defense, there are 5 returning starters from their “Black Hole” Defense.  Most of the attrition is in the secondary and DL where they must replace two starters in each slot.

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With the arrival of Father’s Day this weekend, I thought a shout out to all dads was appropriate.  After all, the majority of us got our sports jones from our dads.  They were there to throw endless baseballs, watch games, take us fishing, and tons of other sports related activities.   I’m sure we all have some memorable sports stories with our pops.  I’ll share a top 5 of sorts here:

5) Bills vs Dolphins:  Rich Stadium.  Somehow, I avoided the Bills,Jets and Giants and became a Dolphin fan – maybe I was swayed by the 1972 undefeated season?  All I know is that day was freezing, typical Buffalo lake effect snow and the Canucks above us were heckling my dad for bringing a “traitor” to the stadium.  Oh yeah and my dad had a flask in his pocket – didn’t understand the importance of it then.  Ha Ha!

4) 1980:  Carrier Dome – Joe Morris running around the field, hearing the comparisons on how this wasn’t anything like Archbold when he could run on the field with the players.  The start of tons of Cuse games as a kid.

3) Yankee Stadium – 1976, Orioles vs Yanks, first visit to the hallowed grounds.  I just remember how awesome the field looked to the naked eye versus watching on WPIX 11!  My dad even caught a foul ball – even though it was intended for me!  Of course he always said it was right at him!

2) Pearl Washington’s half court heave vs BC.  That game was special for its finish and the fact that my dad never saw the shot go in!  Everyone was on their feet hugging anyone within site.  Also one of the first games I recall that I could curse like a sailor and the old man had no clue.

1) SU’s NC vs Kansas.  Of course this has to head the list.  We’d watched the Texas game together at Myrtle Beach the Saturday before.  Tense finish, the old man and I talked on the phone several times in the 2nd half.   He thought we were about to blow it, I said the team had destiny on its side.  Even though we were miles away now we were together in spirit and rooting for the Cuse.  There was both elation and relief when the game ended.

Of course there are tons of other moments and more to come.  So again here’s to all those dads out there.  Thanks!

I thought it was time to take a peek at the recruiting landscape and see how Syracuse and their Big East brethren are navigating the recruiting waters for the football class of 2010.  Many prospects are camping around now and we may get a commit or offers as a result.

Of course we will start with our Orangemen.  (I think I will continue to reference our boys as the Orangemen in hopes that Doug Marrone will add this to his binder of things to save for a rainy day with the AD).  Thus far the Cuse has pulled in 3 recruits. Scout has given  2 of them 3 stars, with LB Myles Davis the highest rated at his position.  Rivals has not ranked any of these players.  Macky MacPherson is the latest signee back on April 23rd.  Check out John Kinder here:

Cincinnati is next on the list.  They have parlayed their Orange Bowl appearance with a league best 11 recruits committed so far.  Mainly they have solidified the southern Ohio area.  They have one 4 star and two 3 stars per scout.  Rivals has 1 one four star and three 3 stars.  TE Alex Smith is the top pick at his position and is also the latest signee for the Bearcats

Connecticut has yet to receive a verbal commitment!  If this was Syracuse instead of them you would hear the howls from the Orange faithful.  It is a tad surprising given the high NFL draft picks out of Husky Nation this past year.  You’d think that would be a nice selling point to recruits.

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Time to move on in our offseason previews and wrap up the final game of our Big 10 trilogy.  This week’s opponent is last year’s opening game foe, the Northwestern Wildcats.

What we know:

The Wildcats return 14 starters (5 offense, 8 defense, punter) on a team that went 9-4 last year. In addition to the 30-10 win over us in the opener, the Wildcats took down Duke, Southern Ill, Ohio, Iowa, Purdue, Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois. The four losses were to Michigan St, Indiana, Ohio St and in the Alamo Bowl versus Missouri.

Northwestern has a real chance at improving on last year’s 5-3 conference record as they don’t have to face either of Ohio St or Michigan.   Penn St and Wisconsin both travel to Northwestern where the hopes of a possible upset are highest.

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The winds of change continue to blow on the Syracuse Orange football team.  Yesterday the university announced that seven more players have left the program.  Also with that announcement was the release of the post spring, pre-season football depth chart.  A quick perusal of the chart reveals some startling revelations.  The list looks more like a depth charge than a depth chart.

For starters,  what the heck happened to the weakside LB position?  The loss of Parker Cantey has thrust Derek Hines into the top spot on the depth chart at the Will.  Hines was on no ones radar (except the staff obviously) during spring.  It was obvious from the get go that LB was a weak area when Hogue and also departed Dan Sheeran were sent immediately into the fray.  Now its up to Juco Hines and incoming frosh EJ Carter to step in and play right away.  No need to mention that we surely can’t afford an injury at the Will.

Speaking of places we don’t need an injury, its the Oline.  Where are the guards?  Only 3 listed total on the depth chart.  I suppose the tackles can move over easy enough in a pinch, but again this is looking like a place where we can ill afford an injury.

Another spot of concern is the secondary – namely our corners.  The departure of Nick Chestnut, who was in the starting mix at corner, is surely surprising to say the least.  He only had another year left in the tank, and came is as a walk-on.  Some rumblings are out there that he didn’t get a scholly.  With only 74 on scholly now, why would this be the case if its true.  May have also been an academic casualty – tough luck for the Orange either way as now the Scotts are flanked in the two deep by Juco John Henderson and true frosh Shamarko Thomas.

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Well the Syracuse University football team now has the most talked-about third string quarterback in the country.  As many of you probably know, SU recently released an updated depth chart for the upcoming season, and Greg Paulus comes in at third place in the QB race.  Granted, this might change once Marrone or anyone else actually sees the kid throw a football.  No, all those replays on Time Warner Sports from five years ago don’t count.

Of course, the doubters are still out there.  I’m sure they’re up in arms over all the fuss we had to go through just to get a backup backup quarterback.  But hey… at least we aren’t the only Northeast school recruiting promising highschool quarterbacks who have spent years playing a different sport…

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Penn St Logo

The offseason previews continue with our Week Two opponent, the Penn St Nittany Lions.

Doug Marrone’s first road game as a head coach is a doozy – a voyage to Happy Valley to face Penn St and their coach Joe Paterno.  This game is also number two of the Big 10 trilogy to start the season.

What we know:

The Lions return 10 starters (5 offense, 4 defense and the punter) from a team that went to the Rose Bowl and save for a tough loss at Iowa could have been playing for a national championship.  For the record the wins: Coastal Carolina, Oregon St, Cuse, Temple, Illinios, Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio St, Indiana, Mich St.  Losses: the aforementioned Iowa and USC.

Another run at Pasadena is very possible, as Penn St has won 40 games over the last four years.  This season should be no different.  There are studs at most of the key positions Daryll Clark at QB, Evan Royster at RB, DT Jared Odrick, LBs Navarro Bowman and Sean Lee.  Throw in getting Ohio St at home and it’s not a stretch to think that this team will be smelling roses by season’s end.

Spring Developments:

Building depth seems to be theme at spring.  There is no experience behind Clark, as Pat Devlin left to join DI wannabee Delaware.  True Frosh Kevin Newsome and a couple of walkon’s provide depth at QB.  With Clark having a propensity for concussions this is an alarming note to Nittany Nation.

Also the top 3 WRs from last season are gone, Brett Brackett appears to be the most talented/experienced.  The OLine also lost 3 starters, but Penn St always recruits well there.  They picked up stud Eric Shrive and see this year’s early fleecing of WPIAL’s top lineman right from under Pitt’s noses – including Miles Dieffenbach, whose dad coaches tennis at Pitt!

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