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, I think Hee Haw’s bit really hits home here for Greg Robinson:
Hee Haw - Gloom

It has been one strange circumstance after another w/ top flight players and the SU program. As chronicled by Donnie Webb , the football program has been hit by one painful event after another since Greg Robinson took over as coach.

So what to make of Williams departure? Is there any chance for his return?

Judging by the sounds of it, I’m not guessing that he will be back this season. That leaves a giant hole at WR. So what are the team’s options? Do they move Merkerson back to WR? Do they just hope that Lobdell can take over as #1, a man who has 13 career catches? Does Donte Davis or Dan Sheeran now move up automatically? What about promising frosh like Marcus Sales or Trey Fairchild. The pressure will be on for them to step in and produce immediately.

Now how does it effect gameplanning? We already saw that teams would crowd the line of scrimmage and make us one dimensional. Now there will be even more concern that the line can run block effectively. We can expect even more blitzing to take advantage of our now REALLY inexperienced set of WRs.
Browning’s hands may be tied as to just how much the offense can do. What really hurts is that Williams’ dismissal comes after spring practice, when the team could have spent time dealing with his loss.

Does this change Gross’ impression on expectations for this season? Is GRob the proverbial dead man walking? Will anyone care, as attendance continues to plummet? Could you blame GRob if he started hitting the bottle pretty heavily right now? I think I would be inclined to pass my paper bag stash over to him as well.