Connecticut - Syracuse Postgame Reactions OR One Good Thing Happened This Weekend
0 Comments Published on 11.17.2008 by Brian Harrison
One of these guys will be a head football coach next year.Folks, I have seen a lot of terrible football games from Syracuse the past four years. In reality, despite what you think of Connecticut, this is not a football rivalry. A rivalry implies that these games have more meaning than us losing to Connecticut. As Matt Glaude penned in his most recent article here, “Hating Connecticut is a two-week (at most) responsibility, like pest control.” While this may be true, it does not take the sting out of this loss for me. Sitting in the Dome with very good friends was about the only solace I could take away form this one. UConn beats down a Syracuse team barely on life support 39 to 14.
Offense
D
Greg was right, he did play several quarterbacks. Cameron Dantley did not play well (4/16, 38 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT), Andrew Robinson did not play well (2/7, 13 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT), and Cody Catalina did not play well (1 carry for -1 yards, 0/0, 0 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT). Awesome. Syracuse’s only offensive spot was Curtis Brinkley (21 carries, 94 yards, 4.5 ypc, 1 TD). He played well and continued to give his all to this team on his final home game. Other than that, the team was stinko on offense. 147 total yards on offense is terrible, but 1-14 on third down conversions is even worse. Terrible. Just terrible. The team managed to not score in the second half again. These guys managed a worse outing than the Rutgers game.
Defense
C-
Preparing the defense for this game, they just should have been given a paper saying “STOP DONALD BROWN”. They did not. He ran for 131 yards and a touchdown. Outstanding. They could not stop the run. They actually managed to stop some passes though, which was refreshing. However, it matters little when Donald Brown is running all over the field.
Special Teams
C+
It a lot of highs and lows for the Syracuse special teams. They manage to block a punt and recover it in the end zone for six points, but they allow a 69 yard punt return for a touchdown and get a punt of their own blocked for a safety. Patrick “Sex Offender Mustache” Shadle did not attempt a field goal, but he did nail two extra points. Rob Long punted well when he managed to get the ball off, punting seven times for a total of 327 yards, getting three behind the twenty, one of which landed perfectly on the five yard line. Mike Holmes returned 5 kicks for a total of 98 yards (not bad), and Max Suter ran two for 58 yards (a little better). Either way, a day of highs and lows for the special teams, who managed to earn half of the teams points on the day.
Coaching
D
This was not a good game for the coaches either. The play calling was debatable at best. Most of what they tried failed or was quite predictable. The defense failed to adjust to the rushing attack of UConn. Again, and I made a big deal about this last week, but this team just does not adjust to anything at the half or during the game. There are reasons this guy was fired besides three Big East wins.
GPA
D+ (1.5)
This game was a showcase of everything going wrong during a game for a team. The only thing we did not see was someone tearing their ACL. And that might have been a welcome diversion from actually seeing this team fail to compete. This team decided to regress even further back, possibly to a Division 2 level, right past 1-AA. This team puts in its most futile effort and for that I was rewarded with a couple beers, some laughs, and a three hour block of wasted time. This team cannot get worse, and for the first time in history, UConn now has more wins against Syracuse than losses. If you’ll excuse me, I have a gun, a noose, and a bottle of bleach waiting for me to pick one of them.
Syracuse ends their home schedule and only have two road games left. As you have probably heard by now, yesterday Syracuse finally committed to getting a new head coach next season. With that, it is official that the Greg Robinson Era has an end date, and already I can feel the team getting better. Because honestly, even if we never recruit well again, at least the team will look better than one it does when you have a coach that knows what the hell they are supposed to do. Syracuse will travel to South Bend, Indiana next weekend to take on Notre Dame, another struggling program. Will Syracuse win? Probably not, but it will sure be fun to now root for them knowing that even a win will not keep Greg Robinson around anymore. The future is filled with endless possibilities, and I for once am satisfied, safe in the knowledge that Greg is finally done and we can all move forward.
Offense
D
Greg was right, he did play several quarterbacks. Cameron Dantley did not play well (4/16, 38 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT), Andrew Robinson did not play well (2/7, 13 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT), and Cody Catalina did not play well (1 carry for -1 yards, 0/0, 0 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT). Awesome. Syracuse’s only offensive spot was Curtis Brinkley (21 carries, 94 yards, 4.5 ypc, 1 TD). He played well and continued to give his all to this team on his final home game. Other than that, the team was stinko on offense. 147 total yards on offense is terrible, but 1-14 on third down conversions is even worse. Terrible. Just terrible. The team managed to not score in the second half again. These guys managed a worse outing than the Rutgers game.
Defense
C-
Preparing the defense for this game, they just should have been given a paper saying “STOP DONALD BROWN”. They did not. He ran for 131 yards and a touchdown. Outstanding. They could not stop the run. They actually managed to stop some passes though, which was refreshing. However, it matters little when Donald Brown is running all over the field.
Special Teams
C+
It a lot of highs and lows for the Syracuse special teams. They manage to block a punt and recover it in the end zone for six points, but they allow a 69 yard punt return for a touchdown and get a punt of their own blocked for a safety. Patrick “Sex Offender Mustache” Shadle did not attempt a field goal, but he did nail two extra points. Rob Long punted well when he managed to get the ball off, punting seven times for a total of 327 yards, getting three behind the twenty, one of which landed perfectly on the five yard line. Mike Holmes returned 5 kicks for a total of 98 yards (not bad), and Max Suter ran two for 58 yards (a little better). Either way, a day of highs and lows for the special teams, who managed to earn half of the teams points on the day.
Coaching
D
This was not a good game for the coaches either. The play calling was debatable at best. Most of what they tried failed or was quite predictable. The defense failed to adjust to the rushing attack of UConn. Again, and I made a big deal about this last week, but this team just does not adjust to anything at the half or during the game. There are reasons this guy was fired besides three Big East wins.
GPA
D+ (1.5)
This game was a showcase of everything going wrong during a game for a team. The only thing we did not see was someone tearing their ACL. And that might have been a welcome diversion from actually seeing this team fail to compete. This team decided to regress even further back, possibly to a Division 2 level, right past 1-AA. This team puts in its most futile effort and for that I was rewarded with a couple beers, some laughs, and a three hour block of wasted time. This team cannot get worse, and for the first time in history, UConn now has more wins against Syracuse than losses. If you’ll excuse me, I have a gun, a noose, and a bottle of bleach waiting for me to pick one of them.
Syracuse ends their home schedule and only have two road games left. As you have probably heard by now, yesterday Syracuse finally committed to getting a new head coach next season. With that, it is official that the Greg Robinson Era has an end date, and already I can feel the team getting better. Because honestly, even if we never recruit well again, at least the team will look better than one it does when you have a coach that knows what the hell they are supposed to do. Syracuse will travel to South Bend, Indiana next weekend to take on Notre Dame, another struggling program. Will Syracuse win? Probably not, but it will sure be fun to now root for them knowing that even a win will not keep Greg Robinson around anymore. The future is filled with endless possibilities, and I for once am satisfied, safe in the knowledge that Greg is finally done and we can all move forward.
Stay tuned later tonight for my complete and well thought out, non-knee jerk reactions to the entire Greg Robinson firing.
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