Syracuse

Yes children, winning is fun. The beer tastes better after a win, and goes down much quicker. The postgame food is simply superb and the redonk burn on the back of my neck that has happened every home game this season (love that noon sun!) does not hurt as much. It was Groundhog Day with a QB fumble with the game on the line and the defense on the field to torture us again at the end. But I guess in the screenings, the audience hated the ending so much that the director in the sky rewrote the script. Two thumbs up. Less Rotten Tomatoes than any home movie this year...

As many of you know, I grew up surrounded in my bedroom with Syracuse Orange trappings. My rug was orange, towels over my bed were orange and if Jim Boeheim's bunch lost, my week was a mess. Now, in the innocence of youth, I was not aware that Syracuse played football as well. I naturally thought that college sports started after the Bills were done playing. The last time the boys on the Hill beat FSU, I was one, and Coach Bowden was only a GA for Coach Peterson in Tallahassee. We have pounded these boys 9 consecutive times since then and now squeaked a 10th. Some streaks are still alive.

More than once this game, I thought the offensive line played their worst game of the season, which is a darn impressive feat. However, I need to amend that bitchslap and be a little more specific in my critique. This group is somewhat serviceable in run fits, but are spinach on parade when attempting to protect James Blackman in the pocket. It is a system issue. With the recruiting we have executed on the line in the last three seasons, there is more than enough talent on the field and bench. The zone blocking scheme we employ is fairly easy to push forward when we are running. However, when asked to pass block, our boys are required to communicate at a Mensa level. In the stands, we think it is as easy as our man beats their man, but that is not the case. Before the snap, Eberle lets the other 5 know what he sees, and makes an initial call. Then the defense shifts - as normal defenses not wearing garnet do - and it is up to the QB to call shifts. Well, I think we can safely rule out that the Slim Reaper is making advance checks into new blocking schemes with 5 seconds on the play clock. So, the OL almost always goes with the initial call, and the rest of our boys lined up in the backfield have to make it up as they see bad colors bursting through. We are left with a mess of bodies, with the TE's and backs having just about no chance to know exactly what the 5 fat guys in front of them are going to do. This does not even take into account when we get guys hurt, which has been every game. You wonder why James get hit so often, now you know.  Which helps explain why the punching bag of Seminole message boards for years in Rick Trickett consistently has star running backs shining and young QB's taking more body blows than MMA losers.

Many of you wonder how this kid keeps getting up after the aforementioned blasts he takes. I am with you. Coming out of Halloween week, and seeing dozens of Skeletor costumes, I can theorize why James is having a tough time scraping himself off the turf. His bones are practically outside of his skin, and every time he is hit, he is taking direct shots at his entire skeletal system. He needs to eat like Jabba the Hut the entire offseason, and in addition to having sexy Carrie Fishers chained to him all day long, he will be able to take some of these shots and not look like a Mike Tyson victim in the training room every Sunday morning. For the 3rd time this season, the opposing coach in his post game presser went out of his way to praise the upside for our skinny leader. The kid has tools, but he may be the only one out there that may not want to play ULM on 12/2. He needs the rest.

I heard that after the game, Jimbo has petitioned the NCAA to eliminate 3rd down. Good idea. That would really help. There is no third down situation that we feel good about. 3rd and ten or more, and we have no chance to block long enough for our wideouts to run that far. 3rd and short, and we run for just enough to be 1 yard shy, and when we have 3rd and really short, we fumble. Good thing we have first and second downs in our life and a young stud named Cam. How much fun was it to watch him shake a dude at the line, blast through a few arm tackles and then with three bad guys having an angle, blast by them on the sideline to score from forever away. Then…do it again. If he stays healthy, he will break the FSU freshman rushing record from some dude named Dalvin. Maybe my favorite moment of the game was when he was sprinting past the orange DB's, running (slightly slower) next to him on the sideline was a sweatsuit clad Jacques Patrick. Jacques was the first one to meet him on outside of the end zone. Give me a hurt starter that happy for his freshman replacement every day of the week. What character.

As you know, Jimbo's petition was not limited to his troops with the ball. No, no, no Noonie. We are especially anti-3rd down on defense. Especially 3rd and long. There is no long too long for us. I am fairly certain that if it was 3rd and 98 from the 1 yard line, we would line up inside the other end zone. On one special moment that simply screamed for me to have the quick iPhone camera skills of a millennial, on 3rd and 4 right in front of my seats, we had five defensive backs on the field all lined up in man and every single one of the them was 8 yards deep. Two of the golden girls just looked up and threw their shimmery gold pons on the ground in disgust pre-snap. On the rare plays where our kids were lined up in a mediocrely aggressive stance, it was kind of exciting to see our young talent on display. Young Hamsah Nasirildeen is a stud. Except for paddy caking the 4th down pass back in play, he was fast, physical and might make us forget Derwin next year. Samuels, Wilson, Fagan and Kaindoh all got run this game and looked the part. When we get a coach who can ummm, coach on that side of the ball, it might get exciting over there. Up front, even though for much of the game, we were only rushing 3, those three were killing it. Christmas, Nnadi and Sweat took on 5 guys and won on almost every snap. Incredible effort from these kids. Also, great effort from Brian Burns, who for absolutely no rational reason was a 6'5" 225 pound cornerback this week. God, we are clueless. If Derwin was able to catch any of the 4 balls that he got his hands on, the game would have been over early. But alas, drama was needed to make the script for 2017 complete.

Logan Tyler is our punter. He has been terrific in his sophomore season, and it should be mentioned that he made two tackles as well. He is having a great season, and although I am not as confident in Ricky - our young kickers are a team strength this year. When it matters, it will matter. I know that DJ had a brain fart late in the first half by not fair catching the ball at the 10, but I loved his hands on the bouncing ball that he snatched and returned 12 yards and gave us 30 yards of field position when we have not had anything close to that kind of lift on punt return all year. Now, I can only suggest the use of tasers at practice for kickoff return. Every time one of our kids tries to take it out of the end zone, taze the bastard. They will stop at some point, or have to go to the hospital for their stubbornness.

I think it is safe to say now that we should win out. I don't see any team left on our schedule that can reasonably be expected to beat us. Especially if Jimbo wins his appeal. If we can get bad weather and no 3rd downs, we have a real shot in Upstate SC. We will be there to experience the experience. I know this, we ain't losing the tailgate in Clemson. The Sickmon truck is heading out early and our food will be better than your food - guaranteed. If a miracle happens, and we somehow do not come back from Death Valley with a win (stop laughing), then the pressure on these kids to win at UF will be National Championship-like for a 4 win squad. We will see...