Syracuse

 King Henry woke up comfortable. Of course he is comfortable. He is laying between 1000 thread-count sheets before they counted threads and there were four servants, now that his eyes popped, scurrying around opening shades, preparing his chamber pot and cratering his robes for travel down the hall to breakfast. After a laconic walk past paintings of his dead relatives, he sat down to his choice of over 12 different unhealthy options to break his fast. After satiating, he headed out for a midmorning hunt with his 8 best guides. They had spent the past three days scouring the local acreage, and knew almost to an embarrassing degree where the stags were going to be this morning. Unaware, Henry simply mounted up, wandered to the spot they had scouted and convinced it was his amazing intuition, was able to shoot a primary male within an hour. After a celebratory beverage or four, he came back to the castle for an afternoon snack of cooked venison and some pastries from a conquered Germanic village. Slipping in a mandatory nap before a sumptuous meal and more conquered country wine - this batch from Northern France. He thought about his upcoming evening, and was immediately uneasy. There was no entertainment scheduled and his promised date from Belgium was delayed at sea. Unreasonable anger immediately simmered and the only question was who to punish for this hole in his life?

This was the post tailgate analogy that kept percolating in my head as we stuffed ourselves with seasoned pork tacos, two different casseroles, pumpkin brownies and stuffed Oreo bars, viscerally upset that our favorite kids only won by 38 on a gorgeous sun splashed Tallahassee afternoon, So, I am going to try and focus on what is amazing instead, and you don’t have much of a reach to get here. This was the best defensive effort for 60 minutes since, umm, Syracuse last year. Ok, so maybe the Orange are fairly odiferous offensively, but they are probably talent-wise a top half ACC team and for two consecutive seasons were just stoned. I know that we are still severely zone challenged, but at least the early season communication errors are no longer in the house. Nothing was easy for the Cuse this day. The longest pass play was a dime thrown by a qb on a dead run hitting a guy in double coverage. Green, Cypress and Thomas were outstanding in man coverage on the overmatched Orange receivers. This allowed Deloach and Shy Brown to focus on the backfield and shut down a somewhat dangerous qb and minimize the run game. 

You have to feel for Jared Verse just a bit. He is like the kid who gets invited to birthday parties every week, and his parents alway pick him up before the cake comes out. Every team runs away from him, scrambles to the other side and puts more chips on him than a pringles factory. He finishes the game with almost no tangible evidence of his participation, but at least the coaches - home and visitor - know his true impact. Fabian Lovett’s controlled, slow return has allowed us to get a front row seat to the massive star arising in Josh Farmer. The collective better start collecting, cuz this kid is gonna be expensive next year. He is an absolutely unblockable force in the middle and a direct beneficiary of the Verse party (without cake) next door. 

Another sputtery day for the offense highlighted by the sequel of  the new show killing it in Fall Sweeps. Is Jordan Hurt aired again on Saturday with a guest appearance by Vin Deisel as the X-Ray tech and Jennifer Coolidge as the cooky locker room druggist. Let’s hope this show gets cancelled soon for all the right reasons. He was visibly upset after a couple of failed fourth down conversions and let the sideline know. He did miss a few opportunities for huge plays with some downfield inaccuracy. But give him some credit for two crazy good tosses. The touchdown to Keon, he took an obliterating hit as he threw and that one was a dime hitting #4 in stride. The long crosser to Bell in between three defenders was also a beauty on a crucial conversion down (LT was wide open in front of him for an easier choice - but nits being picked). I really think that Jordan is super conscious of how important he is to this team, and the unabashed play for broke attitude that he displayed against Florida and Oklahoma is on the bench for now. 

I suspected that the Johnny Wilson injury might be a boon for the rest of the corps as Jordan lost his Linus blanket and is forced to survey the field. The Orange defense which runs that funky 3-3-5 that almost forces checkdowns and crossers was salve to a habit forming look towards the hashes. The winners were Hill and Bell with a smattering of Dorian Williamson and a grand prize of Keon with 15 targets and one unforgettable midfield snare that had me up out of my seat and looking around wondering if the other seventy thousand people sitting with me saw it too. They did. The boy was wearing a Peter Warrick tee shirt pregame, and that is a catch that even Pete has never made. Now, Pete can literally and figuratively run circles around this boy on punt returns and after the catch theatrics. But, you know…goals. And oh yeah, I see you Hakeem Williams. That is what real high end speed looks like. Phew, let’s find some more ways to show that off. 

We have spent much time in this forum praising our Aussie, but today was about our version of Fitzmagic. Once again, he hit every kick and the first was anything but a gimme. Every kickoff was out of reach and now he just needs to work on his post make dance game - which is weak even for a caucasian country boy. Again, goals. 

But the wraparound here is the celebration we need to continue to enjoy for an undefeated team in mid October. Kids we are bowl eligible just after Indigenous People’s Day! Enjoy your royal feast Noles. We are having fun this year!