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I don't know if I'd call the Dome outdated. Being Syracuse born and raised it hurts as a current student to see the football team so bad. It's hard for my friends on campus who didn't grow up here to understand what it was like back in the late 90's with McNabb. A capacity crowd of 50,000 rockin the place sent chills down your spine. The current students who didn't grow up here will probably not have a chance to experience that.
I think some of it is the conference, and ultimately NFL draft potential. The Big East used to be a good conference but then like now is a 2nd rate conference when compared to the others and that is a big sticking point to potential recruits, and as someone else said the winter--if you have the choice to play football at Florida, USC, Texas A&M, or Syracuse which would you pick?
Quote:
Originally Posted by dnclark
I don't know if I'd call the Dome outdated. Being Syracuse born and raised it hurts as a current student to see the football team so bad. It's hard for my friends on campus who didn't grow up here to understand what it was like back in the late 90's with McNabb. A capacity crowd of 50,000 rockin the place sent chills down your spine. The current students who didn't grow up here will probably not have a chance to experience that.
I agree that the Dome is far from outdated--its alot better than some of the other stadiums in collegiate football. The Mcnabb years were great, I remember the final McNabb game against Miami (in which we killed them), the whole atmosphere was electrifying
I think we need better recruiter staff for one, you really cant blame the coach for that--he can only do so much with what he is given.
Last edited by bellafinzi; 11-02-2008 at 01:00 PM..
1) Vick decided to go to VaTech instead of Syracuse after McNabb left. I think this was the only time he listened to the advice of his coaches... We ended up with Troy Nunes under center, and the rest is history.
2) The Big East losing BC, Miami and VaTech. We've become a bloated basketball conference that's probably too big and too good for our own sake. More teams currently in the Big East would make the tourney if they were playing in different conferences... but that's up for a different topic. Recruits want to know how often they'll be on national television so that they can improve their draft status. We currently can't offer that.
I'd like to imagine that we compete with WVU, Pitt, Penn State and BC for recruits now... but I think it's more likely that we're competing with UB (Univ. at Buffalo) and other Big East basketball schools UConn, Temple, etc.
The great thing about college sports is that it can all turn around with one big recruiting class and one big season. Who knows, maybe "The Express" will bring some attention back our way. Maybe we can bribe top recruit by agreeing to un-retire #44.
but why did the big east let VT, BC, and the U go?
they lost of lot of TV exposure
the other ACC schools are now improving, it is weird
Wake Forest, and UNC are kinda competitive now
Wake went to a BCS bowl just a couple of years ago. UNC goes in spurts. Except for BC, the other two make sense to be in the ACC to be honest with you. I think Syracuse was pursued to join as well.
they should have just traded The U for Maryland and stopped it there
Perhaps, as Maryland used to play Syracuse quite a bit back in the day. I wish schools like Villanova or even Delaware could step up and play in the Big East too. Imagine if St. John's could get a decent program going?
Also, getting South Florida comes from the former Conference USA teams that came to the Big East.
I'll put my 2 cents.....in addition to the fact that Robinson sucks......
1. Changing recruiting landscape. SU, a small, private school, now has to deal with three public schools around it for recruits, UConn, Rutgers and Buffalo! It used to be just Penn State, but it's JoePa and the other three!
2. Loss of Miami, VTech, and BC to the ACC hit the Big East and SU hard!!!!!!!
3. Weather in Syracuse is brutal. Yes, it's was brutal during the days of Brown, Davis, McNabb and Freeney, but with a more competitive recruting landscape in college football, the minuses of a declining football program can really hurt!
As for unretiring 44, I'm divided on that. One the one hand, a great player with it can present an aura of intimidation to the opponents with that number. On the other hand, giving it out can be a crap shoot. You may have a recruit whose HS numbers merit 44, but comes to the SU campus and disappoints!
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