The Syracuse football team seemed destined for great things this season. Then the Orange collapsed. ITLH breaks down how it all went down.
This past October Friday the 13th was the opposite of bad luck day for several reasons. My beautiful daughter Kali Esden got married and the Syracuse football squad shocked the world and beat the defending national champion Clemson Tigers.
We were in a limo party bus driving back to the hotel, listening to the seconds tick off the clock. The moment long suffering Cuse fans have been waiting for had finally arrived. The Orange is the New Fast had arrived, the world would stand up and take notice, we would no longer be the door mat of the Atlantic Coast Conference, we were going to go from 4-3 to 9-3 destined for the top 25!
But then reality sunk in, in the words of Rob Schneider’s character from Waterboy ‘Oh no we suck again’. The Orange rattled off 5 straight losses to finish the season 4-8.
Unlike days gone by following the Clemson win we took our talents to South Beach and played the Miami Hurricanes with heart and passion but in the end losing by eight. Well that isn’t so bad, we went toe to toe with another of the top teams in the country and played a solid game. Oh well its only one loss, 4-4, we just need to win two out of the next four games and we will return to the bowl season.
Up next was the perfect opponent, a storied team who was having a down year.
Another trip to Florida this time to Tallahassee. This one as previously chronicled was a heart breaker. The Orange went toe to toe with the Seminoles and shy of a bad coaching decision this was our game to lose … and we did.
This game we would discover later was really the beginning of the end. Our Heisman hopeful did everything in his power, putting the team on his shoulders and taking one of the worst beatings I can ever remember a quarterback receiving. To his detriment and my anguish he kept getting off the mat like an ill-advised Rocky Balboa. Sadly no one in his corner was smart enough to throw in the towel and save him from himself. We lost this game by three and lost Dungey for the season.
I will end my breakdown here for the remaining three games are way too painful to breakdown.
The fact is with Eric Dungey at the helm we can go heads up with anyone in the nation. Without him and we are chum in the water for the sharks to feed on.
No stat makes this more clear than this, with Eric Dungey we lost five games by an average of seven points. Without him we lost three games by an average of 32 points.
Next: Syracuse Football: Top 5 Running Backs in School History
How did we go 4-8 after starting 4-3? Simply put, we did not protect our most valuable asset and failed to protect him from opposing teams and himself. I hope our coaching staff watches the film like I did and makes protection of Eric a priority for his last campaign.