Syracuse Football: Team #WhyNotCuse vs. Team #FireBabers
By Chuck Fiello
Our football guru gives his take on Syracuse football and its head coach.
I feel like when I write stuff like this about Syracuse football that I need to preface it by saying that this is simply my opinion and how I view things and if you think differently, you are entitled to your opinion and I will not belittle you or your opinion.
We all see and experience life differently and I am not here to insult you because we are different but simply share why I think the way I do. I would also ask that you respect my viewpoint without insulting me simply for having a different outlook than others may have.
"“Just because someone stumbles and loses their path, doesn’t mean they’re lost forever.”–Professor X in X-Men: Days of Future Past"
Now, it seems as though the Rutgers loss has already caused many Syracuse football fans to feel alienated/having lost faith. I am not here to tell you that I think you are wrong because you are entitled to your feelings and I was frustrated watching that game too BUT….I respectfully disagree…for now at least.
When this season started, I was on board with the #WhyNotCuse idea which was essentially believing that Syracuse football could be just as good as anyone this season. Even before the season, there were many who had already doomed this team to failure and that is just not me. I like to reserve my judgment until I see how things actually play out on the field. Against Ohio, Syracuse football won and handled their business.
Against Rutgers though, that was ugly and frustrating at times and minus some very impressive defensive stops and one great catch by Taj Harris and some quality running from Sean Tucker, that was not exactly inspiring confidence and I get it.
However, for me, I look at it as one game and not an indictment on the program just yet. I saw reasons for hope and I saw things that needed to be cleaned up but I did not see a complete failure that left me with little to no hope…unless this continues over the next few weeks.
It’s okay to stumble sometimes so for now they get the benefit of the doubt that maybe those dropped passes were just a bad day and that maybe even that poor officiating and other factors did impact their play.
"I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend."
So for those who are already on team #FireBabers, while I understand your frustration right now, especially those who seem to be viewing this as an extension of the last couple of seasons, I just have to disagree with you there respectfully because I am separating the season as a new one and I am willing to wait to see how they play against Albany, Liberty, FSU, and maybe even Wake and Clemson before I doom this program to failure and jump on the train to fire anyone.
I also have not seen any firm plans on where you would go from there without causing the next couple of seasons to be even worse in “rebuild mode” with no guarantee it will get better which also will not help recruiting or fans wanting wins. I understand neither will another one-win season and if that does happen, as I said, that even I will have to look at that and ask ourselves where do we go from here.
But for now, it’s one ugly loss that I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt in the hopes this is simply a stumble and even Clemson has had losses to Syracuse football or Pittsburgh before dominating the ACC and advancing to the College Football Playoff. I understand Syracuse football won’t be favored and many fans will be “checked out” unless they prove that but this is the team I love and I am going to support them until I can’t anymore and I am not ready to rule the whole season a failure based on one game.
I am not even ruling out winning out the rest of the season because until it plays out, I don’t know what will happen and I do have faith without evidence until the evidence becomes more clear and even I have no choice but to rule against them but this is my team…my Orange and I can’t quit you baby just yet. So I say to those who are frustrated and upset, what if Syracuse football turns this around and finishes the season positively….WHY NOT CUSE?????