Syracuse football has a bye week, and I’ve got tons of thoughts to share
By Chuck Fiello
Happy bye week everyone, and to those who crave Syracuse football, I’m sorry! To those wanting to maintain an adequate blood pressure or maybe in a relationship with an Orange fan but not a fan yourself, enjoy the off-time this weekend.
Either way, I want to take a look at this season so far and discuss a few thoughts I have.
Syracuse Football Is The Rodney Dangerfield Of The ACC
When it comes to Syracuse football, at least one national writer has no respect for this team. Jerry Palms of CBS Sports has a list of his bowl game projections with Boston College and Virginia Tech (Syracuse’s 2 ACC wins) listed, BUT SYRACUSE IS NOT!!!!!!
As of right now to add insult to injury, BC and Virginia Tech have 4 wins versus Syracuse’s 5. I know the Orange’s schedule isn’t easy and I’m admittedly a Homer but to think those two teams can find two wins and Syracuse can’t find one is kind of insulting.
Defense Recognized Nationally
If you think the defense has been performing great, you’re right. Some players are ranking rather impressive nationally, according to NCAA statistics. Mikel Jones is 30th in the country in solo tackles and 31st in total tackles. Cody Roscoe is 12th in sacks, along with teammate Stefon Thompson who is 47th.
Late Season Bye Weeks Stink
Syracuse football has played 9 games with 3 left and just now getting a bye week? Shouldn’t bye weeks be more like halfway through the season like when baseball takes a few days off for the All-Star game? That would make more sense.
Right now we have players with, as Coach Babers famously says, “owwies” including Chris “Rhino” Elmore so it’s definitely a needed break but just odd to have one 3/4 of the way through the season. I think it would be a better idea to give everyone a bye week in the middle of the season…but maybe within a two-week period so that there is still football on TV (like half the ACC has October 10th off and the other half October 17th hypothetically).
Dino Babers Is Back In 2022…PERIOD
There seems to be a percentage of fans who for one reason or another want Head Coach Dino Babers fired. I’m not going to use this space to trivialize their views or mock them because that’s how they feel and me belittling them helps nobody.
I will say though that minus something scandalous breaking out, something else unforeseen happens or him wanting to leave, Coach Babers will be back for the 2022 season whether you like him or not. If you fire him, you’re going to continue paying him a lot of money, potentially lose players like running back Sean Tucker, defensive back Duce Chesnut and quarterback Garrett Shrader, and also, unless you have an absolutely guaranteed winning coach waiting in the wings, you risk the potential that your next coach could possibly set this program back even further.
Remember firing Coach Pasqualoni for Coach Robinson? How’d that work out? It’s always a risk you have to be willing to face if you make a change, and right now I’m happy with the coach we have and the players seem to be as well.