Big East Preview: Syracuse Orange
August 4th, 2008 by Jason Collette
Next to being a Florida International football fan, backing the Syracuse program has to be the toughest job in Division I football these days. At least FIU has an excuse as their program is younger than Greg Robinson’s tenure at Syracuse.
This is a program that fired Paul Pasqualoni despite a successful career and has gone 7-28 under Greg Robinson. For a program that has produced legends such as Art Monk (as a Redskins fan, I reserve the right to list him first), Jim Brown, John Mackey, Marvin Harrison, Larry Czonka, Ernie Davis, Donovan McNabb, and Joe Morris, this place has become a relative offensive wasteland. Luckily, even Robinson has recognized the west coast is not going to work in the Big East and has brought on Mitch Browning as the offensive coordinator. If you do not know that name, he was the genius that produced all of those wonderful fantasy seasons in Minnesota under Glenn Mason that made quarterbacks and runnings backs a very productive position in the option pass attack. Save the Rice Owls in 2006, just about every school struggles switching offenses which is why it will be a struggle in the great white north.
Quarterback Andrew Robinson returns as a starter after a rather successful 2007 season in which he threw for twice as many touchdowns as interceptions; in Syracuse you take your successes where you can find them. He is talented but it will be extremely tough for him to repeat any success this year learning the new offense and losing the two receivers who made up 85% of the passing game last year in Taj Smith (graduation) and Mike Williams (huked on foniks). If Robinson goes down Cameron Dantley takes over. He is the son of former NBA great Adrian Dantley who was best known for taking fifteen seconds to prepare to shoot for every free throw. Keep in mind the offensive line allowed 54 sacks last year so Robinson is a frequent target for injury.
How sad was the Syracuse rushing attack last year? Curtis Brinkley led the team with 416 yards rushing and the team had five rushing touchdowns on the season. The good news is Syracuse gets Delone Carter back who missed all of last year with a hip injury. Syracuse adds young talent with top recruit Averin Collier who has the potential to be the most explosive player in the group. Given the huge holes in the receiving corps and Browning’s history of productive rushing attacks in Minnesota, there is some potential here for RB3 options on your squad but looking for more than that is a risk given the track record of this team.
I have already mentioned that the receiving corps is in shambles. Taj Smith and Mike Williams combined for 1659 yards and 15 touchdowns last season for an offense that had 2800 yards passing and 20 touchdowns last year. Given the change in offensive scheme and the disastrous depth chart from the losses to graduation and academics, listing anyone to look at here is a waste of pixels on your computer screen. Mike Owen is listed as the starter in tight end which is a key position in this offense so if you need a TE3, take the gamble.
Patrick Shadle returns to handle the kicking duties but is not called upon that often to do so as he was 16-18 last season. He has hit from 50 yards away though.
Defensively, if you roster this defense you should just call it quits now and start getting ready for college fantasy basketball season. The Syracuse defense is the worst in the league further making the hiring of Greg Robinson a headscratcher. Aren’t teams supposed to improve on defense when they bring in defensive-minded coaches?
The schedule is not as terrible as in year’s past for Syracuse. I like to rail on a lot of BCS teams for scheduling pansies but Syracuse rarely if ever schedules I-AA teams. This year they open at Northwestern but then play four straight home games against Akron, Penn State, Northeastern, and Pitt. After the way they’ve played the last few years, they deserve a I-AA team. After that, the schedule gets much tougher with roadies at Morgantown, Tampa, and Piscataway and then a trip to South Bend to close the season. There is not a #1 or #2 option at any position on this roster at this time and I cannot recommend rostering any Syracuse player on draft day unless one of the runningbacks has a huge camp this month.
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