Is Syracuse passing us as a program?

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Syracuse is a tough place to win. It’s not a great location and the Dome is a dump. Brown was a great hire but as others have said, he’ll get poached before he builds anything sustainable. We’re not without issues, but zero chance Syracuse passes us on an overall level

Not so fast, my friend! Let me take you back to a 15-year period from 1987 to 2001. The Orange Juice was flowin' like wine, and the beautiful women were instinctively flocking like the salmon of Capistrano.

During that time, Syracuse amassed a record of 127-49-4, an average season record of 8.47 - 3.27 - .27.

Some say you can still hear the ghosts of success lingering in the rafters of the dome. Does Fran (a medium to Jim) Brown have what it takes to resurrect these faint voices and bring Syracuse back to life? Well, if you add the first three numeric digits together in 2024, you get *gulp* 44. Could that be a sign? Is Kyle McCord the next Donovan McNab? The letter casing would seem to suggest so. Has Steelers' great Anthony Smith infiltrated Pitt intelligence during his stint in Pittsburgh and divulged all secrets? Time will tell.

 

[NTOP]

I hope I'm just being paranoid. I just don't think we should take things like always being better than Syracuse and Georgia Tech for granted. It's not like we are just inherently better than those programs, even if it's felt like it lately. Our places in the hierarchy can flip at any time.

Heck, Many Diaz has a pretty good class going for Duke right now... though I think Duke is disadvantaged enough that taking being better than them in football for granted is okay to do.

All in all, it feels like Pitt football really needs something to galvanize it right now.

A couple wins will get it started. Beat wvu & Cinci, not just the rentals.

 

[Schaef60]

Who cares,If they both went away would anyone notice?

 

[pittzap]

Syracuse is a tough place to win. It’s not a great location and the Dome is a dump. Brown was a great hire but as others have said, he’ll get poached before he builds anything sustainable. We’re not without issues, but zero chance Syracuse passes us on an overall level

A great hire? He hasn’t coached a game yet, has never been a head coach, and only has had one year at a coordinator level when he was co-defensive coordinator at Temple for one season. Wow, a new, young coach recruiting pretty well his first season; and they paid the QB to go there. . How many times have we seen that?

 

[JJ COLLINS]

Obviously they have to do it first, and I get that. But they beat us last year. They brought in better transfers than us. They had a better recruiting class than us last year. They have a better recruiting class than us this year.

As one of our fixed annual opponents (if they're even doing that anymore with the addition of three new teams), it would really suck to see them get back on track. That's one we've been able to take for granted - albeit usually not without a good fight - for some time now.

I think we need to root hard for this thing to sputter out early, because Fran Brown has some momentum going right now.

Ya, he is undefeated as a head coach at Syracuse. They gave won so many games lately their program is strong.

 

[thebadby2]

Syracuse is a tough place to win. It’s not a great location and the Dome is a dump. Brown was a great hire but as others have said, he’ll get poached before he builds anything sustainable. We’re not without issues, but zero chance Syracuse passes us on an overall level

I honestly think Cuse football has been dying a slow death since they built that dome.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

A great hire? He hasn’t coached a game yet, has never been a head coach, and only has had one year at a coordinator level when he was co-defensive coordinator at Temple for one season. Wow, a new, young coach recruiting pretty well his first season; and they paid the QB to go there. . How many times have we seen that?

One time, and one time only. You can't spell Syracuse without "SEC."

And you can't spell Orange without "organ."

Could Fran Brown be playing his way into the Big 2?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Not so fast, my friend! Let me take you back to a 15-year period from 1987 to 2001. The Orange Juice was flowin' like wine, and the beautiful women were instinctively flocking like the salmon of Capistrano.

During that time, Syracuse amassed a record of 127-49-4, an average season record of 8.47 - 3.27 - .27.

Some say you can still hear the ghosts of success lingering in the rafters of the dome. Does Fran (a medium to Jim) Brown have what it takes to resurrect these faint voices and bring Syracuse back to life? Well, if you add the first three numeric digits together in 2024, you get *gulp* 44. Could that be a sign? Is Kyle McCord the next Donovan McNab? The letter casing would seem to suggest so. Has Steelers' great Anthony Smith infiltrated Pitt intelligence during his stint in Pittsburgh and divulged all secrets? Time will tell.

I'd like to see a deep dive into why they were so good then. Even when Pitt was good during those years, I remember thinking like "oh crap, we have to play Syracuse next."

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

I'd like to see a deep dive into why they were so good then. Even when Pitt was good during those years, I remember thinking like "oh crap, we have to play Syracuse next."

Their history of success is admittedly more scanty than I would have guessed. I got into college football in the 90's when playing Syracuse was tough, so I just assumed they were a decent/good program until the early 2000's. But yeah - no. That period was indeed an outlier for them.

 

[thebadby2]

I'd like to see a deep dive into why they were so good then. Even when Pitt was good during those years, I remember thinking like "oh crap, we have to play Syracuse next."

Don't need to dive too deep--and they weren't "so good"--they were pretty good:

1. Good coaches-MacPherson and Pasqualoni
2. Good QBs--Donny McPherson and McNabb, even Marvin Graves
3. Relatively light schedule in many of those years--e.g., one ranked opponent in 11-0 regular season (#10 PSU), one in 1988 reg, season (blowout loss to #4 WVU).
4. Solid iverall team talent and a number of elite individual talents at positions other than QB: Moose Johnston, Marvin Harrison, Freeney, Q Ismail, etc.

 

[pittzap]

One time, and one time only. You can't spell Syracuse without "SEC."

And you can't spell Orange without "organ."

Could Fran Brown be playing his way into the Big 2?

He’s clearly “Paul Chrysting” his time at Cuse to get experience and will move on as quickly as possible, if a Big 2 head coaching job becomes available.

 

[thebadby2]

He’s clearly “Paul Chrysting” his time at Cuse to get experience and will move on as quickly as possible, if a Big 2 head coaching job becomes available.

That will only work if he actually accomplishes something positive there. I don’t like his odds.