Syracuse's steady decline over past three to fours years has hit bottom under Paul Pasqualoni. Whether the cause is poor recruiting, invasion of UCONN into SU recruiting hotbeds, loyalty of Coach P to coaches who have not produced, or AD Crouthamel refusal to fire Coach P. and Deleone, this is easily the worst SU team in the last quarter century. Syracuse's strong fan base has made their voice heard in a number of ways over the past year. Season ticket sales were the lowest this year since the days of Archibold stadium. A recent Syracuse Herald poll showed over 80% or respondants wanted to see Coach P. fired immediately. Radio talk shows in Western NY are hearing the same in overwhelming numbers. Check out the SU football forumn your self at
http://www.syracuse.com/forums/orangefootball/index.ssf to see for yourself. The once overwhelming support that this team has had over the past 15 years has dwindled away. The Carrier Dome was once an automatic sell out regardless of the opponent. Last year Notre Dame came into Syracuse for the first time in 40 years and there were empty seats. There is an estimated 22,000 tickets left for this game. Ouch.
We Need Your Support
That is the message from the University and the team.
With ticket sales down, players and administrators are worried about the attendance on Saturday (Post Standard <http://www.syracuse.com/sports/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1095240107164421.xml>).
"It's tough," said SU running back Damien Rhodes, a 2002 graduate of Fayetteville-Manlius High School. "We haven't done what SU is supposed to do. But I think the worst thing that can happen is when the community goes against us. That makes it more of an uphill battle for us. We want to get them in the stadium, we want them to come watch our games and support us, and we want to win games. The more the fans start getting on us, talking about this needs to happen or that needs to happen, that just hurts us as a team."
For those who have not seen SU's first two games, consider yourself lucky. They were complete embarrassments. Even in the 37-10 win over Buffalo, SU was completely inept on offense. Try some of these stats. 80 rushing attempts for 231 yards ( 2.8 ypc). This for a team who offense revolves around running the ball and controling the clock. The revolving QB's of patterson and Fields have been unable to pick up the slack, going a combined 24-49-4 for 240 yards in 2 games. The receivers have been a big part of the problem as they have been unable to get any seperation and have dropped numerous balls. Don't be fooled by the 37 point explosion against Buffalo. SU benefited from 2 block punts and an int. for a TD. The offense managed only 275 yards of offense ( 46 of those coming on a Rhodes TD run) and showed no run blocking ability against one of the worst defenses in the country. Buffalo actually led this game 10-3 in 2nd quarter til the 1st blocked punt. Defensively, you can throw out the Buffalo game. The Bulls passing game is pretty non existent so SU was able to stack the box for the most part. This will not be the case this week. The Bearcats have a balanced attack with RB Hall and senior QB Guidugli. The secondary has a habit of giving up the big play. Purdue stuck six time for TD's of over 32 yards.
Cincinnati has shown that they are a capable team. They played Ohio State tough in their opener and beat a good Miami of Ohio team last week They put up over 500 yards of offense. If there offense plays anywhere near that level, SU will have no chance. I don't want to make Cincy out to be world beaters because they are not. What they are is a helluva of lot better then Buffalo. I see Cincy getting better as the season goes on as they get use to Dantonio's schemes. There performance against Miami was very good as they allowed only 39 yards on 24 carries. Their secondary got burned for lots of yards but Syracuse can not take advantage of that.
This crowd will be ugly if Syracuse gets down in this game. They will wish they were back on the road.
Cincinnati 28 Syracuse 10
