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The Daily OrangeFB | McCullough: Syracuse's failures epitomized by 3-play stretch vs. Penn State
By Andy McCullough
Posted: 9/15/08, 12:22 AM EST Section: Sports
The effort is there. The talent just isn't. But we'll get to that. Just wait a play.
Because the Orange had the ball in between the first play and the third play. It took over at the Penn State 36, crowd roaring, momentum shifting, movie stars like Dennis Quaid in the building, legendary former Orangemen like Floyd Little watching.
Which meant time to bust out something new. And that's another thing about this team. Nothing stays the same. Players switch positions. Players even switch sides of the ball. Last year, Ben Maljovec started at linebacker. Now he plays tight end. Last year, Da'Mon Merkerson caught passes as a wideout. Now he plays cornerback.
And while this is going on, coaches come and go: three offensive coordinators in four years, for example. Little continuity, just new systems, new wrinkles, all the time. Brian Pariani brought some hybrid of the West Coast offense in 2005. Brian White switched things up the next season. A season after that, he left the program.
So the latest wrinkle-maker, new offensive coordinator Mitch Browning, trotted out his latest wrinkle, three wide receivers split out and stacked in a row, much like these three plays.
Curtis Brinkley stood at the back of the pack. Cameron Dantley took the snap and threw a quick screen out to the senior tailback, something new for the team that always tries something new.
Except the pass was a backwards lateral. Except the ball hit Brinkley in the hands and squirted out. Except the Nittany Lions pounced and regained possession.
All that momentum? Gone. So was any hope of jumping out to a fast start. Quaid and Little were still around, but that was about it. After Syracuse earned possession, they gave it up.
OK. One last play.
Clark rolled left and threw to a wide-open Jordan Norwood, who beat cornerback Nico Scott on a corner route by the Orange sideline. The Syracuse bench stood and watched it unfold, mist spraying at their backs in the swelter of the crowded Carrier Dome.
Then Scott - playing hurt and soon to depart the game - missed a tackle in the open field. Norwood scooted back inside and ran untouched into the end zone: 7-0.
Wide-open receivers. Missed tackles. No speed. You see this every week, this steady diet of problems caused by basic flaws, basic things like tackling. Tackling. The Orange just does not have the athletes to compete with good teams, not right now.
"This is not about me," Greg Robinson said at the start of this season and, in a way, he is right. In a way, it is sad that a man will soon lose his job because boys can't tackle. But Greg Robinson recruited these boys. He built this team. He is responsible for this mess.
And those three plays show how it's gotten this way.
Andy McCullough is the enterprise editor of The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. You can email him at ramccull@syr.edu.
Because the Orange had the ball in between the first play and the third play. It took over at the Penn State 36, crowd roaring, momentum shifting, movie stars like Dennis Quaid in the building, legendary former Orangemen like Floyd Little watching.
Which meant time to bust out something new. And that's another thing about this team. Nothing stays the same. Players switch positions. Players even switch sides of the ball. Last year, Ben Maljovec started at linebacker. Now he plays tight end. Last year, Da'Mon Merkerson caught passes as a wideout. Now he plays cornerback.
And while this is going on, coaches come and go: three offensive coordinators in four years, for example. Little continuity, just new systems, new wrinkles, all the time. Brian Pariani brought some hybrid of the West Coast offense in 2005. Brian White switched things up the next season. A season after that, he left the program.
So the latest wrinkle-maker, new offensive coordinator Mitch Browning, trotted out his latest wrinkle, three wide receivers split out and stacked in a row, much like these three plays.
Curtis Brinkley stood at the back of the pack. Cameron Dantley took the snap and threw a quick screen out to the senior tailback, something new for the team that always tries something new.
Except the pass was a backwards lateral. Except the ball hit Brinkley in the hands and squirted out. Except the Nittany Lions pounced and regained possession.
All that momentum? Gone. So was any hope of jumping out to a fast start. Quaid and Little were still around, but that was about it. After Syracuse earned possession, they gave it up.
OK. One last play.
Clark rolled left and threw to a wide-open Jordan Norwood, who beat cornerback Nico Scott on a corner route by the Orange sideline. The Syracuse bench stood and watched it unfold, mist spraying at their backs in the swelter of the crowded Carrier Dome.
Then Scott - playing hurt and soon to depart the game - missed a tackle in the open field. Norwood scooted back inside and ran untouched into the end zone: 7-0.
Wide-open receivers. Missed tackles. No speed. You see this every week, this steady diet of problems caused by basic flaws, basic things like tackling. Tackling. The Orange just does not have the athletes to compete with good teams, not right now.
"This is not about me," Greg Robinson said at the start of this season and, in a way, he is right. In a way, it is sad that a man will soon lose his job because boys can't tackle. But Greg Robinson recruited these boys. He built this team. He is responsible for this mess.
And those three plays show how it's gotten this way.
Andy McCullough is the enterprise editor of The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. You can email him at ramccull@syr.edu.
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