Syracuse 36 - Kansas State 34: Pinstripe Bowl Champions

sure SU did not win in the"Eyes of the nation" by a bigus call. In my mind, yes a Su fan, never the less they won….bottom line.

with time to throw (extra protection, left RB in often on big passing plays instead of sending him out as a check down receiver) and receivers who went out to make the catch (Senior Lemondrops was on the sideline most of the game, one of the few times he was in, he ran a soft route and couldn’t make the play in a key situation).

Wrote it in the start of the year, what would be HCDM’s signature win. Well, that was it.

Starting to feel pretty good about next year…

one puny win over .500 is kind of barely there. 8-5 makes the season an unqualified success and something to pitch to recruits. This was a great win in the best bowl game of the year so far and one of the best football games I’ve seen on either level. The call absolutely gives you kind of a queezy feeling, but that non-call for the holding on the 4th down play at the end of the half kept the Orange from a FG attempt that could have completely changed the end of the game. Not to mention the two personal fouls that were NOT called on K-State, or the cheap one on P. Thomas that helped them get a score. The refs were awful all game and when they finally gave us one it happened to be the highest profile call of the game. This will not diminish my joy of this win one iota.

so pardon me for not quite remembering exactly when it was.

In the 3rd or 4th, we had the ball on the K-State side of the field. I think it was the 4th because it was going right-to-left from the perspective of the student section. Hell, maybe the 2nd.

Regardless, I think it was Sales cutting across the middle with the ball going right to his outstretched hands, then WHAM.

Just like A-Rod in the 2004 ALCS, I saw two Hamburger Helper gloves giving Sales titty twisters. The ball went through his fingertips and resulted in a drive-ending incompletion. NO CALL.

Also, if you want to talk about shitty breaks, how about Hogue’s surefire PIck-6 in the 1st that went through his hands and landed in the breadbasket of the K-State receiver? That was a bullshit BREAK if I’ve ever seen one. But you know what? Football games are full of bad calls, bad no calls, and game-changing bounces. We kick it OOB on the opening KO? K-State does it to start the 2nd half. We throw a crazy flea flicker to score the TD in the first? K-State does the same in the 2nd half, from nearly the same position.

K-State stacks the field left and runs back to the right for a HUUUUGE gain? We do the same. K-State splits their back out to the strong side, flipping their receiver back for a weak side run? We both did it with success.

The point is, if you want to the game, don’t let one call kill you. Winners don’t make excuses. (Although they point out the positives in their game when they lose more than they should).

K-State played a terrific f*cking game, Syracuse played a terrific f*cking game, I never expected this matchup to be so good and so intense. If anything, I felt a big loss coming.

The K-State fans couldn’t have been better guests. They are awesome, and I feel like we get along, as our teams brought out a lot in each other. No shame in any of that.

“In 1996, after scoring a touchdown against Army, Donovan McNabb saluted the Cadets in the crowd. He was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. Just sayin.”

Is like the IRS, if they want you, they’ll get you. It was an awful call, just awful, If it wasn’t an awful call then it is an awful rule, What the heck is “Calling attention to yourself”? I’ve seen players gyrate after they score like they had St. Vitus Dance, isn’t that attention grabbing? Let the kids have some fun, taunting is in the eyes of the tauntee. You just got scored on Dude, suck it up & do better. Scoring yourself is the best revenge.
Congrats to HCDM & the Orange.

Yes it was an awful call on K-State, because it’s an awful rule that is inconsistently enforced (see the Tennessee-UNC game, where there were uncalled taunts galore). I do feel bad for both teams that this ridiculous call mars the outcome somewhat.

That being said, the officials were awful all game long. They missed obvious calls all over the field, and threw questionable flags all night. As Syracuse fans, we will not apologize ONE BIT for winning this bowl game. I was at the game as well, and it was absolutely incredible. The fans were loud, the team provided us with big play after big play, and the kids who stuck with this program through thick and thin played their guts out for Coach Marrone. I’m very proud of this team and even more excited about the direction of the program than I already was. Great win and GO ORANGE.

1. I don’t know if it was Carter or Bailey, but whomever took the handoff and then tossed it back to Nassib then made a great block on a K-State lineman who was on the way to sack Nassib
2. Nassib took the toss on SU’s 40 yard line and threw a perfectly placed bomb to Sales. That’s 60 yards in the air, perfect strike, for a TD. I didn’t know Ryan had it in him.

Sales? Who is that guy? Will he be around next year? Hope so.

an awesome game for me. Hadn’t seen an SU football game in awhile. Everything was perfect.

Seeing it live, the excessive celebration call wasn’t as big a deal as I’m reading now. Oh well.

Was damn good seeing all that orange in the Bronx, no?!

Didn’t see many KState fans, but did see a really touching (sorry, I’m a dork) moment on the way home. A Kstate fan (white) was swiping his whole family through the turnstiles. His card was empty by the time it was his turn to swipe himself. He was turning around to go put money on his card through the humongous crowd, and some guy (black) offered to swipe for him. They both went through and then shook hands etc. Was pretty cool. But I was already in a teary mood cause we won. :D

Proud to be orange today. Way to go HCDM and the team. And lay off poor Nancy. I think it’s endearing that she was so excited. That’s the first time I actually liked her.

And yes we are ahead of schedule… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Rutgers could have easily gone the other way. WVU and USF were games that we don’t win without some big breaks. We easily could have missed a bowl game.

We also still have a very bare roster which next year will be very young. We lose our best defensive players, some good back ups, 2 wrs, TEs and DC3. That is not only a lot of tallent but a lot of leadership.

I’m not saying we didn’t have a GREAT season, but that expecting improvment on it would be a mistake. It could happen, sure, but we can’t assume.

HCDM has laid a wonderful foundation and I love how our program is tracking. He’s doing it the right way. I’m proud of the product we put on the field this season.

That being said it would be foolish to think we have arrived. I just don’t want to see anyone jumping off the bandwagon if there are still growing pains

I am still furious. I’m so mad, I haven’t been able to turn on ESPN since the end of the game yesterday.

But I did want to join and take a moment… to thank you guys. Setting aside the obvious “there were bad calls on both sides” thing, which, duh, Syracuse fans have been… pretty good about this whole mess, all things considered. I’ve only seen one Orange fan, anywhere, make the asinine assertion that he was perfectly happy with that call since it “made up” for all the other bad ones; the rest of you have taken the far more humane tack of showing regret that a great game had to end like that. As an angry fan who will probably have dreams involving the Big Ten offices, napalm, and accelerants for weeks to come, it’s appreciated.

Appreciated enough, in fact, that I may actually stop sniping at you guys when you gripe about your bubble chances in February during seasons when you don’t even finish in the top half of the Big East. ;)

Seriously, while I was grumpy about having to play you guys yet again in a bowl game, I think between the Fiesta Bowl and this mess we’ve formed a little connection that will never go away. It’s not a “rivalry” thing; y’all are blameless for what happened yesterday, so we can’t hate Syracuse for the outcome. It’s a linkage, and its the sort of thing which despite the result is going to make me think warmly of Syracuse in the future as opposed to cursing your very identity.

Good luck next year, and congratulations on surfacing from all those years in the wilderness. /hattip

Is it too late to point out that DC definitely left his DNA all over Yankee Stadium?

(with apologies to Coach K)

One of our recruits who has given a verbal for next year. I talked with him and his parents for a bit. Seemed like a really intelligent kid. He wasn’t too happy about the way our secondary played though.

On another note, I hope Nassib and the O-line can continue playing like that next year. After seeing Nassib miss so many throws this year it was great to see him have time and put big passes right on the spot.