As noted previously, neophyte Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson failed to name a host of offensive and defensive starters when the Syracuse Department of Athletics released the team's depth chart on Sunday.
Today, however, some of the mysteries have been solved. As Donnie Webb notes in his Syracuse Post-Standard blog, chaos has been supplanted by order at the running back, center, and offensive tackle positions:
Syracuse University head football coach Greg Robinson announced today that sophomore Curtis "Boonah" Brinkley will start at tailback for the Orange against Wake Forest on Saturday. Robinson said sophomore Paul Chiara and freshman Delone Carter would also play tailback for Syracuse in the opener.
Additionally:Marvin McCall will start at center over Justin Outten.
Eugene Newsome will start at offensive tackle over Larry Norton.
No starter determined yet at free safety (Joe Fields or A.J. Brown) or at cornerback (Terrell Lemon or Nick Chestnut).
Robinson's naming of Brinkley as the team's opening day starter is somewhat uplifting. Coming out of high school (and Hargrave Military Academy) Brinkley was considered one of the nation's most coveted recruits. His quick, slashing style is indicative of former Orange James Mungro. He has tremendous vision and can make people miss; attributes, of course, that are necessary to succeed when running behind an offensive line as porous as Syracuse's. Moreover, Brinkley's sure hands will positively impact the Orange's West Coast Offense as a threat in the passing game, whether in the flats on screens or as an underneath drag/circle option.
The issue now is how much field time Brinkley will see. As noted above, Chiara and Carter will see significant time. Thus, while Brinkley is the starter for Wake Forest, he has far from locked up the position for the rest of the season.
Finally, Robinson's failure to name a starter at free safety and cornerback is concerning. With respect to the free safety position, the fact that A.J. Brown has not locked down the starting spot is disappointing. Coming into Syracuse, Brown was seen as a strong prospect with great potential. He was named a PrepStar All-American and was rated by Rivals.com as the 24th best recruit in Virginia (Scout.com rated him the 19th best prospect in the state). Described by many as a tremendous athlete with a frame similar to that of former Orange Anthony Smith, Brown has all the intangibles to compliment Dowayne Davis in the Syracuse defensive backfield.
And yet, Brown cannot separate himself from quarterback-turned-safety Joe Fields.
This raises one of two issues: a) A.J. Brown has not developed over the course of his two years on The Hill; or b) Robinson is still stringing Fields along, apparently in an effort to placate the much maligned junior. The probable issue is the latter, as Fields has been described during the summer as a safety with potential, but deficient in the areas of tackling and defensive recognition/instinctive feel. Thus, it is probably safe to assume that Brown will appear as the Syracuse starter on Saturday, although Fields may see time in both nickel and dime packages where he can use his athletic ability in blitz and zone packages.
As for the right cornerback battle, Terrell Lemon is likely to triumph over cornerback-turned-wide receiver-turned-cornerback Nick Chestnut. Despite the fact that Chestnut is the better athlete of the two (the young Texan was also a star basketball player in high school who was recruited, albeit somewhat lightly, by Jim Calhoun and the Connecticut Huskies), Lemon's veteran status should vault him to the starting position. Chestnut, like Fields, is a fine option in nickel and dime situations, but the fact that he has only been a full-time cornerback for eight months is probably enough reason for Greg Robinson to give Lemon the nod.
Because this new regime at SU is so interested in broadening the Orange's horizons, Washington is bound for the Syracuse schedule. And so is Northwestern. And so is Penn State. And so is, if recent reports are true, Boston College. And both the Fighting Irish and Fighting Illini will return, as well. And unlike the SU basketball bunch, the football people will actually go on the road - leave the state, even . . . and imagine such fortitude - for a fair amount of these non-league contests to come.
But there is a team that is missing, so far, from this mix. A team that may not be so very good anymore and will likely never participate in a BCS bowl and sits right here in the state with us and plays in an 82-year-old stadium with a seating capacity under 40,000.
That team is Army, the only other Division I-A football school that matters in all of New York. And, despite the contents of that preceding paragraph, Syracuse should absolutely take on Army each and every autumn, home and away, from now until the cows are mooing at your back door.
"You're singing to the choir," said SU athletic director Daryl Gross. "I don't know why these two schools haven't been playing regularly, but I know we're looking at it, big time, for the future. It's a natural. There is so much pageantry there. It just makes so much sense."
Placing Army back on the Orange's schedule makes an incredible amount of sense from three symbiotic points of perspective.
The first, of course, is from a financial standpoint. West Point is a mere three hours and 42 minutes from the center of Syracuse and closer yet to much of Syracuse's densest alumni area (the Boston-Philadelphia corridor). As such, weekend football tilts between the Cadets and the Orange allow each fanbase to experience an easy travel opportunity. Residually, this will result in more people in the bleachers and more business for the local economy.
The next perspective is historical in nature. According to James Howell and Chris Stassen, Syracuse and Army have met 20 times since 1869. Over that period of time, Syracuse has compiled only an 11-9 record against the Cadets, with only five of those victories coming at either the Carrier Dome or Archbold Stadium. Obviously, with such competitive balance, there is great incentive from both universities to establish which is more dominant (or, for those that prefer slang, to establish who is whose "Daddy").
Furthermore, every game in the series has taken place in New York state (in 1960 and 1964 the game was played in Bronx, NY; in 1962 the game was played in New York, NY). As these two institutions (and its football rivalry) are so tied to the state of New York, to deny its constituents the pleasure of watching the Cadets and Orange play is to lose one of the great traditions of the Empire State.
Finally, both the United States Military Academy and Syracuse University represent a bygone era of football. Sporting a combined four national titles and four Heisman Trophy winners, a rivalry between the Black Knights and the Orange embodies all the history and tradition that makes college football Saturdays so special.
The third and final perspective is one of athletic integrity. Dr. Gross and others associated with the athletic department have gone on record numerous times in the past stating that Syracuse would not schedule Division 1-AA opponents or low-end Division 1-A opponents in order to generate wins. This institutional philosophy is reflected in the Orange's impressive list of future opponents which includes, but is not limited to, Penn State, Washington, Notre Dame, and Virginia Tech.
Army, not surprisingly, fits nicely into this model of competition. The Black Knights may not vie for a national championship any time soon, but Army will not roll over and hemorrhage yards like Buffalo or Directional State. Army consistently fields a competitive football team and if placed on the schedule, would instantly become a "circle game" on the calendar.
Clearly, a series of this nature makes sense from a Syracuse standpoint and if given the opportunity to pursue it, should do so with great vigor.
One of the most significant misconceptions in football is that a trimmer athlete is a more productive or efficient athlete. Large, arguably overweight college football players (such as Ron Dayne and Byron Leftwich) have achieved success despite their large waistlines. In essence, it is not the physical attributes of the player that determine success or failure; rather, execution and intelligence determines success, failure, and/or efficiency.
Scott Pitoniak, staff writer and columnist for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, fails to recognize such distinctions.
In a piece appearing in today's edition of the fine Central New York publication, Pitoniak documents Perry Patterson's recent weight loss and the potential effect Patterson's new waistline will have on Syracuse's 2006 season:
Patterson struggled mightily during a 1-10 season in 2005, and many of his problems were the result of ballooning to nearly 260 pounds. Although he is 6-feet-4 and big-boned, 260 is much too heavy for him to be an effective quarterback. Patterson was forced to realize he was in danger of eating his way toward an offensive lineman's weight and out of a starting job.
Robinson told the former second-team All-State high school football player from Lancaster, Pa., to drop at least 20 pounds, and Patterson responded, by avoiding his mother's delectable fried chicken and other soul food specialties, and paring himself to a more manageable 237 pounds.
Patterson's big loss should result in at least a slight gain for a team famished for points and victories after the losingest season in SU's proud 116-year football history.
"The difference in his quickness and endurance and reaction time is night and day," Robinson said. "He met the challenge we gave him, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it translates on game day."
Pitoniak's error in logic lies not with his assessment that Patterson's weight loss is important -- it is. Rather, Pitoniak fails to recognize that there is no reasonable correlation between Patterson's penchant for tossing the football directly into the turf nine times out of every ten Syracuse passing plays.
The issue ripe for exposition is not Patterson's weight, but instead his mental conditioning. Maintaining a large waistline does not impede decision making, nor does it contribute to Patterson's three-year campaign of eschewing personal responsibility. What will ultimately serve as the most important factor in Patterson's progression (or continued regression) is if Patterson finally understands the West Coast Offense:
With such a low level of comprehension, it did not matter how much Patterson weighed in 2005. He was going to fail regardless of the number that appeared on the bathroom scale. Until Patterson's football IQ rises, the Orange will continue to flounder in the passing game."When I'm dropping back, I actually know what's going on now instead of trying to guess. I think with Coach (Phil) Earley and the things we're doing in the pocket, it's a lot better for us because we have a lot of protection problems. We have a lot more movement in the pocket instead of just standing back there being a target. Just the knowledge of the offense and my footwork is a lot better as well."
"When we got into game situations, it was harder to understand. When we install offenses, we usually look at teams that ran that offense. But when I was watching like the O, when I first came here watching the past quarterbacks run the offense that Coach P was in, it was you get some type of thought in your mind, like, OK, that's how that play is ran. When we started this offense, we really didn't have no film on it other than a couple of Denver Bronco's film and things like that, but that's still at a different level. It was just tough to bring it on the field, how to create your installation film for other guys. It was confusing at times, especially in game situations. I didn't know where my check-downs were and with the protection, it was hard to get into a rhythm. Last year was just crazy."
Neophyte Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson officially closed preseason camp following the Orange's final practice on Friday. While many position battles remain unsettled (see below), the University nonetheless released the following depth chart:
Legend
BOLD: Returning Starter
ITALICS: Unsettled Position Battle
*: Robinson has stated he would not start a freshman at tailback.
| 2006 Syracuse Depth Chart: OFFENSE | ||||||||
| Position | First Team | Second Team | Third Team | Fourth Team | ||||
| X - WR | R. Moss | T. Smith | J. Horne | |||||
| LT | C. Chavers | C. Madison | ||||||
| LG | C. Madison | M. Sklarosky | ||||||
| C | M. McCall | J. Outten | ||||||
| RG | R. Durand | M. Sklarosky | ||||||
| RT | E. Newsome | L. Norton | ||||||
| TE | B. Darlington | T. Ferron | J.J. Nesheiwat | A. Kapalanga | ||||
| QB | P. Patterson | A. Robinson | C. Dantley | |||||
| TB | C. Brinkley | P. Chiara | D. Carter* | |||||
| FB | S. McDonald | T. Fiammetta | B. Evans | |||||
| Z - WR | T. Lane | L. Lobdell | ||||||
| 2006 Syracuse Depth Chart: DEFENSE | ||||||||
| Position | First Team | Second Team | Third Team | Fourth Team | ||||
| DE | L. Williams | B. Gilbeaux | S. Harris | |||||
| NG | C. Thorner | A. Jones | N. Santiago | |||||
| DT | T. Jenkins | C. Campbell | N. Santiago | |||||
| DE | J. McClain | J. Atkinson | ||||||
| SLB | L. Cain | B. Maljovec | ||||||
| MLB | K. Smith | J. Flaherty | ||||||
| WLB | J. Mackey | V. Giruzzi | ||||||
| LC | T. Jackson | D. Bailey | ||||||
| SS | D. Davis | B. Williams | D. Herrod | |||||
| FS | J. Fields | A.J. Brown | ||||||
| RC | T. Lemon | N. Chestnut | ||||||
| 2006 Syracuse Depth Chart: SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||||||
| Position | First Team | Second Team | Third Team | Fourth Team | ||||
| P | B. Carney | J. Barker | ||||||
| KO | B. Carney | P. Shadle | J. Barker | |||||
| LS | I. Hammond | |||||||
| PAT | P. Shadle | J. Barker | ||||||
| FG | P. Shadle | J. Barker | ||||||
| Holder | B. Carney | |||||||
| KOR | C. Brinkley | K. Jones | ||||||
| PR | B. Williams | M. Meisel | D. Davis | |||||
Robinson said he could play anywhere from 17 to 18 players on defense against Wake Forest.
Robinson said the plan is to play both Marvin McCall and Justin Outten at center against Wake. Same with tackles Eugene Newsome and Larry Norton.
Robinson said cornerbacks Terrell Lemon and Nick Chestnut would both play such as in nickel and dime situations. He said if it came down to a draw on the starting job, he'd lean toward seniority and start Lemon.
Robinson reiterated the plan to play "at least" five receivers -- Tim Lane, Rice Moss, Taj Smith, Lavar Lobdell and Jeremy Horne. The other? Robinson didn't say and there are no others listed on the depth chart, but it's likely freshman Mike Williams is in the mix.
Robinson said that backup quarterbacks Andrew Robinson and Cameron Dantley would be limited if either is forced to go into the game.
Robinson said not to read anything into how the names with"OR" are positioned on the depth chart. Just because Marvin McCall is listed before Justin Outten does not mean Robinson is leaning in that direction.
Even a cursory glance at the depth chart and Robinson's recent comments leads one to recognize three primary issues. First, despite a half-year battle to secure the starting center position, neither Marvin McCall nor Justin Outten has established himself as the starter in 2006. Given the importance of the center position (both from a strategic and functional perspective), it may do more harm than good rotating both McCall and Outten into that role against Wake Forest.
Moreover, it is also disturbing that neither Eugene Newsome (of LAPD fame) nor Larry Norton has hammered down the starting right tackle position. Given the fact that the line is fairly young and, once again, learning a new blocking scheme/methodology, issues both at the tackle and center position may result in questionable chemistry and execution up front.
That is not a recipe for success.
Second, Joe Fields as the Orange's potential starting free safety is terrifying. As Donnie Webb notes in today's Post-Standard, Fields' placement on the depth chart appears to be less a decision based on talent and rather an attempt by Robinson to make Fields feel as if his decision not to transfer in the spring was the right one:
Fields started at quarterback in Syracuse's final game of the 2005 season against Louisville. He nearly transferred after the season. Robinson promised him a fresh start on defense. Fields returned and is on the cusp of winning a starting job. "At the safety position, I'm not certain right now. I'm not certain at that one," Robinson said. "It tells you Joe is making progress. But I want to see throughout the week. A.J.'s had a very solid camp. The question is . . . Joe's gifted, physically gifted. He's improved. I just want to see him for the next couple of days, working the rest of the week. That's the way it is."
Fields is an undersized free safety who still needs to learn how to tackle. He has quickness and intelligence, yet playing as a quarterback-turned-safety at the Division 1-A level is significantly different than playing as a linebacker-turned-defensive end like Jamar Atkinson. Quite simply, if Fields is Syracuse starting safety on September 2nd, either: a) A.J. Brown is likely to be a second string player his entire career; or b) Greg Robinson is willing to sacrifice performance on the field to alleviate the potential for acrimonious feelings.
Finally, the redshirt issue dodging Andrew Robinson has been solved. As the second string quarterback entering 2006, Greg Robinson obviously feels comfortable with both Cody Catalina's and David Legree's (two quarterback committments for Syracuse's 2007 recruiting class) potential as well as Robinson's ability to quickly learn the West Coast Offense.
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