The Daily Orange’s football beat writers discuss Syracuse’s 30-7 win over Florida State on Saturday in the Carrier Dome. Andy Mendes, The D.O.’s digital editor, also weighs in on head coach Dino Babers’ passionate post-game victory speech.

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JOSH SCHAFER: And we’re back, the DO sportscast, Josh Schafer here with Andrew Graham and Matt Liberman and we have a special guest off the top, Andy Mendes our digital editor, also known from Andy on the Promenade on our weekly Snapchat story which is absolutely hilarious, has been brought on to grade Dino Babers’ hype speech after the Florida State win. Syracuse won 30-7. Andy, why don’t you say hello to the listeners real quick?

ANDY MENDES: Hello, hello, excited to be here, you know it’s gonna be a great opportunity to branch out.

SCHAFER: So what we’re gonna do is: Graham has Dino’s hype speech up on his computer. Graham is just gonna press play, you’ll hear the hype speech in the background. When Andy wants to stop and make a comment, we’ll pause and make a comment, and at the end Andy will grade the speech on a one to ten scale. Graham, let’s get it rollin’.

*Dino Babers hype speech plays in the background*

BABERS: The last time this happened, the ’66 Mustang was the baddest thing on the road.

MENDES: We can stop her. I – this is a lot already for me. I’m glad that we have a good Beatles reference, I’m glad we’re already talking about like — but like the ’60’s, like does anybody care about the ’66 Mustang? Does anybody know what this is?

SCHAFER: I can tell you probably none of the players do.

MENDES: There’s no way they do. They’re like: ‘Cool that’s a year.’

ANDREW GRAHAM: Looking at Sean Edinger, I think he is wishing he owned a ’66 Mustang.

*The video continues*

MENDES: Wait, what? Hold on. Who’s on the train? I’m confused.

SCHAFER: Where’s the train headed?

MENDES: He was like “remember who is with you from the beginning” but who is — is he like, talking about the true fans? Him?

GRAHAM: That’s a good question.

MENDES: Who is it? Who’s on the train?

SCHAFER: I will say, Dino talks about the family a lot. He’s all about ‘ohana.’ And so the locker room is just like, his family. So I think he’s sticking with that. For the record, by the way, Andy has not seen this video at all yet. This is first watch.

GRAHAM: This is like one of those Youtube reaction videos without the video.

*The video continues*

MENDES: Did Dino just blame like all of global warming on Syracuse’s performance?

SCHAFER: No he didn’t blame it, I think he attributed it.

GRAHAM: Dino is a fan — he said today — he is a fan of the Carrier Dome heat because it’s like a true homefield advantage.

SCHAFER: And so he basically wants it to be obnoxiously hot. He was happy I was sweating in the press box.

MENDES: Yeah, he wants to, like, keep the other teams on their toes. It’s odd.

SCHAFER: Syracuse won because there was a hurricane in North Carolina.

MENDES: Right, that’s what he’s saying. It’s also very intriguing to me that in Syracuse it’s an advantage that it’s hot. Because if anything that’d be a detriment to us.

SCHAFER: But the players are used to the Dome.

MENDES: I guess, but are they used to it being hot?

GRAHAM: More used to it than the other team.

MENDES: You know, fair.

SCHAFER: My question to Andy is: Who’s house?

MENDES: It’s their house. It’s their house.

GRAHAM: Alright, where were we? Thirty seconds left.

*The video plays in the background*

Dino and players chanting “Who’s house? Our house”

MENDES: Classic. Classic. You know, get them all excited. We’ve all been to camp. This gets them amped up. So, I’ve seen what I need to see. You know, I, clearly, I know you guys can’t see it because this is a podcast, but they were very excited, in the video, I’m sure most of you have seen it, I’m gonna give it a solid seven out of ten. I think it does a good job in unifying the team. As a whole it made a lot of sense, a little problematic with the attributing the hurricane to — you know, I don’t know if the Carolina area would appreciate, and the train metaphor made little to no sense, but I do think, it seems to make sense to them. They seem to enjoy it and that’s what counts.

SCHAFER: Now Andy before I let you leave and actually go do your job, I’m gonna put you on the spot with one question: What could Dino have done better? What’s your advice for Dino?

MENDES: I think the like, the stuttering, I think he should’ve just gone for it. Been a shouting, dominating presence the whole time.

SCHAFER: He built too much suspense.

MENDES: Yeah I think it was a little too rehearsed — it felt too like, like oh I really need everybody to be quiet at this point. You know I want him to just make it like, raw energy the whole time.

SCHAFER: We’ll put that in his suggestion box.

MENDES: Yeah please do. Please do.

SCHAFER: I’m sure his suggestion box is pretty full.

MENDES: Oh, I bet. I would think.

SCHAFER: Andy thanks for coming on The D.O. sportscast, hopefully we’ll have you on again soon for something fun and semi-football related.

MENDES: That’s the goal.

SCHAFER: With that we’re gonna move to a little bit more of football-centric content here — that was football in a nutshell, I feel like. A bunch of sweaty dudes in a locker room screaming. Testosterone pumping. But, Matt, your biggest takeaway from the FSU game?

MATT LIBERMAN: It’s a tough one because there’s a lot. And FSU showed me that they have a defense made of turnstiles — er, an offensive line made of turnstiles. But the defensive line for Syracuse finally really showed up. Officially, Deondre Francois was hit nine times, unofficially, going back and looking at the tape, you see when Syracuse got hands on him 16 times. I mean, you can see at the end of the game Deondre Francois wouldn’t let his own offensive linemen help him up. That’s just not something you typically see from a Florida State team, and yes, it was certainly a combination of the offensive line being that bad, but the Syracuse defensive line just had a field day. Just all around, they were clicking on all cylinders, and they just were getting to Francois.

SCHAFER: Graham?

GRAHAM: Well, my instant takeaway, and this is not a knock on Syracuse, they played a very good game, is Florida State is completely lost right now. That team gave up. They just didn’t look like they wanted to be there late in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. To bring it back to Syracuse, I gotta say, you know, Tommy DeVito looked pretty good. This is still Eric Dungey’s team, don’t make any mistake, he is the starter and will continue to be as long as he is healthy, but DeVito’s first completion, the one that brought them down to the one yard line, and then another deep ball later, those were some top quality throws that he made. And he really looked comfortable running the offense as the game went on, and finally got a touchdown, then a passing touchdown to Ravian Pierce — but he just looked calm and in control.

SCHAFER: Yeah, I think that was kind of my — they survived, Syracuse survived without Eric Dungey.

GRAHAM: And looked good.

SCHAFER: Right. Like, I shouldn’t say survived: Scored 27 points without Eric Dungey.

GRAHAM: Think about the past three seasons when Eric Dungey wasn’t playing.

SCHAFER: The Western Michigan game, the entire season when Eric Dungey wasn’t playing. It transferred to the defense and the defense looked lost. So I think that, to me, seems to be the biggest takeaway. The fact that maybe Syracuse can weather the storm if Dungey were to go down at some point. I know Babers said today, it’s just “an owie,” which —

GRAHAM: Upper body or lower body owie?

SCHAFER: Upper body. Well, he actually didn’t say upper body or lower body but he was specifically asked about (Dungey’s) shoulder and eye so, upper body owie.

GRAHAM: Alright.

SCHAFER: And, football players play through owies, Dino said, which is something that does happen. So we don’t really have total specifics. But he seems to be okay. Dino made it seem like we might see him Saturday, I don’t know.

LIBERMAN: He made it seem like we will see him Saturday.

SCHAFER: Right, he said football players play through owies, when asked if Dungey would play Saturday. So I think we’ll see him. But it’s something to consider down the line for sure, that Syracuse could maybe be okay if Eric Dungey isn’t in the game. And so, it was Syracuse’s first win over Florida State since 1966. That’s a long time. That’s 52 years. Matt, we took a look back at the year 1966 and what was happening the last time Syracuse beat Florida State in a game. Floyd Little rushed for 193 yards and three touchdowns in his last game in Archbold stadium. But Matt, what was your favorite thing that was going on in 1966?

LIBERMAN: The greatest culinary mind of our time, Gordan Ramsay, was born.

GRAHAM: That’s a take — saying Gordan Ramsay is the greatest culinary mind of our time.

SCHAFER: And like stiff arming Guy Fieri like that? Because Guy is number one.

LIBERMAN: Gordan Ramsay is just better than that silver fox.

SCHAFER: I — this is not a food podcast, as much as I wish it was. But Gordan Ramsay, greater than Guy Fieri, is a hot take. Andrew (Graham), you researched this way more thoroughly than any of us, you’re gonna do one, I’ll do one, and we’ll do some honorable mentions.

GRAHAM: I’m gonna go for my main one, just because I miss him in the college coaching ranks, but Steve Spruior won the Heisman in 1966.

SCHAFER: Was he wearing a visor?

GRAHAM: He was not.

SCHAFER: That’s sad.

GRAHAM: It’s unfortunate. And he probably wasn’t looking like a southern man who had just spent too much time in the sun.

SCHAFER: You know what would be fun? If they did the Heisman with your face on it. So like, if Steve Spurior’s face was on the Heisman. Like if Lamar Jackson’s face — it was like a pro-football Hall of Fame –

GRAHAM: That means there’d be a Jameis Winston Heisman out there.

SCHAFER: Yeah. And it’d have crab legs.

SCHAFER: So my favorite moment from 1966 has to be that it was the first sighting of the mothman in West Virginia.

GRAHAM: This made it into the tweet and several people I know were a little bit baffled.

SCHAFER: That it made it into the tweet?

GRAHAM: I would love a little explanation.

SCHAFER: Yeah so I pulled it up: So the mothman – basically, couples claim that they saw a man-sized bird creature in West Virginia.

GRAHAM: There was a movie about this.

LIBERMAN: They decided it was a moth, and not a bird man.

SCHAFER: Yeah, it was Mothman.

GRAHAM: Well, you know because Birdman is a rapper.

LIBERMAN: Not then, this is 1966. I don’t even think he was born yet.*

*Birdman, or Bryan Christopher Williams, was born in 1969.

SCHAFER: My second favorite thing that happened in 1966 was Birdman breaking onto the scene as a rapper. Graham, give us a couple of honorable mentions from 1966.

GRAHAM: Alright so uh, obviously, in the speech Dino mentions The Beatles were hot. They released ‘Yellow Submarine,’ ‘Paperback Writer,’ started recording ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club,’ and John Lennon even said they were “more popular than Jesus.”

SCHAFER: Wow.

GRAHAM: Continuing. ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ aired for the first time, Star Trek premiered, Bobby Orr made his NHL debut, NBC ran the first all-color TV lineup and Buzz Aldrin took the first space selfie. Now, I have two that I want to ask Matt Liberman about. So, who won the 1966 Orange Bowl?

LIBERMAN: Auburn.

GRAHAM: Close. Alabama, of course. Who won the 1966 ACC basketball tournament?

LIBERMAN: That would’ve been the time before Phil Ford — I assume it’s still North Carolina. That, so, 1967, I believe, North Carolina lost in the national championship to UCLA.

GRAHAM: This is very specific knowledge of basketball.

LIBERMAN: 1968 was the year that Houston beat UCLA in the regular season —

GRAHAM: Getting further away from 1966.

LIBERMAN: Just trying to think. Trying to get the wheels spinning. The hamster’s there but he’s kinda dying. Uh —

SCHAFER: You said you assume it was North Carolina, wasn’t that your answer?

LIBERMAN: Uh, yeah, I’ll go with North Carolina.

GRAHAM: It’s Duke, of course it’s Duke.

LIBERMAN: Really?

SCHAFER: You just got two layups wrong. That’s really the point, was the football one was Alabama and the basketball one was Duke. And you went zero for two.

GRAHAM: You just — you went off brand. You got store brand Cheerios. They’re just not as good.

SCHAFER: We’re gonna circle back to Syracuse here.

LIBERMAN: Was that Duke’s only ACC title before Coach K? This is important. Because North Carolina was always this powerhouse in the ACC.

GRAHAM: Many takes from Matt Liberman this evening. You know, I really can’t be bothered to look this up. Moving onto Syracuse.

SCHAFER: Graham, has your outlook on this team changed at all, now that Syracuse is 3-0, and my guess is when all of us picked, like, went game-by-game and picked season predictions, no one was picking a win over Florida State — granted, we all thought Florida State would be better — so, has your outlook changed at all at this point?

GRAHAM: My outlook has changed but my win total has not. I still think they get around six wins, I would not be surprised if they picked up a seventh, but this team does have a propensity to lose games it shouldn’t. But they looked — like you wrote in your column, Schafer — they were just the better team all day on Saturday. It was a different kind of signature win, it wasn’t Syracuse the underdog beat a really good team, it was Syracuse was a better team than Florida State. So I look at some of the games where I was like “Oh I’m not so sure,” I’m more confident. I think they go to Wake Forest and get that win, I think they go to Pitt and get that win. I was less sure before this game. I still don’t think they have a chance against Clemson because Clemson is arguably the best team in the country, but you know, this team has convinced me that they are bowl-worthy. This team should win six games.

SCHAFER: Matt?

LIBERMAN: I think this team can win more than six games now, I didn’t think that at the beginning of the season. I don’t think anything’s different after Florida State, because I don’t think Florida State is very good at all, and I think they showed that. But in looking at how the rest of the ACC has played thus far, it gives me reason to say that Syracuse is going to win more. North Carolina is an awful, awful team, Louisville has been really bad thus far, and those are two games people thought were on the fringe. But I think those are clear wins now. The only teams that are definite losses are Clemson and even Notre Dame — Notre Dame is always an interesting game, I think it’s still a possible win. I think this team could win eight games.

SCHAFER: My thing is — it was in the last line of the column that I wrote, which was basically just go do it again — because Syracuse did something it hasn’t done on a consistent basis which is put away a comparable opponent. Florida State this year is a very comparable component. They’re going to be a fringe bowl team.

GRAHAM: Well and Florida State regardless is still an extremely talented team.

SCHAFER: Right, they’re a talented team, but this year they’re probably looking more at six or seven wins. And I think Syracuse beat one of those teams last Saturday, but in the past couple years, especially in the months of October and November, they haven’t really beat those teams. They went on the road and lost to Wake in 2016, last year they lost to Wake at home, they lost to Middle Tennessee State at home last year. It was the Scott Shafer team and it’s gotta be a win — you can’t lose to Middle Tennessee State. And so in this point in where Syracuse is at, in the three years under Dino Babers, they’re not at a point to me yet where I can point at games and say: “That’s a win.” You can do that when a team consistently wins around eight games, and is solid all the time. Syracuse hasn’t strung together that level of consistency yet. So I stick with six games, until they beat someone that I’m like, ooo, they’re playing — like a Pitt win on the road after Clemson. Because Pitt is beatable and road games are hard in college football. So those two things kind of offset. In past years, Syracuse doesn’t win that game. Example, two years ago loosing to Pittsburgh.

GRAHAM: The then highest score in college football.

SCHAFER: Right. So I think those types of things are what can turn the — the table for me there, looking forward. But for now, I think six wins is still fair until proven otherwise, basically. There have been some things that have been some things that are semi-surprising, some things we didn’t totally expect — Matt, what do you think the biggest surprise is for you though three games?

LIBERMAN: Just the ability to get turnovers. This was a team that just didn’t capitalize on any opportunities last year or the entire season. And they’ve been ball-hawking so far. Andre Cisco’s been playing really well, just a freshman, Chris Fredrick had a big interception, this is a team that right now is taking advantage of its opportunities. And you mentioned “go prove it,” with their ability to win games, these are the difference makers in the games. When teams —

SCHAFER: Teams that win turnovers win games. Every coach ever will say that and it’s just true.

LIBERMAN: Yes, because you just have more possessions. If you just are taking possessions away from other teams, giving yourself better likelihood to score, you are much more likely to win games. It shouldn’t be surprising, but it is.

SCHAFER: And that’s why Florida State gives out a backpack.

GRAHAM: It’s not a backpack it’s securing the bag, it’s a verb.

SCHAFER: But it’s a backpack.

LIBERMAN: All of these new analogies that people are going with, these new props are all bad.

SCHAFER: I’m a turnover chain fan though.

GRAHAM: Josh Schafer is a devout turnover chain fan.

SCHAFER: I really want Syracuse to get a version of a turnover chain. Really bad.*

*LIBERMAN is chanting “No, no, no no.”

GRAHAM: It’s a knockoff at this point.

SCHAFER: Yeah but it’s great. Turnover chains are awesome. Graham, biggest surprise.

GRAHAM: I’m gonna go running backs. You know, we all thought Dontae Strickland was the clear number one going into camp, you know he’s been the starter. He just has been. But Moe Neal has really dominated in touches. Dino even said today they’re finally going to co-starters. And that’s going to be reflected still in the usage: You know, Moe Neal is more of an electric runner, he has more step, more passing game. I’ve also been impressed with Jarveon Howard, he had that long run against Florida State, he got in the game a little bit against Wagner, he’s got that change of pace. He’s big. He provides a change of pace that neither Strickland or Neal can provide. The nice thing about having a big back is that before Howard, the big back was Eric Dungey.

SCHAFER: Right. And he looks like a linebacker, so.

GRAHAM: Anytime the ball doesn’t have to be in Eric Dungey’s hands when Syracuse is running is good.

LIBERMAN: Well, to keep him healthy, yes.

SCHAFER: If this was on video, you’d see me making a face.

GRAHAM: Syracuse needs Dungey to run. But the fewer times he can run unnecessarily, the better.

SCHAFER: For me, shout out Syracuse’s defense for performing in an ACC game. They allowed seven points on Saturday. Had not done that under Babers, hadn’t done it since 2014. I think that’s a huge thing moving forward for Syracuse, the fact that Florida State handed them the opportunity to play well, but they took it. You can’t just not put any credit in that because Florida State’s offensive line looked like a swinging fence. Syracuse still had to get sacks — they still had to get to the quarterback and do the right things. And they did that. So you have to put a little bit of stock in what you saw in Syracuse’s defense against Florida State because, as we’ve discussed, they haven’t always put away teams that gave them that opportunity. So to see that is improvement, and should be acknowledged. And heading into UConn, who they’re favored by 27 and a half points against — wow.

LIBERMAN: I don’t think that’s surprising at all.

SCHAFER: So, who you guys picking this week?

LIBERMAN: Well, considering that I just said that, I’m gonna say Syracuse. I think they’ll win by more. UConn has been atrocious this season.

SCHAFER: So real quick, do they cover the spread? You say yes?

LIBERMAN: Yes, yes.

SCHAFER: 27 and a half points. So does Syracuse win by four touchdowns?

LIBERMAN: I was going to open it at about 33, honestly.

SCHAFER: College football spreads are wild.

GRAHAM: Not knowing how much Eric Dungey is going to play really makes this difficult. Assuming he starts and plays the two and a half quarters or whatever he would normally play in a blowout, I’ll say they cover. If he’s limited in any way, or they start him and go to DeVito quick, it’ll be close. I still say Syracuse wins easily, but I could still see UConn keeping it within 20.

SCHAFER: I say no.

LIBERMAN: This is a team that just gave up 52 points to Rhode Island.

SCHAFER: I say no mainly because if Dungey plays, I don’t think he plays for long. And with that, DeVito doesn’t play the whole game either, if they’re actually blowing them out. Syracuse just wants to win. Four touchdowns is a lot — if Syracuse wins it by 21 points, they can still play a really good game. It’s not like I’m saying Syracuse is going to be tight with UConn, they could win by 27 points. But that wouldn’t cover the spread. I think 27 and a half points is just a lot. I can’t put Syracuse down for a four touchdown win anytime, ever, I think — Wagner.

GRAHAM: Yeah, I was gonna say, Wagner was —

SCHAFER: Against an FBS opponent, that’s an insane spread.

GRAHAM: I don’t know, if UNC comes to the Carrier Dome and is like one win, maybe.

LIBERMAN: No, UNC’s a better team than UConn is.

GRAHAM: That’s true.

SCHAFER: We’ll talk about that when Syracuse plays North Carolina in about a month. For now, this has been The D.O. sportscast.

Published on September 18, 2018 at 1:44 am