Tuesday, June 03, 2008

And the Hits just keep on coming

You may have sensed by now, that even though I'm a Syracuse University grad and big football fan, I don't have very much confidence in the program right now. I don't believe in the leadership. The Athletic Director is on his best days a fool, and the head coach is a guy whom I like and has been a tremendous football coach over the years, but he seems overmatched in his role as head football coach at a Division I college.

Well things went from whatever poor state they are in now, to somewhere far beyond that yesterday when it was announced that Mike Williams was suspended from the University for academic reasons. Williams, the wide receiver from Buffalo, had as good as a sophomore season as possible for a player on a 2-10 team and was expected to spearhead an offense that has already seen three of its top four running backs, miss practice or be limited in spring practice due to injury.

And I don't think Williams is coming back. Academic issues affect college athletics all the time. If grades were the only issue in this case (and I have no knowledge that they aren't), it would certainly be something that we've seen before. But in those cases, the path that the player is taking to return to the Hill is usually known. None of that information was given this time. Consequently, I think Mike Williams' days as an Orangeman are over.

It leaves the Orange with a depth chart full of six returning wide receivers, who have combined to catch 26 passes in their careers. Lavar Lobdell is now the leading returning receiver with 8 catches. Donte Davis did catch 9 balls in a shortened freshman season, and then missed all of last year with an injury. Perhaps he (all 5-9 of him, listed at 6-0) is the new goto guy.

Bottomline what this does?

It takes a team that at might have been looking at six wins maximum and backs them up a few potential wins. Six would have charitable to begin with. This team might not get out of the shadow of last year's two win season. But thankfully, Northeastern is on the schedule.

And most significantly, it makes the heat on the seat that Greg Robinson is sitting, all the warmer.

Gonna be a fun fall isn't it?

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