Thursday, September 04, 2008

Rumors Swirling

The people I talk to about Syracuse football seem to think that there will be a change at the starting quarterback position for the Orange on Saturday. Those folks have told me that Cameron Dantley will be under center when the Orange kicks off with Akron on Saturday at 3:30 in the Carrier Dome.

Obviously, there has been no official announcement from Syracuse. I don't think you'll get one until kickoff if this happens. And I still say if, because I can't believe that it really will.

But there are several reasons to believe that it will, here they are:

1) The hot seat pressure on Greg Robinson is immense. He needs to get this thing turned around immediately. From what I'm hearing, it's a bowl or he's out. Syracuse didn't look anything like a bowl team on Saturday versus Northwestern.

2) Andrew Robinson made some key mistakes at the quarterback position. His accuracy was one of the big problems. He also threw the interception (when he had a different receiver open down the field) that essentially ended the game.

3) Akron having watched the film had to know that flooding the line of scrimmage was the way to go. Syracuse doesn't have a real deep threat receiver, but ARob's biggest weekend has always been the deep ball. One of Dantley's biggest positives has always been his arm strength. So I think, if, this decision is made its made to stretch the field, take away some of Akron's (and others) defensive options and in a way help the running game as well.

The reasons why I don't think it will happen:

1) Saturday's loss can't solely be blamed on Andrew Robinson. He has been asked to throw the ball away, when pressured. For the most part he did that. But he has to be more accurate.

2) Syracuse wants to run a short passing attack. A west coast offense (that I'm calling the Syracuse spread). From what I've seen over the course of the last three years, Andrew Robinson is most equipped to make those short passes.

3) It's so out of character for Greg Robinson. He has spoken extremely highly of Andrew Robinson, who really has taken a lot for this program. Also, Robinson has always been very loyal to all his players. This move would seem out of character.

Truly, I don't know if it's going to happen. However, I think it's a distinct possibility. One that even makes some sense. In fact, I think the three reasons above for the move, are better than the three reasons against the move. Consequently, if I were making the decision (and obviously I haven't seen Dantley throw a pass since sometime last fall) I'd make the move.

Now let's see what Robinson does.

Either way, it has added a bit of suspense to Saturday's game. And truly, I'm a little bit more excited about it on Thursday of the game week, then I was about last week's game. But if Dantley isn't under center, I think I might end up a little disappointed.

Either way, I'll be rooting for the Orange come Saturday afternoon to try to get this turned around.

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