SU Football and Brendan Carney in 2006

Friday Bullets For The Membership Drive

So by now I expect you all have given to the NCPR membership drive. I listen to the station in the car, at work and as my wake-up call. I own a banjo and a mandolin because of the show “String Fever” that plays bluegrass. What other station responds to requests for ska? You’d be more like me if you listened too. And isn’t that what it’s all about? Give to NCPR and get yourself pickin’.

Apparently 55-70% of Canadians really can’t be bothered with anything anymore:

The Angus Reid Strategies poll, exclusive to the Star, found 42 per cent were dissatisfied with the Conservative government’s proposals on the environment, while 28 per cent said they were satisfied. The remainder had no opinion. When asked about the Tories’ proposal to stay in Afghanistan until 2011, 40 per cent said they were dissatisfied and 29 per cent said they were satisfied. And while 33 per cent were not happy with the government’s plans for federal-provincial relations – which include restricting federal spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction – the poll found 30 per cent were satisfied.

You know, if I were the guy who stands a very good chance of being Canada’s only repeat PM never to get a majority, I’d admit to myself that the polls are not going to get better and just go nutty, moving the secret plans for 2009 ahead…just to see. It’s not like things on the other side could get worse…could they?
Friday. The day before the fall trip to Syracuse. Another opportunity to figure out how the heck to get from the part of town with the hotels to the part of town with the bit with Clark’s. Sadly, and like Glasgow oddly enough, Syracuse is chopped up by superhighways, interstates that you may notice in this photo. There appears to be a plan to make a better pedestrian route. The current way feels sorta like one of the darker scenes from Blade Runner right now. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how many Buffalonians travel the couple of hours east to take in the game. Last time we went, Wyoming was represented by a couple of guys with goofy bison hats.
Science now has proven I am not a boomer.
I mentioned in June that Major League Baseball was trying to claim copyright over players’ names and stats. They lost (or rather the companies that bought the rights from MLB) lost:

Last year the company won a decision by U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Medler, who held that Missouri state law on players’ publicity rights was trumped by a general national policy favoring the full and free exchange of ideas. The appeals court agreed, in an opinion by Judge Morris Arnold, saying the First Amendment right to free speech supersedes state law protecting celebrities’ right to control their likenesses – the “right of publicity.”
I really hope that the end result is not that magic is phony.
There is a good article in the New Yorker that John G. pointed me to which sets out the recent history of edgy pop music based on the premise that Arcade Fire is kinda dull. A good read but no mention of the impending fourth wave of ska.

I Never Thought I Would Write This: Syracuse Wins!

I was conscious for most of it and listening intently on the radio when I was awake. At one point, half drifting, I thought that Syracuse had been caught in the second half, that the score was 31-21 Louisville, that the rational universe had imposed itself again. But no, the Orange won 38-35 over a top ten team.

No smart remarks this week, then, just solidification of plans to hit the next US city in a few weeks.

Me And TV Sports Yesterday

Having messed up my sleep this weekend due to watch The Guns of Navarone on Friday until 3 am (I was in need of watching something where the right team won after the Sox choked after being up 2-7), I spent a rich and rewarding day napping and watching sports with half an eye.

In a nutshell: Syracuse was really bad in the game that started at noon and the Sox were really good in the one that started at four. And over steak and kidney pie (punchline: “No, I didley!?!”) out visiting, it became clear that the young guys and the bench on the Sox are maybe a bit better than the young guys on the Yanks. Though no pup anymore, Hinske did a good number on Posada:

“[Third base coach] DeMarlo Hale said I’m going on contact,” Hinske said. “I’m trying to score a run. I realize I’m going to be out. The only play is to try to run [Posada] over. I hit him pretty good. I think it pumped up the team a little bit.” Hinske, who gained more than 1,000 yards as a running back at Menasha his junior year, once dreamed of playing football for the University of Wisconsin. But when his Badgers didn’t recruit him, he went to the University of Arkansas on a baseball scholarship. Years later, the football mentality has never left. “I put my shoulder down – I hadn’t done that, I think, since the minor leagues,” he said. “It felt great. I had fun playing high school football. I asked Posada my next at-bat if he was OK and he said he was fine.”

To be fair, he said fine like a man who was trampled by an ox on national TV says he’s fine – though Posada did hold onto that ball.

And to be entirely fair in relation to the headline above, I listened to the Syracuse game on 100.7 FM as much as I watched it on the five hundred cable TV channel universe, that wonder that provides what the internet has given only promises about for a decade. It was not prettier audio-unvisually. Getting the first field goal was a balm to their emotionally fragile offense. A great hit on a receiver just about to take the corner was apparently a surprise in the class of the child who first gets to the pool’s edge without assistance. Apparently a win against Buffalo is now even in doubt.

Wow! SU’s 2007 Football Really Does Suck

Not that a university team is as similar to a pro team from one year to the next but last season the Syracuse Orange lost to Iowa in overtime. This year they lost 0-35. Yikes. That after being massacreed at home by Washington in last week’s season opener.

This makes the decision as to which game to take in tougher. What game won’t be a boring blow-out. To reiterate, then: which is the most likely home game to give the best experience?

Fri, Aug 31 – Washington: lost by blow-out.

Sat, Sep 15 – Illinois: No, a confusion of orange and Illinois is 1-1 with a shut-out win yesterday. Plus it may be on TV this early in the season. Chance of a win, sure, but I do not see it happening.
Sat, Oct 6 – West Virginia: yes, a hated rival but one that has scored 110 points in its first to wins. Blow-out by a bowl team.
Sat, Oct 13 – Rutgers. Ba-low out by a better bowl-bound team.
Sat, Oct 20 – Buffalo. They better win this one. This is the best chance. Blown out by Rutgers in game one, Buffalo smoked Temple who, it turns out, actually has a football program called the Owls.
Sat, Nov 10 – South Florida. If they have not won by now, why would I go? Maybe to check out the new coaching staff?
Sat, Nov 24 – Cincinnati. Ditto time ten.

So there you have it. I forecast at best three wins and a good chance of one with zero wins not being out of the question. Will I go? Will I go see a Division II game instead? Stay tuned.

More angst in more detail at Orange 44.

Friday “After The Thunder” Chatfest

Don’t expect much from me today. What a thunder storm. Like the 1812 Symphony without the orchestra: boom, blam, whammo. What with the many mouths a wailing, not a lot of sleep. I almost wrote “flat chest” up there. One more week in August and therefore in summer. Summer really ends around here in October compared to the Maritimes but you know what I mean:

Update #2: A neato series of photos from the collection of a new technology museaum in the UK with photos of things like a lump of concrete from 1899 and early 1900s analogue computers including one called “the totalisator” which is my new nickname for me.
Update: Brendan Carney, subject of last fall’s overly wrought series on the SU football team, made the pros.
Nice to see the scoffing one dimensional right wing bloggers were wrong – again – as the police did infiltrate the wacko protest group at the summit. Darcey’s comment makers display an interesting learning curve but Darcey’s own response is gold:

Wouldn’t it be crazy if they were undercover protesters pretending to be police officers pretending to be protesters? That would be the ultimate…Or wouldn’t it be weird…if they were police who wanted to be involved in the protest? Maybe their overwhelming zeal was too much for some of the more moderate protesters on the line. This is a good story.

Cheeky monkey. Far more entertaining that the scoffing one dimensional left wing bloggers
What started as a funny idea for naming a sport team seems to end up in a grade seven locker room.
If you ever worry about your own beer intake or, conversely, consider it boring check out Ron’s series of posts of drinking his way thought Germany’s Franconia region. Plenty of gems like this:

Andy met someone he recognised. It turned out to be Dan Shelton and his wife. He was making a documentary about Bamberg or something. I wasn’t concentrating that much on the conversation. I was in my beer zone. Feeling the warm glow of contentment that comes after a morning’s drinking. Very tall. I can remember that. Dan Shelton’s very tall. And annoyingly skinny for someone who works with beer.
Amy Winehouse update. I sent portland a copy. Let’s see what happens.
The Australian government has been tidying up wikipedia, too.

That is it. Not caffeine in the brain yet.

Which Of The Orange Games To Hit?

If last year’s trip to the Carrier Dome taught me anything, it is not the best opponent that makes the best game but the best match in an opponent. Which means the one you beat in overtime. So which is the most likely home game to give the best experience?

Fri, Aug 31 – Washington

Sat, Sep 15 – Illinois
Sat, Oct 6 – West Virginia
Sat, Oct 13 – Rutgers
Sat, Oct 20 – Buffalo
Sat, Nov 10 – South Florida
Sat, Nov 24 – Cincinnati

By the way, I can’t see sustaining another season following one player as closely as I followed Brendan Carney last year. I need to pick a higher level approach to being a fan. Following total defensive stats or some such thing.

Week Seven With Brendan Carney

It was going so well at about nine minutes into the game. I had just secured a source of Unibroue’s Maudite that I can keep to myself and, like many of you, was heading into Loblaws with the hope of finding a morsel of whisky cheddar when I heard on the radio that Syracuse was up 7-0. Later they were only down 17-14.

But soon that was pretty much that. Soon the Orange had lost on the road to West Virginia 41-17. I search for meaning in these times. Apparently Carney is “suffering through his worst statistical season and there hasn’t been anything out of kickoff or punt returns – except no turnovers.” There was maybe a wobbled hold on a field goal, too. Being on the wrong side of your QB getting sacked five times is not going to help either. Yet it was a big game for Carney in the bigger picture:

Senior Brendan Carney became SU’s career punting yardage leader against the Mountaineers. He kicked seven times for 275 yards at West Virginia and now has 10,256 career punting yards, breaking the old mark of 10,073 held by Mike Shafer.

Here are this week’s stats:

Kickoffs	No.	Yds	TB	OB	Avg
CARNEY,Brendan	4	255	1	0	63.8

Punting	No.	Yds	Ave	Long	In 20	TB
CARNEY,Brendan	7	275	39.3	45	1	2

I hadn’t realized when I picked this way of following Syracuse football that Carney was such a BMOC. Actually I had figured the lot of a punter who does not get to kick field goals would be one in the shadows. Interesting to note that we may (theoretically) see the Orange for the first Bowl in 70 years outside of the USA as the Big East is tagged to send a representative to the first International Bowl. But that would mean winning some more games. And the next two at least against Louisville and Cincinnati do not look like likely candidates. Actually all five remaining games look tough.

More on the game here. More Carney here.

Week Four With Brendan Carney

OK, I have to admit I missed the game on TV as I was at the concert. And then I never got around to figuring out how Brendan did in the 34-14 win over Miami of Ohio. Our man does not appear in any of the reports I can find even though his performance was a notch above of last week. Most of the focus is on the loss of the surprisingly good Taj Smith. There was this exchange in the Syracuse Post’s sports mailbag:

[Comment]…Finally, say what you want about Brendan Carney – he rarely delivers the big kick when you need it most – that will keep him out of the NFL….

[Answer]…As for Brendan Carney, I exchange emails with one fan that absolutely hates him. But consider this – Miami had one of the top punt returners in the nation in Ryne Robinson. Did you know Robinson did not have a single return in the game? Carney either got hang time to force a fair catch or kicked them away from Robinson. – DW

Attaboy. Carney is doing everything that is asked of him and puts the “N” in orange as far as I am concerned. Here are his numbers for 23 September:

Kickoffs	No.	Yds	TB	OB	Avg
CARNEY,Brendan	7	449	1	0	64.1

Punting	No.	Yds	Ave	Long	In 20	TB
CARNEY,Brendan	5	203	40.6	50	1	0

My eldest brother was telling me to mix up the photos in this series and I said no. Then I read that Sophomore Patrick Shadle for SU was named Big East Special Teams Player of the Week after popping two field goals to average 1.5 a game. And who holds the ball? Mr Unsung Hero, Number 47.

Next week, we are live at the Carrier Dome for the Wyoming game. Woot. If you want to say hi, I will be the guy in the orange t-shirt in the cheap seats.

More Brendan Carney here.

Week Two With Brendan Carney

A bit of good luck yesterday with the Syracuse v. Iowa game as it was shown from the Carrier Dome on ABC. In the end Syracuse lost 20 to 13 but did so in double overtime after Iowa made a heroic defensive stand at the end zone which, through a series of penalties, gave Syracuse about 27 chances to move the ball three inches to tie and drive the game in to a third overtime.

They didn’t pull it off against the #14 ranked team in the land but our man Brendan was in the heart of the game in many ways. Here are his stats:

Kickoffs	No.	Yds	TB	OB	Avg
CARNEY,Brendan	3	179	1	0	59.7

Punting	No.	Yds	Ave	Long	In 20	TB
CARNEY,Brendan	7	328	46.9	66	1	2

He did not merely abandon the ball when he kicked. Called on to punt at one point, he drove Iowa back deep into its own end after his 66 yard kick. He then took a beating from an Iowa player which went unpenalized. But his real contribution goes un-noted in the stats. As ball-holder for the field goal kicker he turned an awful worm burner of a throw from the center with six seconds to go into a stable target instantly. That field goal tied the game and it had far more to do with the hands that held the ball than the foot that kicked it. Carney described the moment thusly:

Q: How did you get the snap on that field goal up?
A: When he snapped it, I caught it in the ground. Luckily, I was able to get it up and Patrick (Shadle) made it.

Brill. Next week: away to Illinois, which will be on ESPNU so will be on the zillion channel universe that is the screen in the basement…right in the middle of a kids party. Illinois lost 33-0 to Rutgers yesterday. There is hope. More Brendan here and here.