Lucky Number Seven
The Iowa-Syracuse game turned out to be much more intense than any of my Iowa friends ever imagined! Here is my game day review:
Tailgating:
There are only two big time Division 1A football schools in New England (unless you want to count UConn). Given the lack of big time football, I wasn't expecting the tailgating atmosphere to be very exciting at Syracuse. We met up with a former co-worker who currently lives in Syracuse (and scored several tickets to the game for us). Their tailgate was quite impressive. However, there was not much tailgating around us. We were eating in a parking lot reserved for season ticket holders, yet most people did not arrive until about 1-1.5 hours before kickoff. I definitely was not in Big Ten country anymore.
Game Atmosphere:
When full, the Carrier Dome is the loudest college football stadium in the country despite only having a capacity of 52,000. I remember Michigan having major problems playing in that stadium back in 1999 because of crowd noise. Unfortunately, give that Syracuse went 1-10 last year and was a 21 point underdog yesterday, the stadium was only about 80% full. Given that the game was surprisingly close, the stadium was still extremely loud late in the game. I was impresssed.
Syracuse has the best mascot in the country. Seriously, it's a piece of fruit! :)
Given the large quantity of empty seats, we moved over to the Iowa section shortly before kickoff. Only about 10% of the ~40k fans in attendance were Iowa fans, all concentrated in the corner of the endzone.
And finally, I have to make some sort of band comment. The SU band does not hold a candle to any big ten band I have seen. I think that playing in a dome does not help since it's very tough to hear them in that sort of environment.
Game:
The game was not supposed to be close. However, Iowa prevailed in double overtime. Drew Tate didn't play, so Iowa turned to their backup QB (who happens to be a Bloomfield, CT native). The backup QB sucked. He threw four interceptions, and some of them were just ridiculous. Syracuse did not turn the ball over all game. However, Syracuse is just a terrible team. How else can you create four more turnovers than your opponent and still lose?
I thought the first sixty minutes of the game were quite sloppy. However, the overtime play was very good. In the second OT, Iowa scored a TD to build a 20-13 lead. Syracuse drove down inside the Iowa two on a pass interference call and had first and goal. They earned an additional set of downs a couple of plays later after another pass interference call, but Iowa completed a remarkable goal line stand after seven plays inside their two yardline. Seven plays! SEVEN PLAYS!! Best goal line stand I have ever seen.
Iowa will be a better team when their star QB returns, so I think this game was a fluke. The only other concern I noticed was Iowa's pass defense. The rest of their game was actually pretty solid. Their TE#87 (Chandler) is awesome, but I already knew that after watching him shred up Michigan's D last year.
Here are some pictures from the trip. I'll let RoopDogg or UNICorn chime in with road trip related stories if they choose.
Tailgating:
There are only two big time Division 1A football schools in New England (unless you want to count UConn). Given the lack of big time football, I wasn't expecting the tailgating atmosphere to be very exciting at Syracuse. We met up with a former co-worker who currently lives in Syracuse (and scored several tickets to the game for us). Their tailgate was quite impressive. However, there was not much tailgating around us. We were eating in a parking lot reserved for season ticket holders, yet most people did not arrive until about 1-1.5 hours before kickoff. I definitely was not in Big Ten country anymore.
Game Atmosphere:
When full, the Carrier Dome is the loudest college football stadium in the country despite only having a capacity of 52,000. I remember Michigan having major problems playing in that stadium back in 1999 because of crowd noise. Unfortunately, give that Syracuse went 1-10 last year and was a 21 point underdog yesterday, the stadium was only about 80% full. Given that the game was surprisingly close, the stadium was still extremely loud late in the game. I was impresssed.
Syracuse has the best mascot in the country. Seriously, it's a piece of fruit! :)
Given the large quantity of empty seats, we moved over to the Iowa section shortly before kickoff. Only about 10% of the ~40k fans in attendance were Iowa fans, all concentrated in the corner of the endzone.
And finally, I have to make some sort of band comment. The SU band does not hold a candle to any big ten band I have seen. I think that playing in a dome does not help since it's very tough to hear them in that sort of environment.
Game:
The game was not supposed to be close. However, Iowa prevailed in double overtime. Drew Tate didn't play, so Iowa turned to their backup QB (who happens to be a Bloomfield, CT native). The backup QB sucked. He threw four interceptions, and some of them were just ridiculous. Syracuse did not turn the ball over all game. However, Syracuse is just a terrible team. How else can you create four more turnovers than your opponent and still lose?
I thought the first sixty minutes of the game were quite sloppy. However, the overtime play was very good. In the second OT, Iowa scored a TD to build a 20-13 lead. Syracuse drove down inside the Iowa two on a pass interference call and had first and goal. They earned an additional set of downs a couple of plays later after another pass interference call, but Iowa completed a remarkable goal line stand after seven plays inside their two yardline. Seven plays! SEVEN PLAYS!! Best goal line stand I have ever seen.
Iowa will be a better team when their star QB returns, so I think this game was a fluke. The only other concern I noticed was Iowa's pass defense. The rest of their game was actually pretty solid. Their TE#87 (Chandler) is awesome, but I already knew that after watching him shred up Michigan's D last year.
Here are some pictures from the trip. I'll let RoopDogg or UNICorn chime in with road trip related stories if they choose.
Great cookies for the tailgate
Syracuse getting fired up before kickoff
Iowa takes the field
Group picture before kickoff (yes, I am wearing an Iowa shirt since my maize Michigan shirt was considered unacceptable attire)
Syracuse's student section coordinates well
Their mascot is an orange!
Five people in a small SUV is mighty comfortable
posted by GaryGinew at 9:55 AM
5 Comments:
I switched to Iowa-Syracuse after the PSU-ND game got boring, so I guess I only saw the "good" part of the game (mostly just overtime). But that defense at the end was quite impressive. I was surprised Syracuse didn't try something OTHER than running the ball after, you know, four or five unsuccessful tries. :)
Are you going to do a ND-UM preview post? I'm willing to bet I know what your prediction is (you negative nellie, you), but I can't wait for next week!!!
Is it Big Boy? I think it's Big Boy. It HAS to be Big Boy!!!
I agree Juju, where's the ND preview? I can't wait for gary to say he thinks we're going to lose to ND and for V to say, "you're not a real fan because you don't think Michigan will be 12-0." we haven't heard it in a while...
Is it natural? No.
It is bigger than Hawkeye? Yes.
Does it move? Yes.
What else could it be???? It's gotta be Big Boy!
Are you trying to get me to change your nickname? I see no corn reference.
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