So it's nothing profound or anything...but I met him in 1993 when I was up visiting 'Cuse as a senior in high school.  He was signing an autobiographical video he had just released at the SU bookstore, and my friend (GCM238)'s dad had us go over there and meet him, and he explained to us the importance of who he was.  At that point I knew more about his history as a Baltimore Colt than as a Syracuse Orangemen, but that would soon change.  I enrolled at SU the following year and the rest of my Syracuse fandom followed from that.  He remains the only actual Syracuse legend that I've met in person (except for the one time I said hi to Coach Boeheim at Wegmans, haha).

Enclosed is the pic of the signed D.O. copy that he wrote for me.  I don't remember much other than that he was a very kind and gracious guy at the signing, and I loved hearing him talk about Ernie Davis years later on ESPN's Sportscentury documentary about the Elmira Express.   

JohnMackeysigned (via brianroll)

Well, UConn just wrapped up the Big East's BCS berth.  I can't believe how friggin' disgusted I am by this turn of events.  I know that Georgetown is our blood rival in hoops, but can you seriously think of a more hated athletic department than Connecticut right now?  I can't stand either of their basketball coaches, between Calhoun and that slimy little bastard Auriemma, and now this.  This ridiculous, boring team with the Wal Mart football uniforms, being led by that traitorous swine Randy Edsall, is going to (most likely) the Fiesta Bowl. 

Let that sink in...FUConn is going to the Fiesta Bowl.  I am sick to my stomach.  It's bad enough that we've had to endure the stain of UConn hoops for so long, but this pushes me over the top.  I really hope that Doug Marrone is able to build up and get our program back on top of the Big East, so that we can push the Huskies back where they belong - at the bottom of the conference, mired in irrelevance.  Unfortunately, them locking up this bowl berth is not going to help Syracuse win any recruiting battles in the tri-state area against these scumbags.

Barf.

Wow...get a load of this article that Brian Bennett linked to over on ESPN.com.  When you read the quotes from Bill Stewart, he sounds very gooberish, a la GRob.  He's basically a goofball who just happened to inherit a better team than Robinson did.  If you read the comments below the article, you can certainly enjoy (yet relate to) some of the anger flying out of the mouths of Mountaineer fans.

http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/WVU/201010240527

Wow, so we now have two former Syracuse NFL players suspended by the league for banned substances/drugs in the past week.  First it was Tanard Jackson, now it's Steve Gregory.  What the hell is going on with our beloved former Orangement?  I mean, what's next?  Dwight Freeney hopped up on goofballs?  Donovan McNabb sniffing glue?  Anthony Smith smoking meth?  Marvin Harrison shooting at people who are potential witnesses in pending criminal cases against him?*

*oh right...

I think we can safely say that Rutgers is terrible.  What an absolutely awful loss...at home...to a middling C-USA team.  The Big East has flat out sucked this year, and the Knights are no exception.  We had better make some noise in this conference this year, because while I don't think the Orange are quite there yet (and you guys who are regulars on here know that no one believes in HCDM more than I do), I think we are good enough to win 3-4 games in conference.  UConn seems to have righted the ship a little, and WVU is good, but that's about it.  Pitt and Cincy have issues, USF is an enigma (as usual), and Louisville is rebuilding. 

SYRACUSE - NOW IS THE TIME TO STRIKE!

Man, not for nothing...but Mike Williams has been an absolute beast for the Tampa Bay Bucs.  I simply can't believe how good he's been for them so far, so soon, but I guess we all knew that he had first round talent.  If he can keep his head on right, he can be a very productive NFL player for years.  I think I've mentioned this before, but if they ever get a Sunday Night game and they introduce themselves early in the game....will Mike Williams say "Mike Williams, Syracuse?"  Or will he say "Mike Williams, (insert high school name)?"  I could see the latter since he feels that Syracuse wronged him in some way, but either way, he's an Orangeman, and I'm glad to see him doing well so far at the next level.

...but not on the field of play.  According to the open letter penned below by the Nationals team itself, the United Kingdom refused to allow the squad to travel on their indigenous passports.  However you feel about this issue, I have to say that I respect these guys for refusing to back down and for holding true to their identity.  That said, in the age of air travel restrictions, what good is your "own" passport if you can barely use it?  It's a messy situation all around.


http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/England-says-no-to-Iroquois-Nationals-on-travel-waiver-98740584.html

Hey gang - after seeing the impressive collections of memorabilia (and the even more impressive man cave temples of Syracuse sports), I realize I have no chance to win.  However, I did want to share a few cool things I have in my house and have collected over the years.  Nothing is signed, nothing is all that rare, but some stuff is old and therefore maybe some of you haven't seen it.  I hope you enjoy my own little SU collection (and note that none of my various t-shirts, jerseys, etc., are included - I'm sure you all have that kind of stuff).

Most of that stuff you see above is my own humble man cave dedicated to the Orange, including a commemorative cup from the 1000th game back in 1991 (the Orange has faded to a lackluster yellowish color).  Also, the mobile in my son's room - yes, I am brainwashing him with Otto's cuteness.  Don't neglect to notice the Tully's coasters that I "liberated" from Tully's a few years back.

Here are some pins (from the 1961 Liberty Bowl and the 1988 Sugar Bowl, as well as a "Save SU Wrestling" pin from my days on the hill).  Also, ticket stubs.  My first game (a win against ECU in 1988), and the first time I saw Syracuse get whooped (the 1990 kickoff classic against USC at Giants Stadium).  Also, the ticket stub from my 1997 student ticket pass (from my senior year).  I went to all the games, of course (which was a lot more fun then because they were actually good). 

So 'Cuse fans, what do we think?  I know that there are some of you that say, "Hey, at least there is no shame in losing to Butler now - that's a damned good team."  You will take solace in this fact, and I can understand that.  Color me in the other camp, though.  I'm in the camp that says, "God damn it, we should be playing for the national title.  If only we had played better in the Sweet 16, no doubt we could have toppled both Kansas St. and Michigan St. as well."

Sigh.

In this week's Sports Illustrated, there is a casual mention on Dan Patrick's page about Dwight Freeney always wearing a Yankee cap.  Freeney is a Mets fan, and admitted that although he isn't a Yankee fan, he wears it because orange and blue - as a color scheme - are not fashionable.  This is an outrage!  How could you, Dwight...how could you!?!?!  It sure looked like a damned fashionable color combination when he was rocking it in his #54 jersey.  First Marvin Harrison goes and kills somebody, and now this.  I guess when Orangemen become Colts, they can no longer be trusted.

Formerly known as the Division 1AA championship, before the morons at the NCAA decided to make a nomenclature change for no good reason.  Anyway, bully for Villanova...and it just proves that they are ready to come up to play with the big boys and help out the Big East conference.  The timing could not be better, right?  They are the best team in FCS, the Big East needs to expand, so why not - riding high on their first national title - decide to make the capital investment to move up to the FBS and give us a presence in Philly once again?  It's high time the basketball schools took one for the team, for once, because lord knows the football teams have been bending over and taking it for years.

What say you?!?

When I was a kid in the 1980s, I was under the impression that WVU was Syracuse's biggest rivalry because that's what I was told.  Then the 1987 game happened, then the Marvin Graves brawl game happened, so it sort of made sense.  But as it dawned on me over the years that WVU has eyes only for Pitt when it comes to "Big East rivals," it left me with the feeling that, well, we really didn't have a rival. 

When I was a student, there was a ridiculous notion that Miami was somehow our rival, which was laughable for a number of reasons (they always killed us, there was no geography or history, and if you asked them to name their top 20 rivals, we probably wouldn't make that list).  I understood HATING Miami, but a rivalry?  No.  Boston College?  Well, sure, they're a bunch of douchebags, but no.  Penn State?  We always thought they were a rival, but when Paterno bagged out of anchoring the Big East, that went bye-bye.  I actually always felt that Virginia Tech was our biggest "real" football rival. 

The Hokies had come out of nowhere to be a pretty good rival when I was in college in the mid to late 1990s.  We routinely exchanged thrilling victories over one another, we would upset them when they were higher ranked (and vice versa), we heavily recruited the same QB (Mike Vick), and there seemed to be some real animosity developing between the programs.  The 1998 game where we beat them on the last second might be one of the best finishes to a game in the history of the conference, followed up by a year later when they returned the favor (post-McNabb) by destroying us 62-0 in Blacksburg.  We then fell in the Dome the next year on a back-breaking Vick TD run, after Dwight Freeney had spent half the game (and only half due to injury) sacking Vick left and right.   In the early 2000s, there was the post-Vick upset at Va Tech when they were ranked #4 in the country and we out Beamer-balled them by completely dominating on special teams (which was actually a LONG under-appreciated trait of all Paul Pasqualoni-coached teams).  Then during Pasqualoni's disastrous 2002 season (the 4-8 year where we almost upset Auburn at Auburn), we actually DID upset Va Tech once again in the Dome.

But then, of course, Va Tech left for the ACC.  That left us with a HUGE "hate" itch to scratch.

Enter Rutgers, our former whipping boy.  We have always fished in the same recruiting waters with the Scarlet Knights, but never gave them a second thought because we absolutely owned that program (as did everybody, because Rutgers sucked so hard for so long).  Then when our program went into decline, that started to change, as we started suffering embarrassing upset losses to pitiful Rutgers teams.  When Gross knee-jerked fired Pasqualoni without having a good replacement lined up, Rutgers swooped in and snagged Ray Rice and Courtney Greene (among others), and prior to that, they had the Leonard brothers (two guys who, in years past, would have worn Orange and blue).  Our fall from glory was their gain, and now we have a dogfight on our hands to reassert our dominance.  Now, it's true that Rutgers lacks our tradition, but in the "what have you done for me lately" world, we as 'Cuse fans have to remember that our program has been nationally irrelevant for almost a decade. 

The series between the two teams has never been a rivalry until recently, largely because we kicked the stuffing out of them for so long, and once we started sucking, they returned the favor.  However, last Saturday's game sent a very clear shot across the bow of the Scarlet Knight football program.  I don't think that because we throttled them that it's really a case of, "oh well, now we are back to dominating Rutgers."  No.  I think what it indicated, though, is that Rutgers is no longer going to dominate us, and that the most recent five year blip in our series history is just that - a blip. 

Someone in another thread made a great point about them being so geographically similar to us that we are practically brothers.  In this case, Rutgers is our pain-in-the-ass younger brother who has finally come into his own a little bit, able to bloody our nose once in a while, just as we are able to bloody theirs.  When you throw in the fact that their coach comes off as smug and unlikable, it only helps matters along.  Their fans hate us, and we can't stand the fact that they puff their chests out when they really - in our eyes - have accomplished nothing.  Are they at our "level" in terms of what the programs accomplished in the 20th century?  Of course not.  But frankly, a lot of that is ancient history.  I mean, hell, Army used to win national championships in football.  That has absolutely nothing to do with today.

So to boil it down...we hate them, they hate us, and the campuses are within four hours of one another.  Also, both "claim" to be the team of NYC, as other posters have pointed out.  I mean, I understand the hatred of Rutgers and the unwillingness to acknowledge them as a rival, because we still sometimes make the mistake of not taking them seriously.  They, in turn, can't stand when we remind them constantly that they are historically one of the worst bottom feeders of all time.  In my opinion, that's what fuels a good rivalry.  Seriously...how many of us thought to ourselves, "well, if we get one Big East win this year, I hope it's against Rutgers, because I can't stand that team."

Be honest....a lot of us felt that way.  Or maybe it's just me, because I live in New Jersey :)

In the interest of full disclosure, I posted this on Syracuse.com.  Please see below, and discuss - what do you guys think?

Continue reading this post »

Okay guys, time to address the elephant in the room, with regards to the SU offense.  We know that Paulus is gone after this year, although I'm sure he would come back if he could.  But Mike Williams is another story altogether.

The guy is the go-to receiver in a pass-happy (by necessity) offense, and is on pace to put up RIDICULOUS numbers.  If he ends up finishing in the top 5 in national receiving numbers for the rest of the season, and if Syracuse finishes with a respectable record (a 5-7 or so), do you guys think he comes back for his final year of eligibility?  We know that Williams has had trouble with academics before, so unless he wants to come back for a chance to go bowling or something with next year's team, I say the odds of him returning are in the 30% range.  He's probably a first day (1st or 2nd round) selection in the NFL draft if the above scenario plays out.  Thoughts?

(and if for some reason I'm wrong in regards to Williams' eligibility status, then I'll be damned!)

It's that time of year, and for the first time in a long time (well, the first time ever), the wife and I are driving up from the dirty Jerz to check out the spring game tomorrow.  Will any of you other fine NunesMagician disciples be in attendance?  I really hope that Doug Marrone doesn't dial back the f-bombs for the sake of the fans.  I want to hear the salty language, the hard hitting, and maybe - if I'm lucky - the sounds of an old SU fan telling me to "sit down."  Wouldn't quite be SU football at the Carrier Dome without that last one.

So...in all seriousness...who's with me?

Pretty fascinating story broken by Donnie Webb this morning over at Syracuse.com.  According to a source on the team, Donnie says that Ryan Nassib - after only a handful of practices - has been named the starting QB for the Syracuse football team.

Ryan Nassib is the New SU Starting QB

They've always said this kid had a lot of potential, and I love the fact that Marrone has pulled the trigger so quickly.  This definitely gives the kid a chance to get the system down, get the most reps with the first team, and put him in position to start off his redshirt freshman season the right foot. 

Dantley will back him up, followed by Legree.  Andrew Robinson, the erstwhile starter, joins Cody Catalina as a tight end on the depth chart.  Bizarre and sudden, but I like it a lot.  Go Orange.

Courtesy of our boy Ryan Miller, over on Syracuse.com.  I think we all remember the "dream relationships" we cultivated with guys at summer camps.  Um...no homo.  But seriously, let's hope that Flynn puts friendship aside and helps bury the Sun Devils tomorrow (I'm sure he will).

http://blog.syracuse.com/orange-segment/2009/03/jonny_flynn_and_james_harden_g.html

Interesting story and relationship between Flynn and Arizona State's James Harden.  Glad to hear that they were "kickin it" together last night.

NH

Maybe Greg Robinson was right after all...but it had to do with SU men's basketball, and not football.

This from Rutgers coach Fred Hill, after the Orange ran the Knights out of the gym in the second half.

"In the second half, when they got going and they got out and ran on us, it just snowballed."

Now, anyone watchi<!-- TOKEN_1236177155268_TOKEN -->ng that game knows that the Orange shot 75% from the field in the second half, which is absolutely, as Marv Albert would say, "on fire."

So I ask you this, given that fact and Hill's observation - is it possible that last night, for the first time in history, we actually WITNESSED the Orange snowball into something that caught fire?!!  Or did I just blow your mind??!!

So I was reading me some Donnie Webb this afternoon, and he has the link to the new, fancy-shmancy SU Athletics Football roster.

http://www.suathletics.com/roster.aspx?path=Football

When I clicked on Doug Marrone, his little bio and whatnot come up, but what really caught my eye was the listed e-mail address:

kmpasqua@syr.edu

Does it strike anyone else as odd that in his e-mail address are the FIRST SIX LETTERS of Paul Pasqualoni's last name!?!??!!  Maybe it's like in Total Recall when Schwarzenegger is in the fat lady suit, only to reveal Arnold underneath in all of his glory when the suit malfunctions.  Is Marrone suddenly going "unzip" during the first game of next year, revealing a tanned and smiling Paul Pasqualoni underneath?

If that's the case, there will amost certainly be a stampede to the beer stands at the Carrier Dome.

Liz Hogan, female lacrosse player, answered the Athlete of the Week Question over at SUathletics.com.

http://suathletics.com/awards.aspx?aow=518

When asked what her favorite sports movie, she said, "Remember the Titans."

Doesn't she know that the only acceptable answer now and forever, for any Syracuse athlete, has to be "The Express?!!"  Unbeleivable!

But it got me wondering about our own preferences here on NunesMagician.

So with that being said - other than The Express - what is your favorite sports movie of all time?  It can be drama or comedy, football, basketball, or baseball.