Oh jeez. I just stumbled across a horrifying realization: I haven’t attended a Syracuse football win in at least 11 years. And I’ll be on hand tomorrow for the opener against Maine. Hide the women, children, nattily-attired athletic directors and Dome Gnomes. We may see an upset if my karma seeps into the building.
The last time I was at the Dome for an SU football game was November 18, 2000, my senior year at the ‘Cuse.
Miami 26 – Syracuse 0.
In fact, that entire season I attended five games of Orange football, went 0-for-5. @ CIN (L) @ ECU (L) @ BC (L) VT (L) UM (L).
I hit up Giants Stadium in ’01 to endure the brilliant 13-7 loss to Georgia Tech in the Kickoff Classic. I drove to Iowa City to watch the Orange get smoked by the Hawkeyes in ’07, 35-nil (which was actually an enormous catalyst in creating the Fizz) and then to Tampa in ’08 for a 45-13 beatdown by USF.
The last time I witnessed a Syracuse football win must’ve been sometime in the ’99 season (that magical Music City Bowl year). I’m sure I was hammered on SUpercard beer and Dome Dogs, so who knows which game it was. But that’s an 0-8 run for me. Sounds like a Groobers conference record.
Let’s face it, there hasn’t been much reason to trek back to campus for a football game recently. In that Hurricanes drubbing a decade ago, it was actually a tight first half against a UM team that the following season would win the National Championship. And the ’01 squad could’ve won the AFC West. Gore, Portis, McGahee, Shockey, Winslow, Johnson, Wilfork, Reed, Vilma, McKinnie, Taylor. Um yeah.
I was calling the UM game as Sports Director of WAER at the time with NBC’s Olympic curling guru Andrew Catalon. We walked out of the Dome for the last time, knowing neither of us would be doing the Rutgers game the following weekend. But we held out hope the Orange would be invited to a bowl. Did not happen. The ‘Cuse would finish 6-5, stay home for the holidays and avoid being thumped by a 7th-place ACC school.
Which brings us full circle. Tomorrow, I’ll be rolling into the 315 with my “‘Cuse is in the House” tee,¬†buddy Adam Kaufman, voice of the Providence Bruins and Orange alum and buddy Dr. BS from the Sports Hub. We have plans on spending money we shouldn’t at Manny’s, fist-pumping the upside down Akron flag at Varsity, downing too many pints of Blue Moon at Faegan’s and scheduling the mandatory Dinosaur BBQ Sunday lunch run. And watching a dreadful game against an FBS team in hopes that it gets the Orange one step closer to six wins and the prayer of a lower-tier bowl game.
The Dome is also unveiling a text program tomorrow.
“Fans will be able to notify Dome officials if there is a spilled drink near their seat or a problem with their tickets, or if a fellow fan is acting in a disruptive manner. Whatever the situation, Dome management staff will be on call and able to react to any messages that they receive from fans during the game, the official said.”
Let’s just pray there’s not one specific text I have to send to the Dome staff: “Y arent we winning this gm? :(”
Posted: D.A.
