Staff

On Thursday, we talked about the Most Improved Player of the 2010 season, and we had a few different ideas of who was most deserving there.  Today we dive into the Most Disappointing Player of the season.  To be fair, the season will forever be considered a great success, but that doesn’t preclude discontent.  The formation  of expectations result in potential disappointment, so as we continue to look back at 2010, we ask ourselves, who was the most disappointing player of the year? 

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Tom Sullivan, Otto’s Army

Seven weeks into the season and Marcus Sales had this locked up and it wasn’t even close. Then a funny thing happened…he went and totally redeemed himself. Sales proved to be Orange’s most reliable and productive receiver over the second half of the season. So good for you Mr. Sales, you avoided this label with a solid second half that has you set up to be Nassib’s #1 target in your senior season.

So who actually was the Orange’s most disappointing player? Hard to label anyone as such on a team that overachieved like the Orange did in 2010. But if it has to be done, congratulations Shamarko Thomas, you’re the Syracuse Orange MDP for 2010. Sure he finished fourth on the team in tackles, but for a kid who was supposed to make the leap to stardom in his sophomore season he spent too much of the year seemingly invisible. Thomas couldn’t beat out two seniors who played average at best football for three years for a starting spot at one of the safeties and his lack of big plays – which he showed a penchant for in his rookie campaign – was startling (he didn’t have a single interception in 2010). 

The bright side for Shamarko is that Mike Holmes and Max Suter are gone and he has two years left to re-capture the fan favorite label he earned his freshman year.

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Dave Cooperman, Otto’s Army

Expectations can be a fickle bitch.  Look no further than this Syracuse team racing out to a 6-2 start before limping home at 1-3 and the disappointment that followed.  Everyone who bleeds Orange would have signed up for a 7-5 season regardless of how it was achieved, yet the final 4 weeks felt like a funeral for a lost season.

Before the season I was hyping Chandler Jones as the second coming of Dwight Freeney and he wasn’t.  He wasn’t bad, at times you could feel his impact but at the end of the year you weren’t sure if even had a better season than “Sex Pistol” Marinovich and that is why he is my Most Disappointing Player.  I thought he had First Team Big East, double digit sack potential and he did not reach the goals I set and came quite short of the sack projection with 4.  As a matter of fact Jones has yet record 10 sacks in his Orange career.

As you prepare to write the book of the 2011 Orange, Jones will once again be a player I am prepared to hype and have no problem going back out onto the limb and projecting a dominant senior season.  It is very possible that the expectations were just a year early.

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Steve Schaefer, Otto’s Army

As a cog in the wheel there isn’t much to complain about with Chandler Jones’ numbers (4 sacks, 3 forced fumbles). But for those of us, including myself, who thought Jones would have those numbers in October instead of January, it wasn’t the breakout year anticipated.

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Euclid 419er, Otto’s Army

Personally, I am tempted to bestow this dishonor on Mikhail Marinovich, not because he was that bad, but because I had him pegged for the Bednarik Award.  But I suppose “All Hail” Mikhail shouldn’t be blamed for falling short of my lofty premonition.  So instead, I’ll go with the player whose actions were most disappointing – Malcolm Cater.  Seriously, Malcolm?  You’re going to throw away a promising collegiate career for a TV?  I’m not sure what’s more disappointing – the burglary or the fact that he was caught by his footprints in the snow.  A real tough case for CSI: Syracuse. 

Averin Collier deserves a mention.  For whatever reason, he couldn’t get his grades up and flushed his ‘Cuse career down the toilet, as well.  But at least he wasn’t committing felonies. 

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Tim Schlittner, Otto’s Army

I honestly don’t think any single player was that disappointing so I’m going to pull a Tom Sullivan and choose the entire team for their performance at the Carrier Dome. There was a lot to cheer about for the Syracuse football team this season but their best wins came in Akron, Tampa Bay, Morgantown, Cincinnati, Piscataway, and the Bronx. Home fans were treated to two wins over FCS opponents and four duds with virtually no offense or points.

The fans are somewhat culpable here too as they failed to sell out a single home game and never provided a legitimate 12th man. But it’s the players on the field who are most responsible for Syracuse’s biggest disappointment in 2010.

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2010 Football Recap

Offensive MVP

Defensive MVP

Most Improved