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Syracuse football coach Scott Shafer might be talking his way out of a job
Syracuse, N.Y. — If Scott Shafer is, in fact, relieved of his duties in three weeks or so, the words that could be chiseled into his Syracuse University coaching tombstone might be these:
"I looked up at the clock and said, 'Hey, we can still get back in this game.'"
Shafer spoke those 17 potentially-fatal words this afternoon when he again discussed why he'd chosen three days earlier to leave his previously-concussed quarterback — the 19-year-old Eric Dungey — on that Louisville field with some 4½ minutes to play in an affair the Orange was losing 41-10.
And the disturbing thing is that Scott, who'd watched Dungey get smashed once more for no good reason and immediately thereafter get dispatched to the locker room, seemed serious. Which means he's either lost his senses or is very bad at arithmetic.
Either way, the man may be in the process of talking his way out of a job.
Get back in the game, huh? In addition to knocking off a few decades of the rosary, this is what SU would have needed to do to get back in Saturday's game against the clearly-superior Cardinals:
Score a touchdown, convert the two-point conversion and recover the ensuing onside kick. Then, score a touchdown, convert the two-point conversion and recover the ensuing onside kick. Then, score a touchdown, convert the two-point conversion and recover the ensuing onside kick.
And all in, say, three minutes.
That would have brought the score to 41-34, which would have gotten the Orange "back in the game" and given it the opportunity in, say, 90 seconds, to score yet another touchdown, convert yet another two-point conversion and win 42-41 as time expired.
Now, sure, football coaches are a weird bunch and they're wired to think that nearly all things are possible at nearly all times for their teams. But if you've listened to Scott Shafer — first on Saturday after SU's 41-17 loss to the Cardinals and then, again, earlier today — and you didn't hear Lloyd Christmas, you missed "Dumb and Dumber."
"So you're telling me there's a chance. Yeah!"
Of course, everybody respects the noble competitor who refuses to give up. We like to believe there's a little bit of Chuck Wepner, the ol' Bayonne Bleeder, in all of us. But jeez.
Last November, Shafer wouldn't put a loyal, walk-on, fifth-year senior lineman — who'd given his soul to the program and yet had never played a down — on the field for a "Rudy" moment in the final seconds of the season finale the Orange was losing 28-7 at Boston College.
And this November, Shafer wouldn't take a battered, struggling, true-freshman quarterback — who'd been knocked out of two previous games after taking blows to the head — off the field in the final minutes of the most recent mismatch the Orange was losing 41-10 at Louisville.
And in both instances, Scott's stated reason was that there was time enough to win. That makes the Syracuse coach, from one year to the next, a man of faith … or a man in need of a soft couch and a cold compress. Oh, and of a heart, too.
That submitted, here comes No. 1-ranked Clemson into the Carrier Dome. If the Tigers prove the odds-makers correct, and if they do knock off SU by four touchdowns, Scott Shafer will still be Scott Shafer … and you can attach the meaning of your choice to that.
Indeed, he'll likely declare that, even as the clock wound down — three … two … one … — on, oh, a 44-16 final score, his head was telling him there was a chance.
Some things are easier to predict than others.
Syracuse, N.Y. — If Scott Shafer is, in fact, relieved of his duties in three weeks or so, the words that could be chiseled into his Syracuse University coaching tombstone might be these:
"I looked up at the clock and said, 'Hey, we can still get back in this game.'"
Shafer spoke those 17 potentially-fatal words this afternoon when he again discussed why he'd chosen three days earlier to leave his previously-concussed quarterback — the 19-year-old Eric Dungey — on that Louisville field with some 4½ minutes to play in an affair the Orange was losing 41-10.
And the disturbing thing is that Scott, who'd watched Dungey get smashed once more for no good reason and immediately thereafter get dispatched to the locker room, seemed serious. Which means he's either lost his senses or is very bad at arithmetic.
Either way, the man may be in the process of talking his way out of a job.
Get back in the game, huh? In addition to knocking off a few decades of the rosary, this is what SU would have needed to do to get back in Saturday's game against the clearly-superior Cardinals:
Score a touchdown, convert the two-point conversion and recover the ensuing onside kick. Then, score a touchdown, convert the two-point conversion and recover the ensuing onside kick. Then, score a touchdown, convert the two-point conversion and recover the ensuing onside kick.
And all in, say, three minutes.
That would have brought the score to 41-34, which would have gotten the Orange "back in the game" and given it the opportunity in, say, 90 seconds, to score yet another touchdown, convert yet another two-point conversion and win 42-41 as time expired.
Now, sure, football coaches are a weird bunch and they're wired to think that nearly all things are possible at nearly all times for their teams. But if you've listened to Scott Shafer — first on Saturday after SU's 41-17 loss to the Cardinals and then, again, earlier today — and you didn't hear Lloyd Christmas, you missed "Dumb and Dumber."
"So you're telling me there's a chance. Yeah!"
Of course, everybody respects the noble competitor who refuses to give up. We like to believe there's a little bit of Chuck Wepner, the ol' Bayonne Bleeder, in all of us. But jeez.
Last November, Shafer wouldn't put a loyal, walk-on, fifth-year senior lineman — who'd given his soul to the program and yet had never played a down — on the field for a "Rudy" moment in the final seconds of the season finale the Orange was losing 28-7 at Boston College.
And this November, Shafer wouldn't take a battered, struggling, true-freshman quarterback — who'd been knocked out of two previous games after taking blows to the head — off the field in the final minutes of the most recent mismatch the Orange was losing 41-10 at Louisville.
And in both instances, Scott's stated reason was that there was time enough to win. That makes the Syracuse coach, from one year to the next, a man of faith … or a man in need of a soft couch and a cold compress. Oh, and of a heart, too.
That submitted, here comes No. 1-ranked Clemson into the Carrier Dome. If the Tigers prove the odds-makers correct, and if they do knock off SU by four touchdowns, Scott Shafer will still be Scott Shafer … and you can attach the meaning of your choice to that.
Indeed, he'll likely declare that, even as the clock wound down — three … two … one … — on, oh, a 44-16 final score, his head was telling him there was a chance.
Some things are easier to predict than others.
