Just saw this (OC)...Maybe more speculation but who knows.

[Orijinal]

Coaching makes the difference when all else is equal. But you first need talent. Good coaching can only help a crap team so much. At the end of the day you need both. But at the college level, and especially at SU right now, a great recruiter is so important.

Ryan Nassib, 2 star recruit. Alec Lemon 2 star recruit. Mackey McPherson, too small. 3 stars the rest of the way across the board, except for Sales, who was 3.5 (split rivals and scout). Syracuse throttles Connecticut and Louisville, beats Missouri at their place, and throttles West Virginia, to win second bowl game in 4 seasons. Coaching is far more important than perceived "talent" at college level.

 

[orangepassion]

You are reading what I said wrong. I think Marrone was a great coach. But that didn't equate to success in year one. He needed to pull in better talent to get the results. Marrone told me directly after he was hired that GRob had his recruiting board built and it only consisted of about 15 kids, 13 of which we had no shot at. Marrone had a board built very quickly and it went out 2-3 years. He led me to believe it was recruiting where we fell down.

Last season in Marrone 4th year, who were his best offensive players? Nassib, Pugh, Lemon, Sales-All Grob recruits. Grob also brought in Delone Carter who was his best RB and is now in the NFL. As a matter of fact, Marrone's record was never better than his 2nd year as HC, when he had basically all G-Rob guys.

 

[PhatOrange]

Ryan Nassib, 2 star recruit. Alec Lemon 2 star recruit. Mackey McPherson, too small. 3 stars the rest of the way across the board, except for Sales, who was 3.5 (split rivals and scout). Syracuse throttles Connecticut and Louisville, beats Missouri at their place, and throttles West Virginia, to win second bowl game in 4 seasons. Coaching is far more important than perceived "talent" at college level.

Seriously, could you imagine what our old staff would've done over 4 years with heavily recruited kids?

If the new staff is half as good at developing talent, but gets more talent to work with then I think we'll be just fine. However, the area I most concerned with right now is game planning. I have no idea which original coaches were involved the most with game planning but imho, Marrone really excelled at this. I think it's what separated him.

 

[RMH44]

Ryan Nassib, 2 star recruit. Alec Lemon 2 star recruit. Mackey McPherson, too small. 3 stars the rest of the way across the board, except for Sales, who was 3.5 (split rivals and scout). Syracuse throttles Connecticut and Louisville, beats Missouri at their place, and throttles West Virginia, to win second bowl game in 4 seasons. Coaching is far more important than perceived "talent" at college level.

...and talent is far more important than perceived star designations.

 

[RMH44]

youtube search: george mcdonald coach

lots of videos with good insight.

Great find Whitey.

I wonder if McDonald is interested in recruiting former colleague Terry Richardson?

 

[DPCuse]

Last season in Marrone 4th year, who were his best offensive players? Nassib, Pugh, Lemon, Sales-All Grob recruits. Grob also brought in Delone Carter who was his best RB and is now in the NFL. As a matter of fact, Marrone's record was never better than his 2nd year as HC, when he had basically all G-Rob guys.

Is Coach Calipari a great coach or a great recruiter? Seems to me that he wins most of the time because he has the best talent. I'd rather be him than the best coach in the universe with crap talent.

 

[Jake]

Is Coach Calipari a great coach or a great recruiter? Seems to me that he wins most of the time because he has the best talent. I'd rather be him than the best coach in the universe with crap talent.

Make no mistake about it, Calipari can flat out coach. He takes a lot of heat for his recruiting tactics, which really overshadow his ability as a coach. He is very, very good - especially at development and game prep. He's still got work to do once the ball goes up.

 

[RMH44]

Make no mistake about it, Calipari can flat out coach. He takes a lot of heat for his recruiting tactics, which really overshadow his ability as a coach. He is very, very good - especially at development and game prep. He's still got work to do once the ball goes up.

I'd cut him some slack if he'd quit stomping his feet on the sidelines like a petulant child.

 

[orangepassion]

Is Coach Calipari a great coach or a great recruiter? Seems to me that he wins most of the time because he has the best talent. I'd rather be him than the best coach in the universe with crap talent.

2 words-Mike Locksley

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Read up on him. He's a GREAT recruiter and has big contacts in Florida. I was quietly hoping we would hire him once we hired Shafer.

Like a connection to STA it would seem. Offering their qb is starting to make a whole lot more sense now. If this is true, I like it!

 

[phil77]

Seems we have a lot of young bright minds on offense. Hopefully they all check there ego's at the door and work together to put together a great offensive game plan and bring in a big influx of talent on the offensive side of the ball.

Seems at worse we will have a big boost in offensive skill player recruiting especially at the WR spot.

 

[Whitey23]

Great find Whitey.

I wonder if McDonald is interested in recruiting former colleague Terry Richardson?

Terry looks like a TGD protege.

 

[TheCusian]

youtube search: george mcdonald coach

lots of videos with good insight.

Syracuse does not recruit itself - going to have to work a little harder than at the U.

 

[RMH44]

Syracuse does not recruit itself - going to have to work a little harder than at the U.

Absolutely correct! For now...

 

[Orijinal]

You are reading what I said wrong. I think Marrone was a great coach. But that didn't equate to success in year one. He needed to pull in better talent to get the results. Marrone told me directly after he was hired that GRob had his recruiting board built and it only consisted of about 15 kids, 13 of which we had no shot at. Marrone had a board built very quickly and it went out 2-3 years. He led me to believe it was recruiting where we fell down.

Now that is what I can get behind. Marrone was a good recruiter, but even better coach. He didn't get the 4 and 5 star kids but knew where to look to get capable kids and give this team depth, and brought in more walk-ons than anyone in recent memory.

 

[Madbiker]

Well we know this guy can sell because he manages to kill interviews and get a new job every year or two. So it would follow he's a good recruiter (able to sell kids). We'll see if he can be a good OC. But at the college level, recruiting is 80% of being successful.

 

[Orijinal]

Well we know this guy can sell because he manages to kill interviews and get a new job every year or two. So it would follow he's a good recruiter (able to sell kids). We'll see if he can be a good OC. But at the college level, recruiting is 80% of being successful.

Yikes. 80% of being successful? I guess if you bring in top 10 recruiting classes. But Syracuse ain't doing that even with MacDonald, but did find recent success with classes ranked in the 50's. He better be able to coach and be willing to work.

 

[All4SU]

I hope his recruiting skill set translates from Miami to Syracuse. Sort of like the difference between selling BMWs and Fords.

He recruited well at Minnesota.

 

[Symphony Steve]

I, for one, think that, if McDonald comes here, it's the best hire to date for SS. This staff looks woefully thin on ace recruiters, and McDonald immediately becomes our top recruiter. With close to a month until LOI Day. Wonder if there are any U and/or Ark. recruits who might join him here...like, say, QB Kevin Olsen of New Jersey.

 

[AAM62]

I like this hire. It begs the question of how his relationship with the WR transfer from Arkansas was.

 

[bnoro]

I like this hire. It begs the question of how his relationship with the WR transfer from Arkansas was.

He didn't have a relationship with Funderburk. He didn't coach a single practice for Arkansas.

Funderburk liked us a lot during the recruiting process in HS, came up with Jaston George (his best friend) and that played a big role in us landing him when he transferred.

 

[Chip]

I respectfully disagree-I don't think Marrone got much better talent. I think he was a much better coach than Robinson (not that that's saying much). Robinson had some talent, but he was a mess

Marrone and staff were better at developing talent. Shafer knows this is something that's a big part of the Syracuse job, we're not a selector school. He mentioned this in the presser. Although overall, I do think Marrone landed bigger and faster players.

 

[All4SU]

Hate to bring this up, but the fact that he is African-American does not hurt.

"You are. He is."

 

[44doubledees]

Well there goes getting any work done today, I like this hire, was worried that Shafer was going to load up on "coaches" and not put a huge emphasis on coaches that can recruit, clearly not the case with this hire as he is taking a bit of a gamble on a recruiter for his OC. Hope this is true, gonna make the run towards signing day interesting!

 

[VaSaltine]

Another point to consider, Shafer made it clear he would like to continue the current offensive and defensive styles that have been successful. He got his guy on defense in Bullough. McDonald is likely not married to any specific offensive style as his own play book has gotten quite dusty. He'd probably welcome a successful playboy thrown on his lap to learn and implement.