To those that foolishly say that we have the talent we

[javadoc]

Acosta has single handily turned SU recruiting in the state of NJ. His positional work hasn't been great since our TEs have been non-existent. Acosta has been the main recruiter for our NJ kids.

The rest of the offensive staff can go away as fair as I am concerned.

To be clear, your sufficiency criteria for coaches is that they recruit well. Their positional work is irrelevant.

Given the talent pool we are working with, and the injury problems, wouldn't you say that an OL coach who has us "top 5 in the ACC" is doing a pretty good job? If recruiting is all that matters, then I guess not.

But you will eventually need some cooks to make something out of all those ingredients. And if McDonald had been even a slightly below average cook, we probably wouldn't even be having this conversation right now.

 

[Alsacs]

To be clear, your sufficiency criteria for coaches is that they recruit well. Their positional work is irrelevant.

Given the talent pool we are working with, and the injury problems, wouldn't you say that an OL coach who has us "top 5 in the ACC" is doing a pretty good job? If recruiting is all that matters, then I guess not.

But you will eventually need some cooks to make something out of all those ingredients. And if McDonald had been even a slightly below average cook, we probably wouldn't even be having this conversation right now.

Our TEs have been underutilized they haven't underachieved. Our OC wanted to play spread and thus TEs aren't used well. Acosta can recruit thus that should be his saving grace. Adam hasn't been linked to one recruit I can fine thus he could go as far as I am concerned . If SS wanted to keep him fine but our OL has been okay given the talent but I wouldn't rate Adam as the doing a great job.

 

[RMH44]

Can' compare schedules and teams like they are static situations. Last year MD was hurt (Diggs and others), and we weren't.

Oh, so it's OK to use injuries as an excuse for opponents...but not for SU? Very curious.

 

[NineOneSeven]

From a Syracuse fan perspective, a high level 3* seems like a 5*.

Can't tell you how many guys seem to come in with such high expectation only to be average.

We've got some good players. The problem is we don't have enough great players to vault us into top25 territory.

And yes, injuries have played a huge role this year, no doubting that.

 

[richard levy]

Oh, so it's OK to use injuries as an excuse for opponents...but not for SU? Very curious.

On the contrary, injuries do matter. My point is that people think because we beat opponent X last year, we should beat them this year. I was just using MD as an example

 

[wfschrec]

Shafer has been here for a long time this isn't his first season or even second season recruiting for Syracuse. You state people like Long, Ish, Estime, Philips wouldn't play for other teams. The whole point of keeping Shafer was to keep the Marrone momentum going.

Yep he has been recruiting on the defensive side of the football which seems to have held up well since SS has been here, has it not? What this boils down to is OLine health and a less than optimal QB situation. This is where this season went completely sideways.

 

[phil77]

Yep he has been recruiting on the defensive side of the football which seems to have held up well since SS has been here, has it not? What this boils down to is OLine health and a less than optimal QB situation. This is where this season went completely sideways.

He is the head coach not defensive coach. He should take as much if not more responsibility for the offense that McDonald or Lester. If he just wants to recruit and coach defense then he is nothing more than a defensive coordinator. Not that there isn't anything wrong with that.

 

[wfschrec]

He is the head coach not defensive coach. He should take as much if not more responsibility for the offense that McDonald or Lester. If he just wants to recruit and coach defense then he is nothing more than a defensive coordinator. Not that there isn't anything wrong with that.

No but my point is he has demonstrated the ability to recruit ... he has done so and been successful. However this freshmen class is the first class that I feel we can say is his class on the offensive side of the ball and look who they hauled in:

Ishmael
Ward
Philips
Enoicy
Custis
Edouard
Long

Edouard has yet to see the field as has Ward but the others contribute today as freshmen and will be bigger contributors next season. Not really sure what your point is about his recruiting. I do find it interesting that there were some players that they offered and pursued immediately after Marrone left and it seemed like those guys were on Shafer's board and not guys Marrone wanted ... Scissum is one of those guys.

 

[AZOrange]

I don't think as a whole that the talent level is good. There are a handful of guys that I've seen that have it. But as a collective it's not good enough relative to peer conference. Still lack speed and strength and size across the board.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

I don't think as a whole that the talent level is good. There are a handful of guys that I've seen that have it. But as a collective it's not good enough relative to peer conference. Still lack speed and strength and size across the board.

Absolutely have to recruit speed. Don't care if they've never caught a football in their lives, you can teach them that. As we all know, you can't teach...

 

[RF2044]

I don't think as a whole that the talent level is good. There are a handful of guys that I've seen that have it. But as a collective it's not good enough relative to peer conference. Still lack speed and strength and size across the board.

Agree 100%. On this topic, there seem to be two conversations often happening simultaneously. One of them is people arguing that the talent on hand is "good enough" for the offense to function better than how it's actually functioning. I agree with that perspective.

The other is that relative to our peers, the talent ISN'T good enough, and needs to improve. I agree with this perspective, as well. As OrangeinBoston says above, we need an infusion of speed / athleticism on both sides of the ball. We're getting better via recruiting, but we aren't where we need to play. We lack explosive playmakers--that is obvious, even in relation to our close peers who aren't all that great, like Maryland and BC.

 

[AZOrange]

Agree 100%. On this topic, there seem to be two conversations often happening simultaneously. One of them is people arguing that the talent on hand is "good enough" for the offense to function better than how it's actually functioning. I agree with that perspective. The other is that relative to our peers, the talent ISN'T good enough, and needs to improve. I agree with this perspective, as well. As OrangeinBoston says above, we need an infusion of speed / athleticism on both sides of the ball. We're getting better via recruiting, but we aren't where we need to play. We lack explosive playmakers--that is obvious, even in relation to our close peers who aren't all that great, like Maryland and BC.

And strangely I think one area where we have talent is TE. From what I saw of Paris especially I was impressed but we never use them

 

[Alsacs]

Nobody is stupid enough to say we have enough talent to win a conference title or anything. Of course our program needs a talent infusion as almost every team in the country could use. I would say the talent on this roster is good enough to win 6-7 games not 3 games.

I just think the biggest problem this year has been the offensive coaching staff. Last year they adopted the power run game and we ran for over 300 yards in 3 games in a row. This year we have tried to jam a round peg into a square hole. Our team has underachieved greatly. We could use more talent of course, but the current talent on this team should have been 5-7 to 7-5 and not 3-9 as it appears.

I don't know what to expect next year as I don't think Scott Shafer will make many changes on his staff, but he needs to get to a bowl game next year or he should be dismissed as HC. This team had enough talent to beat Maryland, NC State, Louisville, Duke at home and blew every single one of those games. Wake Forest is in full rebuild mode not Syracuse.

 

[Crusty]

And strangely I think one area where we have talent is TE. From what I saw of Paris especially I was impressed but we never use them

He had the dropsies. He was supposed to be a primary checkdown but didn't show real good hands. I have my reservations.