In no particular order.
The Lester offense was an option based offense that created probably more explosive plays than we have seen in years at Syracuse University. The notion that Dungey wasn't suited for an offense that asked the QB to run throw deep patterns is I think dead wrong. Cuse 2012 was an explosive offense. This offense felt like a crap shoot.
That Tim was able to take a true frosh who had been on campus for less than a month and allow him to come into the first game of the year after the first series and operate very effectively is a good indication that the young man was well coached. And, the same holds true for Zach Mahoney. Lester took a walk on and gave him the tools to compete against an LSU and a Clemson. Why so much credit for the good players who had been on campus for a month or two, but no mention of Long or Kimble? They had more coaching by the time they took the field for Syracuse. Both will be playing 1-AA next year.
The defense was very young last year. We had true frosh on the DL - very unusual - and in the secondary. Agreed.
So, I think the lack of success on defense last year was more a function of inexperience and youth. I don't think it was the coaching. So if it's not coaching, then it's recruiting. Can't be a development program and not develop guys.
Was Scott prepared to be a head coach? Perhaps not. Was he a solid CEO for the program? Probably not. So we're just arguing why Shafer was fired, not whether or not he deserved it?
But I don't see the loyalty thing that you are presuming. Don't know how to lay it out any more clearly. Shafer was going to stick with his guys if it sunk him, and it did.
Well, we could go on and on but I think the primary issue with the defense was its tt secondary was It's hard to cover in the secondary when you the DL is can't pressure the QB. It's been claimed many times that Daoust was our best position coach. If Lester is such a good position coach and got Freshmen/transfers ready to play, how come Daoust couldn't coax more out of three defensive ends who had been with the program for a combined 10 seasons? There's many reasons Shafer got fired, but there's blame to go around, and it can't be cherry picked.