Hunt, Shafer, and George McDonald

[Cuse_Albs]

Just scrolling through the threads on here, I feel like I need to start one for the sane fans out here.

Can everyone realize that Hunt came into this game with a 4 TD performance against a CMU team that blew out Purdue, who in turn gave ND a game. He ended the game with a 50% completion percentage, with receivers dropping a good 6-7 balls. He had one awful throw where he didn't see the MD defender that ended up being a 14 point swing...it happens. He also led an offense that put up 600 yards!

Shafer is the first coach since Pasqualoni to lead the team to a winning record in his first season. We're 2-1 right now, and I feel the only real knock on him in this game can be the teams lack of discipline, which he can only do so much about. Still a much easier fix than the atrocities that occurred in the late Coach P and GROB years.

Lastly OCGM has turned around our recruiting here. I don't care if you believe in Recruiting rankings or not, he has brought recruiting back to a respectable level with a chance to make the 2016 class special, with players such as Robert Washington and Sonny Abramson looking our way. In his first year you could tell he was working with inexperienced quarterbacks in Drew Allen and a first year THunt. And I'd have to say I'm not a fan of the bubble screens, but sometimes thats what you need when you have inexperience behind center. The playbook this year has definitely been opened up in comparison to last year, and if it weren't for costly penalties and dropped passes we probably would have put up a 40 spot on that porous MD defense. And everyone would be just fine right now.

All in all just a miserable game of sitting on the doorstep and not breaking through. Were one play away from that game being ours. Just sucks to be on the losing end of it. No need to bash the players and coaches.

 

[djorange1989]

Thank you for a sane post. This asinine tendency of some fans to want HCSS and GM fired or put on notice anytime a game goes badly makes me crazy. We shot ourselves in the foot a bunch of times against MD but it happens unfortunately. We look much better on offense this year and hopefully we can put the sloppy play behind us.

 

[qdawgg]

Just scrolling through the threads on here, I feel like I need to start one for the sane fans out here.

Can everyone realize that Hunt came into this game with a 4 TD performance against a CMU team that blew out Purdue, who in turn gave ND a game. He ended the game with a 50% completion percentage, with receivers dropping a good 6-7 balls. He had one awful throw where he didn't see the MD defender that ended up being a 14 point swing...it happens. He also led an offense that put up 600 yards!

Shafer is the first coach since Pasqualoni to lead the team to a winning record in his first season. We're 2-1 right now, and I feel the only real knock on him in this game can be the teams lack of discipline, which he can only do so much about. Still a much easier fix than the atrocities that occurred in the late Coach P and GROB years.

Lastly OCGM has turned around our recruiting here. I don't care if you believe in Recruiting rankings or not, he has brought recruiting back to a respectable level with a chance to make the 2016 class special, with players such as Robert Washington and Sonny Abramson looking our way. In his first year you could tell he was working with inexperienced quarterbacks in Drew Allen and a first year THunt. And I'd have to say I'm not a fan of the bubble screens, but sometimes thats what you need when you have inexperience behind center. The playbook this year has definitely been opened up in comparison to last year, and if it weren't for costly penalties and dropped passes we probably would have put up a 40 spot on that porous MD defense. And everyone would be just fine right now.

All in all just a miserable game of sitting on the doorstep and not breaking through. Were one play away from that game being ours. Just sucks to be on the losing end of it. No need to bash the players and coaches.

My biggest problem with what you're saying and others who've implied the same thing. I'm not trying to be a jerk at all but I don't know how you can watch the game and come away thinking he had one awful throw. Clearly, that throw was the worst of them all but he had numerous throws that were terrible and some of them to pretty open WR's. I'm not even willing to completely pass blame to him on the pick 6 because he threw it to where he thought his WR was going to be, judging by the WR's reaction and everyone involved, after the play and walking to the sideline, I got the feeling the WR ran the correct route. IMO he had a rough game, he had a lot of terrible throws and missed some 3rd down conversions as a result. Other than that I have no problem right now with him as the QB, I just hope he can improved. I have a few issues with McDonald but I was willing to give Hackett the benefit of the doubt and feel the same way with McDonald.

 

[PhatOrange]

I think he's been a bit over rated as a recruiter.

 

[CanadianSU]

I think he's been a bit over rated as a recruiter.

He's a good recruiter, people aren't exactly lining up to come to Syracuse. He can't change that. A bad recruiter at South Carolina is still miles better than a good recruiter for Syracuse.

 

[SmilinBob]

McDonald is a good recruiter but it's tough to recruit for a school that never fills the Dome. Overall this staff is very good and what this team needs is consistency and not up one game and down the next.

 

[HtownOrange]

Take a step back from the edge, folks. Just 10 years ago, PP was taking us further down the decline. Just six years ago, GRob had us at the lowest point in Orange history. Marrone got us out of the hole an made the Orange a middle of the pack team. I belive he could have gone much further had he stayed, but that is speculation and not the point of this post.

HCSS and Co. are doing a good job. These kids want to win, stay together, do not loose their cool (TH excepted in the Nova game). They know they make a few fatal mistakes but they are improving. Too many people expect Championship without building a foundation. Syracuse is not a football factory and never will be because Syracuse generally plays by the rules and Syracuse believes in STUDENT athletes, not kids who can't pass the seventh grade (Yes, SEC, that comment is aimed primarily at YOU!)

If you want an annual winner, pick Bama, they are the safe team right now. But, let's not forget that Bama disappeared for while before their present dominance. So when Bama starts losing again, get off their bandwagon and get on the next hot team (FSU?). Me, I prefer to be loyal to Syracuse. I am from the area, my dad followed them, my grandfather followed them, though I did not have the privilege of attending Syracuse, they are my favorite college team. Trashing the coaching staff (a relatively new and young staff) instead of looking at the foundations being built for a strong, long lasting good team is senseless. Try to recall that HCDM (that's Dick MacPherson) built a similar foundation that helped HCPP win for many years until his mediocrity was unveiled.

The Orangemen had many great seasons under PP but he was not the caliber of Coach Mac. Marrone could have been, alas, he is gone. Shafer is doing a fine, respectable job. GMcD is a very good to excellent recruiter and this offense is getting better. Mistakes will be made until everything clicks but give it a chance. Our recruiting is much improved over the PP/GRob years. Our playbook is streamlined (last year being an aberration). Our Defense is a dream come true to most defenders. Kids want to play in this type of scheme (offense and defense).

Unless Syracuse starts paying kids to play and ignores academics, like the SEC, tOSU, Okie State, Oregon, etc., then building a team takes some time. Shafer has these kids at 2-1 and should have won the UMD game. They were the better team. These kids know it. They will bounce back.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Just scrolling through the threads on here, I feel like I need to start one for the sane fans out here.

Can everyone realize that Hunt came into this game with a 4 TD performance against a CMU team that blew out Purdue, who in turn gave ND a game. He ended the game with a 50% completion percentage, with receivers dropping a good 6-7 balls. He had one awful throw where he didn't see the MD defender that ended up being a 14 point swing...it happens. He also led an offense that put up 600 yards!

Shafer is the first coach since Pasqualoni to lead the team to a winning record in his first season. We're 2-1 right now, and I feel the only real knock on him in this game can be the teams lack of discipline, which he can only do so much about. Still a much easier fix than the atrocities that occurred in the late Coach P and GROB years.

Lastly OCGM has turned around our recruiting here. I don't care if you believe in Recruiting rankings or not, he has brought recruiting back to a respectable level with a chance to make the 2016 class special, with players such as Robert Washington and Sonny Abramson looking our way. In his first year you could tell he was working with inexperienced quarterbacks in Drew Allen and a first year THunt. And I'd have to say I'm not a fan of the bubble screens, but sometimes thats what you need when you have inexperience behind center. The playbook this year has definitely been opened up in comparison to last year, and if it weren't for costly penalties and dropped passes we probably would have put up a 40 spot on that porous MD defense. And everyone would be just fine right now.

All in all just a miserable game of sitting on the doorstep and not breaking through. Were one play away from that game being ours. Just sucks to be on the losing end of it. No need to bash the players and coaches.

Now that I've calmed down... I certainly agree with much of what you said (I do agree with qdawg that Hunt had more than his share of bad throws, but chalk that up to a very bad day). But, what irks me is that twice in 3 games, the team seems to be totally unprepared for their opponent. They should have been prepared for Robertson running all over the place vs Villanova, but clearly were not coached to do so (I have a hard time believing it was just a matter of execution). Then, against Maryland, they seemed surprised to see MD thowing the ball, resulting in a couple of touchdowns. The penalties in the red zone, lining up incorrectly for the punt that was blocked, well-coached teams don't do this. Perhaps that is what is really eating at a lot of us.

 

[Crusty]

Just scrolling through the threads on here, I feel like I need to start one for the sane fans out here.

Can everyone realize that Hunt came into this game with a 4 TD performance against a CMU team that blew out Purdue, who in turn gave ND a game. He ended the game with a 50% completion percentage, with receivers dropping a good 6-7 balls. He had one awful throw where he didn't see the MD defender that ended up being a 14 point swing...it happens. He also led an offense that put up 600 yards!

Shafer is the first coach since Pasqualoni to lead the team to a winning record in his first season. We're 2-1 right now, and I feel the only real knock on him in this game can be the teams lack of discipline, which he can only do so much about. Still a much easier fix than the atrocities that occurred in the late Coach P and GROB years.

Lastly OCGM has turned around our recruiting here. I don't care if you believe in Recruiting rankings or not, he has brought recruiting back to a respectable level with a chance to make the 2016 class special, with players such as Robert Washington and Sonny Abramson looking our way. In his first year you could tell he was working with inexperienced quarterbacks in Drew Allen and a first year THunt. And I'd have to say I'm not a fan of the bubble screens, but sometimes thats what you need when you have inexperience behind center. The playbook this year has definitely been opened up in comparison to last year, and if it weren't for costly penalties and dropped passes we probably would have put up a 40 spot on that porous MD defense. And everyone would be just fine right now.

All in all just a miserable game of sitting on the doorstep and not breaking through. Were one play away from that game being ours. Just sucks to be on the losing end of it. No need to bash the players and coaches.

First of all, if we are going to praise players and coaches when they do well, it is entirely fair to criticize coaches and/or players when they do poorly so long as they are not ad hominem attacks. It's a fan board after all.

My bona fides supporting the staff and Hunt are a matter of record on this board, so it pains me to say that Hunt is more responsible for losing that game than anyone - far more.

Saturday was not on the staff, unless we want them to suit up and play. Bullough had the wrong game plan but adjusted, which is all we can ask. McDonald called a very good game.

As for Hunt, you couldn't be more wrong.

• There were only 4 dropped catchable passes not 6 or 7 and only one of those came during a stretch in the 2nd and 3rd quarters when Hunt went 4-15. He overthrew high, behind and low. His fundamentals went all haywire.
• On the pick 6, Hunt admitted that he turned away before getting the entire play fromthe sidelines - a very careless error for a second year starter.
• McDonald was forced to run 79% of the time in the second half becasue Hunt was became so inaccurate. Not exactly what you want ot do when behind by 18 point with a clock winding down.
• There were receivers open all over the field against MD weak secondary but Hunt took off before he saw them.

Gaining yards between the 20's is meaningless. We have to score points. On 14 drives, we reached the red zone only 5 times and scored points on only 3 (Murphy's FG was outside the RZ).

The players beat themselves with drive killing penalties, a few dropped passes, inaccurate passes, missed signals, missed FG, a blocked punt (that was on the coaches) and Hunt's fumble. This game was a mess.

If you think we were only one play from "breaking through" you saw the game with different eyes than I did.

 

[Full_Rebar]

One question that I know won't be answered because it's a signal, but I thought a big deal was made before the season that the plays were being simplified, so how could Hunt turn away before he saw the whole play if that's the case?

I mean it was clear he was looking at Flemming the whole way and threw the comeback/slant while Flemming ran a stop and go, so are the play calls that similar, or is there a signal for stop and a second signal for go? Or was it an option route and Hunt is falling on the sword?

 

[phil77]

It would have been better for Hunt if the 4 TD game against CMU were 4 passing TD's instead of 1 passing TD and 3 rushing TD's. Hunt would rather run that ball than pass the ball is my only knock on Hunt. When we had the game in hand against CMU we should have been working hard on the passing game instead of racking up the rushing yards. Would have helped Hunt and the program better in the long run. (I stated this after the CMU game also). We were up 30 and should have been working on our down field passing game instead of more run plays. Hunt in 10 quarters of football has 1 passing TD. 6 of those quarters against non P5 conference teams and 4 of those quarters against one of the worst secondaries in college football. Not a good sign for our passing game going into our hardest part of the schedule.

 

[AAM62]

Silver lining: the team should be filled with piss and vinegar for ND. ND will see how our offense moved the ball and will not look passed us

 

[Cuse_Albs]

My biggest problem with what you're saying and others who've implied the same thing. I'm not trying to be a jerk at all but I don't know how you can watch the game and come away thinking he had one awful throw. Clearly, that throw was the worst of them all but he had numerous throws that were terrible and some of them to pretty open WR's. I'm not even willing to completely pass blame to him on the pick 6 because he threw it to where he thought his WR was going to be, judging by the WR's reaction and everyone involved, after the play and walking to the sideline, I got the feeling the WR ran the correct route. IMO he had a rough game, he had a lot of terrible throws and missed some 3rd down conversions as a result. Other than that I have no problem right now with him as the QB, I just hope he can improved. I have a few issues with McDonald but I was willing to give Hackett the benefit of the doubt and feel the same way with McDonald.

Definitely agree with you there, I should have written it better. Most likely that is gonna be his worst game of the year, many times he looked past wide open receivers because he felt more comfortable with his legs, but man the people on here that are calling for Wilson to start, just pisses me off. Hunt is the clear cut starter...plain and simple...QBs have bad games, and their teams pay for it. As a Syracuse fan I'd much rather see THunt out there instead of Cam Dantley, Perry Patterson, or Andrew Robinson! We're a program on the rise, we're just not there yet, realistically we could be heading towards a top-25 season next year if Hunt progresses, some recruits pan out, and schedule permits.

 

[Frozen]

 

[Cuse_Albs]

First of all, if we are going to praise players and coaches when they do well, it is entirely fair to criticize coaches and/or players when they do poorly so long as they are not ad hominem attacks. It's a fan board after all.

My bona fides supporting the staff and Hunt are a matter of record on this board, so it pains me to say that Hunt is more responsible for losing that game than anyone - far more.

Saturday was not on the staff, unless we want them to suit up and play. Bullough had the wrong game plan but adjusted, which is all we can ask. McDonald called a very good game.

As for Hunt, you couldn't be more wrong.

• There were only 4 dropped catchable passes not 6 or 7 and only one of those came during a stretch in the 2nd and 3rd quarters when Hunt went 4-15. He overthrew high, behind and low. His fundamentals went all haywire.
• On the pick 6, Hunt admitted that he turned away before getting the entire play fromthe sidelines - a very careless error for a second year starter.
• McDonald was forced to run 79% of the time in the second half becasue Hunt was became so inaccurate. Not exactly what you want ot do when behind by 18 point with a clock winding down.
• There were receivers open all over the field against MD weak secondary but Hunt took off before he saw them.

Gaining yards between the 20's is meaningless. We have to score points. On 14 drives, we reached the red zone only 5 times and scored points on only 3 (Murphy's FG was outside the RZ).

The players beat themselves with drive killing penalties, a few dropped passes, inaccurate passes, missed signals, missed FG, a blocked punt (that was on the coaches) and Hunt's fumble. This game was a mess.

If you think we were only one play from "breaking through" you saw the game with different eyes than I did.

Hunt doesn't throw that pick its a 10-14 point swing...as s#!tty as we played that was enough to keep us in the game. Same with the hold on Foy, where Hunt scored and it was called back, same on that should-have-been pick, turned 60 yard completion. The list goes on and on. I may be a little bit on the optimistic side but I'd rather do that then rip apart every aspect of the team, when in actuality it was one bad game.

 

[Crusty]

Hunt doesn't throw that pick its a 10-14 point swing...as s#!tty as we played that was enough to keep us in the game. Same with the hold on Foy, where Hunt scored and it was called back, same on that should-have-been pick, turned 60 yard completion. The list goes on and on. I may be a little bit on the optimistic side but I'd rather do that then rip apart every aspect of the team, when in actuality it was one bad game.

I am hopeful that it is one bad game. But it really is two bad games counting Nova. The best thing Hunt can do is to just come out playing next week and leave it all behind him. I thin he is trying too hard, I really do.

 

[Crusty]

One question that I know won't be answered because it's a signal, but I thought a big deal was made before the season that the plays were being simplified, so how could Hunt turn away before he saw the whole play if that's the case?

I mean it was clear he was looking at Flemming the whole way and threw the comeback/slant while Flemming ran a stop and go, so are the play calls that similar, or is there a signal for stop and a second signal for go? Or was it an option route and Hunt is falling on the sword?

That is a good question. I don't think he is falling on his sword, I think he is just being honest.