Jaw dropping stat about our offense last year from ESPN's David Hale

[dasher]

That is enough reason to be a little nervous. I want to be optimistic, but until I see it with my own two eyes I am in prove it model.

We didn't have a qb in the last 5 games. It's no secret that the last staff left last years team with very little offensive talent.

 

[SUFan44]

5th year grad student from Florida vs Mitch Kimbell who transferred to Eastern Illinois before becoming a junior. Did BC also fire their OC and run a playbook nobody understands?

Ultimately who's fault is that? We had a 5th year QB transfer who stunk. Who hired the OC who ran the playbook nobody understood?

Shafer was the head coach when Kimble was offered and committed. He was also the head coach when Drew Allen committed, and kept the Austin Wilson commitment. The Alin Eduoard drama turned out terrible, and A.J. Long is here - the jury is still out on him, but personally I don't think he's a savior or even a starting ACC QB, either.

By my count that is five QBs, four of whom made it to campus, that Shafer is ultimately responsible for. None of them has unseated an - according to the board majority - overrated Terrel Hunt for the starting QB job.

 

[jr4750]

Ultimately who's fault is that? We had a 5th year QB transfer who stunk. Who hired the OC who ran the playbook nobody understood?

Shafer was the head coach when Kimble was offered and committed. He was also the head coach when Drew Allen committed, and kept the Austin Wilson commitment. The Alin Eduoard drama turned out terrible, and A.J. Long is here - the jury is still out on him, but personally I don't think he's a savior or even a starting ACC QB, either.

By my count that is five QBs, four of whom made it to campus, that Shafer is ultimately responsible for. None of them has unseated an - according to the board majority - overrated Terrel Hunt for the starting QB job.

Bingo. Thats why I'm scared. We've tried to bring in someone who would beat out TH, and no one has, but thats not so much about his ability as us not bringing in anyone who could. Huge huge year for Shafer. He simply has to win. No many analysts think he will.

 

[TheCusian]

Lots of claim chowder in this thread. Should be interesting in Nov.

 

[TheCusian]

Everyone needs to read this, then read it again, then read it again. Historically bad? Yes Impossible? No. I challenge anyone on this board to find me an offense that did well with a 4th string QB, a fired OC mid-season, and a playbook nobody understood. The guy who had to learn every other teams offense each week suddenly had to learn ours and execute it at a D1 level without more than a few days of first team reps. I'm not saying we have uber amounts of talent that were hidden last because of this stuff. But you need to take what happened last year and flush it, too much went wrong too fast.

Those are all excuses!!! Lester is bad! Comes from a bad coaching tree! We will be historically bad forever!

</sarcasm>

More likely - we have a mediocre coach, a mediocre QB, and mediocre talent. We will have mediocre results. But it won't be as bad as last season. It's hard to be that bad.

 

[TheCusian]

Shafer has tied his future as SU HC to how Lester does as OC. Based on what he has seen there is reason for people to be skeptical about Lester.

I'm skeptical. Everyone should be. I'm still looking for the guy who thinks he proven something.

Shafer is different. He can be confident - inside info and relationship will do that.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

More likely - we have a mediocre coach, a mediocre QB, and mediocre talent. We will have mediocre results.

My concern is that's our ceiling.

 

[TheCusian]

Go watch the Pitt and BC games our offense even with 4th string QBs LOOKED CLOWN SHOW bad. We didn't have a game plan except to try and get the games over without being completely embarrassed. The games matter I didn't expect to see Lester to work a miracle, but what we saw was not college football division 1 ACC caliber offense. Lester has to realize the fanbase isn't exactly sold based on what we saw last year.

I'm pretty sure Lester wasn't happy with the offense.

 

[TheCusian]

BC lost Andre Williams, a 4-yr starter in Rettig, and their top WR in Amidon heading into 2014. They plugged a 5th yr grad transfer in at QB (who was one-dimensional and couldn't get the job at Florida), and they made a bowl game. They had 2 NFL Draft picks on the OL, so they had talent and experience there, yet they found a way to be competitive and win enough to make a bowl game. We can continue to make excuses, or we can ask highly-paid (even if it's bottom of the ACC) coaches to develop a system/scheme/plan to win football games against comparable opponents. I'm not saying go win games at FSU or Clemson, but for Syracuse to be non-competitive against Pitt and BC is concerning.

My goodness. BC barely made a bowl game. They had a fraction of the injuries we had. There schedule was easier (VTech instead of Duke, no ND, no Maryland - loss to Colorado State). If you give us Hunt all year, a semi-competent OC, 50% less injuries and their schedule? I think we finish higher than them in our conference. They loose a lot.

I think the OC problem has been handled, no? Not one poster here can read the future, so I'm not sure why people are acting like they've read Lester's obit.

 

[TheCusian]

My concern is that's our ceiling.

This year.

 

[CIL]

That's an excuse. Elmurst kicker was 7/8 on FG in '11, 6/9 on FG in '10, 8/16 on FG in '09, 6/10 on FG in '08. One horrific year, the other three were 70.3%.

Syracuse kickers over the last four years: 17/23 (73.9%), 11/17 (64.7%), 15/23 (65.2%), 15/19 (78.9%). Overall 58/82 = 70.7%. Not all that different.

And you may say "Well they probably went for it on 4th down way more because they needed to avoid a longer distance FG due to kicking concerns"... Well, Elmhurst went 6/19 on 4th down in '11, 7/19 on 4th in '10, 15/21 on 4th in '09 & 15/21 in '08. So a total of 80 attempts. Over the last 4 years, SU has went for it on 4th down 12, 17, 19 and 17. 65 times. So 15 times less than Elmhurst over the course of 50 games. Once ever 3.3 games more. Not significant.

Those numbers in the red zone are mediocre at best. Syracuse has been AWFUL in red zone over last 3 years (66.7%, 111th of 128 D1 teams). His mark of 77.6% over his 5 years would rank 89th. Not good.

My guess is most of Elmhurst's FG attempts were pf the shorter variety.

 

[Full_Rebar]

My goodness. BC barely made a bowl game. They had a fraction of the injuries we had. There schedule was easier (VTech instead of Duke, no ND, no Maryland - loss to Colorado State). If you give us Hunt all year, a semi-competent OC, 50% less injuries and their schedule? I think we finish higher than them in our conference. They loose a lot.

I think the OC problem has been handled, no? Not one poster here can read the future, so I'm not sure why people are acting like they've read Lester's obit.

My point was that they lost a ton heading into last year and they found a way to get to a bowl, and on the way beat USC. I agree that they scheduled smarter than SU, but I'm saying that leading into last year most of this board said we'd beat up on their depleted roster in November and I'm not sure that a healthy SU team was beating them after they replaced about 95% of their offensive production from the year before.

I'm done with excuses. You figure out a way to scratch and claw to 6 regular season wins (like we did in 2013) no matter how you get there.

 

[Chip]

i don't care if the mcf***itplaybook consisted of nothing but crudely drawn d!cks

Oh please, then you would have been all over him for stealing your playbook.

 

[PhatOrange]

My point was that they lost a ton heading into last year and they found a way to get to a bowl, and on the way beat USC. I agree that they scheduled smarter than SU, but I'm saying that leading into last year most of this board said we'd beat up on their depleted roster in November and I'm not sure that a healthy SU team was beating them after they replaced about 95% of their offensive production from the year before.

I'm done with excuses. You figure out a way to scratch and claw to 6 regular season wins (like we did in 2013) no matter how you get there.

yet everyone piles on Shafer for his 7-6 year and he inherited a FAR more depleted roster than BC last year.

 

[TheCusian]

My point was that they lost a ton heading into last year and they found a way to get to a bowl, and on the way beat USC. I agree that they scheduled smarter than SU, but I'm saying that leading into last year most of this board said we'd beat up on their depleted roster in November and I'm not sure that a healthy SU team was beating them after they replaced about 95% of their offensive production from the year before. I'm done with excuses. You figure out a way to scratch and claw to 6 regular season wins (like we did in 2013) no matter how you get there.

They had an offseason to figure it out first. We had to operate on the fly with tons of injuries and a new OC.

I'm also beginning to read "no excuses" as "I'd prefer to not think and not understand what made us have a bad season"

 

[Scooch]

yet everyone piles on Shafer for his 7-6 year and he inherited a FAR more depleted roster than BC last year.

I actually thought that 7-6 was a strong first year for him given the massive loss of offensive and coaching talent. And the tone of the board this time last year was fairly upbeat.

It made the rolling disaster last year all the more disappointing.

 

[Millhouse]

Oh please, then you would have been all over him for stealing your playbook.

i said, "crudely"

i don't half@ss that , come on

 

[HOFCeluck]

Seth: When I was a little kid, I kinda had this problem. And it's not even that big of a deal, something like 8 percent of kids do it. For some reason, I don't know why. I would just kinda... sit around all day... and draw pictures of .

Evan: What?

Seth: Draw pictures of .

Evan: ? Like a man dick?

Seth: Yes. Like a man dick.

[while you see Seth when he was a kid]

Seth: I'd just sit there hours on end drawing . I didn't know what it was. I couldn't touch the pen to the paper without drawing the shape of a penis.

Evan: That's .

Seth: No . It's really up. Here I am. A little kid. And I can't stop drawing to save my own life.

 

[anomander]

Go watch the Pitt and BC games our offense even with 4th string QBs LOOKED CLOWN SHOW bad. We didn't have a game plan except to try and get the games over without being completely embarrassed. The games matter I didn't expect to see Lester to work a miracle, but what we saw was not college football division 1 ACC caliber offense. Lester has to realize the fanbase isn't exactly sold based on what we saw last year.

Yep we totally cashed it in at that point. Played not to get blown out. Those 2 games were extremely discouraging.

 

[anomander]

5th year grad student from Florida vs Mitch Kimbell who transferred to Eastern Illinois before becoming a junior. Did BC also fire their OC and run a playbook nobody understands?

Everyone is making Tyler Murphy out like he was the 2nd coming. Dude was flat out awful the year before at UF. I mean he was terrible. I was happy BC picked him up. But because the BC staff was able to plug him into the offensive identity they created and had him succeed the credit goes to Murphy? No way. Addazio turned a quarterback who had done absolutely nothing his whole career at UF besides look terrible, into a very good QB.

 

[TheCusian]

Everyone is making Tyler Murphy out like he was the 2nd coming. Dude was flat out awful the year before at UF. I mean he was terrible. I was happy BC picked him up. But because the BC staff was able to plug him into the offensive identity they created and had him succeed the credit goes to Murphy? No way. Addazio turned a quarterback who had done absolutely nothing his whole career at UF besides look terrible, into a very good QB.

Yeah - it was a nice job by them. Just shows you that with a little identity/competency and a mediocre QB - a lot it possible.

Also shows you what a mess Florida was on offense. Kid had talent and was used poorly. Large reason why that staff isn't there anymore.

 

[CuseOnly]

That is enough reason to be a little nervous. I want to be optimistic, but until I see it with my own two eyes I am in prove it model.

So he is picking our worst 5 games of the season and ignoring the first 7 games and throwing a stat at us. How selective of him, picking the last 5 games of the season in which we had a bye in week 2 and one before Pitt where we were at our most injured.

I can pick the 5 worst games of any team's season and give a similar stat and just reword it. Funny how math is like that.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Seth: When I was a little kid, I kinda had this problem. And it's not even that big of a deal, something like 8 percent of kids do it. For some reason, I don't know why. I would just kinda... sit around all day... and draw pictures of .

Evan: What?

Seth: Draw pictures of .

Evan: ? Like a man dick?

Seth: Yes. Like a man dick.

[while you see Seth when he was a kid]

Seth: I'd just sit there hours on end drawing . I didn't know what it was. I couldn't touch the pen to the paper without drawing the shape of a penis.

Evan: That's . . . . . . .

Seth: No . . . . . It's really . . . . . . up. Here I am. A little kid. And I can't stop drawing to save my own life.

Finally someone said it

 

[Crusty]

If the new AD feels he is entitled to a his own guy there is not much HCSS can really do. That is really the question. Not Lester, not Shafer not anything else but whether or not the newbie wants his own guy.

 

[FAL]

Way to peel away the layers of BS and get to gist of the matter! Nice job, Crusty.