our love of Doug

[kcsu]

Too many post to list and im not a creeper who stores them but suffice to say many of us including SURPRISE myself have a great respect for Doug, his love of Syracuse, and what he stands for as a person. Our respect of him and what he stands for shouldnt put him above critisism. In my opinion there a few things that Doug needs to do in order to take this program to the next level.

In order of importance they are as follows.
1: Hire a special teams coach. Special teams have been horrible. They have cost this program more losses than anything else. I could go on for a long time on this subject but specials set the tone. There is nothing half way about specials they either give your team a great boost or they suck life. Make this a priority because it is one area that can improve dramatically with effort and coaching no need to recruit 4 star recruits in order to make this happen.

2: Either name yourself OC or get out of the way. Hack was hired because he is bright has a great future ect... and is an extension of Doug. Not good and not sustainable. Is Doug trying to create what he was at NO? Co OC who didnt actually call any plays? Im not sure but he either needs to take control and call the shots. Give Hack true control. Or my choice demote or fire Hack and hire a true OC

3: Keep Shaffer. Without him im not sure we would have won half the games we have. What he has accomplished is remarkable. We have a completely new D this year and if not for the mess we have on specials and O this D would look much better. Pretty hard to keep teams out of the endzone when they start on the 50 with each drive. Pretty hard to keep teams from scoring when your O goes three and out forever and the D is gassed and demoralized. Shaffer is the best coach on this staff and needs to be retained.

4: Loosen up a little just a little. This doesnt mean party central but the kids and staff need to have some joy in what they are doing. Some emotion in what they are doing. Some fun. Teams and companies are a mirror of their leaders. If Doug is tight guess what. If Doug is without emotion guesss what?

Ok im ready fire away!

 

[orangenirvana]

1. When you have five special teams coordinators, you have none. Special teams is so important to a program like Syracuse.

2. I don't feel safe giving Hackett the full control over the offense. Marrone should get rid of Hackett and hire an experienced OC with a college system expertise.

3. Shafer should get the Bud Foster treatment. Find out what VPI do to make Foster happy and do the same.

4. Agree 100%. Marrone needs to relax and have some faith in his players. It's obvious the offense is scared sh#tless of making any little mistake. You can't operate that way.

Good post.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

4: Loosen up a little just a little. This doesnt mean party central but the kids and staff need to have some joy in what they are doing. Some emotion in what they are doing. Some fun. Teams and companies are a mirror of their leaders. If Doug is tight guess what. If Doug is without emotion guesss what?

Where's the guy with the stuffed animal puppets?

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Shafer has been great the first two years but let's be honest here the defense has been really bad this year. Blown coverages, penalties, horrible on 3rd down,bad pass coverage and really bad tackling.. Really bad.

 

[orangenirvana]

Shafer has been great the first two years but let's be honest here the defense has been really bad this year. Blown coverages, penalties, horrible on 3rd down,bad pass coverage and really bad tackling.. Really bad.

It has regressed but check out the youth he's working with. There are two seniors among the starting 11, and neither are very good at all.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Shafer has been great the first two years but let's be honest here the defense has been really bad this year. Blown coverages, penalties, horrible on 3rd down,bad pass coverage and really bad tackling.. Really bad.

Isn't that on the players? How many of the LB's are freshmen and sophomores? Lyn, Anderson and Wilkes are youngsters also.

Shafer can put the kids in position to make plays ... but the kids have to deliver.

 

[RF2044]

Your suggestions for #1 and #2 should be mandatory outcomes, coming off of this season.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

What's your opinion of Hackett as a pure QB coach (without OC responsibilities)?

 

[kcsu]

What's your opinion of Hackett as a pure QB coach (without OC responsibilities)?

No idea at all on Hack. I met him once seems super nice up smart looks the part. I would hate the see the kid fired but he shouldnt have been hired for this role in the first place. This was a really bad call on Dougs part and now he will have a tough choice to make. With Dougs respect in the NFL and Hacks connections it would not surprise me to see Hack take a job in the NFL. The other coach im not sold on is Moore. Not sure about him as he seems like a mystery. I dont hear good or bad and i dont hear much about him on the recruiting side of things. I can see Moore moving on as well.

 

[OttoForLife]

Too many post to list and im not a creeper who stores them but suffice to say many of us including SURPRISE myself have a great respect for Doug, his love of Syracuse, and what he stands for as a person. Our respect of him and what he stands for shouldnt put him above critisism. In my opinion there a few things that Doug needs to do in order to take this program to the next level.

In order of importance they are as follows.
1: Hire a special teams coach. Special teams have been horrible. They have cost this program more losses than anything else. I could go on for a long time on this subject but specials set the tone. There is nothing half way about specials they either give your team a great boost or they suck life. Make this a priority because it is one area that can improve dramatically with effort and coaching no need to recruit 4 star recruits in order to make this happen.

2: Either name yourself OC or get out of the way. Hack was hired because he is bright has a great future ect... and is an extension of Doug. Not good and not sustainable. Is Doug trying to create what he was at NO? Co OC who didnt actually call any plays? Im not sure but he either needs to take control and call the shots. Give Hack true control. Or my choice demote or fire Hack and hire a true OC

3: Keep Shaffer. Without him im not sure we would have won half the games we have. What he has accomplished is remarkable. We have a completely new D this year and if not for the mess we have on specials and O this D would look much better. Pretty hard to keep teams out of the endzone when they start on the 50 with each drive. Pretty hard to keep teams from scoring when your O goes three and out forever and the D is gassed and demoralized. Shaffer is the best coach on this staff and needs to be retained.

4: Loosen up a little just a little. This doesnt mean party central but the kids and staff need to have some joy in what they are doing. Some emotion in what they are doing. Some fun. Teams and companies are a mirror of their leaders. If Doug is tight guess what. If Doug is without emotion guesss what?

Ok im ready fire away!

5. Invest in Wheatley, who early on, seems to be our best recruiter. Would like to see him here for a few years and see how he can help us continue to upgrade in talent.

 

[Cuseman78]

Good post -- I don't necessarily agree with #2 and I think #4 is a little bit of a nit-pick but if we do not do #1, I'm going to do my own #2 on Marrone's doorstep. WE MUST HIRE A DESIGNATED SPECIAL TEAMS COACH. And yea, obviously we need to keep Shafer too.

 

[kingottoiii]

Shafer has been great the first two years but let's be honest here the defense has been really bad this year. Blown coverages, penalties, horrible on 3rd down,bad pass coverage and really bad tackling.. Really bad.

Disagree. Shafer's D has been either awesome of disappoint all three years. People are just focusing on the awesome games and forgetting all the bad games. His D has been hit or miss and has shown little consistency. It also has matched up well with some styles and been bad with others. Our D has been all over the place. That can't be happening. Hopefully that changes as we get kids that are better fits for his system.

 

[orangepassion]

Disagree. Shafer's D has been either awesome of disappoint all three years. People are just focusing on the awesome games and forgetting all the bad games. His D has been hit or miss and has shown little consistency. It also has matched up well with some styles and been bad with others. Our D has been all over the place. That can't be happening. Hopefully that changes as we get kids that are better fits for his system.

Shafer has been the best the thing going for us. The D has definitely struggled some games this year, but he has definitely proven himself the 1st 2 years and dealing w/ a ton of youth this year. The Offense and (Not so) special teams have been mostly bad for all 3 years. To put it simply, Rutgers has won 3 games this year on specials. We have lost 3 games on specials (and could have lost 4 if not for the benefit of a call). Before this regime, I've never seen a team scared to kick off almost every game. Our answer to bad coverage is to kick it out of bounce and even when we do that, we still get another personal foul penalty. This makes it tremendouly harder on our defense (you can just see Spruill's body language when he's being interviewed after the game to see that)I think we were actually better on specials under Grob, which is the ultimate insult.

 

[FranCuse]

Good post, I agree with most of your post, disagree with point 2 and here is why. Against UConn, in the first half we had open receivers and Nassib's accuracy was off. He missed several key opportunities to keep drives going and put us in the lead. He had a very good second half and had he been that accurate in the first half, I think we could have taken a lead on UConn and it could have had a big difference in the outcome, UConn is not a good come from behind team. When you take in account the dropped passes against S. Florida, we should have stayed in this game and scored a lot points.

I can't put all of that to Hackett's blame. The players needed to perform and execute better.

I'm not sure about point 4, that is HCDM's mojo.

 

[kingottoiii]

Shafer has been the best the thing going for us. The D has definitely struggled some games this year, but he has definitely proven himself the 1st 2 years and dealing w/ a ton of youth this year. The Offense and (Not so) special teams have been mostly bad for all 3 years. To put it simply, Rutgers has won 3 games this year on specials. We have lost 3 games on specials (and could have lost 4 if not for the benefit of a call). Before this regime, I've never seen a team scared to kick off almost every game. Our answer to bad coverage is to kick it out of bounce and even when we do that, we still get another personal foul penalty. This makes it tremendouly harder on our defense (you can just see Spruill's body language when he's being interviewed after the game to see that)I think we were actually better on specials under Grob, which is the ultimate insult.

My point was the D struggled a lot last year as well. People want to forget that. It seems like Shafer's D will either win you a game or be a big factor in your loss. Nothing in between.

 

[BlackKnight76]

1. 100% agree

2. I'm fairly certain Hackett has a lot of control on offense. He calls the plays. Marrone may review them or w/e, but I think the playcalling is on Hackett for better or for worse. As for getting a new OC, I'd be down with that if it was a proven guy (Friedgen? pipe dream maybe?), but I'm willing to give Hackett more time. He's a young OC, I just want to see him open it up and let Nassib take shots right off the bat, which I think would open it up for Bailey.

3. 100% agree

4. I want to clear up this week's trendy knock on Marrone- that he doesn't let the kids have fun. I really couldn't care less about his demeanor on the sideline. Watch Belicheck right now, he barely moves. Watch Saban, he's fairly stoic. Doug is who he is, he's not going to force a new personality because people somehow equate sideline demeanor to winning.

As for the kids, go watch the post-game celebration after the Wake game...after the WVU game...after Northwestern in 09...after all of the big road wins last year...after the Pinstripe Bowl. Nothing keeps these kids from having fun, except for losing.

Off the field, these guys are more than welcome to do the normal college stuff (short of going to turning stone on a night where they have curfew). Go to Chuck's on any weekend night except for maybe the night before the game, there will be players there, both of the "party" and "non-party" camps that have been discussed here and at the tailgate. Go to an off-campus house or a south campus apartment party...same thing. Doug doesn't go around campus monitoring where these kids are, he lets them do the college thing. Are there guys who don't go out? Yes, and that's there choice. Are there guys who probably party too much? Yep. Might there be a fraction forming? Yeah, but I think it is because of this losing streak. There were no rumors of locker room issues until the last week or so. Why? Because winning cures everything. Any locker room at any level will have issues after losing. It's natural. Blaming it on Doug losing the team, or on a group of players is dumb. If we go out and beat Cincy in a few weeks, everything will be hunky-dory.

 

[kingottoiii]

2. I'm fairly certain Hackett has a lot of control on offense. He calls the plays. Marrone may review them or w/e, but I think the playcalling is on Hackett for better or for worse. As for getting a new OC, I'd be down with that if it was a proven guy (Friedgen? pipe dream maybe?), but I'm willing to give Hackett more time. He's a young OC, I just want to see him open it up and let Nassib take shots right off the bat, which I think would open it up for Bailey.

While the play calling has left a lot to be desired, the game plan is just as much to blame. And that is on Marrone. No way no how is he not heavily involved in the planning. So when we go into the game wanting to pound the ball, that is on Marrone. If Marrone says lets start off passing and get Nassib going, you would see Hackett call more passes.

This has nothing to do with your post but I will stick it here anyway. I don't see our O system changing. Right now for 2013 we have 7 scholly WRs and 5 TEs. I have a feeling that 2 TE sets is the plan. That means lots of runs and lots of play fakes. NFL O whoopie.

 

[BlackKnight76]

While the play calling has left a lot to be desired, the game plan is just as much to blame. And that is on Marrone. No way no how is he not heavily involved in the planning. So when we go into the game wanting to pound the ball, that is on Marrone. If Marrone says lets start off passing and get Nassib going, you would see Hackett call more passes.

Very fair point.

 

[Millhouse]

Disagree. Shafer's D has been either awesome of disappoint all three years. People are just focusing on the awesome games and forgetting all the bad games. His D has been hit or miss and has shown little consistency. It also has matched up well with some styles and been bad with others. Our D has been all over the place. That can't be happening. Hopefully that changes as we get kids that are better fits for his system.

that's college football. outside of factories, that's how it's gonna be (unless you just suck every game)

i think your wishes for the defense are unrealistic

 

[IthacaBarrel]

that's college football. outside of factories, that's how it's gonna be (unless you just suck every game)

i think your wishes for the defense are unrealistic

Score points, win games. A good offense and we have very good shot to win the game. Defense is for the SEC and few teams that can't score points. TCU who has been applauded for such great defense, gave up 35 points to Boise but they still won. Oregon gave up 31 versus Stanford... I like Shafer don't get me wrong, I just think his defense has broken down quite a bit this year not from being beat but from confusion and poor tackling, that can be fixed. Oklahoma St-- how good is their defense? Houston? Pac 12? The great defenses of the PAC 12? Please. Syracuse will never be a factory, put your best athletes on offense, and maybe one at the QB position... This programs problems are OC and offense, everything else is very fixable. Specials, they need a kicker than can kick it past the 15. Defense- youth most likely will get better. Offense- complete cluster fufck, no vision, no systems, no athletes at RB or QB.

No more NFL mentaility, open it the ..

 

[SmilinBob]

I'm not convinced that Shafer's defense can stop a good power game or a running spread, even an average spread, and this goes to the whole tenure at SU. There are certain offenses his d does well against and some they hold their own but the mentioned above have held the ball against SU and dominated the defenses while keeping the SU offense out of any kind of rhythm.

 

[Millhouse]

I'm not convinced that Shafer's defense can stop a good power game or a running spread, even an average spread, and this goes to the whole tenure at SU. There are certain offenses his d does well against and some they hold their own but the mentioned above have held the ball against SU and dominated the defenses while keeping the SU offense out of any kind of rhythm.

i'm not convinced any defense can stop a good power game or the spread, aside from defenses that are just loaded.

there is a disconnect between lots of SU fans opinions of offense and defense.

my god we have so much trouble stopping the spread! we can't run the spread it's too easy to stop!

the teams that can stop the spread can stop everything

 

[SmilinBob]

I disagree and I think it has a lot to do with the defensive line and their talent and how they are used.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

i'm not convinced any defense can stop a good power game or the spread, aside from defenses that are just loaded.

there is a disconnect between lots of SU fans opinions of offense and defense.

my god we have so much trouble stopping the spread! we can't run the spread it's too easy to stop!

the teams that can stop the spread can stop everything

Fix the offense.. start there. Shafer is capable of handling his issues

 

[Millhouse]

Fix the offense.. start there. Shafer is capable of handling his issues

marinovich would be a nobody if not for his last name, they're small and young all over the place behind him, and the older guys in back aren't exactly great. phil thomas takes angles like a drunk guy with vertigo on a segway for the first time