Pete Thamel: Q&A with Syracuse coach Scott Shafer
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JrodCuse
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I'm not making any pokes at any of our coaches, sans Grob, heck I even thought he was a good hire at the time. I loved Marrone, but that was short lived. Pasqueloni had very good teams but he never had the ability to make them great. I think HCSS has that ability. He's just a regular dude, and that means a lot.
OrangeAl
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I can't quite remember, did he resign voluntarily or was he pushed? I always thought he would have done better with the team in 1981 than Mac did (4-6-1).
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tep624
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It's hard to let an obsession go.
All4SU
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Maloney was fired by SU.
shandeezy7
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javadoc
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Great research by Thamel. You done good when the die hards learn new things from your interview.
GoSU96
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Shame that it takes SI and Inside Lacrosse to provide in depth stories on football and lax.
Thank god for Mike Waters.
Chip
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He's obviously the only hire that didn't work out in the beginning, middle, or end. It's almost difficult to pull off that triple threat.
IthacaBarrel
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Millhouse
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c'mon it's only been 10 years. the board will get it out of its system in by 2048
CusefanATL
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Preaseason #1 in 1993 Playboy.
My dad bought that for me right around my 8th birthday.
I wasn't a fan of Maloney either.He didn't want to know crap about SU history, he was going to make his own history. Nuff said.
I think replacing a legend is one of the hardest thing to do in the coaching world. No matter what you do, you're not Ben.
Millhouse
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the big lesson from those years is that we need to be out ahead of other teams in terms of offensive innovation. back then it was easier - hey lets not be stupid racists like every other football meathead on earth and let black guys throw the ball some. eventually even the meatheads caught on. there isn't that low hanging fruit anymore. there was some low hanging fruit 10 years ago but we went and hired a guy to run the f*cking west coast offense.
marrone spent so long white knuckling that we didn't get to see the benefits of where he was out in front (packaged run pass plays)
with mcdonald, we got a recruiter who is playing follow the leader. it's better than being way behind.
also, if someone can make Pitt and Penn State suck really bad, that would help too
All4SU
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This sounds like a pure defense of Maloney, it's really not. But he had some real crap to deal with. SU coming off its worst stretch in 20 years, following a legend who got turned on by his own team. A schism within the program along racial lines, at a time when racism was a really hot button for folks. SU considering downgrading football, horrendous facilities. IMHO, he kept SU's head above water at a critical time, and even brought back some respectability too. If he did that without genuflecting to the powers that were, well, I guess that's what he was, or what he felt was necessary. People bailed on Coach Ben, the school, the program, the players. Not hard to see why he might have thought he needed to too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying FM was a great coach. But I think he did a good job, and we don't really know what he might have accomplished had he had the benefit of the Dome as a recruiting tool like. Mac did. Hell, he got some great players to come and play in Archbold.
Orangeyes
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Can't get the image of him being led out of his car following an arrest for DWI.
When he was hired away from Michigan he was touted as a defensive coach.
People in Syracuse were quick to coin the phrase Maloney's Baloney when expectations didn't match his goals.
He brought in a lot of very good players and he did have the disadvantage of playing road games while the Dome was under construction.
After eight years there was a need for change.
His replacement did pretty good after a few rebuilding years.
Millhouse
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it's really a shame Marrone wasn't pronounced with a long E at the end to carry on the bologna tradition
Scooch
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I don't have a horse in this race but it's interesting to note that in Maloney's last 6 years he won 30 games, and in Mac's first 6 years he won 30 games.
And I think one might argue that Maloney faced substantially more hurdles given facilities, institutional commitment, etc. Maloney might have plateaued, and obviously Mac went on to significantly raise the bar, but it's pretty remarkable how similar they both were in terms of W's over a rather long stretch of time.
