Poll: Put Your Feelings Down Now For History

[AirForceOrange]

go home.

Nice response to support your opinion...

 

[jec1521]

I think, at worst, we stay where we are as a 6-6 to 8-5 bowl team every year. My only concern is recruiting. Can Shafer recruit better than Marrone? If not, we won't be getting any better.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

H/T to ForthCountry at TNIAAM:

This is freakin awesome!!

 

[boog7]

Cristobal - 27-47 at FIU. Prior assistant jobs at Rutgers and Miami. (I'd honestly give him a call now and see if he wants to be our recruiting coordinator / TE coach.

Good call. Adding him to the staff in some capacity, with his NJ and Florida recruiting ties, would be a very nice addition.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Oh, and I voted "like" by the way. I have to think that Gross kicked a few tires before making the decision. It's not sexy or flashy, but I think he'll get the job done. Plus he has a son named Wolfgang, how great is that?!

 

[RMH44]

My only question is this.

If we were starting from scratch would Shafer be the pick?

If yes, great.

If no, then the decision is risky long term.

That's all I'm saying.

Is it as risky as promoting a virtually unknown LB coach that the players referred to as Coach Psycho? He had a pretty decent run.

 

[GoSU96]

I don't know that to be true. And even if it is, we could have done more IF we opened up the purse strings. We, again, decided not to go that route. We may get lucky and he may work out. But luck shouldn't be a strategy. We essentially have a MAC level HC (at this point) running an ACC show. My fingers are crossed but this is a risk.

MAC level HC? Where do you get that from? He's a very successful BCS coordinator that was deemed to be good enough at that job to be hired by Harbaugh, Rodriguez, and Marrone.

Does that make David Shaw a MAC level hire, how about Mullen?

 

[richard levy]

continuity is important. And sometimes you "catch lightening in a bottle". Two years ago, Vandy offered their job to Gus Mahlzahn, who was hot, coming off Auburn's NC, was the OC. He accepted, then turned it down, and they went with James Franklin, who was the OC at MD, and has resurrected a dormant program. Keep your fingers crossed and buckle-up

 

[Faegan]

Had to go with Love It given the timing.

If we do an exhaustive search, how do we know that Shafer or Hackett would stick around for that? We'll never know what candidates would have been interested in the gig or which ones had already said "thanks but no thanks." My chief concern is with recruiting. Hopefully that will continue to be a positive in NY, but still worry we're not going to be seeing much luck in NJ. ACC territory will hopefully make up for that.

Also, we don't know anything about the contract. Hell, he could just be interim until next year for all we know at this point.

The biggest concern for me is that we would end up with another Gump. We got Gumped because he was the best we could do at the time. We need to make sure we don't fall back to Gump levels and make 2010 and 2012 look like anomalies. I would rather go just north of .500 for the next few years so we can put the Gump era further back in the rear view mirror. This in my opinion is the best BET - no sure thing - to prevent disaster and continue to build a solid foundation to establish ourselves in the ACC.

 

[RMH44]

Had to go with Love It given the timing.

If we do an exhaustive search, how do we know that Shafer or Hackett would stick around for that? We'll never know what candidates would have been interested in the gig or which ones had already said "thanks but no thanks." My chief concern is with recruiting. Hopefully that will continue to be a positive in NY, but still worry we're not going to be seeing much luck in NJ. ACC territory will hopefully make up for that.

Also, we don't know anything about the contract. Hell, he could just be interim until next year for all we know at this point.

The biggest concern for me is that we would end up with another Gump. We got Gumped because he was the best we could do at the time. We need to make sure we don't fall back to Gump levels and make 2010 and 2012 look like anomalies. I would rather go just north of .500 for the next few years so we can put the Gump era further back in the rear view mirror. This in my opinion is the best BET - no sure thing - to prevent disaster and continue to build a solid foundation to establish ourselves in the ACC.

Agreed. There is risk involved in almost every hire. Unless Nick Saban called TGD expressing interest that is.

 

[Chip]

Like it. Can't say I love it. Nothing is a slam dunk when you promote internally. Always a risk.

But with Shafer and Hack staying, have to be happy.

 

[HtownOrange]

I chose "Like". Essentially, I wold have preferred a thorough search be made. Timing is everything and I believe that Dr. Gross did not have the time to perform a thorough search so he did what search he could ad chose to stay in house. I like Shafer, and Hackett, too, so I would have been content either way.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Tell us how you feel.

Personally I love it..for early January. Would "only like it" for early December as we would have an opportunity to get a hot rising head coach... But put me down for "Love It" since it is January!

I'm ambivalent. We're acting fast to try to retain the class, but we had more time than a day to reach out to other interested parties - although it may have been pretty hard for a new head coach to put together a staff in such a short window.

This is a vote for continuity, and for trying to keep momentum. But if we lose Hackett, Wheatley or Adkins, that kind of messes up the Shafer hire. If we can keep those 3 guys - hopefully by dividing up Marrone's salary among them - then this could work out OK.

It does smell like the cheap fix, though. But at least this buys us a couple years until the ACC money starts flowing, and then hopefully we'll be in position to do those upgrades, and if the current guys don't work out, well, at least we will be in the ACC at that point with the extra revenues.

This is the easy choice for Gross without putting much energy into it. It's also a "low risk" (to Gross's reputation) choice. If Gross leaves in a year, he can say, "we promoted a deserving guy from within the program. That worked out well with Coach P, it works at other schools. Shafer is a good coach who had a couple other offers, etc."

I hope it works out. Seems like a well-liked guy, lots of enthusiasm. We need to keep those offensive coaches, too. That's my only caveat. And I hope the buy-out is cheap. We'll know if this was a good move rather quickly, like in the next 2 years.

 

[Pyle]

Love it. To me this means continuing to build the program in it's current state. Somebody posted our defense was ranked 6th, we set records on offense, Nassib is one of the top 5 QBs in the draft from what I've read. Why would anyone want to tear that down and go with an unknown, even an unknown with a high probability of success like Golden? Fact is we have something in place finally, after a decade, that seems to be moving in right direction. Keep it going.

 

[JoeCollege]

Like it. Like the background and experience. This should be interesting.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I hope he has a binder...

Not trying to be funny. There is no doubt that the Shafer is intense, well liked by the players, and a highly regarded coordinator. The inherent risk is how well he handles the responsibilities of managing the entire program, coordinating practices and player development, developing game plans, implementing his vision for the program, managing game day, and being an embassador for the program.

That is an entirely different skill set then he has ever been responsible for before. Marrone was a master of organization and hit the ground running with a plan in hand. But even then, he certainly had a learning curve. We don't know yet how well Shafer will handle and adapt to the many challenges of being a HC.

Let's hope Shafer does have a "HC Binder" and that Gross assessed that plan. Time will tell. Shafer deserves the benefit of the doubt and I support the hire.

But, to "love" this hire, when the hire has no HC experience nor have we heard him articulate his plan, is based too much on hope at this point, IMO.

I hope Shafer spoke to Marrone - "Leave the binder; take the cannolis."

 

[PhatOrange]

For the record I like it.

Not sure I'd love any hire but I sure don't dislike this hire.

Biggest unknown for me is that I don't know if he can be a CEO and manage day to day operations of a BCS football program.

 

[Orangello]

I hope Shafer spoke to Marrone - "Leave the binder; take the bologny"

Fixed^^^

 

[Pyle]

H/T to ForthCountry at TNIAAM:

I just found my new avatar.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I think, at worst, we stay where we are as a 6-6 to 8-5 bowl team every year. My only concern is recruiting. Can Shafer recruit better than Marrone? If not, we won't be getting any better.

You know what? Keeping at a 6-6 to 8-5 level for the next couple years, IMO, is much better than high risk / high reward of bringing in a new guy who changes everything and we have to start from scratch. What this school absolutely cannot afford right now is to go back to winning only 2 or 3 games for a couple years, as we start out in the ACC. That would be total disaster.

 

[kjb120]

Love it. To me this means continuing to build the program in it's current state. Somebody posted our defense was ranked 6th, we set records on offense, Nassib is one of the top 5 QBs in the draft from what I've read. Why would anyone want to tear that down and go with an unknown, even an unknown with a high probability of success like Golden? Fact is we have something in place finally, after a decade, that seems to be moving in right direction. Keep it going.

The defense was ranked 6 for tackles for loss, for total defense we were 48th

 

[Jeepers]

H/T to ForthCountry at TNIAAM:

Damn it! I was going to make the exact same thing today. Haha.

 

[Bortukal]

Like it.

 

[Cuseman78]

MAC level HC? Where do you get that from? He's a very successful BCS coordinator that was deemed to be good enough at that job to be hired by Harbaugh, Rodriguez, and Marrone.

Does that make David Shaw a MAC level hire, how about Mullen?

You truly think an ACC team would hire Scott Shafer at this very moment in time? I think you know the landscape better than that. And for as many Shaw's as there are, there are also massive failures. We're crossing our fingers here.

This is all moot now seeing that it looks like he's in line for the job. Once its official, he will get my 100% support.

 

[rrlbees]

"Under Shafer's guidance, the Orange defense ranked No. 6 in the nation in 2012." - Yeah, SU sucked, you are right!

To be fair, that statement is incorrect (I know it's not your statement). Below are our defensive rankings for the last 4 years under Shafer as well as his 2 prior years as DC at other BCS schools. I show it both for YPG and PPG because different people prefer one over the other.

2012
YPG - 47th
PPG - 46th

2011
YPG - 64th
PPG - 73rd

2010
YPG - 7th
PPG - 17th

2009
YPG - 37th
PPG - 81st

2008 (Michigan)
YPG - 67th
PPG - 84th

2007 (Stanford)
YPG - 98th
PPG - 65th

2010 was outstanding. Other than that, the other 5 years are average to below average.