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[sutomcat]

First, I congratulate Nathaniel Hackett on getting an OC position in the NFL. It is a great achievement at such a young age. I think he is destined to do great things in the coaching profession. Of all the people on the staff, I think he was the one with the highest ceiling.

What a shame to lose him now. SU invested 3 years with him learning the ropes,.finally started to realize benefits from that investments this season and poof, he is gone. I don't blame him for leaving; I am sure his salary will at least double and his workload might be lower.

When DM left, I posted that the most important thing for Dr Gross was to retain Nathaniel. I thought this for a few reasons...

Top notch offensive coordinators are harder to come by than top notch defensive coordinators

We currently have at least 3 former DCs already on the staff (besides Shafer). Anselmo might have been one too, not going to bother to look it up. There were many options for an orderly succession in the event Scott left.

On the offensive side, DM and NH did all the high level game planning/game calling coordinator type work. The rest of the coaches on offense have not served as OCs or even worked on a staff that ran this type of offense except for their time at Syracuse. There was a lot of exposure if NH left. A lot more than if Shafer left.

I am tempted to rip Dr Gross for naming Shafer the HC instead of NH, for not seeing the obvious and acting to prevent it.

But I want to be fair. First, I know SU is never going to pay what the Bills can pay for an OC. And I also know that Dr Gross would be happy to spend that money on Nathaniel if it were available.

The real question is, was NH offered the HC job? If he was and he turned it down, and TGD and SU offered him a tremendous package with a big salary the Bills could not touch for an OC position, then I have no problems with NH leaving the program.

If Dr Gross did not talk with NH before making the HC offer to SS and did not offer NH the HC job first, I think TGD made a major mistake that might haunt the program for decades.

I don't want this post to be looked at as anti Scott Shafer. I have great respect for Coach Shafer, I think he is an excellent DC and I want him to be part of the program long term. I am not even saying that I think NH is a better coach than SS.

I am just saying that for this program and this staff at this moment, it was far more important to retain NH than SS. I would hope that TGD talked to DM and asked about his plans for building his staff with the Bills and I assume DM answered him truthfully.

Regardless, it should have been clear that NH was going to have options SS would not and even it wasn't to TGD, he should have at least figured out how exposed the program would be losing DM and NH at the same time.

Anyway, that is my conditional rant. Time to move on and focus on the future. The guy I think might be our best bet for new OC/QB coach is Joe Lombardi, the QB coach of the Saints. 4 years ago DM tried to hire him as the SU OC (Bill O'Brien was his 1st choice, Joe was his second and his third was Nat Hackett). He knows the system, has coached in the East before and is also a QB coach, another void we need to fill. He is also the grandson of Vince Lombardi, which is pretty cool.

The problem with him is that he already turned down the position once, and that was when he would have been working with DM, a guy he knew and had worked with for a couple of years. If TGD made a strong offer with a lot of $$ involved, maybe we could get him.

I hope by now it is clear to the powers that be that it is time to buy the staff salaries in keeping with the rest of the ACC football programs.

John Reagan would probably be my second choice. As mentioned already, he has a lot of coordinator experience with Kansas and Rice, is from the Albany area and has experience coaching in the East with Albany, Penn and Temple. His offense would be more of an old school run based offense, I think, but he has had consistent success during his career mostly coaching schools that are not powers, and am I sure players that were not highly recruited. Should be good at getting the most out of what he has to work with.

I don't believe he has ever coached QBs. Might need to assign that to Anselmo or bring in a QB coach.

The more I think about it, I think SU had a weird alignment with the coaching staff with an extra coach on defense and one less than normal on offense, due no doubt to the backgrounds and strengths of DM and NH. With them gone, it makes a lot of sense for Shafer to either continue to be DC or to promote one of his coaches to DC and move assignments around (right now we have Anselmo and Morrison both coaching LBs, which doesn't make a lot of sense).

If you can't get Lombardi, maybe bring in Reagan as OC and an experienced QB coach with OC experience like Rogers. That would work out pretty well...

 

[tombacuse]

From earlier posts, I thought bigger splash was coming for oc. Very disappointed, seems to get worse daily. I was good with Shafer while I believed Hackett stayed also. Totally agree that the more that stays the same the better we are. Hcdm couldn't find a better oc in the NFL? Hackett would a been around next year, unless all saw writing on wall...we are losing most of the main offensive people. very concerning, emotions change hourly now.

 

[Crusty]

I think Hackett may have great upside but I am not sure that anyone knows if he was ready to be a head coach (at 33) or not. I think it was a gamble we simply could not afford to take at the moment.
Hackett had a very difficult learning curve and an inconsistent history of play calling. IMO he really needed a couple more years experience to be a top notch OC. His most impressive attribute was his ability to make objective analysis and criticism of his own work and make changes. He was still a work in progress - a very good work but a w-i-p nevertheless.

TGD had a tough choice to make and he made the safer bet. I have no argument with that.

I really like you idea of John Reagan. Everybody should take a look at this:
http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/reagan_john00.html

 

[Toga]

"I am just saying that for this program and this staff at this moment, it was far more important to retain NH than SS. I would hope that TGD talked to DM and asked about his plans for building his staff with the Bills and I assume DM answered him truthfully. " - This

First, I congratulate Nathaniel Hackett on getting an OC position in the NFL. It is a great achievement at such a young age. I think he is destined to do great things in the coaching profession. Of all the people on the staff, I think he was the one with the highest ceiling.

What a shame to lose him now. SU invested 3 years with him learning the ropes,.finally started to realize benefits from that investments this season and poof, he is gone. I don't blame him for leaving; I am sure his salary will at least double and his workload might be lower.

When DM left, I posted that the most important thing for Dr Gross was to retain Nathaniel. I thought this for a few reasons...

Top notch offensive coordinators are harder to come by than top notch defensive coordinators

We currently have at least 3 former DCs already on the staff (besides Shafer). Anselmo might have been one too, not going to bother to look it up. There were many options for an orderly succession in the event Scott left.

On the offensive side, DM and NH did all the high level game planning/game calling coordinator type work. The rest of the coaches on offense have not served as OCs or even worked on a staff that ran this type of offense except for their time at Syracuse. There was a lot of exposure if NH left. A lot more than if Shafer left.

I am tempted to rip Dr Gross for naming Shafer the HC instead of NH, for not seeing the obvious and acting to prevent it.

But I want to be fair. First, I know SU is never going to pay what the Bills can pay for an OC. And I also know that Dr Gross would be happy to spend that money on Nathaniel if it were available.

The real question is, was NH offered the HC job? If he was and he turned it down, and TGD and SU offered him a tremendous package with a big salary the Bills could not touch for an OC position, then I have no problems with NH leaving the program.

If Dr Gross did not talk with NH before making the HC offer to SS and did not offer NH the HC job first, I think TGD made a major mistake that might haunt the program for decades.

I don't want this post to be looked at as anti Scott Shafer. I have great respect for Coach Shafer, I think he is an excellent DC and I want him to be part of the program long term. I am not even saying that I think NH is a better coach than SS.

I am just saying that for this program and this staff at this moment, it was far more important to retain NH than SS. I would hope that TGD talked to DM and asked about his plans for building his staff with the Bills and I assume DM answered him truthfully.

Regardless, it should have been clear that NH was going to have options SS would not and even it wasn't to TGD, he should have at least figured out how exposed the program would be losing DM and NH at the same time.

Anyway, that is my conditional rant. Time to move on and focus on the future. The guy I think might be our best bet for new OC/QB coach is Joe Lombardi, the QB coach of the Saints. 4 years ago DM tried to hire him as the SU OC (Bill O'Brien was his 1st choice, Joe was his second and his third was Nat Hackett). He knows the system, has coached in the East before and is also a QB coach, another void we need to fill. He is also the grandson of Vince Lombardi, which is pretty cool.

The problem with him is that he already turned down the position once, and that was when he would have been working with DM, a guy he knew and had worked with for a couple of years. If TGD made a strong offer with a lot of $$ involved, maybe we could get him.

I hope by now it is clear to the powers that be that it is time to buy the staff salaries in keeping with the rest of the ACC football programs.

John Reagan would probably be my second choice. As mentioned already, he has a lot of coordinator experience with Kansas and Rice, is from the Albany area and has experience coaching in the East with Albany, Penn and Temple. His offense would be more of an old school run based offense, I think, but he has had consistent success during his career mostly coaching schools that are not powers, and am I sure players that were not highly recruited. Should be good at getting the most out of what he has to work with.

I don't believe he has ever coached QBs. Might need to assign that to Anselmo or bring in a QB coach.

The more I think about it, I think SU had a weird alignment with the coaching staff with an extra coach on defense and one less than normal on offense, due no doubt to the backgrounds and strengths of DM and NH. With them gone, it makes a lot of sense for Shafer to either continue to be DC or to promote one of his coaches to DC and move assignments around (right now we have Anselmo and Morrison both coaching LBs, which doesn't make a lot of sense).

If you can't get Lombardi, maybe bring in Reagan as OC and an experienced QB coach with OC experience like Rogers. That would work out pretty well...

 

[omniorange]

Nate Hackett says he learned his offense from Jim Kelly and Alex Van Pelt when he was at the Bills.

Any chance we can get AVP from Green Bay as OC/QB Coach?

Cheers,
Neil

 

[texascpa]

I think Hackett may have great upside but I am not sure that anyone knows if he was ready to be a head coach (at 33) or not. I think it was a gamble we simply could not afford to take at the moment.
Hackett had a very difficult learning curve and an inconsistent history of play calling. IMO he really needed a couple more years experience to be a top notch OC. His most impressive attribute was his ability to make objective analysis and criticism of his own work and make changes. He was still a work in progress - a very good work but a w-i-p nevertheless.

TGD had a tough choice to make and he made the safer bet. I have no argument with that.

I really like you idea of John Reagan. Everybody should take a look at this:
http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/reagan_john00.html

I've been saying for a while that Marrone probably had a say in TGD's choice. It's not unlikely that Marrone told TGD that he expected to offer Hackett the OC job.

 

[kingtidge]

With Hackett, we had a rising star... but let's be clear, before this year's performance, a lot of us had significant questions about his ability and EXPERIENCE to be our OC... And I think those questions were valid.

He did great certainly proved those concerns invalid, but it's still one year and experience-wise, he's still very green...

He is WAY green for an NFL OC position and certainly is riding DM's coat tails into that position with the Bills... He also does not fit Marrone's own criteria he announced Monday is his presser for his Bills assistants having "thorough" NFL experience (sorry, QC coach doesn't count).

Bills pundits are venting the same concerns - and they are valid. They should also question this.

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-...oordinator-nathaniel-hackett-at-a-glance.html

Roll that up with the timing of this coaching change, the negative impact it will likely have on holding together our recruiting class, the absolute debacle of letting Floyd Little call recruits to ensure the both Shaf and Hack are staying and the loss of Offensive continuity and system that the Shaf/Hack package promised ... simply, this one really hurts and was bungled by either Marrone, Shaf, TGD/Athletic Dept. or all of the above... and a real black eye on Marrone's exit here... knife in the back with a twist so to speak.

 

[SmilinBob]

Maybe I don't know the interworkings of this staff but since Hackett learned from Kelly and Van Pelt, wouldn't logic dictate that those on the current staff would have learned from Marrone and Hackett?

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Tomcat, good post. I don't think people are giving Shafer enough credit here. Just my opinion, Shafer is the smartest guy on the entire staff, ( marrone and Hack included) he will do just fine. Sure, it would have been nice to have Hackett, how do people know he wasn't just sucking off the teet? Hackett sucked his first 2 seasons, In addition, he was losing Nassib, Sales, Pugh, and Lemon. Shafer needs to bring in an OC, Reagan would be fine, but he also needs to bring in 1 or 2 stud recruiters and if he needs to promote somebody to recruit the Northeast then -ing do it. I am talking a guy with solid contacts and a proven track record.. You want to roll the dice, dial up Angelichio at Tampa Bay and make him an o coordinator/ TE coach. He is one of the best recruiters out there, big difference between good recruiter and great recruiter. His track record at Pitt and Rutgers speaks for itself.

Please remember the only real blemish in Shafer's resume is Michigan, a job where was lied to prior to hiring, and forced to run somebody elses defense and not allowed to be himself. In addition, Shafer has earned the bump, he's put his time, paid his -ing dues every step of the way, he's seen the highs and the lows, he will be a much steadier hand. I don't know if Hack wanted the job or not, but how does he do when we lose a game like Minny this year? I don't know, I also don't know if Hack is really ready for an OC spot at the NFL level or a HC job at Syracuse, he has the pedigree but does he have the chops or the experience? He says the right suff and the right last name so did Kiffin, but give me the guy who has been through a lot more running my team, guy who has the experience is the guy I will roll the dice with every ing time. As I said, minus the 1 year at Michigan where Shafer was completely over Shafer has built a great reputation and rightfully so, guy would probably still be at Stanford if he didn't leave for Michigan, possible even be the HC there, I don't know

Shafer is a risk taker, I can't imagine him rolling out an offense that isn't shaped after his personality to a certain extent.. People can bitch that SU went small with this hire, I certainly understand that point of view but then again if Syracuse wasn't small, coach Marrone would most likely have stayed another few years. Bitch all you want, don't like it, write the ing checks. I do... and I love Shafer and I really want to see the guy succeed as I am sure most do,I say most and mean it. I will be ponying up once again.

People need to forget about this recruiting class as well, is what it is. We will keep many but lose some too, get over it.

Onward and ing upward, please remember many wanted Hackett canned 4 months ago, he was no good, couldn't handle the job, etc etc.

I don't share the sentiment that Hackett is/was more valuable that Shafer, I think Shafer will do well here and is much better prepared to be HC than hack at this point.

 

[sutomcat]

Maybe I don't know the interworkings of this staff but since Hackett learned from Kelly and Van Pelt, wouldn't logic dictate that those on the current staff would have learned from Marrone and Hackett?

That assumes everyone on the staff is like Hackett, who has been grooming himself for OC/HC responsibilities from day one of his coaching career. I don't believe Adkins, Wheatley and Moore are in the film room, obsessively watching tape and taking notes like Hackett did routinely. I think all those guys are fine coaches and have done excellent work at Syracuse. But being an OC takes more than just showing up each day for practice and recruiting your designated areas.

Cody Catalina might also be a candidate for a spot on the offensive side of the ball. He has been a GA, has been very involved with the offense and I would guess he ends up with a full time gig in Buffalo or here.

 

[MCuse44]

we need someone who can recruit...i dont care how much of a genius they are. If they dont have the bodies they cant execute squat. P and Marrone were somewhere on the spectrum of above average. With the right bodies P was able to execute above average results, but not great. Marrone I really dont think showed enough to really say.

If we cannot build the stuff we need to get the recruits we need someone who can get the job done because it seems we are really in a catch 22. Without the money we cant get the recruits. Without the recruits we cannot get the money and interest to get the facilities. Something has to change.

 

[MadNY3]

There is so much Gross can do to save everybody. Shafer, Hackett...future will see.

I would be shocked to see Joe Lombardi leave NO to come to Cuse with no Marrone. Does not seem probable.

 

[SmilinBob]

That assumes everyone on the staff is like Hackett, who has been grooming himself for OC/HC responsibilities from day one of his coaching career. I don't believe Adkins, Wheatley and Moore are in the film room, obsessively watching tape and taking notes like Hackett did routinely. I think all those guys are fine coaches and have done excellent work at Syracuse. But being an OC takes more than just showing up each day for practice and recruiting your designated areas.

Cody Catalina might also be a candidate for a spot on the offensive side of the ball. He has been a GA, has been very involved with the offense and I would guess he ends up with a full time gig in Buffalo or here.

That's the stuff I need to know Tom, thanks. I want a guy that will work his ass off and continue to improve and learn and push himself to make this offense click on all cylinders. I remember that debacle of a coach we had when GRob hired that TE guy from the Broncos and DO NOT EVER want that to happen again.

 

[ahc1111]

First, I congratulate Nathaniel Hackett on getting an OC position in the NFL. It is a great achievement at such a young age. I think he is destined to do great things in the coaching profession. Of all the people on the staff, I think he was the one with the highest ceiling.

What a shame to lose him now. SU invested 3 years with him learning the ropes,.finally started to realize benefits from that investments this season and poof, he is gone. I don't blame him for leaving; I am sure his salary will at least double and his workload might be lower.

When DM left, I posted that the most important thing for Dr Gross was to retain Nathaniel. I thought this for a few reasons...

Top notch offensive coordinators are harder to come by than top notch defensive coordinators

We currently have at least 3 former DCs already on the staff (besides Shafer). Anselmo might have been one too, not going to bother to look it up. There were many options for an orderly succession in the event Scott left.

On the offensive side, DM and NH did all the high level game planning/game calling coordinator type work. The rest of the coaches on offense have not served as OCs or even worked on a staff that ran this type of offense except for their time at Syracuse. There was a lot of exposure if NH left. A lot more than if Shafer left.

I am tempted to rip Dr Gross for naming Shafer the HC instead of NH, for not seeing the obvious and acting to prevent it.

But I want to be fair. First, I know SU is never going to pay what the Bills can pay for an OC. And I also know that Dr Gross would be happy to spend that money on Nathaniel if it were available.

The real question is, was NH offered the HC job? If he was and he turned it down, and TGD and SU offered him a tremendous package with a big salary the Bills could not touch for an OC position, then I have no problems with NH leaving the program.

If Dr Gross did not talk with NH before making the HC offer to SS and did not offer NH the HC job first, I think TGD made a major mistake that might haunt the program for decades.

I don't want this post to be looked at as anti Scott Shafer. I have great respect for Coach Shafer, I think he is an excellent DC and I want him to be part of the program long term. I am not even saying that I think NH is a better coach than SS.

I am just saying that for this program and this staff at this moment, it was far more important to retain NH than SS. I would hope that TGD talked to DM and asked about his plans for building his staff with the Bills and I assume DM answered him truthfully.

Regardless, it should have been clear that NH was going to have options SS would not and even it wasn't to TGD, he should have at least figured out how exposed the program would be losing DM and NH at the same time.

Anyway, that is my conditional rant. Time to move on and focus on the future. The guy I think might be our best bet for new OC/QB coach is Joe Lombardi, the QB coach of the Saints. 4 years ago DM tried to hire him as the SU OC (Bill O'Brien was his 1st choice, Joe was his second and his third was Nat Hackett). He knows the system, has coached in the East before and is also a QB coach, another void we need to fill. He is also the grandson of Vince Lombardi, which is pretty cool.

The problem with him is that he already turned down the position once, and that was when he would have been working with DM, a guy he knew and had worked with for a couple of years. If TGD made a strong offer with a lot of $$ involved, maybe we could get him.

I hope by now it is clear to the powers that be that it is time to buy the staff salaries in keeping with the rest of the ACC football programs.

John Reagan would probably be my second choice. As mentioned already, he has a lot of coordinator experience with Kansas and Rice, is from the Albany area and has experience coaching in the East with Albany, Penn and Temple. His offense would be more of an old school run based offense, I think, but he has had consistent success during his career mostly coaching schools that are not powers, and am I sure players that were not highly recruited. Should be good at getting the most out of what he has to work with.

I don't believe he has ever coached QBs. Might need to assign that to Anselmo or bring in a QB coach.

The more I think about it, I think SU had a weird alignment with the coaching staff with an extra coach on defense and one less than normal on offense, due no doubt to the backgrounds and strengths of DM and NH. With them gone, it makes a lot of sense for Shafer to either continue to be DC or to promote one of his coaches to DC and move assignments around (right now we have Anselmo and Morrison both coaching LBs, which doesn't make a lot of sense).

If you can't get Lombardi, maybe bring in Reagan as OC and an experienced QB coach with OC experience like Rogers. That would work out pretty well...

Hackett has only been at SU since 2010 (two seasons), and prior to this year, many on this board were calling for his head. What a short memory some of us have, lol. I am 100% ok with Shafer as our new HC. He was an MVP QB in college and players say he throws a tighter spiral than anyone on the roster. We will be ok -- he knows offense and will find a good OC.

 

[Cuseregular]

LOVE the idea on Reagan, think Anselmo will retire.

 

[DCCuse]

Agree on Reagan. Hoping Anselmo will wait one yr to help with transition.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

[SmilinBob]

Agree on Reagan. Hoping Anselmo will wait one yr to help with transition.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

That's something I wonder about, how this will work...hiring the OC. Will SS's past coaching friends call him and ask to be considered, yes. Will SS call some of them, yes. Will SS network at the coaches fair? Probably. Current staff asking for a promotion? Hmm, that I'd like to know as well. I do know that SS will be a very popular fellow in the next few days and who he will be comfortable to hand the keys over to be OC will be a very interesting thing to follow.

 

[PhatOrange]

Great post IB.

 

[TheCusian]

That's something I wonder about, how this will work...hiring the OC. Will SS's past coaching friends call him and ask to be considered, yes. Will SS call some of them, yes. Will SS network at the coaches fair? Probably. Current staff asking for a promotion? Hmm, that I'd like to know as well. I do know that SS will be a very popular fellow in the next few days and who he will be comfortable to hand the keys over to be OC will be a very interesting thing to follow.

I'm sure the coaches convention was interesting for him to say the least.

 

[SmilinBob]

I'm sure the coaches convention was interesting for him to say the least.

He'll be a very popular guy, until they find out how much SU pays. jk...alright, maybe a little serious.

 

[Faegan]

All I can say is that I would like to see us keep the SAME offense. Can we find someone who can make that happen that can also recruit? I won't pretend to know specifically who that is, but that's my guy.

 

[upperdeck]

SS was a head coach who had decided to stay here. he was ready to get a HC. NH was a guy who seems to have a high upside, was just starting to thrive on an offense that was new to everyone , including the teams we were playing. There was no way to know if he would have thrived without DM. we dont even know how much of the game plan was DM and how much was NH. Game planning and Game calling are two vastly different pieces of the puzzle.. And its clear we got better play calling once we had an oline that could run.

 

[Crusty]

I think a lot of folks (including myself) don't really understand (in any depth) what the SU offense really is. It has been called by various names but as I understand it is a composite of the K-Gun (no huddle used by Ted Marchibroda at Buffalo), the zone read (from shotgun or pistol) and sort of a pro-spread.

It requires a smart mobile QB and a very good O Line (feel free to jump in if I am off base here) and since it uses a lot of West Coast pass patterns, wide receivers that can make people miss. We have some of these elements but need more.

Since Shafer has defended against this all last season in practice I am sure he has his own opinions about it. My guess is that it is the type of aggressive style that suits his personality. I hope so!

 

[OttoForLife]

Don't get me wrong: would LOVE to have NH still here, but it would have been interesting to see how the wonderkin would do this coming year with a new, inexperiences QB and unproven WRs.

 

[kcsu]

First, I congratulate Nathaniel Hackett on getting an OC position in the NFL. It is a great achievement at such a young age. I think he is destined to do great things in the coaching profession. Of all the people on the staff, I think he was the one with the highest ceiling.

What a shame to lose him now. SU invested 3 years with him learning the ropes,.finally started to realize benefits from that investments this season and poof, he is gone. I don't blame him for leaving; I am sure his salary will at least double and his workload might be lower.

When DM left, I posted that the most important thing for Dr Gross was to retain Nathaniel. I thought this for a few reasons...

Top notch offensive coordinators are harder to come by than top notch defensive coordinators

We currently have at least 3 former DCs already on the staff (besides Shafer). Anselmo might have been one too, not going to bother to look it up. There were many options for an orderly succession in the event Scott left.

On the offensive side, DM and NH did all the high level game planning/game calling coordinator type work. The rest of the coaches on offense have not served as OCs or even worked on a staff that ran this type of offense except for their time at Syracuse. There was a lot of exposure if NH left. A lot more than if Shafer left.

I am tempted to rip Dr Gross for naming Shafer the HC instead of NH, for not seeing the obvious and acting to prevent it.

But I want to be fair. First, I know SU is never going to pay what the Bills can pay for an OC. And I also know that Dr Gross would be happy to spend that money on Nathaniel if it were available.

The real question is, was NH offered the HC job? If he was and he turned it down, and TGD and SU offered him a tremendous package with a big salary the Bills could not touch for an OC position, then I have no problems with NH leaving the program.

If Dr Gross did not talk with NH before making the HC offer to SS and did not offer NH the HC job first, I think TGD made a major mistake that might haunt the program for decades.

I don't want this post to be looked at as anti Scott Shafer. I have great respect for Coach Shafer, I think he is an excellent DC and I want him to be part of the program long term. I am not even saying that I think NH is a better coach than SS.

I am just saying that for this program and this staff at this moment, it was far more important to retain NH than SS. I would hope that TGD talked to DM and asked about his plans for building his staff with the Bills and I assume DM answered him truthfully.

Regardless, it should have been clear that NH was going to have options SS would not and even it wasn't to TGD, he should have at least figured out how exposed the program would be losing DM and NH at the same time.

Anyway, that is my conditional rant. Time to move on and focus on the future. The guy I think might be our best bet for new OC/QB coach is Joe Lombardi, the QB coach of the Saints. 4 years ago DM tried to hire him as the SU OC (Bill O'Brien was his 1st choice, Joe was his second and his third was Nat Hackett). He knows the system, has coached in the East before and is also a QB coach, another void we need to fill. He is also the grandson of Vince Lombardi, which is pretty cool.

The problem with him is that he already turned down the position once, and that was when he would have been working with DM, a guy he knew and had worked with for a couple of years. If TGD made a strong offer with a lot of $$ involved, maybe we could get him.

I hope by now it is clear to the powers that be that it is time to buy the staff salaries in keeping with the rest of the ACC football programs.

John Reagan would probably be my second choice. As mentioned already, he has a lot of coordinator experience with Kansas and Rice, is from the Albany area and has experience coaching in the East with Albany, Penn and Temple. His offense would be more of an old school run based offense, I think, but he has had consistent success during his career mostly coaching schools that are not powers, and am I sure players that were not highly recruited. Should be good at getting the most out of what he has to work with.

I don't believe he has ever coached QBs. Might need to assign that to Anselmo or bring in a QB coach.

The more I think about it, I think SU had a weird alignment with the coaching staff with an extra coach on defense and one less than normal on offense, due no doubt to the backgrounds and strengths of DM and NH. With them gone, it makes a lot of sense for Shafer to either continue to be DC or to promote one of his coaches to DC and move assignments around (right now we have Anselmo and Morrison both coaching LBs, which doesn't make a lot of sense).

If you can't get Lombardi, maybe bring in Reagan as OC and an experienced QB coach with OC experience like Rogers. That would work out pretty well...

Im sure that Hack is a rising star but there is no way that TGD or any AD should have made him HC. I believe that Hack works hard that he studies film... good personality all of that but lets be honest. He was average at best until the second half of this season. Hack didnt decide to go fast pace Nassib talked him into it. As Doug says all play calling goes through him. No what Hack is to Doug is what Doug was to Sean Payton. A good mind, hard worker who will do exactly what he is told by his boss. Doug set the O tone here and im sure had a huge impact on play calling as well, Doug was the one who decided to go more run to take the pressure off of Nassib not Hack and Doug will continue to do the same thing in Buffalo. Hiring Hack would have been a huge gamble and possibly mistake on Docs part. Just because you have a great programmer doesnt mean for one second he can run your company.