Wow, that was a poor article. Not so much because it was negative, but that it really misses the point and implies the author has a very poor grasp on what he's observing.
There is a story to be told here, and one that would be worth reading by Syracuse folks, even if it's not rah rah cheerleading.
Why does Dave Doeren have a good crowd? Besides the fact that he's in the heart of Tobacco road, and therefore has the ear of beat reporters for all Tobacco road, there's the little fact that the guy took a MAC team to the freaking Orange Bowl and played FSU last year. The guy was a head coach, and one that had a pretty high profile for a month less than a year ago.
Addazio, while not having as big a spotlight last year, also has been a head coach, and as a bonus, was part of the Urban-Tebow circus as a coordinator. These guys are known quantities in a way Shafer is just not. Grab any fan off any college football message board, and they're going to be able to think of more questions for Doeren or Addazio without knowing one single thing about their respective teams.
And that's where the author misses the boat on this. If there's a story here, and there probably is, it's not about the idea that Shafer is somehow lacking from the brains or personality standpoint, and implication that is unfair and not warranted by the reality of the situation being described. The real story is about how Syracuse took a different approach replacing Marrone than the other ACC schools making new hires. It's about the challenges that surround that, but why it might be justified by a program on the upswing and trying to continue momentum, versus programs that fired coaches and are trying to start anew.
I don't even know Syracuse that closely, but I could probably write that story. Going into a new, higher profile league with a basically anonymous new head coach, and how the challenges of that were well illustrated on media day. Why Syracuse is going to have to perform at a high level, because the coach's story isn't going to sell it by itself. About how quickly that will change next year based on Syracuse's performance. Possibly draw a parallel with Dabo Swinney, another guy (although quite a different situation) that was out of nowhere and nobody knew, and initially seemed easy to dismiss. About how Swinney now appears to be well down the way on the Les Miles Persona Path from "Bumbling Boob" to "Successful Charmingly Eccentric Character". Not that Shafer is Dabo or anything, but you could draw comparisons with an unknown guy that is thrown into a totally new spotlight.