Shafer Press Conference

[tipphill]

as a townie, before i moved away, i am not and idiot(although sometimes my wife of 42 years thinks i am), i have been a fan for ions. nevertheless i do agree that many syracusans are very negative in general re su, the city, and upstate ny. i do believe that the area cny and fingerlakes are greatly unappreciated. i also feel that many of those that have that perspective, have never lived anywhere else, had to fight commuter traffic, pay grossly inflated real estate prices, etc etc etc. upstate is a great place to live.

 

[RF2044]

I don't know what happened, I don't get it either, but there are people around here that are very disenfranchised from the program right now, and for a long time. I remember when we totally sucked, there were people around here that reveled in it, and still do. I can think of some reasons why, maybe one of them would be that the SU students and alums think Syracuse is a hole, and that all townies are idiots.

as a townie, before i moved away, i am not and idiot(although sometimes my wife of 42 years thinks i am), i have been a fan for ions. nevertheless i do agree that many syracusans are very negative in general re su, the city, and upstate ny. i do believe that the area cny and fingerlakes are greatly unappreciated. i also feel that many of those that have that perspective, have never lived anywhere else, had to fight commuter traffic, pay grossly inflated real estate prices, etc etc etc. upstate is a great place to live.

I've always belived that the University does a poor job of connecting to the community, and that alienates a significant portion of townies. Even when I lived in CNY back in the 90s, you could see that there was a substantive generation gap, where we had an older portion of the fanbase but a younger portion that wasn't that interested. And then having a 10 year stretch of incredibly poor play for the most part caused a lot of younger fans to never really get behind the program.

Of course, there are always going to be those who are die hards, who are going to raise their children to be die hards. They're not the problem, and never have been. It's the casual fan who could go either way--who would support a winning program, and possibly develop into a die hard, but who also will lose interest pretty quickly in a dud.

I know, I know--Cantor did a bunch of BS community outreach stuff. But those token efforts don't change my opinion. The majority of townies aren't alums, and are increasingly becoming more fair weather. And there is a generation gap.

 

[Millhouse]

Even though we're now 2 chancellors removed from the guy?

I'll never understand people and their sensitivities. You can't honestly say you were ever really a fan of SU football if that comment from a guy long gone still bothers you enough 15 years later to keep you away.

these people who stay away because of that are unicorns

 

[TheCusian]

SS was ticked and was trying to keep things in perspective personally - and shouldn't have publicly at a presser. That's the only reasonable answer.

 

[Doc5120]

Just wondering where we go from here...For the sake of our program we need to make a splash hire and actually pay for it or we will continue to be a middle of the road program.

I'd take middle of the road right now. Fact is, this year's team hasn't showed they're middle of the road. They're bottom 1/3 of FBS. It's frustrating because I really felt they had potential to be a solid team this season. Right now, things look rather bleak. I hope there's some sort of miracle turnaround coming.

 

[javadoc]

SS was ticked and was trying to keep things in perspective personally - and shouldn't have publicly at a presser. That's the only reasonable answer.

And he probably knew (assuming it's true!) that he was going to have to demote/can McDonald. making tough staffing decisions is like sinning, it gets easier after the first time.