CIL
All Conference
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 3,042
- Like
- 9,802
Another football season has passed, and we are going without another bowl game. This marks the fourth consecutive Syracuse season without a bowl, and 7th out of our last 10. These last few season have appeared to be even more taxing on the Syracuse fan, as we have seemingly “turned the corner” with upset wins, only to be led into a downward spiral with several losses following those upsets.
In my opinion, the Syracuse job Dino was handed probably bordered on the edge of a complete rebuild, much like when Marrone inherited Syracuse from Greg Robinson. That’s not to say they are similar rebuilds, but rebuilds nonetheless.
Dino has certainly inherited better facilities, but he is also stuck in one of the two most difficult conference divisions in all of the p5 world. Our division has produced 2 out of the last 3 national champions, and this season alone each and every one of our divisional foes are bowl eligible with a combined record of 44-25.
That aside, rebuilds don’t just happen randomly. There are three things that must happen: better talent, better coaching acumen, and commitment from the school. Coach Mac’s rebuild coincided with the commitment to the Dome, exciting style of play, and several talented coaches that made their way through Syracuse. This first part is going to take a look at what I believe could be the most important phase of the rebuild, and that’s improving the talent base.
As I mentioned above, I believe our division is every bit as difficult as the SEC West. Clemson, FSU, and Louisville can match Alabama, Auburn, and Miss St on a talent level on an annual basis. Our roster as currently constructed is a sub .500 football team. Perhaps if we were in the ACC Coastal would I consider us a .500 team talent wise, but we don’t have that luxury.
How did we get here? I think there were several factors that contributed to poor recruiting over Shafer’s three seasons. The first was taking too many risks on potential non-qualifiers or troublesome kids, the second being the physical profile of our recruits, and the third factor would be a lack of offensive identity during his tenure.
Shafer’s willingness to “wait out” a recruits academics stuffed our classes with kids that never stepped foot on campus or were gone rather quickly. The 2013 class was under difficult circumstances, yet we signed several kids that really never made an impact here. Corey Cooper never made it here and Wayne Williams was gone quickly. In 2014 Cooper (again), KJ Williams, Eduardo, Prater, and Dawson (health circumstances) never stepped foot on campus. Another “borderline” kid, Naes Howard, literally tried to murder two of his teammates. 2015 was a bit better, on Blair failed to qualify. That being said, Amir Early was a borderline kid coming out of school and is now a registered sex offender.
That is 10 kids (half a class) lost to circumstances we could have controlled to an extent. We aren’t a selector school that can afford to miss out on 6-7 kids a class, because they know that the 4 or 5 star kids in next year’s class have pretty great potential to become excellent players.
The second factor, the physical profile of our recruits is arguably the biggest downfall to Shafer’s recruiting. Advanced analytics tend to look at outliers like weight adjusted 40 time, height/weight ratio of skill players, etc. I would wager Shafer’s classes would really struggle to hold up against those metrics.
In my opinion, we had 2 outlier players (small but dynamic against p5 competition) out of 70 some odd recruits signed: Cordy and Estime. I think Bennett and Franklin are borderline size for their position, but passable. For every Cordy we have a AJ Long, Carl Jones, or Cordell Hudson. For every Bennett we have an Arlyk Perry and Colton Moskol.
NC St does not have players our size running around out there. Boston College does not have players our size running around out there. These are peer programs. Today’s game against BC only reinforced that thought. They have a 6’5” 280 pound impact DE making plays out there. We are the smallest team in our division. Unless all our are players are markedly faster (they aren’t) than the other team, advanced scouting tells us our players should be inferior.
Finally, the lack of offensive identity under Shafer really has placed a ceiling on this offense. We have several slot / wing types (Strick, Neal, Perkins) but no really true RB. Our QBs were recruited for a different system, and we really didn’t have a true thrower until Devito came a long. We have some receivers like Curtis and Enoicy, and then kids like Avant. These are positionless players in Baber.s offense which is built upon power running and vertical threats.
Bottom line: 32 players that Shafer signed that could have still had their eligibility are not on this roster for one reason or another - and they weren’t run off.
So I guess the final question is what is the staff trying to do to adjust this? They are definitely believers in getting bigger in the trenches, as our OL recruiting can attest. The have a weight /speed metric for skill players (no more small slow players). Our younger kids on defense have been recruited with length in mind (no defensive backs under 6’, lbs shorter than 6’1”),
Obviously they need to hit on names, as advanced scouting metrics can only get you so far. I don’t see a “video game” player on this roster right now. Video game players are players that can make something happen on sheer talent alone ala ~McNabb, Freeney, Bullock, etc. Dungey is certainly a player that gives opposing coaches fits at times, but I’m not sure if opposing DCs struggle to sleep at night because of him.
Those are players we must get in order to ove onward and upwards. We faced two players in the last two weeks that fit the “video game” mold: Jackson and AJ Dillon. You can see the stress they place upon the opposing team as the run around ore through our kids.
In my opinion, the Syracuse job Dino was handed probably bordered on the edge of a complete rebuild, much like when Marrone inherited Syracuse from Greg Robinson. That’s not to say they are similar rebuilds, but rebuilds nonetheless.
Dino has certainly inherited better facilities, but he is also stuck in one of the two most difficult conference divisions in all of the p5 world. Our division has produced 2 out of the last 3 national champions, and this season alone each and every one of our divisional foes are bowl eligible with a combined record of 44-25.
That aside, rebuilds don’t just happen randomly. There are three things that must happen: better talent, better coaching acumen, and commitment from the school. Coach Mac’s rebuild coincided with the commitment to the Dome, exciting style of play, and several talented coaches that made their way through Syracuse. This first part is going to take a look at what I believe could be the most important phase of the rebuild, and that’s improving the talent base.
As I mentioned above, I believe our division is every bit as difficult as the SEC West. Clemson, FSU, and Louisville can match Alabama, Auburn, and Miss St on a talent level on an annual basis. Our roster as currently constructed is a sub .500 football team. Perhaps if we were in the ACC Coastal would I consider us a .500 team talent wise, but we don’t have that luxury.
How did we get here? I think there were several factors that contributed to poor recruiting over Shafer’s three seasons. The first was taking too many risks on potential non-qualifiers or troublesome kids, the second being the physical profile of our recruits, and the third factor would be a lack of offensive identity during his tenure.
Shafer’s willingness to “wait out” a recruits academics stuffed our classes with kids that never stepped foot on campus or were gone rather quickly. The 2013 class was under difficult circumstances, yet we signed several kids that really never made an impact here. Corey Cooper never made it here and Wayne Williams was gone quickly. In 2014 Cooper (again), KJ Williams, Eduardo, Prater, and Dawson (health circumstances) never stepped foot on campus. Another “borderline” kid, Naes Howard, literally tried to murder two of his teammates. 2015 was a bit better, on Blair failed to qualify. That being said, Amir Early was a borderline kid coming out of school and is now a registered sex offender.
That is 10 kids (half a class) lost to circumstances we could have controlled to an extent. We aren’t a selector school that can afford to miss out on 6-7 kids a class, because they know that the 4 or 5 star kids in next year’s class have pretty great potential to become excellent players.
The second factor, the physical profile of our recruits is arguably the biggest downfall to Shafer’s recruiting. Advanced analytics tend to look at outliers like weight adjusted 40 time, height/weight ratio of skill players, etc. I would wager Shafer’s classes would really struggle to hold up against those metrics.
In my opinion, we had 2 outlier players (small but dynamic against p5 competition) out of 70 some odd recruits signed: Cordy and Estime. I think Bennett and Franklin are borderline size for their position, but passable. For every Cordy we have a AJ Long, Carl Jones, or Cordell Hudson. For every Bennett we have an Arlyk Perry and Colton Moskol.
NC St does not have players our size running around out there. Boston College does not have players our size running around out there. These are peer programs. Today’s game against BC only reinforced that thought. They have a 6’5” 280 pound impact DE making plays out there. We are the smallest team in our division. Unless all our are players are markedly faster (they aren’t) than the other team, advanced scouting tells us our players should be inferior.
Finally, the lack of offensive identity under Shafer really has placed a ceiling on this offense. We have several slot / wing types (Strick, Neal, Perkins) but no really true RB. Our QBs were recruited for a different system, and we really didn’t have a true thrower until Devito came a long. We have some receivers like Curtis and Enoicy, and then kids like Avant. These are positionless players in Baber.s offense which is built upon power running and vertical threats.
Bottom line: 32 players that Shafer signed that could have still had their eligibility are not on this roster for one reason or another - and they weren’t run off.
So I guess the final question is what is the staff trying to do to adjust this? They are definitely believers in getting bigger in the trenches, as our OL recruiting can attest. The have a weight /speed metric for skill players (no more small slow players). Our younger kids on defense have been recruited with length in mind (no defensive backs under 6’, lbs shorter than 6’1”),
Obviously they need to hit on names, as advanced scouting metrics can only get you so far. I don’t see a “video game” player on this roster right now. Video game players are players that can make something happen on sheer talent alone ala ~McNabb, Freeney, Bullock, etc. Dungey is certainly a player that gives opposing coaches fits at times, but I’m not sure if opposing DCs struggle to sleep at night because of him.
Those are players we must get in order to ove onward and upwards. We faced two players in the last two weeks that fit the “video game” mold: Jackson and AJ Dillon. You can see the stress they place upon the opposing team as the run around ore through our kids.
Last edited:
