SWC75
Bored Historian
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The coach’s show is on TK99, (FM 99.5) in the Syracuse area and can also be heard through Orange All-Access on the SU Athletic website. It’s 8PM Thursdays- or two days before each game, when they are not on Saturday. They have a link to their “Radio Mailbox” for submitting E-Mail questions on the SU Athletic website. You also can call in questions at 1-888-740-2873 or locally at 315-424-8599.
In past years it took sometimes weeks for a podcast to turn up on the SU athletics website, so I tried to do a virtual transcript of the show. This year I missed the first show and the pod cast was available the next day at this site:
http://www.suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
My Questions/Comments
“Coach, We out-gained Cincinnati and had more first downs. There was no turnover of consequence. Cincinnati just didn't have as far to go because they averaged 11 yards more per punt, returned punts for and average of 20 more yards and returned kick-offs for an average of 15 yards more. Their average starting position was their 35, ours was our 19. We’ve talked about the punt returns before. It seemed we had two major threats on kick-off returns in Kobena and Graham but during the losing streak we’ve returned 20 kick-offs for 389 yards, just 19 yards each. Our returner seems to just hit a brick wall at the 20 yard line. What can we do to spring our guys for big returns?”
HCDM
Chris McManus sat in for Matt Park. (This show was done at Red Robin while the Boeheim show was done at Delmonico’s- it might be fun to do a combined show someday.)
I had called into Brent Axe earlier in the day noting that Coach Marrone had actually gotten angry with the press early in the year because they refused to attribute the team’s early comeback wins to his leadership program and wondered if his evident frustration with his players and the difficulty he was having sleeping, (which he had mentioned in his news conference), so disturbed was he by the losing streak was due to the fact that his leadership program didn’t seem to be working. I wondered if the coach had heard that statement or been appraised of it because he immediately launched into a discussion of that issue.
“It’s always concerning to lose four games in a row. You start losing core values like hard work, integrity and teamwork. Well, not losing them but questioning them….You hear it in the voices of the players and the way they question you: ’Coach, what’s going on?’ …We’ve had a good week of practice and we’ve worked hard all week at trying to get our minds set right. We have to stay together as a team. Even within the team there are people trying to tear down the team. I call them the ’crab buckets’ - the guys who sit in a corner and complain. Even if you don’t enjoy where you are, you have to accept the challenge of the situation and we are going to accept this challenge and get the job done. We are going to play with the same passion as the West Virginia game. I told the players to keep fighting and don’t let people take you down.”
Chris asked if Doug’s coaching style was the same with college kids and the pros. “I am who I am. I concentrate on developing the person first. It worked as a position coach. . I tell the kids that this is nothing like the adversity you’ll face later in life and how you respond to this will determine how you respond to adversity later. No matter how hard you think this is, life is a whole lot harder.”
After a break Chris said he hoped the coach and his family had had a happy Thanksgiving. But the Coach seemed to still be in his emotional rut. “It was tough. I’ve always done a poor job of separating work and life. Am I letting the kids down? Am I letting the university and community down? I know what kind of program we want to have. But I have to be aware of that reaction and to try to do the best job I can of being a husband and father.”
I called in and hoped that the coach did find things to be thankful for. I told him I’d been reading about Ben Schwartzwalder and he once had a three game losing streak with Jimmy Brown in the line-up. But later he went to the Cotton Bowl and wound up winning the national championship. I’m sure he remembered that after that famous win over Nebraska in 1984 we lost our next three games. And then there was 1986, when we opened with four straight losses and the SacMacPack was in business. We went undefeated the next year. Both Ben and Coach Mac are in the Hall of Fame, Doug Marrone is in good company.
I quoted my stats and asked my question about the kicking game and field position. He agreed with what I was talking about and said “It doesn’t take a genius to see that if you are starting on the 19 yard line and they are starting on the 35, you’ve got a problem.” (That’s why I was able to see it.) He said the Cincinnati punter is the best I the league and will be an All-American. He also said that SU will be using the ’shield’ formation next year but he doesn’t want to try to put it in in mid-season. He needs more time to study it. “Some teams have had success with the pro formation but it takes more practice time to master it and with the shield we can spend more time on other things.”
Chris suggested that during the season budgeting practice time is a big challenge. Doug said that you want to spend time on things you are not doing well but you also can’t ignore the things you are doing well or they will begin to slide. Trying to bring in something new takes time away from those essentials. Chris asked if the week’s practices were pretty much scripted on Sunday and Doug said they were, although things might change, especially as he finds out more about the opponent.
About the kick-offs, the key to kick coverage is hang time. They want the ball to be “within the three with four points hang time”, (I assume that means four seconds.) Ross Krautman was having trouble doing that with his injury but now he’s better and is kicking it better. On the second half kickoff, we had a missed tackle and everyone else got blocked. (I recall one guy just falling down and he was the outside guy.) He talked about how deflating that was to the team. As to our own kick returns, “Cincinnati’s coverage was good. We have three returns we use: right, bounce left and middle. We’ve had problems with injuries and rotating players.”
Another caller wanted an explanation for the drops. Doug really had none. Instead he sighted some great catches we’d had early in the year in the Wake Forest comeback and a “fingertip” catch that kept a drive alive vs. West Virginia when that was still a close game. He also repeated that they are now practicing with the first team offense against the first team defense to get used to “narrow windows” to complete the passes. They are also getting away from one on one drills and going to team drills because in a game, you can be beating your man and “suddenly you see a blur” of a another defender coming into the picture. He wants the receivers to be used to that and maybe that will help avoid the dropped passes.
A caller asked how well we are doing competing against the Alabamas and Oklahomas of the world and along the east coast for recruits. “It’s a cliché but it’s true. Recruiting is the life-blood of a program. We can’t compete with Alabama or Oklahoma unless there’s a family tie or an interest in one of the excellent academic programs at Syracuse. . We have upgraded the talent and we are competing vs. better schools. But just because we got a recruit away from a good school it doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good player.
You have to identify talent and develop it. We’ve got 55 first or second year players on this team. The first year was really a half year and we’ve had two full years of recruiting. . We have good players and are good enough to win more than we lose. But we have to play at a high level every play to be successful.”
“We look for very competitive players. When we were drafting players in New Orleans we looked at four games a year for a player- an early one, a middle one and two late ones to see how he had progressed. And we wanted to see his effort level for four quarters. Anyone can put together a highlight film and make anybody look good. We want to know how a player is playing when it’s 28-0...or 0-28.”
A caller asked him for his reaction to the Penn State situation. “It’s so difficult to speak about that situation. My hearts go out to the victims- the trauma those poor kids go through. I don’t think about football or coaches. We have to have a sense of awareness. Victims come out and people see things and report them to authorities. There’s Vera House and McMahon/Ryan in our own community. Let’s do something about it as human beings.” (It’s obvious his feelings were not limited to the Penn State scandal. Vera House is a local safe house for victims of domestic violence. McMahon/Ryan is a child advocacy group.)
Chris noted that Floyd Little will be in New York this week for a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of Ernie Davis receiving his Heisman Trophy. HCDM: “I never met Ernie Davis, (Doug was born the year after Ernie died), but when I got this job one of the first things I did was to go to Elmira and see his school and his statue and talk to his family. Ernie was great player but he was a better person than he was a player. He’s someone for our current players to look up to. Floyd is a guy who knows what it takes to be successful and how it doesn’t come easy. When you play at SU it just never leaves you. It’s in your blood and in your heart. You feel a responsibility to get it back, (success) and keep it going.”
A caller named Corey wanted to know if we’ll go to a bowl if we beat Pittsburgh. “Absolutely- we are going to a bowl if we win. We haven’t been to back-to back bowl games since 1999.” (I think the caller may have been asking if we would be invited to a bowl if we beat Pittsburgh and Doug may have been answering whether we would accept.) Chris talked about the extra practices a bowl game would give the team. Coach said that the number would depend on what bowl we go to.
Chris asked HCDM to describe Pittsburgh. “They are 5-6 just as we are and need this win just as badly. They’ve been going through the same things we’ve been going through. Inconsistency. But they’ve done it with a lot of good players. Graham was a huge loss. Zach Brown will be a game-day decision.” What do we need to do to win? “Get off to a good start. Do a good job scoring in the red zone- score touchdowns, not field goals. We need a high level of execution and passion. I tell the players don’t be intimidated. I don’t mean by playing a bigger and stronger player. I mean don’t say to yourself ’I can’t make a mistake…I can’t make a mistake.’ Stay loose but stay focused. Just go out there and play like we can- like we did vs. West Virginia.”
In past years it took sometimes weeks for a podcast to turn up on the SU athletics website, so I tried to do a virtual transcript of the show. This year I missed the first show and the pod cast was available the next day at this site:
http://www.suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
My Questions/Comments
“Coach, We out-gained Cincinnati and had more first downs. There was no turnover of consequence. Cincinnati just didn't have as far to go because they averaged 11 yards more per punt, returned punts for and average of 20 more yards and returned kick-offs for an average of 15 yards more. Their average starting position was their 35, ours was our 19. We’ve talked about the punt returns before. It seemed we had two major threats on kick-off returns in Kobena and Graham but during the losing streak we’ve returned 20 kick-offs for 389 yards, just 19 yards each. Our returner seems to just hit a brick wall at the 20 yard line. What can we do to spring our guys for big returns?”
HCDM
Chris McManus sat in for Matt Park. (This show was done at Red Robin while the Boeheim show was done at Delmonico’s- it might be fun to do a combined show someday.)
I had called into Brent Axe earlier in the day noting that Coach Marrone had actually gotten angry with the press early in the year because they refused to attribute the team’s early comeback wins to his leadership program and wondered if his evident frustration with his players and the difficulty he was having sleeping, (which he had mentioned in his news conference), so disturbed was he by the losing streak was due to the fact that his leadership program didn’t seem to be working. I wondered if the coach had heard that statement or been appraised of it because he immediately launched into a discussion of that issue.
“It’s always concerning to lose four games in a row. You start losing core values like hard work, integrity and teamwork. Well, not losing them but questioning them….You hear it in the voices of the players and the way they question you: ’Coach, what’s going on?’ …We’ve had a good week of practice and we’ve worked hard all week at trying to get our minds set right. We have to stay together as a team. Even within the team there are people trying to tear down the team. I call them the ’crab buckets’ - the guys who sit in a corner and complain. Even if you don’t enjoy where you are, you have to accept the challenge of the situation and we are going to accept this challenge and get the job done. We are going to play with the same passion as the West Virginia game. I told the players to keep fighting and don’t let people take you down.”
Chris asked if Doug’s coaching style was the same with college kids and the pros. “I am who I am. I concentrate on developing the person first. It worked as a position coach. . I tell the kids that this is nothing like the adversity you’ll face later in life and how you respond to this will determine how you respond to adversity later. No matter how hard you think this is, life is a whole lot harder.”
After a break Chris said he hoped the coach and his family had had a happy Thanksgiving. But the Coach seemed to still be in his emotional rut. “It was tough. I’ve always done a poor job of separating work and life. Am I letting the kids down? Am I letting the university and community down? I know what kind of program we want to have. But I have to be aware of that reaction and to try to do the best job I can of being a husband and father.”
I called in and hoped that the coach did find things to be thankful for. I told him I’d been reading about Ben Schwartzwalder and he once had a three game losing streak with Jimmy Brown in the line-up. But later he went to the Cotton Bowl and wound up winning the national championship. I’m sure he remembered that after that famous win over Nebraska in 1984 we lost our next three games. And then there was 1986, when we opened with four straight losses and the SacMacPack was in business. We went undefeated the next year. Both Ben and Coach Mac are in the Hall of Fame, Doug Marrone is in good company.
I quoted my stats and asked my question about the kicking game and field position. He agreed with what I was talking about and said “It doesn’t take a genius to see that if you are starting on the 19 yard line and they are starting on the 35, you’ve got a problem.” (That’s why I was able to see it.) He said the Cincinnati punter is the best I the league and will be an All-American. He also said that SU will be using the ’shield’ formation next year but he doesn’t want to try to put it in in mid-season. He needs more time to study it. “Some teams have had success with the pro formation but it takes more practice time to master it and with the shield we can spend more time on other things.”
Chris suggested that during the season budgeting practice time is a big challenge. Doug said that you want to spend time on things you are not doing well but you also can’t ignore the things you are doing well or they will begin to slide. Trying to bring in something new takes time away from those essentials. Chris asked if the week’s practices were pretty much scripted on Sunday and Doug said they were, although things might change, especially as he finds out more about the opponent.
About the kick-offs, the key to kick coverage is hang time. They want the ball to be “within the three with four points hang time”, (I assume that means four seconds.) Ross Krautman was having trouble doing that with his injury but now he’s better and is kicking it better. On the second half kickoff, we had a missed tackle and everyone else got blocked. (I recall one guy just falling down and he was the outside guy.) He talked about how deflating that was to the team. As to our own kick returns, “Cincinnati’s coverage was good. We have three returns we use: right, bounce left and middle. We’ve had problems with injuries and rotating players.”
Another caller wanted an explanation for the drops. Doug really had none. Instead he sighted some great catches we’d had early in the year in the Wake Forest comeback and a “fingertip” catch that kept a drive alive vs. West Virginia when that was still a close game. He also repeated that they are now practicing with the first team offense against the first team defense to get used to “narrow windows” to complete the passes. They are also getting away from one on one drills and going to team drills because in a game, you can be beating your man and “suddenly you see a blur” of a another defender coming into the picture. He wants the receivers to be used to that and maybe that will help avoid the dropped passes.
A caller asked how well we are doing competing against the Alabamas and Oklahomas of the world and along the east coast for recruits. “It’s a cliché but it’s true. Recruiting is the life-blood of a program. We can’t compete with Alabama or Oklahoma unless there’s a family tie or an interest in one of the excellent academic programs at Syracuse. . We have upgraded the talent and we are competing vs. better schools. But just because we got a recruit away from a good school it doesn’t mean he’s going to be a good player.
You have to identify talent and develop it. We’ve got 55 first or second year players on this team. The first year was really a half year and we’ve had two full years of recruiting. . We have good players and are good enough to win more than we lose. But we have to play at a high level every play to be successful.”
“We look for very competitive players. When we were drafting players in New Orleans we looked at four games a year for a player- an early one, a middle one and two late ones to see how he had progressed. And we wanted to see his effort level for four quarters. Anyone can put together a highlight film and make anybody look good. We want to know how a player is playing when it’s 28-0...or 0-28.”
A caller asked him for his reaction to the Penn State situation. “It’s so difficult to speak about that situation. My hearts go out to the victims- the trauma those poor kids go through. I don’t think about football or coaches. We have to have a sense of awareness. Victims come out and people see things and report them to authorities. There’s Vera House and McMahon/Ryan in our own community. Let’s do something about it as human beings.” (It’s obvious his feelings were not limited to the Penn State scandal. Vera House is a local safe house for victims of domestic violence. McMahon/Ryan is a child advocacy group.)
Chris noted that Floyd Little will be in New York this week for a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of Ernie Davis receiving his Heisman Trophy. HCDM: “I never met Ernie Davis, (Doug was born the year after Ernie died), but when I got this job one of the first things I did was to go to Elmira and see his school and his statue and talk to his family. Ernie was great player but he was a better person than he was a player. He’s someone for our current players to look up to. Floyd is a guy who knows what it takes to be successful and how it doesn’t come easy. When you play at SU it just never leaves you. It’s in your blood and in your heart. You feel a responsibility to get it back, (success) and keep it going.”
A caller named Corey wanted to know if we’ll go to a bowl if we beat Pittsburgh. “Absolutely- we are going to a bowl if we win. We haven’t been to back-to back bowl games since 1999.” (I think the caller may have been asking if we would be invited to a bowl if we beat Pittsburgh and Doug may have been answering whether we would accept.) Chris talked about the extra practices a bowl game would give the team. Coach said that the number would depend on what bowl we go to.
Chris asked HCDM to describe Pittsburgh. “They are 5-6 just as we are and need this win just as badly. They’ve been going through the same things we’ve been going through. Inconsistency. But they’ve done it with a lot of good players. Graham was a huge loss. Zach Brown will be a game-day decision.” What do we need to do to win? “Get off to a good start. Do a good job scoring in the red zone- score touchdowns, not field goals. We need a high level of execution and passion. I tell the players don’t be intimidated. I don’t mean by playing a bigger and stronger player. I mean don’t say to yourself ’I can’t make a mistake…I can’t make a mistake.’ Stay loose but stay focused. Just go out there and play like we can- like we did vs. West Virginia.”
