SWC75
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Every Thursday night of the football season at 7PM, Head Coach Scott Shafer does a call0in show with Matt Park on TK99, (99.5 FM) in Syracuse. To submit a question during the show, you can call 1-888-746-2873 or, locally 315-424-8599. You can send a question to Matt Park via Twitter at Matt Park 1. You can also send one in ahead of time with this link:
http://suathletics.syr.edu/sb_output.aspx?form=4
MY QUESTION
“Coach, everybody is thinking back to the 2011 West Virginia game and the 2012 Louisville game and hoping the Clemson game will be this year’s version of that. Do you see this as a similar situation? Also, we hope to have a sell-out crowd there and normally they would be encouraged to “orange out” the stadium. But orange is also Clemson’s color and we now seem to be wearing blue. What color do you suggest the SU fans wear to this game?”
COACH SHAFER
Coach said of the Tulane game: “We wanted to come out and start fast and we did. Terrel wasn’t forcing it. He moved the ball with his feet. He completed passes to 11 different guys, which is a sign of a quarterback running an offense. We were 8 for 8 in the red zone. I loved the improvement in the kicking game. If you block a punt on the other team’s side of the field you win 87% of the time. We blocked two punts and a field goal. That’s pretty good. With the new punt protection formation the opportunities are not as great.”
I called in my questions. He answered the second one first, and did it simply. “Orange and Blue.” I had the feeling that the uniforms will have more orange in them this weekend. He saw some similarities and differences between this situation and the 2011 West Virginia and 2012 Louisville games. “Same style offenses. Highly ranked teams. There are differences in momentum. We’ll get to see Clemson vs. Wake Forest first. It’s a different season, a different year. I don’t think about the comparisons.”
Matt Park noted that there are a lot of holdover players form the last two years. “You can make them believe.” Coach is more concerned about “managing emotions. We were too fired up for Northwestern. I tell the players to play at our speed, not theirs. You have to level the emotions to play with balance and harmony. The rest is game planning and match-ups. We look forward to the challenge and can’t wait to hear the crowd cheering as we enter the Dome. We want to keep them cheering the whole game. Control what you can control. Focus on the things that helped us win these last two games and clean up the things that were not pretty.“
Matt said “We are not limping into the ACC. Just like Pittsburgh we are opening with a game against the ACC’s best, Clemson and Florida State for Pitt. We’ve got a good chance to make an early impression. ” Coach acknowledged that but said he’s focusing on “winning the bye week. We want to do 100% of the things we can control like class attendance, reconditioning and getting our health back. We’re hitting the weights hard because there’s not much contact in practice this week. The bye weeks are well spaced out- it couldn’t work out better in my opinion.”
Later he talked about, “self-scouting and evaluation. Here’s how Dabo Sweeney will look at us on defense. Can we break our tendencies and still play sound defense?... In a single week your minutes are crunched up. You can’t always see things with clarity.”
Matt suggested that recruiting after two games in which you scored 50 points must be fun. Coach: “It’s an evaluation period- you can’t have any direct contact with the kids. But you see them in the hallways and they love our success and our new uniforms.” He then went into a discussion of the new uniforms. “Players and recruits love amped up technology and uniforms. You have to take care of the hand that feeds you, (recruits). I walk through our Hall of Fame and I see a lot of different uniforms. Things change. You have to be on the front edge. There was a lot of player input. It was good for them to involved with professionals. Nike is the world’s best in their industry. Every company in the world tries to copy them, so why wouldn’t we want to work with them? They talked about weight, protection, fit, etc. I never realized so many things went into it. I had enough trouble when I was a player just trying to fit my pads under the uniform. Now they are built in.” He said that his brother was an artist, his other brother was a football coach and also a music teacher and his sister is an actress. “I’m the only one-dimensional kid in the family”. His football coach/music teacher brother told him to go with the new uniforms. “The kids will love it.”
A caller asked about New York recruiting. Is it the same priority it was under Coach Marrone? Coach said that he was in New York City this week “to grind it out and see coaches and make sure they know we are there. It’s a huge priority. But you have to target the right ones and get the bets to stay home. Our best kids in the past have 1) wanted to be here and 2) been under-recruited.” He mentioned Daryl Johnston, Dwight Freeney and Rob Moore among others. He stressed the need to get kids “who want to be here”, meaning he’s not going to waste time with recruits we don’t really have a shot at. Even if you get one by default if they didn’t really want to come here, they won’t work out. He said that he’s assigned a different coach for every NYC borough, which they never did before. “It’s hard to keep these kids home but we are trying.”
Matt mentioned the ESPNU All Access show that was in Syracuse. Coach had a chance to see it with the off week and thought it was “pretty good. It gave us an opportunity to show off our new facility upgrades, coaching style and personalities.” Matt mentioned the use of a helmet-cam on the quarterback. “It shows you how difficult to stay in the pocket with 6-8 guys trying to take your head off. As a visual aid, it helps. You can slow down and re-wind and see what the quarterback saw- and what was missed. You don’t throw to a player. You throw to an opening. The player has to get there. Many interception s are the fault of the receiver.“ Matt asked if the helmet-cam could be used for a linebacker or a safety. “We could and that would be interesting- if it didn’t get broken on every other play.”
Matt said the documentary showed how the staff cared about every player on the squad, even the red-shirts. Coach: “You coach ‘em all the same. My Dad used to tell me that your team is only as good as the worst player and if he’s not improving, you aren’t coaching.” He talked about a guy name Ray Ahern who never even played but stayed with the team and learned the game. Once, Shamarko Thomas could describe what he was supposed to do on a particular play, so the coach asked Ahern and he knew the answer. Then he asked Shamarko why he didn’t know that.” Coach admitted that Ray was a favorite of his because he’s a nephew of Heather Lockyear and Coach has her picture in his basement. “But I also coached the kids who didn’t have gorgeous aunts.”
http://suathletics.syr.edu/sb_output.aspx?form=4
MY QUESTION
“Coach, everybody is thinking back to the 2011 West Virginia game and the 2012 Louisville game and hoping the Clemson game will be this year’s version of that. Do you see this as a similar situation? Also, we hope to have a sell-out crowd there and normally they would be encouraged to “orange out” the stadium. But orange is also Clemson’s color and we now seem to be wearing blue. What color do you suggest the SU fans wear to this game?”
COACH SHAFER
Coach said of the Tulane game: “We wanted to come out and start fast and we did. Terrel wasn’t forcing it. He moved the ball with his feet. He completed passes to 11 different guys, which is a sign of a quarterback running an offense. We were 8 for 8 in the red zone. I loved the improvement in the kicking game. If you block a punt on the other team’s side of the field you win 87% of the time. We blocked two punts and a field goal. That’s pretty good. With the new punt protection formation the opportunities are not as great.”
I called in my questions. He answered the second one first, and did it simply. “Orange and Blue.” I had the feeling that the uniforms will have more orange in them this weekend. He saw some similarities and differences between this situation and the 2011 West Virginia and 2012 Louisville games. “Same style offenses. Highly ranked teams. There are differences in momentum. We’ll get to see Clemson vs. Wake Forest first. It’s a different season, a different year. I don’t think about the comparisons.”
Matt Park noted that there are a lot of holdover players form the last two years. “You can make them believe.” Coach is more concerned about “managing emotions. We were too fired up for Northwestern. I tell the players to play at our speed, not theirs. You have to level the emotions to play with balance and harmony. The rest is game planning and match-ups. We look forward to the challenge and can’t wait to hear the crowd cheering as we enter the Dome. We want to keep them cheering the whole game. Control what you can control. Focus on the things that helped us win these last two games and clean up the things that were not pretty.“
Matt said “We are not limping into the ACC. Just like Pittsburgh we are opening with a game against the ACC’s best, Clemson and Florida State for Pitt. We’ve got a good chance to make an early impression. ” Coach acknowledged that but said he’s focusing on “winning the bye week. We want to do 100% of the things we can control like class attendance, reconditioning and getting our health back. We’re hitting the weights hard because there’s not much contact in practice this week. The bye weeks are well spaced out- it couldn’t work out better in my opinion.”
Later he talked about, “self-scouting and evaluation. Here’s how Dabo Sweeney will look at us on defense. Can we break our tendencies and still play sound defense?... In a single week your minutes are crunched up. You can’t always see things with clarity.”
Matt suggested that recruiting after two games in which you scored 50 points must be fun. Coach: “It’s an evaluation period- you can’t have any direct contact with the kids. But you see them in the hallways and they love our success and our new uniforms.” He then went into a discussion of the new uniforms. “Players and recruits love amped up technology and uniforms. You have to take care of the hand that feeds you, (recruits). I walk through our Hall of Fame and I see a lot of different uniforms. Things change. You have to be on the front edge. There was a lot of player input. It was good for them to involved with professionals. Nike is the world’s best in their industry. Every company in the world tries to copy them, so why wouldn’t we want to work with them? They talked about weight, protection, fit, etc. I never realized so many things went into it. I had enough trouble when I was a player just trying to fit my pads under the uniform. Now they are built in.” He said that his brother was an artist, his other brother was a football coach and also a music teacher and his sister is an actress. “I’m the only one-dimensional kid in the family”. His football coach/music teacher brother told him to go with the new uniforms. “The kids will love it.”
A caller asked about New York recruiting. Is it the same priority it was under Coach Marrone? Coach said that he was in New York City this week “to grind it out and see coaches and make sure they know we are there. It’s a huge priority. But you have to target the right ones and get the bets to stay home. Our best kids in the past have 1) wanted to be here and 2) been under-recruited.” He mentioned Daryl Johnston, Dwight Freeney and Rob Moore among others. He stressed the need to get kids “who want to be here”, meaning he’s not going to waste time with recruits we don’t really have a shot at. Even if you get one by default if they didn’t really want to come here, they won’t work out. He said that he’s assigned a different coach for every NYC borough, which they never did before. “It’s hard to keep these kids home but we are trying.”
Matt mentioned the ESPNU All Access show that was in Syracuse. Coach had a chance to see it with the off week and thought it was “pretty good. It gave us an opportunity to show off our new facility upgrades, coaching style and personalities.” Matt mentioned the use of a helmet-cam on the quarterback. “It shows you how difficult to stay in the pocket with 6-8 guys trying to take your head off. As a visual aid, it helps. You can slow down and re-wind and see what the quarterback saw- and what was missed. You don’t throw to a player. You throw to an opening. The player has to get there. Many interception s are the fault of the receiver.“ Matt asked if the helmet-cam could be used for a linebacker or a safety. “We could and that would be interesting- if it didn’t get broken on every other play.”
Matt said the documentary showed how the staff cared about every player on the squad, even the red-shirts. Coach: “You coach ‘em all the same. My Dad used to tell me that your team is only as good as the worst player and if he’s not improving, you aren’t coaching.” He talked about a guy name Ray Ahern who never even played but stayed with the team and learned the game. Once, Shamarko Thomas could describe what he was supposed to do on a particular play, so the coach asked Ahern and he knew the answer. Then he asked Shamarko why he didn’t know that.” Coach admitted that Ray was a favorite of his because he’s a nephew of Heather Lockyear and Coach has her picture in his basement. “But I also coached the kids who didn’t have gorgeous aunts.”
