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
Eventually, (use a broad definition), the show gets podcasted on this site:
http://suathletics.syr.edu/podcasts.aspx
Please note that my summary is not verbatim and I will combine statements made from different parts of the show that were on the same or similar subjects.
MY QUESTION
“Coach, in 1999 a 5-1 Syracuse team, ranked 16th in the country, travelled to Blacksburg, Virginia to play Virginia tech and lost 62-0. They wound up losing 4 of their last 5 regular season games. There was much criticism to which Athletic Director Jake Crouthamel replied that “You’ve got to remember that this team lost a 62-0 game” and suggested that they never recovered from that experience.
One of the good things about college football today is that, unless you are gunning for a national championship, opinions don’t really matter. If you are having a bad season, you still want to win the enxt game. If you want to go to a bowl, you have to win 6 games. If you want to win the division, win more conference games than anyone in your division. If you want to win the conference, win the division and win the conference championship game.
We can still get to a bowl. If we beat Wake Forest by one point, that means just as much as losing to Georgia Tech by 56. Do your players understand that? Deep down, have they had their confidence shattered by this lose or will they be OK the rest of the year?”
COACH SHAFER
Matt Park opened the show by saying “Momma said there’d be games like that. I guess you just “wipe it off and move on.” Coach said “The great thing about football is that there’s always next week.” Of course, “next week” we don’t play anybody, Later, after going over what would be done during the bye week, he admitted, “I wish we could have played the next day.”
I called in my question. Coach: “The thing I love about this group is that they never change. It’s one practice and one game at a time. It’s sounds like coach talk but it’s true. They have the maturity not to look back or too far forward. My whole challenge as a coach is to keep the kid’s mind set the same and teach them to control the controllables.” (Let’s call that CTC.) “Last year we were 2-4 and the kids never changed- keep on fighting. It’s been like that the last two seasons. The last two days of practice have been great. These kids are going to keep fighting.” His comment about “the last two years” is interesting. The 2011 team didn’t “keep on fighting”.
Matt moved on to Wake Forest. Coach: “They have a sensational head coach in Jim Grobe. I coached against him at Ohio U. He’s a steady person of high character. He knows the profession. He’s in the business for the right reason – to help kids develop through education and sport. They understand who they are and who they aren’t.” An interesting, if rather vague, scouting report. No players were mentioned.
Matt segued back to Georgia Tech. He said that Wake Forest was “the smallest school in the BCS, which makes it hard to sustain success. It’s a unique program. And Georgia Tech is certainly a unique program. Does this make it easier to get over this?” Coach: I’d be lying to you if I said I have been sleeping well. You keep replaying every practice and every play of the game. You learn from it and try to be a thumb pointer rather than a finger pointer.” Matt liked that phrase.
He went into a discussion of the game plan. We felt that 3 down linemen would force them into double-teams and get more speed on the field. We needed a better back-up plan. We wanted to keep it simple so the kids could understand their roles. We wanted to be more sound rather than attack. Later Craig in Liverpool called in and said that “for the most part the 3-4 defense worked” (?!?). He explained “They didn’t get long plays, it was mostly dink and dunk.” (An awful lot of dink and dunk.) Craig asked what the coach would have done differently. “We could have put in both the 3-4 and the 4-3 packages. We didn’t have enough practice time in pads to put both in. They got the one big run when we did use pressure.“ Apparently the defensive package- even if it’s your normal one- has to be put in each week and they didn’t put in more than one package for Georgia Tech for the same reason that Jim Boeheim no longer has his team practice the man for man- he wanted to keep it simple and get good at what they were doing. They either didn’t get good enough at it or it was the wrong plan and they couldn’t use the 4-3 as a plan B because they hadn’t practiced it that week.
Offensively, we got down early and couldn’t use the rushing game. “Penalties and a blocked punt- it’s hard to catch up without a real good passing game. We wound up with our quarterback trying to do things he’s not ready to do…..It’s hard to keep kids from pressing. It’s not their frame of mind- it’s getting them out of their element. He’s not good with the intermediate or down field passing game…We got caught in a perfect storm and shame on me for not doing a better job.” (SOMFNDABJ) “But the player’s mind set is good and we’ll bounce back.”
John in Baltimore noted Paul Johnson said that “We knew he would stare at the first read.” Coach: “It’s a quarterback in his fourth start. He needs to check down or use his feet, to make decisions quickly….Sometimes you get locked into waiting for someone to get open. “ Interesting- last week Coach Shafer said that he’d shown Terrel films where he’d given up on plays where receivers were open and wanted him to wait a little longer for the openings to make successful passes.
John also wanted to know about John Raymon and whether he’d still have any eligibility left after he gets over his injury. Coach: “Our whole goal is to get him through the semester. There’s a lot of swelling and inflammation. It will probably be a good year.” (I assume he means a year before he came play again, which, since we are in the middle of the season, suggests he might miss next year, as well.) “He will come back and have two more seasons. I saw him in the cafeteria sitting in a wheelchair and asked him ‘Who the hell has to push you around?’” This was reference to his massive size- 6-5, 325. Matt noted how many people had to help him into the cart on the field and how he didn’t really fit on it. Coach: “He’s a strong person and his brothers and family care about him. This pales compared to what he’s been through.”
Dave in Queens asked if we will see Brisley Estime returning more kicks, saying he looks like Kevin Johnson and Qadry Ismael, a real “game breaker”. Coach acknowledged that Brisley looked good on that one long return but that “Ritchie Desir fields a lot of difficult catches. The defensive coordinator in me hates to see the football bouncing backwards and backwards. When Ritchie fields those balls it’s like a 10-12 yard return. Brisley’s been catching punts in practice- a million of them. We keep trying to ramp opportunities on offense for him.” There was no mention of using him on kick-offs, even though George Morris is hurt.
Coach also praised another freshman, Marquez Hodge, who had 12 solo tackles. “It’s hard to get 12 solos. He’s going to be a good little football player. He’s from Miami central, like Durrell Eskridge and Oliver Vigille.”
They talked about the 2014 schedule which is partially out now. We know who they will be playing in the ACC but not when and who and when they will be playing in non-conference games. Matt noted that the ACC likes to schedule early conference games so an early brake in the non-conference schedule may not wind up being a bye.
They will be playing Villanova. Coach wants to play FCS teams only if they are in the northeast- he wants no imports. “The fanbase is close and the kids get excited about coming to the Dome. Some of them are kids you recruited. Villanova has done well in recent years. They are #12 in FCS and just beat Towson who was #3. They have a sophomore quarterback so they will come in here with a veteran quarterback. I remember when I was at Northern Illinois we played Western Illinois and found they had 7-8 transfers, including 4-5 kids who were 4 or 5 star recruits coming out.”
We will be traveling to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, to play Central Michigan, which seems strange but they will be coming here for two games in later seasons: it’s the old “2 for 1” set up we wouldn’t accept with Penn State years ago. Coach described it as “A good call”. We will also be playing Maryland in the Dome and Notre Dame in met Life stadium. “it will be condusive to our recruiting efforts.”
Matt asked Coach to compare and contrast this bye week to the first one. Coach said they were similar but they are stressing academics more this time because of the point in the semester and “the next five weeks are going to be a war. We’ll go over what we are doing right and wrong. We will work hard to fix things we can control. We’ll stress the weight room, academics and fundamentals the first week. It’s easy to look at scheme but you have to go back to fundamentals. We want them to tighten up in the weight room. We don’t’ want to hand the game plan, (for Wake Forest) to the kids too early or it will get stale. I watched Mitch Kimble and Austin Wilson work out with the young receivers and it was good to see them doing our plays rather than the other team’s play on the scout team.
Donovan McNabb called in to discuss the ceremony that will retire his jersey, (but not his number) at the Wake Forest game. Coach said “One of our goals is to find the next Donovan McNabb in Chicago. My two favorite places to recruit are the south side of Chicago and Dade and Brevard Counties in South Florida. There’s something special about those kids- they always play their butts off for you.”
Matt noted that “You didn’t have a lot of offers to play quarterback. Now teams would be falling over each other to recruit a Donovan McNabb.” Donovan: “People tell you what you can and can’t do. Syracuse gave me a chance. I wanted to be the best and continued to work at it. Syracuse prepared me for the pros. You can’t do it by yourself. We did it together. Its’ a short window of time to make memories that last a lifetime.” Matt asked what his fondest memory was and he chose the 1998 Virginia Tech game. “we exploded in the second half and kept moving the chains and scoring points. It was back and forth. Then came the last second roll-back to Brominski and the fans poured onto the field. They became part of the action.” Coach said he’d gotten to know one of the defensive backs for the Hokies who said he still had nightmares about “McNabb’s throwback”. Donovan said he loved being part of the student body here and being part of special moments like that. He said he still “bleeds blue and orange”, (blue fading to orange?), “and that “When you win, we win. When you lose, we lose.”
Coach Shafer: “We’d love to have you come by and holler at the kids.”
(There will be no show next week.)
http://suathletics.syr.edu/sb_output.aspx?form=4
Eventually, (use a broad definition), the show gets podcasted on this site:
http://suathletics.syr.edu/podcasts.aspx
Please note that my summary is not verbatim and I will combine statements made from different parts of the show that were on the same or similar subjects.
MY QUESTION
“Coach, in 1999 a 5-1 Syracuse team, ranked 16th in the country, travelled to Blacksburg, Virginia to play Virginia tech and lost 62-0. They wound up losing 4 of their last 5 regular season games. There was much criticism to which Athletic Director Jake Crouthamel replied that “You’ve got to remember that this team lost a 62-0 game” and suggested that they never recovered from that experience.
One of the good things about college football today is that, unless you are gunning for a national championship, opinions don’t really matter. If you are having a bad season, you still want to win the enxt game. If you want to go to a bowl, you have to win 6 games. If you want to win the division, win more conference games than anyone in your division. If you want to win the conference, win the division and win the conference championship game.
We can still get to a bowl. If we beat Wake Forest by one point, that means just as much as losing to Georgia Tech by 56. Do your players understand that? Deep down, have they had their confidence shattered by this lose or will they be OK the rest of the year?”
COACH SHAFER
Matt Park opened the show by saying “Momma said there’d be games like that. I guess you just “wipe it off and move on.” Coach said “The great thing about football is that there’s always next week.” Of course, “next week” we don’t play anybody, Later, after going over what would be done during the bye week, he admitted, “I wish we could have played the next day.”
I called in my question. Coach: “The thing I love about this group is that they never change. It’s one practice and one game at a time. It’s sounds like coach talk but it’s true. They have the maturity not to look back or too far forward. My whole challenge as a coach is to keep the kid’s mind set the same and teach them to control the controllables.” (Let’s call that CTC.) “Last year we were 2-4 and the kids never changed- keep on fighting. It’s been like that the last two seasons. The last two days of practice have been great. These kids are going to keep fighting.” His comment about “the last two years” is interesting. The 2011 team didn’t “keep on fighting”.
Matt moved on to Wake Forest. Coach: “They have a sensational head coach in Jim Grobe. I coached against him at Ohio U. He’s a steady person of high character. He knows the profession. He’s in the business for the right reason – to help kids develop through education and sport. They understand who they are and who they aren’t.” An interesting, if rather vague, scouting report. No players were mentioned.
Matt segued back to Georgia Tech. He said that Wake Forest was “the smallest school in the BCS, which makes it hard to sustain success. It’s a unique program. And Georgia Tech is certainly a unique program. Does this make it easier to get over this?” Coach: I’d be lying to you if I said I have been sleeping well. You keep replaying every practice and every play of the game. You learn from it and try to be a thumb pointer rather than a finger pointer.” Matt liked that phrase.
He went into a discussion of the game plan. We felt that 3 down linemen would force them into double-teams and get more speed on the field. We needed a better back-up plan. We wanted to keep it simple so the kids could understand their roles. We wanted to be more sound rather than attack. Later Craig in Liverpool called in and said that “for the most part the 3-4 defense worked” (?!?). He explained “They didn’t get long plays, it was mostly dink and dunk.” (An awful lot of dink and dunk.) Craig asked what the coach would have done differently. “We could have put in both the 3-4 and the 4-3 packages. We didn’t have enough practice time in pads to put both in. They got the one big run when we did use pressure.“ Apparently the defensive package- even if it’s your normal one- has to be put in each week and they didn’t put in more than one package for Georgia Tech for the same reason that Jim Boeheim no longer has his team practice the man for man- he wanted to keep it simple and get good at what they were doing. They either didn’t get good enough at it or it was the wrong plan and they couldn’t use the 4-3 as a plan B because they hadn’t practiced it that week.
Offensively, we got down early and couldn’t use the rushing game. “Penalties and a blocked punt- it’s hard to catch up without a real good passing game. We wound up with our quarterback trying to do things he’s not ready to do…..It’s hard to keep kids from pressing. It’s not their frame of mind- it’s getting them out of their element. He’s not good with the intermediate or down field passing game…We got caught in a perfect storm and shame on me for not doing a better job.” (SOMFNDABJ) “But the player’s mind set is good and we’ll bounce back.”
John in Baltimore noted Paul Johnson said that “We knew he would stare at the first read.” Coach: “It’s a quarterback in his fourth start. He needs to check down or use his feet, to make decisions quickly….Sometimes you get locked into waiting for someone to get open. “ Interesting- last week Coach Shafer said that he’d shown Terrel films where he’d given up on plays where receivers were open and wanted him to wait a little longer for the openings to make successful passes.
John also wanted to know about John Raymon and whether he’d still have any eligibility left after he gets over his injury. Coach: “Our whole goal is to get him through the semester. There’s a lot of swelling and inflammation. It will probably be a good year.” (I assume he means a year before he came play again, which, since we are in the middle of the season, suggests he might miss next year, as well.) “He will come back and have two more seasons. I saw him in the cafeteria sitting in a wheelchair and asked him ‘Who the hell has to push you around?’” This was reference to his massive size- 6-5, 325. Matt noted how many people had to help him into the cart on the field and how he didn’t really fit on it. Coach: “He’s a strong person and his brothers and family care about him. This pales compared to what he’s been through.”
Dave in Queens asked if we will see Brisley Estime returning more kicks, saying he looks like Kevin Johnson and Qadry Ismael, a real “game breaker”. Coach acknowledged that Brisley looked good on that one long return but that “Ritchie Desir fields a lot of difficult catches. The defensive coordinator in me hates to see the football bouncing backwards and backwards. When Ritchie fields those balls it’s like a 10-12 yard return. Brisley’s been catching punts in practice- a million of them. We keep trying to ramp opportunities on offense for him.” There was no mention of using him on kick-offs, even though George Morris is hurt.
Coach also praised another freshman, Marquez Hodge, who had 12 solo tackles. “It’s hard to get 12 solos. He’s going to be a good little football player. He’s from Miami central, like Durrell Eskridge and Oliver Vigille.”
They talked about the 2014 schedule which is partially out now. We know who they will be playing in the ACC but not when and who and when they will be playing in non-conference games. Matt noted that the ACC likes to schedule early conference games so an early brake in the non-conference schedule may not wind up being a bye.
They will be playing Villanova. Coach wants to play FCS teams only if they are in the northeast- he wants no imports. “The fanbase is close and the kids get excited about coming to the Dome. Some of them are kids you recruited. Villanova has done well in recent years. They are #12 in FCS and just beat Towson who was #3. They have a sophomore quarterback so they will come in here with a veteran quarterback. I remember when I was at Northern Illinois we played Western Illinois and found they had 7-8 transfers, including 4-5 kids who were 4 or 5 star recruits coming out.”
We will be traveling to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, to play Central Michigan, which seems strange but they will be coming here for two games in later seasons: it’s the old “2 for 1” set up we wouldn’t accept with Penn State years ago. Coach described it as “A good call”. We will also be playing Maryland in the Dome and Notre Dame in met Life stadium. “it will be condusive to our recruiting efforts.”
Matt asked Coach to compare and contrast this bye week to the first one. Coach said they were similar but they are stressing academics more this time because of the point in the semester and “the next five weeks are going to be a war. We’ll go over what we are doing right and wrong. We will work hard to fix things we can control. We’ll stress the weight room, academics and fundamentals the first week. It’s easy to look at scheme but you have to go back to fundamentals. We want them to tighten up in the weight room. We don’t’ want to hand the game plan, (for Wake Forest) to the kids too early or it will get stale. I watched Mitch Kimble and Austin Wilson work out with the young receivers and it was good to see them doing our plays rather than the other team’s play on the scout team.
Donovan McNabb called in to discuss the ceremony that will retire his jersey, (but not his number) at the Wake Forest game. Coach said “One of our goals is to find the next Donovan McNabb in Chicago. My two favorite places to recruit are the south side of Chicago and Dade and Brevard Counties in South Florida. There’s something special about those kids- they always play their butts off for you.”
Matt noted that “You didn’t have a lot of offers to play quarterback. Now teams would be falling over each other to recruit a Donovan McNabb.” Donovan: “People tell you what you can and can’t do. Syracuse gave me a chance. I wanted to be the best and continued to work at it. Syracuse prepared me for the pros. You can’t do it by yourself. We did it together. Its’ a short window of time to make memories that last a lifetime.” Matt asked what his fondest memory was and he chose the 1998 Virginia Tech game. “we exploded in the second half and kept moving the chains and scoring points. It was back and forth. Then came the last second roll-back to Brominski and the fans poured onto the field. They became part of the action.” Coach said he’d gotten to know one of the defensive backs for the Hokies who said he still had nightmares about “McNabb’s throwback”. Donovan said he loved being part of the student body here and being part of special moments like that. He said he still “bleeds blue and orange”, (blue fading to orange?), “and that “When you win, we win. When you lose, we lose.”
Coach Shafer: “We’d love to have you come by and holler at the kids.”
(There will be no show next week.)
