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, every team seeks balance on offense. But most teams are going to be better at either running or passing and get that balance when they do what they do best and use it to set up the other part of their offense. Last year’s team was a passing team that used the pass to set up the run. This year’s team is a running team that passes best when we come out running the ball, as we did in the second half against Wake Forest. That drive we ran the ball 11 times in 14 plays- and all three passes were completed. Will this team commit to doing what it does best- running the ball- for the rest of the season?”
COACH SHAFER
Coach was proud of how his team bounced back from the Georgia tech disaster. “They’ve been consistent with their resiliency”. (Meaning that all the times they had to come back from misfortune they have done so.) He said it excited the players to have Donovan McNabb there, just as it had excit4ed them to have Donnie McPherson earlier. “Both were great players and very good students. It was good for the kids to see them.”
He explained the sudden surge after halftime. We’d begun to move the ball just before the half and then went to two tight ends with a higher tempo. He was concerned that Jarrod West might have passed the line of scrimmage on the second touchdown. He thought Jarrod had decided to run the ball. But that move really “sold” the play and may have been why it worked after so many failures in practice.
They said the kicking would be “back to normal” this week, (normal without Ross Krautman, that is) and Ryan Norton will be back. Coach said that Norton’s grandfather had passed away and Ryan “had not made a good decision.” Later he discussed the soccer player he had added to the roster who is from London, Alex Hodgeinson. Alex had expressed a desire to join the team for next spring practice and play next year. . Coach was glad he didn’t have to use him because problems with tempo and hang-time “would have been horrendous”. But maybe Alex will be our kicker someday. Coach calls him “Piccadilly Circus”. I guess if he’d had to use him vs. Wake Forest, it would have been a circus. (But not much worse than what we had.)
Coach was concerned about Tanner Price who had made “so many impact plays” vs. Miami. “He struggled and we had something to do with that.”
Now we face Maryland, who, despite many injuries and multiple quarterbacks, is averaging 430 yards per game. “Their running backs and line are good up front.” Their offensive coordinator is Mike Locksley, who might have had Scott Shafer’s job here is some people had gotten their way.
I asked my question about why we don’t come out running early the way we came out in the second half. Coach acknowledged that running is what we do best but said that the opposition knows that and “load the box. You can choose to bang your head against a wall or get the ball out with quick completions. You’ve got to adjust to the elements”. (Maybe if we use two tight ends and go uptempo like we did at the beginning of the second half?) He liked the fact that we are now getting the ball to Brisley Estime and they want to get it to Ashton Broyld more as well. “We didn’t give our offense a chance against Georgia Tech because we got down early. In the best of worlds we want to play to our strengths and work on our weaknesses. As long as the game’s within 10 points, we’ll stick with what we believe in. I’m comfortable with the way our defense has been playing. We must be equally physical with Maryland.”
They talked about Maryland holding a ceremony honoring, (apologizing) for the Wilmeth Sidat-Singh incident in 1937 wherein he was not allowed to play in the game by Maryland authorities who were enforcing segregation policies after his entire extended family had bought tickets for the game. The incident was recounted in the recent HBO special on the life and career of Marty Glickman, Sidat-Singh’s teammate who failed to stand up for him the way Jesse Owens had for Glickman and Fred Stoller at the Olympics. Coach said it was “better late than never. It may heal the wounds to some degree…..There are so many African-American kids playing the game today. I asked our kids if they knew someone who was 75 years old. If they do, they knew someone who had been through that. We inherit society’s kids.”
They went on to discuss the Miami Dolphin’s situation. Coach admitted he only knew what he read in the newspapers. “I’ve never seen a team with cliques that didn’t have difficulty winning, It’s the middle of the football season and nobody’s talking about football down there. Football is an extremely physical game that’s not for everybody. A contact drill with four guys going at it - It’s what I love about the game. Some of the kids we get love it more than others. They learn a lot about themselves by being physical with another human being. (You sure can!) It’s hard to explain it if you haven’t experienced it- it’s like a woman trying to tell a man what it’s like to give birth. A bunch of guys in the locker room understand it from their perspective and a bunch of guys outside the locker room understand it from their perspective. The truth is a little wiggly.” Wiggly?
Rich in Clay wanted to know if they alter their practice routine to prepare for playing games on grass. Coach: “It’s changed a lot in the last 15 years. Back then we had astroturf, crowned fields Field turf is like nice, southern turf. Unless there’s really extreme weather it’s not like it used to be. There are fewer knee and ankle injuries. The ACC consists of southern teams and northern teams with field turf. We don’t use deep screw-in cleats any more. “ Apparently northern grass is not as nice as southern grass. Cold weather makes you mean.
Another fan, whose name I didn’t catch, wanted to know why multiple players wear the same numbers. Coach: “As long as they aren’t on the field at the same time, it’s OK.” Then he said something about spread offenses and the resulting spread defenses and how kids like lower digit numbers. I didn’t quite get the connection. I know we have 112 players on our home roster and there are 13 duplicate numbers. I had assumed there was a rule against three digit numbers but Coach didn’t say there was.
Defensive line coach Tim Doaust was there with his family and Coach said that Tim is so excitable that eh once threw a ball at Shafer’s daughter when she was 3-4 years old. Apparently he forgave him.
Larry from Venice, Florida asked the coach about the conversion from defensive coordinator to head coach. “I’m closer to the whole team. I’ve enjoyed every day…it’s different challenges. I’m meeting more people. As a coordinator, I was grinding away with game plans and recruiting. There’s some wonderful alums outside of athletics. I just met the guy who runs Lender’s Bagels.”
Coach said that John Raymon was “healing up and trying to knock out academics” and that he still has a smile on his face, although he now weighs a bit more than his 315 pound playing weight.
Larry in Syracuse asked about the two transfers: Quinta Funderburke and Drew Allen. Why can Funderburke get on the field and does Allen think he made a mistake in coming here? Coach: I try not to have 20-20 hindsight. Things didn’t go as well as either young man wanted them to.“ He praised them both for being team players and doing what they could to help. He said Quinta has “an upper body injury and we don’t like to talk about injuries. I’m very pleased with his development. He’s grown as a young man, which is the most important thing.”
Somebody wondered why we don’t “throw some more short stuff on first down” Coach: “We actually have. We’re using more slants and what Bill Walsh called “triangle routes”.
They closed by talking about how well former SU players are doing in the pros- Chandler Jones and Steve Gregory with the Patriots and Shamarko Thomas with the Steelers, all of whom had highlights in almost consecutive plays in last week’s game. “It’s great. I tell players to realize their dreams, enjoy it while it’s there and save your money.”
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, every team seeks balance on offense. But most teams are going to be better at either running or passing and get that balance when they do what they do best and use it to set up the other part of their offense. Last year’s team was a passing team that used the pass to set up the run. This year’s team is a running team that passes best when we come out running the ball, as we did in the second half against Wake Forest. That drive we ran the ball 11 times in 14 plays- and all three passes were completed. Will this team commit to doing what it does best- running the ball- for the rest of the season?”
COACH SHAFER
Coach was proud of how his team bounced back from the Georgia tech disaster. “They’ve been consistent with their resiliency”. (Meaning that all the times they had to come back from misfortune they have done so.) He said it excited the players to have Donovan McNabb there, just as it had excit4ed them to have Donnie McPherson earlier. “Both were great players and very good students. It was good for the kids to see them.”
He explained the sudden surge after halftime. We’d begun to move the ball just before the half and then went to two tight ends with a higher tempo. He was concerned that Jarrod West might have passed the line of scrimmage on the second touchdown. He thought Jarrod had decided to run the ball. But that move really “sold” the play and may have been why it worked after so many failures in practice.
They said the kicking would be “back to normal” this week, (normal without Ross Krautman, that is) and Ryan Norton will be back. Coach said that Norton’s grandfather had passed away and Ryan “had not made a good decision.” Later he discussed the soccer player he had added to the roster who is from London, Alex Hodgeinson. Alex had expressed a desire to join the team for next spring practice and play next year. . Coach was glad he didn’t have to use him because problems with tempo and hang-time “would have been horrendous”. But maybe Alex will be our kicker someday. Coach calls him “Piccadilly Circus”. I guess if he’d had to use him vs. Wake Forest, it would have been a circus. (But not much worse than what we had.)
Coach was concerned about Tanner Price who had made “so many impact plays” vs. Miami. “He struggled and we had something to do with that.”
Now we face Maryland, who, despite many injuries and multiple quarterbacks, is averaging 430 yards per game. “Their running backs and line are good up front.” Their offensive coordinator is Mike Locksley, who might have had Scott Shafer’s job here is some people had gotten their way.
I asked my question about why we don’t come out running early the way we came out in the second half. Coach acknowledged that running is what we do best but said that the opposition knows that and “load the box. You can choose to bang your head against a wall or get the ball out with quick completions. You’ve got to adjust to the elements”. (Maybe if we use two tight ends and go uptempo like we did at the beginning of the second half?) He liked the fact that we are now getting the ball to Brisley Estime and they want to get it to Ashton Broyld more as well. “We didn’t give our offense a chance against Georgia Tech because we got down early. In the best of worlds we want to play to our strengths and work on our weaknesses. As long as the game’s within 10 points, we’ll stick with what we believe in. I’m comfortable with the way our defense has been playing. We must be equally physical with Maryland.”
They talked about Maryland holding a ceremony honoring, (apologizing) for the Wilmeth Sidat-Singh incident in 1937 wherein he was not allowed to play in the game by Maryland authorities who were enforcing segregation policies after his entire extended family had bought tickets for the game. The incident was recounted in the recent HBO special on the life and career of Marty Glickman, Sidat-Singh’s teammate who failed to stand up for him the way Jesse Owens had for Glickman and Fred Stoller at the Olympics. Coach said it was “better late than never. It may heal the wounds to some degree…..There are so many African-American kids playing the game today. I asked our kids if they knew someone who was 75 years old. If they do, they knew someone who had been through that. We inherit society’s kids.”
They went on to discuss the Miami Dolphin’s situation. Coach admitted he only knew what he read in the newspapers. “I’ve never seen a team with cliques that didn’t have difficulty winning, It’s the middle of the football season and nobody’s talking about football down there. Football is an extremely physical game that’s not for everybody. A contact drill with four guys going at it - It’s what I love about the game. Some of the kids we get love it more than others. They learn a lot about themselves by being physical with another human being. (You sure can!) It’s hard to explain it if you haven’t experienced it- it’s like a woman trying to tell a man what it’s like to give birth. A bunch of guys in the locker room understand it from their perspective and a bunch of guys outside the locker room understand it from their perspective. The truth is a little wiggly.” Wiggly?
Rich in Clay wanted to know if they alter their practice routine to prepare for playing games on grass. Coach: “It’s changed a lot in the last 15 years. Back then we had astroturf, crowned fields Field turf is like nice, southern turf. Unless there’s really extreme weather it’s not like it used to be. There are fewer knee and ankle injuries. The ACC consists of southern teams and northern teams with field turf. We don’t use deep screw-in cleats any more. “ Apparently northern grass is not as nice as southern grass. Cold weather makes you mean.
Another fan, whose name I didn’t catch, wanted to know why multiple players wear the same numbers. Coach: “As long as they aren’t on the field at the same time, it’s OK.” Then he said something about spread offenses and the resulting spread defenses and how kids like lower digit numbers. I didn’t quite get the connection. I know we have 112 players on our home roster and there are 13 duplicate numbers. I had assumed there was a rule against three digit numbers but Coach didn’t say there was.
Defensive line coach Tim Doaust was there with his family and Coach said that Tim is so excitable that eh once threw a ball at Shafer’s daughter when she was 3-4 years old. Apparently he forgave him.
Larry from Venice, Florida asked the coach about the conversion from defensive coordinator to head coach. “I’m closer to the whole team. I’ve enjoyed every day…it’s different challenges. I’m meeting more people. As a coordinator, I was grinding away with game plans and recruiting. There’s some wonderful alums outside of athletics. I just met the guy who runs Lender’s Bagels.”
Coach said that John Raymon was “healing up and trying to knock out academics” and that he still has a smile on his face, although he now weighs a bit more than his 315 pound playing weight.
Larry in Syracuse asked about the two transfers: Quinta Funderburke and Drew Allen. Why can Funderburke get on the field and does Allen think he made a mistake in coming here? Coach: I try not to have 20-20 hindsight. Things didn’t go as well as either young man wanted them to.“ He praised them both for being team players and doing what they could to help. He said Quinta has “an upper body injury and we don’t like to talk about injuries. I’m very pleased with his development. He’s grown as a young man, which is the most important thing.”
Somebody wondered why we don’t “throw some more short stuff on first down” Coach: “We actually have. We’re using more slants and what Bill Walsh called “triangle routes”.
They closed by talking about how well former SU players are doing in the pros- Chandler Jones and Steve Gregory with the Patriots and Shamarko Thomas with the Steelers, all of whom had highlights in almost consecutive plays in last week’s game. “It’s great. I tell players to realize their dreams, enjoy it while it’s there and save your money.”
