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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1210773, member: 289"] - I still maintain that you can’t fire a coaching staff after only two years with the first year being a winning one and the second a year in which the offense was wiped out by injuries. But that’s not a defense of Scott Shafer and his staff who’s performance was shaky last year and highly questionable at best this year. Even before the injuries the offense was malfunctioning. We had the wrong scheme for the players we had and some of the calls made little sense. That hasn’t changed. - What is really discouraging – and indefensible- is Shafer’s obsession with punting late in games and hoping his defense will somehow win the game for him. The one that made the least sense until today was the punt from the SU 39 against Duke with 1:18 left against Duke, which was followed by two ‘victory plays” and the end of the game. Today he topped that with the comical fake field goal that turned into a punt from BC’s 30 yard line that went out of bounds on their 12 yard line. We are already down by two scores. Shafe talked all week about winning this one for the seniors. There’s a famous sound-bite “Hell, no! What message does that send to your kids?” from when he was quizzed last year about letting a team score to get the ball back with time to score at the end of a game. What message does a play like the field goal/punt send to your kids and to your seniors, coach? Come on now! Show some guts! - The numbers tell the story on offense: we gained 128 yards and 8 first downs. We were 1 for 11 on third down conversions. Shafe told the radio guy after the game “It’s all about us not maintaining and sustaining blocks…t’s about getting everybody healthy. That’s what it is.” It’s also about running a completely unimaginative and predictable offense that was easy to stop. Yeah, all those injuries. But we’ve had AJ Long at QB since mid-season and we’d gotten some guys back. Yet we regressed. We lost to Florida State 20-38 and beat Wake Forest 30-7. We finally got that bye week we needed and came out itg unable to move the ball at all. - I have to wonder if Long really was over his numbness. His passing was way, way off for most of the game, (we had one good drive through the air in the third quarter, but it resulted in the stupid fake field goal/punt). He was 7 for 18 for 59 yards and no scores. His one interception was the killer after we got the second half kick-off, down by only a TD, which led to the third TD and gave BC full control of the game. If he was still hurt why was he in there? Because the alternatives were Mitch Kimble, who was awful last week and Austin Wilson who immediately threw a pick when he was finally brought in late in the game. We have had no shortage of quarterbacks this year but a total shortage of good ones. We had 6 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions this year. Things are wide open for Alin Edouard. - We did manage to complete the year with these two stats: Our running backs ran for two touchdowns this year, both in the first half of the first game against Villanova. That was in August. We then went 11 consecutive games, (really 11½) without a running back scoring a touchdown. And Jarrod West was our leading receiver with a very credible 49 catches for 700 yards- but no scores. It was the second year in a row that our leading receiver never scored. (Last year it was Ashton Broyld with 52 catches). The last time that had happened was 1973, the last year of the Ben Schwartwalder Era, when we went 2-9 and were voted the worst team in the country. If neither your running backs nor your receivers are scoring, you have to take a good look at your offensive concept. - Chris Gedney praised Riley Dixon as being perhaps the team’s most valuable player this year. That’s the problem. We’ve had entirely too many years in which the punter has been the MVP. - I was happy to see Baldwinsville’s Tyler Rouse make a long TD run. I wasn’t happy that he wasn’t in an orange uniform, (not that we have orange uniforms any more.) - It was a season that began with an ejection and ended with one. Ryan Sloan made a fool of himself charging on the field to tackle an Eagle during a shoving match on the first day after we’d recovered a BC fumble in their territory. We wound up with multiple unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and a 2nd and 35, an obviously hopeless situation for this offense. - The defense performed valiantly but we are going to lose most of them to graduation. - Two years is too early and this staff has recruited well but the way this season ended isn’t going to help ticket sales and once the rumors start things tend to snowball. Scott Shafer and his staff will be on the hot seat next year. They’ve got to come up with something good or we’re going to be starting all over again. Again , again and again. That’s how you become a bottom-feeder. [/QUOTE]

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