SWC75
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The Scott Shafer Show
The show this year will be broadcast from the Canyons at Destiny USA in front of Cantina Laredo. I don’t know if they will take questions from the audience there but they say you can watch the show whereas when it was at a restaurant, their table tended to be in a secluded location. You can call in questions at 1-888-7-Go Cuse (746-2873) or, locally 424-8599. You can also send them in advance at this site:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
(I do both so they can be prepared to give me an informed, reasoned answer.) You can also contact them via Twitter (@SUSportsNetwork) using #AskShafe. The football show is an hour in duration, (Coach Boeheim’s basketball show is usually 2 hours).
They’ve actually been kind enough to post a schedule in advance:
The show will air at 7 pm on the following dates:
Wednesday, Aug. 27
Thursday, Sept. 11
Thursday, Sept. 18
Thursday, Sept. 25
Wednesday, Oct. 1
Thursday, Oct. 9
Thursday, Oct. 16
Thursday, Oct. 23
Thursday, Oct. 30
Thursday, Nov. 6
Thursday, Nov. 13
Wednesday, Nov. 26
The show can be heard in Syracuse on AM 1260 or FM 97.7.
My Question(s)
“Coach, one of our problems has been keeping people healthy in our defensive line. You’d have to play Ron Thompson, who is listed at 6-3 257 at tackle when most defensive tackles these days weigh over300 pounds. Ron is actually lighter than a couple of other defensive ends who might have been shifted inside. What abilities do you want to see in a defensive tackle and why was Ron a better fit there than the other defensive ends?”
The Show
(I sometimes re-arrange the comments so that statements made on the same subject are reported together, even if they came at different points of the show.)
Matt noted SU’s limited history vs. Clemson: the 1995 Gator Bowl, last year’s game and not the first trip to Clemson. HCSS: “We’re trying to find the next Marvin Harrison. I’m looking forward to see what it’s all about down there. We’re using teenagers we didn’t expect to use yet. We had a good week of practice. AJ Long looked good.” They discussed how “Clemson” is pronounced by the natives. Matt insisted it was “ClimpV valley can straighten us out on this point.
He praised Clemson’s Vic Beasley, comparing him to Dwight Freeney or Art Jones. “He’s a great football player. He’ll be one of those household names in the NFL. He moves around but most of the time he’s on the right side where he can hit the quarterback without him looking. He moves with great fluidity and can really put a heel in the turf and turn on a dime.” Sean studied him all week long. It will be pretty damn good battle. Beasley is great and Sean is very good. Beasley got the best of him a couple of times last year but Sean did some good things, too. I remember when we recruited Justin Pugh and Chandler Jones. Every day in practice they went at it like it was a game, 5-6 seconds per play. That’s what this will be like. “
Matt asked how they had prepared for the noise. They had the players practice in it- on offense. The defense was silent. (But aren’t they practicing against each other?) They did the same for Met Life Stadium when there were going to be 75-80,000 people and many Notre Dame fans. “Communications must be good and beyond verbal. That’s the problem with so many injuries. The young players are not used to the communications modes in this type of environment. We also made kids run more than in games. We used a double-whistle. If Brandon reddish made a tackle we’d blow the whistle but make all the other defensive players run to the spot where he made the tackle. That and the “Camera Club”, where we give guys credit for being in the picture when a tackle is made are the sorts of things we do to give out team an extra edge against teams that have more speed than we do. I’ve been doing that since I was an assistant at Rhode Island, (his first paid coaching job, coaching defensive backs there from 1993-95).
The talked about the Wake Forest game and how the Deacons got a 91 yard scoring drive and then were shut down the rest of the game. “As an old defensive guy I hate when the other team has a bye week to prepare for you. They took our tendencies and flipped ‘em. Coach Bullough recognized that and adjusted well and our kids got after them. We got two TDs from two defensive ends. “ (I assume Wake Forest “flipping our tendencies” means that they didn’t do what our scouting report said they would do- flipping the tendencies we had noted about Wake Forest. “Wake Forest’s defense was highly rated. We did enough to move the ball but not enough to feel satisfied. I like some changes we implemented. We haven’t started the same offensive line in 7 weeks.”
Matt said they’d looked it up and the last time Syracuse got two defensive touchdowns in a game was in 1966 when Floyd Little, (who attends these functions), was ‘gimpy’ and the defense had to secure a win vs. Holy Cross, which they did, 28-6. Coach said he was born in January 1967 and was “just a twinkle in my Dad’s eye at the time”. He said that “defense is about attitude and having 11 guys work as one. They’ll be challenged by Clemson, which has speed more like Florida State and Notre Dame. Mike Williams is sensational.” What is it with receivers named Mike Williams? First USC had one and then we had one and now Clemson has one. And they are all good.
I called in my question. But first I asked the coach is he was also a twinkle in his mother’s eye when SU last got two defensive TDs. He was a little embarrassed and asked me not to tell his mother he said that. I also suggested the pronunciation might be “Clemzin”.
Coach said that his best defense have always been under-sized. “I’d love to have four guys up front who were 6-4, 300 and had quick feet. Florida State, Notre Dame can Clemson can do that. We’ve never had that. If we are going to err, we’re going to err on the side of speed. When I came here we had Arthur Jones and I’d never had a player like that.” And he’d been at Stanford and Michigan by then. “One tackle plays what we call a ‘3 technique’, on the outside edge of the guard. The other plays between the center and the guard. Teams play a zone scheme these days and there’s not as much of a two running back power game anymore. The first thing we noticed about Ronnie is that he’s athletic and tough. He’s got quick feet and is learning to use his hands.” (How I mourn the two back running game, especially when we’ve got so many good ones.)
John in Baltimore called in, saying that he felt that what made us so good in the 1980’s and the 1990’s were dual-threat quarterbacks and great special teams. He wondered what the coach was doing to give us the edge in special teams again. “When I got this job two years ago I looked at the amount of time we spent working on special teams and doubled it. We emphasize the kicking game and we’ve done a good job in some areas. We are in the top ten in kick-off coverage. We’ve given up a blocked punt and long return so we have to get better there. It helps to have a really dynamic kick returner. Brisley injured his wrist last year and we didn’t want him returning kicks until he could grip the ball. This year he hurt his leg. .” Matt mentioned that Clemson is 2nd to last in the country in kick-off returns, a surprising thing for a school that attracts so much talent. Coach complained that they no longer allow teams to use a wedge on kick-off returns, although he understands why they did it- “wedge busters” were getting busted up. “Some guys were trying to dive over the wedge….it used to be a great way for lesser talented teams to maximize their returns by having 3-4 guys lead the way. The hardest thing to do in football is to play the front line on a kick-off return. They have to defend against the on-sides kick, turn around and run 20+ yards downfield and turn around again to make blocks. The fastest teams can do that well.“
John wondered if we couldn’t get a 6-6 guy like Chandler Jones to block some kicks for us- maybe Jamal Custis? “I’d do it if I could find a bunch of good 6-6 guys- are there any of them down in New Jersey?” Nobody pointed out that Baltimore is not in New Jersey. They talked about Chandler’s injury. Coach was very sad about that and said he’d e-mailed Chandler but had not talked with him.
Somebody wanted to know why we have offensive and defensive players wearing the same numbers. “The NCAA allowed it a couple of years ago, as long as the two players aren’t on the field at the same time. It’s used in recruiting. Players want to wear certain numbers.” Matt said “nobody wants a number in the 60’s”. Coach said he was old school and didn’t think much of the practice “but I have to live in that world”. I wonder, with the player’s names on the jersey, why we need numbers at all? Why not get rid of them and make the names large enough to be easily read?
Coach confirmed that Brisley Estime and Ashton Broyld will be back for this game. “We started them slow at the beginning of the week but they both had good days yesterday. Today was mostly repetitions but they are excited to get back in there.”
Shayla submitted a question asking if Riley Dixon could be a punter in the NFL. “Yes, he can. He’s quite a story. He’s a local kid from CBA who walked on and has worked very hard, becoming one of the best underclassman punters around, (SU, of course, lists him as a senior). He’s an excellent student and will make a lot of money, regardless of whether it’s punting footballs or not.
Peter asked about paying players. “I don’t have enough time for that subject. I’ll just say that we need to value education more than we do. This isn’t a pro sports program. You can change your life through education. An NFL career lasts an average of a couple of years. Spend the money on more education. I also think we should allow them to make enough money to fly their parents or other family members to their games. But not paychecks.” Maybe they could sing enough autographs to reimburse the University for their scholarships and keep whatever they make after that?
Coach talked about the old days in recruiting, before cell phones and GPS. “We used to meet at a truck stop and plan the day. We had AT&T cards with twenty numbers in the code that we’d have memorized because we used them so much. I used to drive along with maps in my lap, on the passenger seat and on the ceiling trying to figure out where the hell I was going.”
He went on to discuss how his assistants break down film in every possible way now. “If I want to see every catch Mike Williams made last week, all I have to do is ask for it. If I want to see every passing play from the left hashmark, it’s there for me. But when is enough enough? Information is great until you forget about blocking and tackling. In the end it’s about teaching and teaching is about taking something complex- 11 men moving every which way, and making it simple.”
A girl named Kyra wanted to know what the coach’s favorite food was. Like JB, SS likes Italian food. “Veal parmesan or linguini with clams. I actually make that.”
Paulie, their producer, asked a question that Matt said was “on the same school grade level as Kyra’s”, (not a real nice thing to say). Paulie wanted to know what was coach’s favorite Saturday morning cartoon? “I’m not a big cartoon guy. When Paulie was watching cartoons, I was watching my father’s game films. I used to like Popeye. He beat the hell out of everybody.” Now there’s a football coach.
The show this year will be broadcast from the Canyons at Destiny USA in front of Cantina Laredo. I don’t know if they will take questions from the audience there but they say you can watch the show whereas when it was at a restaurant, their table tended to be in a secluded location. You can call in questions at 1-888-7-Go Cuse (746-2873) or, locally 424-8599. You can also send them in advance at this site:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
(I do both so they can be prepared to give me an informed, reasoned answer.) You can also contact them via Twitter (@SUSportsNetwork) using #AskShafe. The football show is an hour in duration, (Coach Boeheim’s basketball show is usually 2 hours).
They’ve actually been kind enough to post a schedule in advance:
The show will air at 7 pm on the following dates:
Wednesday, Aug. 27
Thursday, Sept. 11
Thursday, Sept. 18
Thursday, Sept. 25
Wednesday, Oct. 1
Thursday, Oct. 9
Thursday, Oct. 16
Thursday, Oct. 23
Thursday, Oct. 30
Thursday, Nov. 6
Thursday, Nov. 13
Wednesday, Nov. 26
The show can be heard in Syracuse on AM 1260 or FM 97.7.
My Question(s)
“Coach, one of our problems has been keeping people healthy in our defensive line. You’d have to play Ron Thompson, who is listed at 6-3 257 at tackle when most defensive tackles these days weigh over300 pounds. Ron is actually lighter than a couple of other defensive ends who might have been shifted inside. What abilities do you want to see in a defensive tackle and why was Ron a better fit there than the other defensive ends?”
The Show
(I sometimes re-arrange the comments so that statements made on the same subject are reported together, even if they came at different points of the show.)
Matt noted SU’s limited history vs. Clemson: the 1995 Gator Bowl, last year’s game and not the first trip to Clemson. HCSS: “We’re trying to find the next Marvin Harrison. I’m looking forward to see what it’s all about down there. We’re using teenagers we didn’t expect to use yet. We had a good week of practice. AJ Long looked good.” They discussed how “Clemson” is pronounced by the natives. Matt insisted it was “ClimpV valley can straighten us out on this point.
He praised Clemson’s Vic Beasley, comparing him to Dwight Freeney or Art Jones. “He’s a great football player. He’ll be one of those household names in the NFL. He moves around but most of the time he’s on the right side where he can hit the quarterback without him looking. He moves with great fluidity and can really put a heel in the turf and turn on a dime.” Sean studied him all week long. It will be pretty damn good battle. Beasley is great and Sean is very good. Beasley got the best of him a couple of times last year but Sean did some good things, too. I remember when we recruited Justin Pugh and Chandler Jones. Every day in practice they went at it like it was a game, 5-6 seconds per play. That’s what this will be like. “
Matt asked how they had prepared for the noise. They had the players practice in it- on offense. The defense was silent. (But aren’t they practicing against each other?) They did the same for Met Life Stadium when there were going to be 75-80,000 people and many Notre Dame fans. “Communications must be good and beyond verbal. That’s the problem with so many injuries. The young players are not used to the communications modes in this type of environment. We also made kids run more than in games. We used a double-whistle. If Brandon reddish made a tackle we’d blow the whistle but make all the other defensive players run to the spot where he made the tackle. That and the “Camera Club”, where we give guys credit for being in the picture when a tackle is made are the sorts of things we do to give out team an extra edge against teams that have more speed than we do. I’ve been doing that since I was an assistant at Rhode Island, (his first paid coaching job, coaching defensive backs there from 1993-95).
The talked about the Wake Forest game and how the Deacons got a 91 yard scoring drive and then were shut down the rest of the game. “As an old defensive guy I hate when the other team has a bye week to prepare for you. They took our tendencies and flipped ‘em. Coach Bullough recognized that and adjusted well and our kids got after them. We got two TDs from two defensive ends. “ (I assume Wake Forest “flipping our tendencies” means that they didn’t do what our scouting report said they would do- flipping the tendencies we had noted about Wake Forest. “Wake Forest’s defense was highly rated. We did enough to move the ball but not enough to feel satisfied. I like some changes we implemented. We haven’t started the same offensive line in 7 weeks.”
Matt said they’d looked it up and the last time Syracuse got two defensive touchdowns in a game was in 1966 when Floyd Little, (who attends these functions), was ‘gimpy’ and the defense had to secure a win vs. Holy Cross, which they did, 28-6. Coach said he was born in January 1967 and was “just a twinkle in my Dad’s eye at the time”. He said that “defense is about attitude and having 11 guys work as one. They’ll be challenged by Clemson, which has speed more like Florida State and Notre Dame. Mike Williams is sensational.” What is it with receivers named Mike Williams? First USC had one and then we had one and now Clemson has one. And they are all good.
I called in my question. But first I asked the coach is he was also a twinkle in his mother’s eye when SU last got two defensive TDs. He was a little embarrassed and asked me not to tell his mother he said that. I also suggested the pronunciation might be “Clemzin”.
Coach said that his best defense have always been under-sized. “I’d love to have four guys up front who were 6-4, 300 and had quick feet. Florida State, Notre Dame can Clemson can do that. We’ve never had that. If we are going to err, we’re going to err on the side of speed. When I came here we had Arthur Jones and I’d never had a player like that.” And he’d been at Stanford and Michigan by then. “One tackle plays what we call a ‘3 technique’, on the outside edge of the guard. The other plays between the center and the guard. Teams play a zone scheme these days and there’s not as much of a two running back power game anymore. The first thing we noticed about Ronnie is that he’s athletic and tough. He’s got quick feet and is learning to use his hands.” (How I mourn the two back running game, especially when we’ve got so many good ones.)
John in Baltimore called in, saying that he felt that what made us so good in the 1980’s and the 1990’s were dual-threat quarterbacks and great special teams. He wondered what the coach was doing to give us the edge in special teams again. “When I got this job two years ago I looked at the amount of time we spent working on special teams and doubled it. We emphasize the kicking game and we’ve done a good job in some areas. We are in the top ten in kick-off coverage. We’ve given up a blocked punt and long return so we have to get better there. It helps to have a really dynamic kick returner. Brisley injured his wrist last year and we didn’t want him returning kicks until he could grip the ball. This year he hurt his leg. .” Matt mentioned that Clemson is 2nd to last in the country in kick-off returns, a surprising thing for a school that attracts so much talent. Coach complained that they no longer allow teams to use a wedge on kick-off returns, although he understands why they did it- “wedge busters” were getting busted up. “Some guys were trying to dive over the wedge….it used to be a great way for lesser talented teams to maximize their returns by having 3-4 guys lead the way. The hardest thing to do in football is to play the front line on a kick-off return. They have to defend against the on-sides kick, turn around and run 20+ yards downfield and turn around again to make blocks. The fastest teams can do that well.“
John wondered if we couldn’t get a 6-6 guy like Chandler Jones to block some kicks for us- maybe Jamal Custis? “I’d do it if I could find a bunch of good 6-6 guys- are there any of them down in New Jersey?” Nobody pointed out that Baltimore is not in New Jersey. They talked about Chandler’s injury. Coach was very sad about that and said he’d e-mailed Chandler but had not talked with him.
Somebody wanted to know why we have offensive and defensive players wearing the same numbers. “The NCAA allowed it a couple of years ago, as long as the two players aren’t on the field at the same time. It’s used in recruiting. Players want to wear certain numbers.” Matt said “nobody wants a number in the 60’s”. Coach said he was old school and didn’t think much of the practice “but I have to live in that world”. I wonder, with the player’s names on the jersey, why we need numbers at all? Why not get rid of them and make the names large enough to be easily read?
Coach confirmed that Brisley Estime and Ashton Broyld will be back for this game. “We started them slow at the beginning of the week but they both had good days yesterday. Today was mostly repetitions but they are excited to get back in there.”
Shayla submitted a question asking if Riley Dixon could be a punter in the NFL. “Yes, he can. He’s quite a story. He’s a local kid from CBA who walked on and has worked very hard, becoming one of the best underclassman punters around, (SU, of course, lists him as a senior). He’s an excellent student and will make a lot of money, regardless of whether it’s punting footballs or not.
Peter asked about paying players. “I don’t have enough time for that subject. I’ll just say that we need to value education more than we do. This isn’t a pro sports program. You can change your life through education. An NFL career lasts an average of a couple of years. Spend the money on more education. I also think we should allow them to make enough money to fly their parents or other family members to their games. But not paychecks.” Maybe they could sing enough autographs to reimburse the University for their scholarships and keep whatever they make after that?
Coach talked about the old days in recruiting, before cell phones and GPS. “We used to meet at a truck stop and plan the day. We had AT&T cards with twenty numbers in the code that we’d have memorized because we used them so much. I used to drive along with maps in my lap, on the passenger seat and on the ceiling trying to figure out where the hell I was going.”
He went on to discuss how his assistants break down film in every possible way now. “If I want to see every catch Mike Williams made last week, all I have to do is ask for it. If I want to see every passing play from the left hashmark, it’s there for me. But when is enough enough? Information is great until you forget about blocking and tackling. In the end it’s about teaching and teaching is about taking something complex- 11 men moving every which way, and making it simple.”
A girl named Kyra wanted to know what the coach’s favorite food was. Like JB, SS likes Italian food. “Veal parmesan or linguini with clams. I actually make that.”
Paulie, their producer, asked a question that Matt said was “on the same school grade level as Kyra’s”, (not a real nice thing to say). Paulie wanted to know what was coach’s favorite Saturday morning cartoon? “I’m not a big cartoon guy. When Paulie was watching cartoons, I was watching my father’s game films. I used to like Popeye. He beat the hell out of everybody.” Now there’s a football coach.
