The Scott Shafer show- before Louisville | Syracusefan.com

The Scott Shafer show- before Louisville

SWC75

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The show this year will be broadcast on Thursdays at 7PM from TGI Fridays on the third floor of Destiny USA, (just past the theater ticket booth and on the right after you walk down the hallway). 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. (Remember its Thursdays at TGI Fridays, not Fridays at TGI Thursdays). The football show is an hour in duration, (Coach Boeheim’s basketball show is usually 2 hours).

Note: because the first game is on a Friday Night, the first show will be on Wednesday, September 2nd. After that it will be on the Thursday before each game until the last game when the show will again be on a Wednesday, (11/25) due to Thanksgiving.

“Fans are invited to attend the show in person or participate via telephone (1-888-7-Go Cuse or 424-8599) or Twitter (@CuseIMG) using the hashtag #AskShafe. You can also listen to the show live each week on the Syracuse IMG Sports Network and Cuse.com. Wednesday's show will be on 99.1 FM and 97.7 FM, as well. The show will regularly air on 99.5FM (Syracuse)99.1 FM (Utica) and 1200 AM.” You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
That first phone number is 1-888-746-2873 numerically.

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.)

My Question(s)

Coach, your team is on a pace to do something that’s been done by only two other Syracuse teams in history: 1959 and 1987. You’ve scored at least 20 points in every regular season game so far. That’s the good news. The latest NCAA statistics list Syracuse as being ranked #115 in total offense out of 127 teams with an average of 337 yards per game. How is it with Eric Dungey, Jordan Fredericks, Erv Phillips, Brisley Estime and Steve Ismael playing in front of a veteran offensive line that 114 teams have gained more yards than we have?

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.)

Coach said he can’t wait to get the team on the plane to go down and play Louisville. Matt suggested that this is the coach’s favorite time of the week “There’s bene enough talk and now it’s time to play the game.” I’ll bet it’s more true after a loss, especially five of them in a row.

Louisville has the opposite record from us. We started 3-0 and are now 3-5. They started 0-3 and are now 4-4. Coach: “They are rallying, growing and maturing. They had one of the best defenses in the country last year and are rebuilding. We have to take care of business with the football on offense. Wake Forest had trouble protecting the ball. Louisville got so many extra possessions in the right territory.”

Liam of Pompey once again beat me to the first call. He’s still interested in getting bowl eligibility and said “it all starts with Louisville”, who is favored by 14 points. Coach: Football is not hand grenades or horse shoes. We need to play tough, physical football.”

I then call my question in, preceding it by saying “People want me to ask about the clock management before the half but everybody’s been talking about that so I figure it will be covered anyway….” I figured this would create a discussion after my question was answered. It did not, unfortunately, so my strategy failed.

As to my question: “It’s a team sport. We need to get the offense and the defense on the same plane. We are very potent with short drives. Thirteen of our 21 touchdowns have been have bene on drives of two minutes or less. That gives us less time of possession and leaves our defense on the field more. We’ve had 63 more plays run by opponents- almost an entire game. Last year it was the opposite. We were 26th in the country in total defense. We were near the top in three and outs. We have to learn to be more efficient on third down (defense). We were exceptional the last couple of years with veteran players.”

They had an injury report. Luke Archinega, Parris Bennett and Corey Winfield are all out on defense and Kendall Moore continues to be out on offense. Ben Lewis and Sean Avant should be able to play. Matt asked about the Everett Gholston situation last week, where Gholston was not listed in FSU’s injury report. Coach: You try to be a gentleman in those situations but some guys have reason to not be a gentleman. It will be discussed in the ACC coach’s meetings.”

Stefan in Utica asked if the coach tells his player snot to worry about the score or the record and just learn what they can from the games and practice. Coach said that he did so. “We like to look at the first and the last play and see similar effort. I loved Brisley’s punt return, not just because he scored but from what I saw from the other ten guys on the field. I look to see the effort on extra points after we’ve just been hit in the mouth. Show your frustration! Knock people back and try to block the kick!” We’ve haven’t gotten one yet this year.

Clemson is now #1 in the Playoff Committee’s rankings and LSU is #2. If Clemson can beat FSU and LSU beats Alabama, we can claim we’ve played the top two teams as we play Clemson after Louisville. “It speaks to our strength of schedule and I’m glad to see the conference represented there.”

They discussed Louisville’s players. Quarterback Lamar Jackson, a true freshman like Eric Dungey, “is a great athlete. He’s big (6-3 196), runs well. He’d make a good punt returner. He has a big arm.” Jackson has completed 106 of 183 passes, (57.9%) for 1,342 yards, (12.7 per completion, 7.3 per attempt) 8TDs and 7 interceptions while running for 484 yards on 112 carries, (4.3), and 6TDs. By comparison Eric Dungey is 6-3 202, has completed 90 of 146 passes ((61.6%) for 1,140 yards, (12.7/ 7.8) for 11TDs and 3 interceptions. He’s run the ball 8 times for 306 yards (3.9) for 5TDs.

Trevon Young “has been a wrecking people of late” per Matt. Coach: “He reminds me of Chandler Jones. He goes up on over people or bulrushes them. He got a big sack fumble inside the 10 yard line vs. Wake.” Josh Clemons, (Josh-Harvey Clemons), is 6-5 230, is a defensive back who looks like a defensive end. He’s one of two guys who followed his (assistant) coach from Georgia, (the other is fellow safety Chuckie Williams). They also got a TCU guy who was the best defensive player in his conference, (linebacker DeVonte Fields).” Coach seemed to think it was amazing that these guys suddenly decided to transfer to Louisville all at once.

Hopefully we can get a play like this on Clemons, (#25):

Louisville plays a 3-4 scheme. What challenges does that provide? “Multiplicity. They can got to 4 or 5 down linemen or a Okie look. When they cover up both the center and two guards, you’ve got to go to man-to man blocking and you can get a lot of sacks. That’s what we try to do in the Okie. In the backfield they go with man free or a little cover free family. Coach Lester has a good bead on helping Eric to see things.”

The Louisville defense has produced 23 sacks in 8 games but their offensive line has given up 33. Their left tackle is the only offensive linemen that’s started every game. “The other positons have had no continuity. It’s so much about continuity and communication. It’s hard to get consistency with so much movement. You lose the snap count and the cadence.”

“Louisville has an attacking defense. We’ve got a good game plan for getting down the field. We’ve got to be efficient on third down but we also want to be efficient on first down. We want to get at least 4 yards on every first down play. “ Matt said we’d converted 39% of our third downs and the opposition has converted 42%. “Both statistics could use some improvement.”

Coach again reminisced about his days in the MAC. Once at Illinois, they were having problems on defense and the head coach asked him what they should do. Shafe told him “Recruit better players”. After the HC stopped yelling at him, he said that the best quarterback on the team was playing wide receiver. So they moved Kelvin Hayden over to defense and now he’s in the NFL. E. J. Biggers, who the coach had had at Western Michigan, was the best quarterback in Dade County Florida and now he’s been a defensive back in the NFL for 6 years. Coach said he loves to recruit multi-sport and multi-positon players because “they know how to play every positon. Eric Dungey long jumped 23 feet, high jumped 6-5, (Virginia’s Quinn Blanding was only 6-2). Kenterious Womack played quarterback, defensive back, basketball and baseball where he pitched and played shortstop. Shamarko Thomas was on the track team. Doug Hogue was given a choice: play linebacker and you could make the NFL of continue as a running back and sit on the bench for two more years. (Doug did make the rosters of the Lions, Panthers and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.) You want to get the best 22 players on the field.” I wondered if these reminiscences meant he was considering switching someone else from offense to defense.

This week’s trivia question was: what was the last national championship team to play in the Dome? (Not the defending champions- the team that won it that year). I’ll add a bonus: how many times has the (writer’s coaches or BCS) national champion of a year played in that year in Syracuse? I'll post the answers tomorrow night.

The first Jim Boeheim Show will be on Wednesday, 11/11
 
Thanks, SWC, always enjoy the recaps.

Did he really take a shot at Jimbo? Did I read that "gentleman" quip correctly? Was he laughing or making a joke? Because if not, that's a pretty crappy thing to say about the guy who visited one of our players in the hospital after a game.
 
The trivia question answer has to be 1998 Tennessee. Those freaking refs screwed us on the equipment violation penalty. That was Tennessee's first game in the post-Manning era. Tee Martin won it and then we won at the Big House the next week.
That was the first year of the BCS.

The rat trap cheese answer is 2001 Miami but everyone remembers we got killed in the Orange Bowl by that team.
 
Do you think there's an alternate universe where Liam of Pompey is posting these same updates. And hoping to one day give you the Buffalo Bill treatment by throwing you in a well in his basement?

I liked the way you tried to work in the halftime fiasco, but I'm not surprised it wasn't addressed.
 
Three regulars out on defense.

Not good.
 
Scooch said:
Thanks, SWC, always enjoy the recaps. Did he really take a shot at Jimbo? Did I read that "gentleman" quip correctly? Was he laughing or making a joke? Because if not, that's a pretty crappy thing to say about the guy who visited one of our players in the hospital after a game.

Yea he said it and meant it, rightfully so. And if we were sitting here at 5-2 everyone would be saying go get 'em coach.
 
rrlbees said:
Yea he said it and meant it, rightfully so. And if we were sitting here at 5-2 everyone would be saying go get 'em coach.

Not me. But I've made my feelings about what he says at times clear. It's not a big deal.
 
Thanks, SWC, always enjoy the recaps.

Did he really take a shot at Jimbo? Did I read that "gentleman" quip correctly? Was he laughing or making a joke? Because if not, that's a pretty crappy thing to say about the guy who visited one of our players in the hospital after a game.

I really don't get the whole thing to be honest. It wasn't a secret that Golson didn't practice all week due to a concussion.

I can't imagine Jimbo was purposefully playing games with the injury announcement, given who the opponent was.

Shafer can bring it up in the ACC meetings. No one is going to pay attention unless Dabo seconds it.
 
Thanks, SWC, always enjoy the recaps.

Did he really take a shot at Jimbo? Did I read that "gentleman" quip correctly? Was he laughing or making a joke? Because if not, that's a pretty crappy thing to say about the guy who visited one of our players in the hospital after a game.


I heard no laughter.
 

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