SWC75
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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 (but it was tonight)
Wednesday, Nov. 26
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
My Question(s)
Coach, you said last week that football is “the greatest sport ever invented”. Bud Poliquin calls it “the sport that eats it’s young”. He’s concerned about the number and seriousness of the injuries player suffer. Considering the physical cost of playing the game, why do you call it the greatest sport and what do you tell parents who are wondering if their kids should play this game?
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.)
With Matt Park in New York, Brian Higgins was doing the show again. He asked the coach about what was accomplished in the bye week. “It was a good time for the kids to get healthy and heal up. We’ll have 2-3 guys back on the offensive line although Ashton Broyld and Brisley Estime still won’t be ready to play. AJ Long is back and Mitch Kimble and Austin Wilson are good to go, although Mitch couldn’t practice last week.” Brian sympathized with what the coach must have felt when Kimble went down. Coach said he was close to asking Jarrod West to warm up as a quarterback. AJ Long “had a nerve thing. Those are tricky. You can’t grip things. He got medicated and it settled down and he’s OK now…..We’ve had high ankle sprains, which are tough to get over in a football season. We’ve had mild knee sprains. Sprained ligaments take a while to get tightened up.” He said that it was an opportunity to see the younger kids actually get to play in games, rather than on film and the practice field. “There’s nothing more valuable than game action”. It was even good in a way to see them in situations that were “mismatches, like AJ long starting against Florida State, to see how they handle themselves”. He said that players come out of high school not used to “being coached hard” because they were stars. “When they face criticism, you find out a lot about them”.
Coach said they looked at a lot of video tape and “teached and re-teached” during the bye week. One the recruiting front, he reminded that he couldn’t discuss individual players but he “felt good about movement on recruiting for the next two classes.”
I called in my question about the dangers of football. “It’s a hot topic. It’s a ‘choice sport’ for every young man. It’s important they not get pushed into it. I’m not big on playing contact football before high school. It’s about making physical contact with another human being.” There are too many differentials. My little brother played looking like a 16 year old at the age of 8.
It’s a reality we live with. We used to call it “getting dinged” and shook it off, often with smelling salts. We were doing it wrong? I don’t know. Every injury I’ve had was worth it. My brother cracked vertebrae and there were doubts he could continue to play. Then he got the green light but Mom was against it. I told him that every time my knees cracked it reminded me of the good old days. He said he wanted his own good old days.
It’s one of the most exciting sports to play. It teaches valuable lessons about getting up after you’ve been knocked down and how you get up. You learn to play though pain and the value of bouncing back. It’s one of the last frontiers to become real men. It’s not for everybody but I love it. Everyone has opinions on sports radio. You can’t walk through life with a helmet all day. You have to have fun, even if it might be a little bit dangerous. You can’t keep your head on a swivel. (?!?)
There are other sports that produce as many injuries. A couple produce more concussions. They want to stay away from brain injuries. The NCAA and the federal government is spending a lot of money studying it. We’ve had players practice bare-footed because it relieves pressure on the joints. We train the neck to be stronger. We research it with true science. We have wonderful equipment but that equipment has turned it from a contact sport to a collision sport. Hopefully we’ll never lose the contact in the sport or else we’ll have to turn to ice hockey.”
Brian asked the coach if he’d seen the rink in the Dome. He hadn’t but “the kids saw it. It’s a pretty neat idea.” Coach also praised the men’s soccer team and their success. “They played their tails off. It’s a wonderful time at Syracuse.”
They talked about the Pitt game at length. “We’ve played every year since 1955. The last two games were decided by 1 point in the fourth quarter. It’s a great rivalry, a game that means a lot. There’s bragging rights and recruiting ties. The kids know each other from camps and recruiting trials. Super-conferences, new match-ups are exciting but it’s nice to play old rivals.” Brian pointed out that the plan is to have Syracuse end the season with Pittsburgh and Boston College every year.” Coach: “It’s great for kids to play someone who, in these uniforms, have played for decades.” (Incoming!)”That’s what college football is all about!”
Zaire Franklin, a Philly guy, is anxious to get after those Pitt guys. Sean Hickey’s parents are Steelers season ticket holders and will have their normal seats, which are just behind the SU bench.
Pitt’s James Connor, (who played defense last year and had a couple of sacks against us), is the nation’s third leading rusher. 250 carries for 1,562 yards, (6.2) and 21 TDs. (Meanwhile our running backs haven’t scored since August). “He comes right at you but has great vision and great feet.” (Runners don’t tend to go very far without them). “You don’t see him getting hit head on with an old-school square on the shoulders tackle. They double-team the defensive tackle and send the tight end through. The secondary has to tackle a 250 pounder. They aren’t in a traditional two backset. The wide receivers line up 3-4 feet from the tackle or tight end. You use umbrella coverage or a cover two and you have your cornerbacks making all the tackles. It’s a more sophisticated look and it makes you think a little more and prepare a lot more. They have a couple wide receivers who can get down the field and their play-action is potent.”
Brian expressed interest in the three back formation used when Mitch Kimble was in. “Running back is one of our few healthy positons. It’s similar to a wing T, with false keys, counters and flow plays with misdirection. And there’s great protection when the quarterback passes.” My observation: it seemed similar to what Auburn was doing last year. There’s nothing now or old in football. There’s just things we haven’t done in a while.
Coach: “We have 4-5 talented guys. They do a nice job in the kicking game. George Morris is one of the best kick coverage guys in the country. They are starting to scheme for him. Running backs are the best athletes in high school and you want to recruit plenty of them. Erv Phillips has a high football IQ. It’s a hard adjustment: defenses change things up. You need to know who to block. He’s done well.”
Brian for some reason wanted to know how redshirt freshman Alex Hayes did in his stint in the line. “he did a pretty good job. He has things he has to work on. He has to get in the weight room and strengthen his lower body. He has to learn to sustain blocks and handle double-teams. We didn’t anticipate playing him this year. Up front and in the middle is the most difficult place to learn. There’s an awful lot going on. He’s a bright young man and will be a good player for us. But ti will be good to get the veterans back on the field. “
Brian pointed out that Aaron Donald was no longer in the middle of the Pitt defensive line to bust things up. “he was a special player. He blocked the game-changing extra point last year. Now they don’t have any one guy. They do it by committee.” The Pitt defense is designed by a committee. “They do a good job with their scheme. It will be interesting to see them up close. The game will be won up front. We need consistency in tackling. We need to leverage Connor and put some hats on him. It’s good we’ll have fresher bodies up front.”
The thermostat went up when Higgins asked if the emphasis was now on preparing for next year. “We want our seniors to close out their careers strong. We aren’t looking forward to next year. We play for Syracuse and the love of the game. You only get to play a handful of years tops. You want to walk away feeling that you’ve left something good. They’ve been dealt a very difficult hand this year with the schedule and the injuries. They need to learn that life is a hard struggle. And to play the game with integrity.”
(I would add that it’s not an issue of playing young players to prepare them for next year. We’ve already been playing them because we had to.)
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 (but it was tonight)
Wednesday, Nov. 26
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
My Question(s)
Coach, you said last week that football is “the greatest sport ever invented”. Bud Poliquin calls it “the sport that eats it’s young”. He’s concerned about the number and seriousness of the injuries player suffer. Considering the physical cost of playing the game, why do you call it the greatest sport and what do you tell parents who are wondering if their kids should play this game?
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.)
With Matt Park in New York, Brian Higgins was doing the show again. He asked the coach about what was accomplished in the bye week. “It was a good time for the kids to get healthy and heal up. We’ll have 2-3 guys back on the offensive line although Ashton Broyld and Brisley Estime still won’t be ready to play. AJ Long is back and Mitch Kimble and Austin Wilson are good to go, although Mitch couldn’t practice last week.” Brian sympathized with what the coach must have felt when Kimble went down. Coach said he was close to asking Jarrod West to warm up as a quarterback. AJ Long “had a nerve thing. Those are tricky. You can’t grip things. He got medicated and it settled down and he’s OK now…..We’ve had high ankle sprains, which are tough to get over in a football season. We’ve had mild knee sprains. Sprained ligaments take a while to get tightened up.” He said that it was an opportunity to see the younger kids actually get to play in games, rather than on film and the practice field. “There’s nothing more valuable than game action”. It was even good in a way to see them in situations that were “mismatches, like AJ long starting against Florida State, to see how they handle themselves”. He said that players come out of high school not used to “being coached hard” because they were stars. “When they face criticism, you find out a lot about them”.
Coach said they looked at a lot of video tape and “teached and re-teached” during the bye week. One the recruiting front, he reminded that he couldn’t discuss individual players but he “felt good about movement on recruiting for the next two classes.”
I called in my question about the dangers of football. “It’s a hot topic. It’s a ‘choice sport’ for every young man. It’s important they not get pushed into it. I’m not big on playing contact football before high school. It’s about making physical contact with another human being.” There are too many differentials. My little brother played looking like a 16 year old at the age of 8.
It’s a reality we live with. We used to call it “getting dinged” and shook it off, often with smelling salts. We were doing it wrong? I don’t know. Every injury I’ve had was worth it. My brother cracked vertebrae and there were doubts he could continue to play. Then he got the green light but Mom was against it. I told him that every time my knees cracked it reminded me of the good old days. He said he wanted his own good old days.
It’s one of the most exciting sports to play. It teaches valuable lessons about getting up after you’ve been knocked down and how you get up. You learn to play though pain and the value of bouncing back. It’s one of the last frontiers to become real men. It’s not for everybody but I love it. Everyone has opinions on sports radio. You can’t walk through life with a helmet all day. You have to have fun, even if it might be a little bit dangerous. You can’t keep your head on a swivel. (?!?)
There are other sports that produce as many injuries. A couple produce more concussions. They want to stay away from brain injuries. The NCAA and the federal government is spending a lot of money studying it. We’ve had players practice bare-footed because it relieves pressure on the joints. We train the neck to be stronger. We research it with true science. We have wonderful equipment but that equipment has turned it from a contact sport to a collision sport. Hopefully we’ll never lose the contact in the sport or else we’ll have to turn to ice hockey.”
Brian asked the coach if he’d seen the rink in the Dome. He hadn’t but “the kids saw it. It’s a pretty neat idea.” Coach also praised the men’s soccer team and their success. “They played their tails off. It’s a wonderful time at Syracuse.”
They talked about the Pitt game at length. “We’ve played every year since 1955. The last two games were decided by 1 point in the fourth quarter. It’s a great rivalry, a game that means a lot. There’s bragging rights and recruiting ties. The kids know each other from camps and recruiting trials. Super-conferences, new match-ups are exciting but it’s nice to play old rivals.” Brian pointed out that the plan is to have Syracuse end the season with Pittsburgh and Boston College every year.” Coach: “It’s great for kids to play someone who, in these uniforms, have played for decades.” (Incoming!)”That’s what college football is all about!”
Zaire Franklin, a Philly guy, is anxious to get after those Pitt guys. Sean Hickey’s parents are Steelers season ticket holders and will have their normal seats, which are just behind the SU bench.
Pitt’s James Connor, (who played defense last year and had a couple of sacks against us), is the nation’s third leading rusher. 250 carries for 1,562 yards, (6.2) and 21 TDs. (Meanwhile our running backs haven’t scored since August). “He comes right at you but has great vision and great feet.” (Runners don’t tend to go very far without them). “You don’t see him getting hit head on with an old-school square on the shoulders tackle. They double-team the defensive tackle and send the tight end through. The secondary has to tackle a 250 pounder. They aren’t in a traditional two backset. The wide receivers line up 3-4 feet from the tackle or tight end. You use umbrella coverage or a cover two and you have your cornerbacks making all the tackles. It’s a more sophisticated look and it makes you think a little more and prepare a lot more. They have a couple wide receivers who can get down the field and their play-action is potent.”
Brian expressed interest in the three back formation used when Mitch Kimble was in. “Running back is one of our few healthy positons. It’s similar to a wing T, with false keys, counters and flow plays with misdirection. And there’s great protection when the quarterback passes.” My observation: it seemed similar to what Auburn was doing last year. There’s nothing now or old in football. There’s just things we haven’t done in a while.
Coach: “We have 4-5 talented guys. They do a nice job in the kicking game. George Morris is one of the best kick coverage guys in the country. They are starting to scheme for him. Running backs are the best athletes in high school and you want to recruit plenty of them. Erv Phillips has a high football IQ. It’s a hard adjustment: defenses change things up. You need to know who to block. He’s done well.”
Brian for some reason wanted to know how redshirt freshman Alex Hayes did in his stint in the line. “he did a pretty good job. He has things he has to work on. He has to get in the weight room and strengthen his lower body. He has to learn to sustain blocks and handle double-teams. We didn’t anticipate playing him this year. Up front and in the middle is the most difficult place to learn. There’s an awful lot going on. He’s a bright young man and will be a good player for us. But ti will be good to get the veterans back on the field. “
Brian pointed out that Aaron Donald was no longer in the middle of the Pitt defensive line to bust things up. “he was a special player. He blocked the game-changing extra point last year. Now they don’t have any one guy. They do it by committee.” The Pitt defense is designed by a committee. “They do a good job with their scheme. It will be interesting to see them up close. The game will be won up front. We need consistency in tackling. We need to leverage Connor and put some hats on him. It’s good we’ll have fresher bodies up front.”
The thermostat went up when Higgins asked if the emphasis was now on preparing for next year. “We want our seniors to close out their careers strong. We aren’t looking forward to next year. We play for Syracuse and the love of the game. You only get to play a handful of years tops. You want to walk away feeling that you’ve left something good. They’ve been dealt a very difficult hand this year with the schedule and the injuries. They need to learn that life is a hard struggle. And to play the game with integrity.”
(I would add that it’s not an issue of playing young players to prepare them for next year. We’ve already been playing them because we had to.)
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