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 a t 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, last year we wound up with a winning record and a bowl win. If this year’s team can duplicate that we’ll all be very pleased. But last year’s team absorbed some severe defeats along the way. This year’s team, for all the problems, has stayed in games against everybody, including a couple of top ten teams. Why had this team been more consistently competitive than last year’s team? “
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.)
They talked about AJ Long and his situation going into the Wake Forest game. The difference between this and the Florida state game is that he knows he’s starting this one. Also, the coaches know it’s going to be either him or Mitch Kimble and both players have similar skills, (can throw or run) so they can put the same packages in for them whereas Austin Wilson a powerful thrower but non-runner, required a separate package for his skills. “We had too many offensive packages last week. This week they will both be the same” They will be “expanding Long’s menu. “it will be interesting to see how things come out of the gate. The first quarter causes the most frets but is the most fun – what do they have up their sleeve? What adjustments do you have to make? But schemes are overrated. What’s under-rated is good football players. It’s not the Xs and Os, it’s the Johnnies and Joes.” Austin Wilson practiced as a “signal guy” today. He told the coach it feels like he’s been away for a couple of week. “But when you start playing again it seems like you’ve been playing longer.”
Wake started out this season “with a true freshman quarterback and center on the road.” And they’ve been mostly on the road with 4 road games, all out of state, to two home games. They’ll play the rest of their schedule in their home state. “They’ve played better in the last two games.” They lost at Louisville 10-20 and were down only 3-10 at the have vs. Florida State- yes the same two teams we just played but Wake had last week off. “Up front it’s been difficult. I think the most difficult positons to learn are interior offensive line and defensive tackle. Most of these guys were the biggest guy on the team in high schools and they are having to deal with 600 pound double-teams.”
Their quarterback, John Wofford “broke Tim Tebo’s high school records” and has a quick release. Their running back . Desmond Wortham gained 68 yards in 12 carries vs. Florida State, (and that’s not easy to do. Florida State is as athletic as all get out.” He must be similar to Prince-Tyson Gulley, who had 80 yards in 16 carries against the same defense a week later.
I called in my question. The coach didn’t seem to be interested in discussing last year’s failures. I had set up the question by saying that we might have had a chance to win these last four games if we were a little more efficient on offense and he talked about the, (poor), offensive efficiency of this year’s team as if that was what the question was about. “I look at the teams’ we’ve played at the halfway mark and the teams we’ve played so far was 30-8 and the teams- Villanova is like 4th or 5th in FCS. The teams we have yet to play are 22-15. If we’d knocked in a couple more in the red zone we’d be better off but we’re coming up short right now. A play here, a play there could have made all the difference. In the last game we could have had three interceptions and a fumble but the ball didn’t bounce our way. AJ was trying to throw the ball away and it was intercepted. He felt some pressure and started to slide out of it. It would have been better to take the sack. He knew it right away. But he’s done some good things, too.”
I brought him back to the substance of the question and he did say “Last year we had some trial and error at quarterback. Our players have more familiarity with what we’re trying to do. We’ve got more staying power. The older guys are supplying leadership. I’ve really enjoyed practice this week. The older kids grab the young players and encourage them. It’s like they are the older brothers and the new guys are the younger brothers. I can’t guarantee victory but our guys will leave 100% out on the field physically. I thought we could beat Florida State. People looked at me cross-eyed. We needed to turn the red zone field goals and fourth down tries into TDs to get swinging.”
Matt Park quoted Woody Hayes: “The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. (I’d heard that former Louisville Coach Peck Hickman, from the 1960’s had said that about sophomores becoming juniors). Shafe who grew up in Ohio, said “Woody used to say that for every sophomore you start, that’s a loss. Actually, I’d like to go back to not playing freshmen.” But where would we be without them this year, coach? And it was Woody Hayes that got the use of freshmen going in football when he inserted Archie Griffin into the starting line-up in 1972.
Coach described Long and Steve Ismael as “gym rats. They’re like Shamarko Thomas. You worry about them over-training. Monday is their day off and I spotted Steve running routes. …I really like our linebackers. Parris Bennett will be a really good outside linebacker. Zaire Franklin will be good. Jonathan Thomas will be a real good blitzing linebacker, the kind of guy who plays in space and you don’t have to worry about the running game. Cordell Hudson, Juwan Dowels and Antwan Cody need to build their bodies up. We are having to play a lot of guys early due to injuries.
Matt went over an injury report. I didn’t get all the names but Foy is out, Broyld is still “doubtful” Crume, Miller and Lewis are “questionable”. They went through the weekly “next man up” thing but Shafe complained “Using reserves so much take away from special teams because these guys are starters there. Our kick cover has improved and our kick-off coverage has been really good.” He described how frustrated Ivan Foy was. He’s a senior who has “done a lot of growing up”. I told him that strong people deal with challenges. It’s not how you get into them. It’s how you come out of them….I’m looking forward to the bye week.(four games to go), I’ve never had a team with 10 players out who were starters at one time or another.” Matt noted that Michael Campanaro, the Deacons star receiver had bene injured in last year’s game we went on to shut them out. “Our defensive kids were really flying around. We need to duplicate that physicality.” (I hate the term “physicality”. We are all “physical”. Our guys need to hit hard in this game!)
Matt talked about Long and Ismael and how they seem to the press and public. He noted that Ismael talked about how he wanted to play like Amari Cooper, (Alabama’s top receiver) or Sammy Watkins. Coach said “I like guys who know who the best player in the country or the best in the state are and want to be like them or better than them. AJ and Steve actually recruited each other, even more than we recruited them. The next couple of years you’ll see some exciting players coming out of this class.”
Brian sent in a question asking if we will be “less predictable” with the new play caller. Coach didn’t much like that question and gave a one sentence reply: “The staff did a nice job of mixing up the plays last week.”
They closed by talking about Dave Clawson the new Wake Forest coach, who once tried to hire Coach Shafer as his defensive coordinator at Bowling Green. He has “a bright offensive mind. I attended a clinic of his a couple of years back. I’ll try to remember what he said but you never tell everything at clinics. I was a great admirer of Jim Grobe. He liked to redshirt players. Dave is going with young players. Both teams will be playing lots of young people. Good players make good coaches.”
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, last year we wound up with a winning record and a bowl win. If this year’s team can duplicate that we’ll all be very pleased. But last year’s team absorbed some severe defeats along the way. This year’s team, for all the problems, has stayed in games against everybody, including a couple of top ten teams. Why had this team been more consistently competitive than last year’s team? “
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.)
They talked about AJ Long and his situation going into the Wake Forest game. The difference between this and the Florida state game is that he knows he’s starting this one. Also, the coaches know it’s going to be either him or Mitch Kimble and both players have similar skills, (can throw or run) so they can put the same packages in for them whereas Austin Wilson a powerful thrower but non-runner, required a separate package for his skills. “We had too many offensive packages last week. This week they will both be the same” They will be “expanding Long’s menu. “it will be interesting to see how things come out of the gate. The first quarter causes the most frets but is the most fun – what do they have up their sleeve? What adjustments do you have to make? But schemes are overrated. What’s under-rated is good football players. It’s not the Xs and Os, it’s the Johnnies and Joes.” Austin Wilson practiced as a “signal guy” today. He told the coach it feels like he’s been away for a couple of week. “But when you start playing again it seems like you’ve been playing longer.”
Wake started out this season “with a true freshman quarterback and center on the road.” And they’ve been mostly on the road with 4 road games, all out of state, to two home games. They’ll play the rest of their schedule in their home state. “They’ve played better in the last two games.” They lost at Louisville 10-20 and were down only 3-10 at the have vs. Florida State- yes the same two teams we just played but Wake had last week off. “Up front it’s been difficult. I think the most difficult positons to learn are interior offensive line and defensive tackle. Most of these guys were the biggest guy on the team in high schools and they are having to deal with 600 pound double-teams.”
Their quarterback, John Wofford “broke Tim Tebo’s high school records” and has a quick release. Their running back . Desmond Wortham gained 68 yards in 12 carries vs. Florida State, (and that’s not easy to do. Florida State is as athletic as all get out.” He must be similar to Prince-Tyson Gulley, who had 80 yards in 16 carries against the same defense a week later.
I called in my question. The coach didn’t seem to be interested in discussing last year’s failures. I had set up the question by saying that we might have had a chance to win these last four games if we were a little more efficient on offense and he talked about the, (poor), offensive efficiency of this year’s team as if that was what the question was about. “I look at the teams’ we’ve played at the halfway mark and the teams we’ve played so far was 30-8 and the teams- Villanova is like 4th or 5th in FCS. The teams we have yet to play are 22-15. If we’d knocked in a couple more in the red zone we’d be better off but we’re coming up short right now. A play here, a play there could have made all the difference. In the last game we could have had three interceptions and a fumble but the ball didn’t bounce our way. AJ was trying to throw the ball away and it was intercepted. He felt some pressure and started to slide out of it. It would have been better to take the sack. He knew it right away. But he’s done some good things, too.”
I brought him back to the substance of the question and he did say “Last year we had some trial and error at quarterback. Our players have more familiarity with what we’re trying to do. We’ve got more staying power. The older guys are supplying leadership. I’ve really enjoyed practice this week. The older kids grab the young players and encourage them. It’s like they are the older brothers and the new guys are the younger brothers. I can’t guarantee victory but our guys will leave 100% out on the field physically. I thought we could beat Florida State. People looked at me cross-eyed. We needed to turn the red zone field goals and fourth down tries into TDs to get swinging.”
Matt Park quoted Woody Hayes: “The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. (I’d heard that former Louisville Coach Peck Hickman, from the 1960’s had said that about sophomores becoming juniors). Shafe who grew up in Ohio, said “Woody used to say that for every sophomore you start, that’s a loss. Actually, I’d like to go back to not playing freshmen.” But where would we be without them this year, coach? And it was Woody Hayes that got the use of freshmen going in football when he inserted Archie Griffin into the starting line-up in 1972.
Coach described Long and Steve Ismael as “gym rats. They’re like Shamarko Thomas. You worry about them over-training. Monday is their day off and I spotted Steve running routes. …I really like our linebackers. Parris Bennett will be a really good outside linebacker. Zaire Franklin will be good. Jonathan Thomas will be a real good blitzing linebacker, the kind of guy who plays in space and you don’t have to worry about the running game. Cordell Hudson, Juwan Dowels and Antwan Cody need to build their bodies up. We are having to play a lot of guys early due to injuries.
Matt went over an injury report. I didn’t get all the names but Foy is out, Broyld is still “doubtful” Crume, Miller and Lewis are “questionable”. They went through the weekly “next man up” thing but Shafe complained “Using reserves so much take away from special teams because these guys are starters there. Our kick cover has improved and our kick-off coverage has been really good.” He described how frustrated Ivan Foy was. He’s a senior who has “done a lot of growing up”. I told him that strong people deal with challenges. It’s not how you get into them. It’s how you come out of them….I’m looking forward to the bye week.(four games to go), I’ve never had a team with 10 players out who were starters at one time or another.” Matt noted that Michael Campanaro, the Deacons star receiver had bene injured in last year’s game we went on to shut them out. “Our defensive kids were really flying around. We need to duplicate that physicality.” (I hate the term “physicality”. We are all “physical”. Our guys need to hit hard in this game!)
Matt talked about Long and Ismael and how they seem to the press and public. He noted that Ismael talked about how he wanted to play like Amari Cooper, (Alabama’s top receiver) or Sammy Watkins. Coach said “I like guys who know who the best player in the country or the best in the state are and want to be like them or better than them. AJ and Steve actually recruited each other, even more than we recruited them. The next couple of years you’ll see some exciting players coming out of this class.”
Brian sent in a question asking if we will be “less predictable” with the new play caller. Coach didn’t much like that question and gave a one sentence reply: “The staff did a nice job of mixing up the plays last week.”
They closed by talking about Dave Clawson the new Wake Forest coach, who once tried to hire Coach Shafer as his defensive coordinator at Bowling Green. He has “a bright offensive mind. I attended a clinic of his a couple of years back. I’ll try to remember what he said but you never tell everything at clinics. I was a great admirer of Jim Grobe. He liked to redshirt players. Dave is going with young players. Both teams will be playing lots of young people. Good players make good coaches.”
