Tim Lester knows all about Syracuse football team he's trying to beat in opener | Syracusefan.com

Tim Lester knows all about Syracuse football team he's trying to beat in opener

Enjoyed reading that article.

I can't believe Daoust made $225-$240k at SU as a Dline coach/ST coordinator. Holy crap I picked the wrong profession.

GREAT article.

And yeah - so much for our coaches being "underpaid".
Even if SU had doubled their salaries, would the results have been one iota better?
I think not.

But - I disagree with the premise:
The players are not remotely the same guys they coached 2+ years ago.
Physically, mentally, maturity, experience-wise, scheme, etc.

This will be a tough game because it's a road game against a solid team.
That several of that team's coaches used to coach some of our players in a former era, should be the least of our concerns.
 
GREAT article.

And yeah - so much for our coaches being "underpaid".
Even if SU had doubled their salaries, would the results have been one iota better?
I think not.

But - I disagree with the premise:
The players are not remotely the same guys they coached 2+ years ago.
Physically, mentally, maturity, experience-wise, scheme, etc.

This will be a tough game because it's a road game against a solid team.
That several of that team's coaches used to coach some of our players in a former era, should be the least of our concerns.

Exactly. The game will be tough because WMU has some talent; not because Lester, Daoust and Mooreland coached/recruited Dungey and others.

I thought Lester was Shafer's best assistant coach.

I hope we kick the ever loving crap out of them on Friday to close that chapter appropriately.
 
Tim Daoust and Tim Lester, were/are phenomenal human beings. And to a large extent, I think their situation here would've been tremendously different under other circumstances.

They are high quality coaches and even higher quality human beings. I will always root for them, except when they're across the sidelines from Syracuse.

Daoust was the first college coach to really ever open the door for me. They were so accommodating. The year I took over DE's, Daoust personally mailed me practice cut-ups and advice on teaching technique. When I took over TE's and FB's, they personally opened the doors to practice for me so I could come in and learn from them how they were teaching in a live environment.

Just quality people, helping someone along who they had literally zero obligation to do so for. I will always admire them for that. Not just because I was fortunate enough to receive an inside look to my favorite program, but, because they cared enough about someone they knew nothing about to lend a hand. Not everyone does that.
 
GREAT article.

And yeah - so much for our coaches being "underpaid".
Even if SU had doubled their salaries, would the results have been one iota better?
I think not.
.

Excellent piece.

I suspect, though, that most P5 programs pay their staff more (if not much more) than what Lester and Daost made. In the abstract $240K is a great salary, but in context I'm guessing it's not terribly competitive.

Thankfully it sounds like Wildhack and Babers have addressed that situation and that our staff is more appropriately paid these days.
 
Excellent piece.

I suspect, though, that most P5 programs pay their staff more (if not much more) than what Lester and Daost made. In the abstract $240K is a great salary, but in context I'm guessing it's not terribly competitive.

Thankfully it sounds like Wildhack and Babers have addressed that situation and that our staff is more appropriately paid these days.
Indiana paid Hart $340k to be RB’s coach for reference.
 
Excellent piece.

I suspect, though, that most P5 programs pay their staff more (if not much more) than what Lester and Daost made. In the abstract $240K is a great salary, but in context I'm guessing it's not terribly competitive.

Thankfully it sounds like Wildhack and Babers have addressed that situation and that our staff is more appropriately paid these days.

Good point regarding competing salaries at other programs.

The only counterpoint I'd make is that most, if not all, of Dino's staff came in coaching the same positions (albeit from MAC to ACC). Shafer's crew was largely promoted up (WR coach to OC, D3 HC to OC, etc) so I can see why they may not have been paid as handsomely as counterparts at other schools.

Some might argue that Shafer was forced to hire/promote lower rung coaches to higher positions due to salary constraints. That may be true and SU certainly got what it paid for.

Either way I'm glad coaching staff salaries are less of an issue now than they have been in the past. SU will always be the program that loses talented assistants to deeper wallets so I don't put a lot of stock in the "we weren't paid enough" position.
 
The things that stuck out to me were the fact that Lester said the personnel was NOT ACC level personnel moving from the Big East to the ACC, and that's what Babers has said for 2 years as he's tried to turnover the roster.

This team was not ACC ready, even for Shafer - as Dope Marrone left the cupboard bare. Lester said he felt like they were getting there (personnel wise) with their first 2 classes and he might've been right if you look at the seniors in key positions for us right now (and last year). I think Babers feels we're almost there now as he's said a few times this August we finally look the part (physically).

It's also a shame again on the facilities and staffing support that Syracuse football has faced from this Administration. He says the support staff they had at Syracuse was G5 the same as Western Michigan. Syracuse had 1, WMU had 1 and Purdue had 5. We need to act like a P5 program if we want to be one.
 
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GREAT article.

But - I disagree with the premise:
The players are not remotely the same guys they coached 2+ years ago.
Physically, mentally, maturity, experience-wise, scheme, etc.

.

no they're not. Not mentally, not physically. Look how scrawny Dungey is in that picture.
 
I submit that the mentality and style of play we exhibit now are so fundamentally different from how the program functioned when those gentlemen were here, that Lester does not in fact know "all about" the Syracuse team he is trying to beat.

Glad to hear positive stories about them being good guys, though.
 
The things that stuck out to me were the fact that Lester said the personnel was NOT ACC level personnel moving from the Big East to the ACC, and that's what Babers has said through 2 years as he's tried to turnover the roster. This team was not ACC ready, even for Shafer - as Dope Marrone left the cupboard bare. Lester said he felt like they were getting there (personnel wise) with their first 2 classes and he might've been right if you look at the seniors in key positions for us right now (and last year). I think Babers feels we're almost there now as he's said a few times this August we finally look the part (physically).

It's also a shame again on the facilities and staffing support that Syracuse football has faced from this Administration. He says the support staff they had at Syracuse was G5 the same as Western Michigan. Syracuse had 1, WMU had 1 and Purdue had 5. We need to act like a P5 program if we want to be one.

They went 7-6 with Terrell Hunt as QB, and should have beaten Penn St. and Pitt.

Doug Marrone didn't hire cool kid as OC and run off Jerome Smith for the 2014..
 
GREAT article.

And yeah - so much for our coaches being "underpaid".
Even if SU had doubled their salaries, would the results have been one iota better?
I think not.

But - I disagree with the premise:
The players are not remotely the same guys they coached 2+ years ago.
Physically, mentally, maturity, experience-wise, scheme, etc.

This will be a tough game because it's a road game against a solid team.
That several of that team's coaches used to coach some of our players in a former era, should be the least of our concerns.

Agree completely. Lester knows very little about this team and these players. They are three years removed and no where near the same.
 
They went 7-6 with Terrell Hunt as QB, and should have beaten Penn St. and Pitt.

Doug Marrone didn't hire cool kid as OC and run off Jerome Smith for the 2014..

I didn't mention Doug's hires. Just his recruiting and it was terrible. It's ok to admit that Dougie bailed because he knew he could not compete in the ACC with the kids he was recruiting. Losing his QB and getting his butt kicked for two years would've tarnished his star.

We all know you love Doug. I personally think the guy is an *hole for taking off the way he did AND also gutting the staff the way he did. But it was his staff I suppose.
 
The things that stuck out to me were the fact that Lester said the personnel was NOT ACC level personnel moving from the Big East to the ACC, and that's what Babers has said through 2 years as he's tried to turnover the roster. This team was not ACC ready, even for Shafer - as Dope Marrone left the cupboard bare. Lester said he felt like they were getting there (personnel wise) with their first 2 classes and he might've been right if you look at the seniors in key positions for us right now (and last year). I think Babers feels we're almost there now as he's said a few times this August we finally look the part (physically).

It's also a shame again on the facilities and staffing support that Syracuse football has faced from this Administration. He says the support staff they had at Syracuse was G5 the same as Western Michigan. Syracuse had 1, WMU had 1 and Purdue had 5. We need to act like a P5 program if we want to be one.

It may be true that SU wasn't ready for the ACC as they joined, but I'm not in any way convinced that Shafer's recruiting was going to rectify that. Not that his staff didn't land some good players - evidenced by the number who will be seeing significant time this season - however the general size, speed and depth of those classes weren't up to snuff.
 
Here's the quote that stood out to me:

In the spring, Western Michigan inked what was considered the highest-rated recruiting class in MAC history

I love Dino and glad he is here. I think he could do some really great things. I love the way he recruits and how he has developed the physical condition of this team. I want him here for as long as possible.

All that being said, I don't like how the Shafer administration was handled after Cuse brought in one-and-done Coyle. Shafer was only in his third year, and Lester only had one full year running his offense, and you could see it improving under him. I truly believe Cuse would have made even greater strides if Shafer and Lester had a 4th and maybe 5th year. And I love the way Lester communicates with the media.

Anyway, glad for Lester and Daust. Lester is a guy I can always root for no matter what program he is with
 
It may be true that SU wasn't ready for the ACC as they joined, but I'm not in any way convinced that Shafer's recruiting was going to rectify that. Not that his staff didn't land some good players - evidenced by the number who will be seeing significant time this season - however the general size, speed and depth of those classes weren't up to snuff.

Oh I agree 100%. My post has nothing to do with supporting Shafer and his staff. I think Shafer was a terrible head coach. My mentioning this point of the article is supporting Babers. The personnel problem is what Babers has been saying for 2 years. The roster was not an ACC roster. People didn't want to believe it from Babers, except now we see that Lester had the exact same thoughts about the personnel during his time and that's what Babers inherited. It was not ACC personnel.

Shafer and co. recruited some very good players but not nearly enough. If they had say 30 players it was only the top 10 that were ACC caliber. Babers came in, kept those and the rest have left.
 
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