With the injury to Terrel Hunt, a new signal caller will have his opportunity to lead the offense, while they'll have a tough opponent to face, Shafer feels it's an exciting challenge for his quarterbacks.
"It's what you dream about as a young man, a chance to get on the field and play against the best team in the country," Shafer said. "A team that a lot of people would argue is the best team in the last 10 years with the talent level and the win streak, so for those kids I'm excited for them. It is a very exciting time for those guys. You can see it in their energy and you can feel it just with their presence walking into the room. They understand that it's their time to play and there's a sense of energy that just doesn't come when you're a third string player."
Syracuse last defeated the No. 1 ranked team in 1984, when it took down Nebraska. While the precedent is there, Shafer chose more recent examples when talking about the possibility of an upset.
"They don't think that far back, but what I did was I took the last three weeks in college football and showed them the teams that won games with spreads of 20 or 21 points down to 12 or 13 points," Shafer said. "I just showed it to them and said 'look, every opportunity you have is a chance to win a game, the ball is oblong and doesn't always bounce the same way every weekend.' If we can control the things we can then why not us?
"If you look back at some of the games that we've won since I've been here the last few years, games that no one gave us a chance in, 2010 at West Virginia, Louisville a couple years ago and West Virginia here and you say 'why not us.' You don't want to live anywhere but in the present, but you look back at some of those games and you say these guys weren't given a chance and they won."
For more of what coach Shafer had to say about Florida State watch the full press conference here: Shafer Press Conference
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