Monday, October 13, 2014
Shafer: 'Why Not Us'
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
CuseTV: Moving On to Florida State
After quarterback Terrel Hunt was sidelined with an injury, another member of the Orange will be making his first-career start this weekend when the Orange host No. 1 Florida State.
Head coach Scott Shafer's focus is to now move forward and figure out how to take down the Seminoles without Hunt.
"I just feel so bad for the young man as well as all the kids who go through the natural part of this game which is injuries and fighting your way back," Shafer said. "I feel terrible for him, but it is that reality and now we're going to move forward and develop a plan for Austin and A.J. and have Mitch ready to go as well.
"I think all-three of those young men have the skill sets to do it, the thing is you never know until they get out there. Austin has been out there and he's done some good things, A.J. has done an extremely good job in practice against our number one defense and he was actually scout team player of the week the last two or three weeks and he's going against the ones. A lot of comments from the defensive guys 'man, that kid is pretty good.' There's definitely a drop off because Terrel is a very good quarterback and his development just continued to go up. But now that he's out we go to the next ball player up and we're going to try and come up with a great plan, move forward and be excited about it, so that's where we are."
The decision on who will get the starting nod will be determined this week. However, it won't be entirely based on who performs well this week in practice.
"When I look at it it's going to be less of a competition as to which guy does better in practice this week to 'let's come up with a plan, if we choose to use two guys, let's use two guys and give them pieces of the game plan.' Shafer said. "There will be carry over between the two guys because of the fact that both guys can do a lot of the same things, but we also have to do a good job accentuating the strengths of each one of those guys. To me, it's similar to things we've done in the past.
"When Dyshawn Davis was a young linebacker, I put him in and I blitzed him and then we slowly taught him how to do other things and he did a great job learning them. Same thing from a quarterback point of view. You accentuate the things you know they do well, there's strength in saying these are the four or five things you do well, this will be a big part of your game plan. Then you take the next guys and say you're a different guy, you give us a change-up, we're going to use these types of things. In an ideal world, you'd love to have a quarterback that does all those things well, but the reality is that we don't want to put that weight on any singular player, so that's how we're approaching it as we put together a game plan against the best team in the country."
That team has a 22-game win streak that the Orange will try and snap on Saturday. Despite that fact, it doesn't change the way Shafer approaches the game.
"I really try and go into each game plan regardless of who it is with the same mindset," Shafer said. "Let's have every piece of ammunition that we own in our holsters as we go into this game. I always felt like you're never prepared if you go into a game saying we should beat this team we shouldn't have to use a trick play. You never know when you're going to have to pull that thing out. You don't want to look back and say I wish we had that ready to go. So this like every game, we're going to have all the ammunition that we think is necessary."
Head coach Scott Shafer's focus is to now move forward and figure out how to take down the Seminoles without Hunt.
"I just feel so bad for the young man as well as all the kids who go through the natural part of this game which is injuries and fighting your way back," Shafer said. "I feel terrible for him, but it is that reality and now we're going to move forward and develop a plan for Austin and A.J. and have Mitch ready to go as well.
"I think all-three of those young men have the skill sets to do it, the thing is you never know until they get out there. Austin has been out there and he's done some good things, A.J. has done an extremely good job in practice against our number one defense and he was actually scout team player of the week the last two or three weeks and he's going against the ones. A lot of comments from the defensive guys 'man, that kid is pretty good.' There's definitely a drop off because Terrel is a very good quarterback and his development just continued to go up. But now that he's out we go to the next ball player up and we're going to try and come up with a great plan, move forward and be excited about it, so that's where we are."
The decision on who will get the starting nod will be determined this week. However, it won't be entirely based on who performs well this week in practice.
"When I look at it it's going to be less of a competition as to which guy does better in practice this week to 'let's come up with a plan, if we choose to use two guys, let's use two guys and give them pieces of the game plan.' Shafer said. "There will be carry over between the two guys because of the fact that both guys can do a lot of the same things, but we also have to do a good job accentuating the strengths of each one of those guys. To me, it's similar to things we've done in the past.
"When Dyshawn Davis was a young linebacker, I put him in and I blitzed him and then we slowly taught him how to do other things and he did a great job learning them. Same thing from a quarterback point of view. You accentuate the things you know they do well, there's strength in saying these are the four or five things you do well, this will be a big part of your game plan. Then you take the next guys and say you're a different guy, you give us a change-up, we're going to use these types of things. In an ideal world, you'd love to have a quarterback that does all those things well, but the reality is that we don't want to put that weight on any singular player, so that's how we're approaching it as we put together a game plan against the best team in the country."
That team has a 22-game win streak that the Orange will try and snap on Saturday. Despite that fact, it doesn't change the way Shafer approaches the game.
"I really try and go into each game plan regardless of who it is with the same mindset," Shafer said. "Let's have every piece of ammunition that we own in our holsters as we go into this game. I always felt like you're never prepared if you go into a game saying we should beat this team we shouldn't have to use a trick play. You never know when you're going to have to pull that thing out. You don't want to look back and say I wish we had that ready to go. So this like every game, we're going to have all the ammunition that we think is necessary."
Orange Announce Coaching Change
Syracuse University head football coach Scott Shafer has changed titles and responsibilities for two members of the offensive coaching staff, effective immediately.
"I've had to make a tough decision that has been less difficult to make because of the unselfishness of our teammate and coach George McDonald. Let me start by saying I've never worked with a harder working and more devoted individual than George McDonald. I truly appreciate his devotion to the team," Shafer said.
"I've made the decision to change roles to use our staff's talents together more effectively. Coach Tim Lester will call the plays and coordinate the offense moving forward. He, George and the offensive staff will continue to work alongside one another striving to improve our offense together. George will continue to coach our receiver unit. Tim will take charge of the play calling and the development of our young quarterbacks as we move forward without Terrel Hunt as he works to rehab his injury. Terrel sustained a fracture to his fibula on in the game against Louisville. He is expected to be out of activity for 4-6 weeks.
"We are committed and unified to take the actions necessary to maximize the talent and drive of this football team."
"I've had to make a tough decision that has been less difficult to make because of the unselfishness of our teammate and coach George McDonald. Let me start by saying I've never worked with a harder working and more devoted individual than George McDonald. I truly appreciate his devotion to the team," Shafer said.
"I've made the decision to change roles to use our staff's talents together more effectively. Coach Tim Lester will call the plays and coordinate the offense moving forward. He, George and the offensive staff will continue to work alongside one another striving to improve our offense together. George will continue to coach our receiver unit. Tim will take charge of the play calling and the development of our young quarterbacks as we move forward without Terrel Hunt as he works to rehab his injury. Terrel sustained a fracture to his fibula on in the game against Louisville. He is expected to be out of activity for 4-6 weeks.
"We are committed and unified to take the actions necessary to maximize the talent and drive of this football team."
Louisville Tops the Orange
Brandon Radcliff rushed for 110 yards on 23 carries and scored twice as Louisville defeated Syracuse, 28-6, in the Orange's ACC opener at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse falls to 2-3 on the season, while Louisville improves to 5-1.
The 'Cuse defense held the Cardinals to 352 yards of offense and forced a pair of turnovers, but the SU offense managed just 260 yards and 23:02 of possession time, while the Cards controlled the ball for 36:58 behind a ground game that accumulated 178 yards.
Jarrod West was the Orange's leading receiver for the second straight week, hauling in five passes for 85 yards.Josh Parris also grabbed five passes for 34 yards. Terrel Hunt was 17-of-32 passing for 201 yards and an interception.
Cameron Lynch led the Orange in tackles for the fourth time in five games this season with seven. He also forced a fumble and had a sack.
The Orange jumped out to an early 3-0 when Cole Murphycapped an eight-play, 41-yard drive on the second 'Cuse possession.
Louisville responded on the ensuing series when Brandon Radcliff scampered in from four yards out for the game's first touchdown. The Cardinals added a safety early in the second quarter points when their defense swarmed Adonis Ameen-Moore before he could get out of the end zone, pushing the lead to 9-3.
John Wallace sent the Cards into the locker room with a 12-3 advantage, hitting a 51-yard field goal with 3:42 to go in the half.
SU opened the second half with a 69-yard drive that resulted in a 24-yard field goal by Murphy to make it a one possession game. The Orange nearly scored touchdowns on a pair of trick plays on the drive, however. Prince-Tyson Gully completed a halfback pass to Ben Lewis, but the play was negated due to an ineligible player downfield. West almost connected with Lewis on a reverse-pass on the following play, but it was deflected from Lewis' hands as he attempted to haul it in and the Orange settled for three.
The Cards answered the SU score when Radcliff ran in from 14 yards out to open up a 19-6 lead with 5:27 remaining in the third quarter.
Louisville tacked on another score when Reggie Bonnafon completed a four-yard pass to Gerald Christan with 7:45 to go in the contest. Charles Gaines closed the scoring by sacking Orange quarterback Austin Wilson causing the ball to roll out of bounds for Louisville's second safety.
Wilson finished the game at quarterback for the Orange after Hunt left the field late in with an injury.
Syracuse continues its homestand next Saturday at noon when it No. 1 Florida State on ESPN.
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