Some tidbits worth noting about newly-hired Syracuse DC Scott Shafer.
First off, the Shafers will need your help in determining their favorite breakfast spot once they arrive in Syracuse. What good is a high-profile college football coaching gig if you can't get your kids a quality Mickey-Mouse shaped pancake on Sunday morning?
Ten-year-old Elsa preferred a place in Palo Alto, Calif.
Fourteen-year-old Wolfgang was partial to a restaurant from their year in Champaign, Ill.
Shafer's wife, Missy, picked a view of the ocean in Monterey, Calif.
The Shafers were supposed to be finished with new breakfast hubs. Ann Arbor's omelets were to be the dish of choice for a while.
Until Tuesday, when Shafer resigned as defensive coordinator of the University of Michigan's football program after one 3-9 season.
Personally, I can't think of a decent place that isn't a chain or doesn't end in "Hall" or "Student Center." Breakfast was never my strong suit in college so I wasn't the adventurous type. Any suggestions?
No word on where the Shafers will be living but hopefully SU helps them out in a similar fashion to how Standford did when they hired Shafer two years ago. Of course, something tells me the Syracuse housing market is not quite as robust as Palo Alto.
More notably and recent, there was this note from MLive.com's Graham Couch who wished the coach well but also wondered about his true feelings on the UM situation:
...Rich Rod and the folks in Ann Arbor made Shafer sign an agreement that he wouldn't say anything negative about the school, the football program or any of its people. When you're worried about that sort of thing, especially with a guy like Shafer, you're hiding something.
When I spoke to Shafer a couple weeks ago, reading between the lines, it was pretty clear about how he felt about his time at U-M (though he was careful not to come out and say everything, per his agreement). Again, if you're a decent guy, running a sound program, you don't worry about what former employees say.
Well, that pretty much says everything I need to hear about Shafer's time at UM and if we should be worried about a DC coming off such a poor season. If anything, this makes me believe that SU just got a steal of a up-and-coming DC who now has a chip on his shoulder to prove himself once again.
Shafer also shared a bit of his recruiting strategy with Couch and it says a lot about how he was able to get quality kids to come to smaller schools:
"When I'm recruiting, I always tell players it's not about the buildings, it's not about the stadiums. It's all about the people," Shafer said. "You know that, but it just got to the point where you say, 'Bigger is better.' Sometimes you've got to remember to listen to your own advice.
"The whole reason I came to Michigan was because it was Michigan. I probably should have taken more time to get to know the people to make sure it fit, or I fit. I just didn't fit."
And as for what Shafer's priorities were in the hunt for a new gig?
"I've got to find a place for the four of us as a family, find another great place ... find another place to work with people I really respect," Shafer said. "Some of our best years were under coach (Bill) Cubit at Western Michigan."
There you go Syracuse. You just need to be as good as Kalamazoo. You up to it?