More important than whether or not you or I like Scott Shafer as the new head coach of the Syracuse Orange, the Syracuse football team also has an opinion on the man who is about to take over their lives. And they couldn't be more thrilled.
It's a celebration in Syracuse. Great hire and it's a nice way to pick up where coach marrone left off
— Keon Lyn(@KeonLyn8) January 8, 2013
Super excited to have Coach Shafer calling the shots now. He deserves it Now Lets Go win the ACC. #cusenation
— Rob Welsh (@Welsha_Tron94) January 8, 2013
Could not be happier with coach Shafer being promoted!Great news for #orangenation. #excited
— Sean Hickey (@HickeyCuse60) January 8, 2013
So when is the official announcement? Since news was leaked by Gross broke already, expect it come as early as tomorrow (Wednesday). In them meantime, what's everyone else thinking?
Brent Axe says Scott Shafer was the right hire for Syracuse, though if he has one request, it's that HCSS work on his "CEO" process:
One thing Shafer will have to get better at is the "CEO" portion of the job. We know he can coach. Now, add in the other parts of the job like talking to the media, overseeing the entire coaching staff, and the public relations aspect of being a head coach. It all adds up.
Even if the news hadn't been leaked yesterday, it's easy to read DOC Gross' comments from yesterday and see that he was headed in this direction:
"We’re not looking for a huge culture change here. ...we have no need for a new hope coming in. We already have hope. Let’s move forward with what we’ve started."
Finally, Dave Rahme remembers what Doug Marrone said when he hired Shafer, that the DC reminded him of himself. And Rahme also reminds us of Shafer's overall philosophy, which shouldn't change much now that he's in charge:
"The biggest thing is (defensive) philosophy has to be backed up with consistency in the way you practice and the way you actually live your daily life as a student-athlete, " he said. "The thing we want to be is demanding with our kids. We want to create a sense of accountability to one another ... controlling the things we can control on a daily basis. We always talk about attitude, effort and enthusiasm. Those will be the three things I'm always harking back to. All we want to do is get a little bit better every single day.