Being the head football coach at Syracuse has become a bit like being president: four years on the job and its over. Syracuse’s two most recent coaches Greg Robinson and Doug Marrone have each lasted four seasons and then left, albeit for drastically different reasons: Robinson fired after a 10-37 tenure and Marrone leaving willingly to become an NFL head coach with the Buffalo Bills.
Now, just like it has been both four years ago and eight years ago, the ball is in the court of Syracuse athletic director Dr. Daryl Gross. For the third time since becoming the AD at Syracuse, Gross is responsible for hiring a new head football coach; for the third time, the pressure is on. Football, as we should all know by now, is the cash cow that drives college athletics, and the success of a school’s football program starts with the head coach.
Gross has failed miserably once before with regards to hiring a football coach when he hired Robinson. Of course, Gross vindicated himself, eventually, with the hire of Marrone, who managed to dig Syracuse football out of the six-foot deep hole Robinson had dug the program into. Now, with his third opportunity to hire a head football coach, Gross can’t afford to make a mistake. He can’t afford to hire the wrong guy. The program has already gone through one cataclysmic disaster, and its lucky that Marrone came along to save it; it can’t go through that again. And so, Gross must hire the right person to be the next head football coach at Syracuse.
To take a little bit of the pressure off Gross, (just a little, because let’s face it, his job is on the line with this decision not mine) I’ll make the decision for him: hire Scott Shafer. Don’t waste a lot of time and cause a lot of drama, just promote Shafer, the current Syracuse defensive coordinator to the position of head coach.
Shafer isn’t the sexiest candidate; he probably isn’t the most qualified candidate; and he may not even be the best candidate; but he is the right candidate. Shafer is the safe choice, and in this instance, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Marrone has spent the last four years cleaning up a train wreck and trying to put the train back together again, and now what the Syracuse football team needs more than anything is stability. Obviously, Marrone leaving makes that difficult, but promoting Shafer to head coach is the best way to keep some semblance of stability in the program.
That’s not to say that Shafer will mimic Marrone in every way when it comes to running the program and coaching the team. Certainly, Shafer has his own thoughts on how he’d like to run things as the man in charge, but he’s worked as the defensive coordinator under Marrone for the last four years and would likely run the program in a similar manner, especially since it appears to be working. Syracuse already underwent a culture change when Marrone stepped in four years ago; they don’t need another one. They don’t need a new face, a new name, and a new way of doing things. What Marrone has been doing for the past four years is working, and promoting Shafer would be the best way to create an extension of the Marrone era.
Promoting Shafer is the best way to keep the current coaching staff as in tact as possible, keep the current recruiting class as in tact as possible, and keep the current roster as in tact as possible; thus, keeping some stability within the program. Marrone has said it himself, and anyone close to the program has seen it as well, this Syracuse team was as tight and close-knit as any football team Marrone has been around. Whether justified or not, players and recruits are certainly feeling abandoned and betrayed that their head coach and leader left, especially after the team was able to come together down the stretch and win six of its final seven games, with a few of those wins coming as considerable underdogs (Louisville, Missouri, and West Virginia). Keeping that team closeness is paramount moving forward amidst all the change, and promoting Shafer is the best way to do that. Why have a head-coaching choice made to suit the hurt feelings of a group of 18-21 year olds? Because Syracuse is just now filling out its roster and placing quality players everywhere on its depth chart, and it doesn’t need a rash of unhappy players transferring and recruits jumping ship a month before signing day. Syracuse is still at a fragile stage in the rebuilding process, and while a new coach doesn’t necessarily mean two dozen transfers the way it did when Marrone instituted such a brash culture change, even a half-dozen transfers would do significant damage to the program moving forward. Keeping Shafer and hopefully most of the coaching staff around would keep plenty of familiar faces around for the players and make it an easier transition for them to make from one head coach to the next, giving the program the stability it needs at this point in time.
After all, it’s not like Shafer isn’t qualified for the job. He has spent 16 years as the defensive coordinator for an FBS-level college football team. Plenty of other schools have kicked the tires on him as a potential head coach, so it’s not as if promoting Shafer would be putting him in over his head or giving him a job that he’s not ready for. Shafer is definitely ready and prepared to be a college head coach, so why not make him the next head coach at Syracuse?
And so I suggest – or, let’s say ask – Dr. Daryl Gross to move quickly and make Scott Shafer the next head football coach at Syracuse. It’s not a bad thing that he’s the safe choice, because what’s most important is that he’s the right choice. Don’t waste time and don’t take chances, because chances can lead to mistakes. Go with the guy you know; the guy you trust; the guy the program needs; and right now, that guy is Scott Shafer.