Head Coach Scott Shafer Press Conference Transcript
Syracuse vs. Duke
November 8, 2014
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
“First off, congratulations to Duke. They’re a good football team. Thanks to my seniors more than anything else, I’m going to miss them. We’ve got two games here, we’ve got a bye week finally to try to get healthy as best we can and try to win two games. We’ve got Pittsburgh and Boston College. I love these kids a great deal and I’m going to miss them.
“The kids played hard, I thought our defensive kids played really well. I was really pleased with the effort on that side of things and offensively we knew we were going to have some difficulties at times. I was also proud of some of the performances at times on offense. It was nice to see (quarterback) Mitch (Kimble) come in and do some things. I always felt like he had the ability to do some stuff and same with (quarterback) Austin (Wilson). We just didn’t have enough. Just a difficult loss for the kids. We go back to work Monday and we’ll give the kids a little bit of time to work and hold our heads high.
“Thanks to the fans that showed up today, too. We appreciate everybody in the community who has stood by these kids over the course of a difficult season and disappointments throughout the course of things.”
On cornerback Brandon Reddish’s play:
“He did a nice job. He had a lot of tackles, played really good on the edge, did a really nice job with their quick passes, defeating their number one receiver on the stock-block situations then made a nice interception back there at the one-yard line. (smiling) I wish it would have been in the end zone there to be honest with you but that was a great play by him. I couldn’t have been more proud of Brandon. He’s a great kid from Brownsville, (N.Y.). He’s a great success story like so many of these kids and it was a very good football game from Brandon and I’m looking forward to these next two games with him.”
On what missing a bowl game means for the program:
“It hurts. It’s a difficult situation because that’s one of those goals we wanted to come back and reach but we didn’t so what are you going to do? Cry over spilled milk? You’re going to fight. It’s going to give us a little bit more time in the offseason to look at some things, take our time with our recruiting process and find silver linings in it, get in that indoor facility and use it and get better. So you adjust and overcome and focus on the guys who are in the room. We’ll be fine, I’m looking forward to it. The one thing we know is a lot of kids maybe we didn’t anticipate playing a bunch this year put a lot of snaps on tape, more than we would have planned going in, but that’s part of the reality. So we have a feel for some of those kids. (offensive guard) Alex Hayes played a lot of snaps today. I could go through the whole roster but a lot of kids put some snaps on tape and we’re going to have to throughout the next couple of weeks, so you learn a lot about those guys. That’s a silver lining part of it and we go back to work.”
On the effort of quarterbacks Mitch Kimble and Austin Wilson:
“I thought there were some good things. I know there was some butterflies for those kids going into it. I was very pleased with the way both of them responded to the challenges in front of us and the opportunity to play. I knew Mitch could do some of the things he did, we’ve seen it. I felt good about all those kids we’ve recruited at quarterback from A.J. (Long) to Austin and Mitch. It’s out there, those are good football players. I’m proud of the way they worked at it and the way they worked at their game-planning. All the sudden from going from a scout team player, a backup scout team player, to playing a big portion of the game, it says a lot for the future of those kids and I’m looking forward to that.”
On the special teams play, particularly on the punt return for a touchdown by Duke:
“We got crunched from within the one-yard line and when you do that, you have to protect because they can bring it all-out. When you do that, they can double the outside guys. They doubled both outside guys, they compressed it inside and we missed a few tackles in the middle so it’s always a danger when you’re coming out, we call it ‘Orange’ because you’re in heavy protection mode, you’re a one-step release on the kick to get it off so you lose some hang time because a lot of people bring a lot of pressure in those situations, too. It’s one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations and they did a nice job. Hats off to Duke doubling the outside guys and they made a good play.”
On if the team’s injuries affecting the special teams unit:
“To some degree yes. You also have to remember with a lot of injuries you’ve got a lot of guys who were backup guys, who were starters were starting in the kicking game who are now getting a lot of offensive and defensive reps, too. It kind of runs its course on the situation in the kicking game.”
On Syracuse’s coverage limiting Duke’s offense:
“I thought (defensive coordinator) Coach Bullough and the staff had a good plan. We didn’t want to be in one-on-one situations with (Jamison) Crowder a whole lot. That was part of the plan. We had to limit the amount of pressures we but on them because they threw the ball extremely quick. That’s part of their M.O. I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part. We just have to do a better job playing the football. We can’t be afraid to look up and play the football. They are things that we continue to work on as we move forward onto the Pitt game.”
On whether the game plan was to use both quarterbacks:
“Yes. It was actually very similar to what we wanted to do in the Florida State game. We wanted to play Austin (Wilson) and A.J. (Long), in that game and it was the same thing here. I thought it gave us a couple of opportunities to work that man that’s not always accounted for in the run game. Mitch (Kimble) we thought could do a couple of option things, we didn’t want to put a ton of things on his plate. We just had the couple plays you saw, the speed option, the zone read and we had the three-back formation that we wanted to get into a little bit at times, too.”
November 8, 2014
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
“First off, congratulations to Duke. They’re a good football team. Thanks to my seniors more than anything else, I’m going to miss them. We’ve got two games here, we’ve got a bye week finally to try to get healthy as best we can and try to win two games. We’ve got Pittsburgh and Boston College. I love these kids a great deal and I’m going to miss them.
“The kids played hard, I thought our defensive kids played really well. I was really pleased with the effort on that side of things and offensively we knew we were going to have some difficulties at times. I was also proud of some of the performances at times on offense. It was nice to see (quarterback) Mitch (Kimble) come in and do some things. I always felt like he had the ability to do some stuff and same with (quarterback) Austin (Wilson). We just didn’t have enough. Just a difficult loss for the kids. We go back to work Monday and we’ll give the kids a little bit of time to work and hold our heads high.
“Thanks to the fans that showed up today, too. We appreciate everybody in the community who has stood by these kids over the course of a difficult season and disappointments throughout the course of things.”
On cornerback Brandon Reddish’s play:
“He did a nice job. He had a lot of tackles, played really good on the edge, did a really nice job with their quick passes, defeating their number one receiver on the stock-block situations then made a nice interception back there at the one-yard line. (smiling) I wish it would have been in the end zone there to be honest with you but that was a great play by him. I couldn’t have been more proud of Brandon. He’s a great kid from Brownsville, (N.Y.). He’s a great success story like so many of these kids and it was a very good football game from Brandon and I’m looking forward to these next two games with him.”
On what missing a bowl game means for the program:
“It hurts. It’s a difficult situation because that’s one of those goals we wanted to come back and reach but we didn’t so what are you going to do? Cry over spilled milk? You’re going to fight. It’s going to give us a little bit more time in the offseason to look at some things, take our time with our recruiting process and find silver linings in it, get in that indoor facility and use it and get better. So you adjust and overcome and focus on the guys who are in the room. We’ll be fine, I’m looking forward to it. The one thing we know is a lot of kids maybe we didn’t anticipate playing a bunch this year put a lot of snaps on tape, more than we would have planned going in, but that’s part of the reality. So we have a feel for some of those kids. (offensive guard) Alex Hayes played a lot of snaps today. I could go through the whole roster but a lot of kids put some snaps on tape and we’re going to have to throughout the next couple of weeks, so you learn a lot about those guys. That’s a silver lining part of it and we go back to work.”
On the effort of quarterbacks Mitch Kimble and Austin Wilson:
“I thought there were some good things. I know there was some butterflies for those kids going into it. I was very pleased with the way both of them responded to the challenges in front of us and the opportunity to play. I knew Mitch could do some of the things he did, we’ve seen it. I felt good about all those kids we’ve recruited at quarterback from A.J. (Long) to Austin and Mitch. It’s out there, those are good football players. I’m proud of the way they worked at it and the way they worked at their game-planning. All the sudden from going from a scout team player, a backup scout team player, to playing a big portion of the game, it says a lot for the future of those kids and I’m looking forward to that.”
On the special teams play, particularly on the punt return for a touchdown by Duke:
“We got crunched from within the one-yard line and when you do that, you have to protect because they can bring it all-out. When you do that, they can double the outside guys. They doubled both outside guys, they compressed it inside and we missed a few tackles in the middle so it’s always a danger when you’re coming out, we call it ‘Orange’ because you’re in heavy protection mode, you’re a one-step release on the kick to get it off so you lose some hang time because a lot of people bring a lot of pressure in those situations, too. It’s one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations and they did a nice job. Hats off to Duke doubling the outside guys and they made a good play.”
On if the team’s injuries affecting the special teams unit:
“To some degree yes. You also have to remember with a lot of injuries you’ve got a lot of guys who were backup guys, who were starters were starting in the kicking game who are now getting a lot of offensive and defensive reps, too. It kind of runs its course on the situation in the kicking game.”
On Syracuse’s coverage limiting Duke’s offense:
“I thought (defensive coordinator) Coach Bullough and the staff had a good plan. We didn’t want to be in one-on-one situations with (Jamison) Crowder a whole lot. That was part of the plan. We had to limit the amount of pressures we but on them because they threw the ball extremely quick. That’s part of their M.O. I thought we did a pretty good job for the most part. We just have to do a better job playing the football. We can’t be afraid to look up and play the football. They are things that we continue to work on as we move forward onto the Pitt game.”
On whether the game plan was to use both quarterbacks:
“Yes. It was actually very similar to what we wanted to do in the Florida State game. We wanted to play Austin (Wilson) and A.J. (Long), in that game and it was the same thing here. I thought it gave us a couple of opportunities to work that man that’s not always accounted for in the run game. Mitch (Kimble) we thought could do a couple of option things, we didn’t want to put a ton of things on his plate. We just had the couple plays you saw, the speed option, the zone read and we had the three-back formation that we wanted to get into a little bit at times, too.”
