Head Coach Scott Shafer NLI Press Conference (Feb. 5, 2014)
Head Coach Scott Shafer
2014 National Letter of Intent Signing Day
February 5, 2014
Opening Statement:
“Before I talk about the players who we’ve recruited I’d like to take my hat off to our recruiting coordinators Eric White and Cole Dial. They’re the unsung heroes, along with Laurene Porillo. They did such a great job and I’m so fortunate to have those folks on our staff.
“We went into the recruiting season a week after signing day last year, our focus was, one, to find a group of young men who were of character and fit the mold of what we’re looking for at Syracuse. Two, we wanted to do a really good job of having balance across the board. We had some skewed numbers when I first took the job a year ago and we had to find a balance. Our coaches did a nice job putting together a board that was deep and that adhered to the things we were focused on, and that’s finding high-character kids who can play the game and have great respect for truly being a student-athlete.
“In the secondary I was looking to bolster the numbers, both at cornerback and at safety, because those guys not only give you a chance to fill in the gaps with the couple of corners who we lost, but also to help us in the kicking game. I thought it was an area that we needed to improve upon with guys who can run and make plays in space. I’m excited about these guys that we took in the secondary.
“From a wide receiver point of view, the goal was to go out and find some long guys. I like tall, long receivers who can go up and make plays when they’re covered. Good wide receivers make plays when they’re covered so when we watch the tape, we weren’t just looking at 40-yard dash speed and we weren’t just looking at size, we were looking at who could make plays when people matched face-to-face with them.
“At the linebacker position we wanted to go out and get four to five linebackers, depending upon who was available. I felt really good about the three kids we’ve had committed for a long time and then we needed to find one more space player who could run and blitz, a Dyshawn Davis type of kid. We found that youngster.
“On the defensive line we lost (defensive tackle) Jay Bromley, but down the road we’re going to lose some other guys so we wanted to try and take two to three defensive tackles, and we’d take a defensive end if we thought we had a special player. We found that and we feel really good about that position.
“In my opinion you can never have enough quarterbacks, especially when they’re athletes. We learned a valuable lesson watching the Super Bowl and watching Russell Wilson play and how valuable it is to have a quarterback who can create and extend plays. I’m excited about our quarterback situation now.
“On the offensive line we lost (center) Macky MacPherson, but we have pretty much everyone back and ready to go, especially when (offensive tackle) Sean Hickey made the decision to come back. We said the only way we were going to take an offensive lineman is if we felt that they could play tackle, had some length and if we thought they could be exceptional players and we got two of those.
“It’s a tough year to try and recruit running backs because these kids knew that we had them stockpiled. We have kids who can play. We wanted a dynamic individual and we’d only take one. We wanted a kid who could play both at the tailback and even get out and play in the slot and give us a chance to catch the ball in the backfield and I think we found that guy.
“We wanted to find kids with leadership qualities. Eighteen of our kids were captains in high school and of those 18, we had four or five who were multi-year captains. I feel really strong about this class and I’m really excited and proud of the way our coaches and support staff went about finishing this class off, especially in these last two weeks, holding on to kids who were getting bombarded by a lot of people.”
On defensive back Lamar Dawson and his health issues:
“Lamar Dawson is a young man from Saint Rita High School. I’ve had a lot of success with that high school over the years. It’s in a Catholic league on the south-side of Chicago and they’re tough kids. The one thing about Saint Rita kids, especially in the secondary, they can play the game the way you want them too, but they’ve always been good tacklers. Coach Kuska I’ve known for years. He’s always in the state playoffs and vying for a state championship. Lamar is exactly what we’re looking for. He’s been ill, he’s had a strange viral situation. We’re going to hang on and see how he’s doing. If we need to, we’ll wait and bring him in January if we have to. He’s a great kid, he’s a good student and he has great parents. He comes from a family of faith and we’re excited to have him on board.”
On the number of NLI signees from the state of Florida:
“I’m excited about the Florida kids. They play a good brand of football. I really like the skill from down in that area, I have for many years. I feel indebted to the kids from South Florida. They’ve helped my career and made me look like a much better coach than I really am, especially secondary-wise and with the wide receivers over the years. We’ve got a top fleet of kids in the skill positions, not only from Florida. Steve Ishmael will be the 12th or 13th kid I’ve coached from North Miami Beach High School. All of [head coach] Jeff Bertani’s kids have gone on to play football at all of the schools I’ve been at and (SU safety) Ritchy Desir we have in-house right now. We’re happy to get another one of Jeff’s players. I’m excited about the Florida kids. They can play both sides of the ball. It’s good to have kids come in and bolster our speed in our skill positions.”
On the number of wide receivers in the class and whether that is related to offensive coordinator George McDonald’s recent comments about opening up the offense next season:
“We have big wide receivers who can make plays when they’re covered. Part of opening up the offense is having guys that can make plays and make them when they’re covered. Corey Cooper is on campus now. He and [quarterback] A.J. Long are rooming together, they’re getting their feet wet and will be with us in the spring. There’s an example of two kids who give you the ability to open up the offense, both with their feet and down the field making plays.”
On Syracuse native and West Genesee standout Naesaen Howard:
“I first noticed Naesean Howard when he was finishing up 10th grade. I went to talk to [former head coach] Doug Marrone at the time and showed him the tape and he said, ‘We’ve got to get this kid. We can’t let this kid out of our own backyard.’ So we got the offer out to [West Genesee head coach] Joey Corley and he let Naes know and we’ve been watching him ever since. He almost killed my own son (Wolfgang) in a game a couple of years ago, knocking the heck out of him. He’s just a great kid, great personality and a strong student. He’s become a respected football player in the area and I know he’s excited to join the Orange.”
On how much depth SU will have at the wide receiver and quarterback positions:
“Our productivity needed to increase and the wide receiver position we have numbers above and beyond what you would like to have. When we went through the wide receivers I thought we had some high-quality kids who were interested in this offense, and saw who we were and who we weren’t, and they weren’t afraid to come in and compete.
“I was really pleased with the way [quarterback] Terrel Hunt finished the season. He’s a competitive person and I think the kids behind him, both on campus and now adding Alin Edouard to the mix, are guys who give us a chance to have great competition. There’s nothing better than competition, plus when I was at Northern Illinois, many years ago, we had our fifth-string quarterback starting for seven games due to injury. You can just never have enough of those guys.”
On what the response to Syracuse University football was when the staff went into homes to recruit:
“It’s easy to get the kids excited on the phone telling them what you want to do, but to finally get into the homes was extremely exciting for me. It was great to get to pass on our message. What was most revealing was that people knew that we won three bowl games in the last four years. People knew that we have a great education to offer. They were also impressed that we graduate 77 percent of our student-athletes, we only have 14 schools above us that are playing major college football from the big conferences. Our retention rate is 91 percent and in comparison, which we do a lot of, and when you put the numbers down it was so easy to sell a school like Syracuse. I always say, the hardest part of my job is to leave (wife) Missy and (kids) Wolf and Elsa during recruiting, but the greatest part of my job is to meet those involved in the lives of our recruits. It was a pleasure to get to know everybody. It’s the greatest part of my job.”
On what type of student-athletes he wants to bring into the program:
“The biggest thing we wanted to do was match up our core values here with these kids and make sure that it fit. It fit in most instances. I give our coaches a ton of credit for that. There were only a couple of occasions where I decided to go in another direction because I didn’t think that the character met the expectations and the high bar we’re setting here for the future.”
On whether or not any of the NLI signees will come in and make an immediate impact:
“We’ll know how good this class is in three to four years, honestly. On paper it’s a good class and around these kids I’m excited about it but the maturation and the speed of those kids, to be able to come in and make an impact, that will be different for each kid. In my opinion, you don’t want to anoint a kid for something that he did in the past. You want to give him credit for it and you want to be excited that he chose to come and play for your team and your system, but you also want to give that kid an opportunity to be a freshman. If that’s sitting back and waiting a year to play, then we have to make good decisions there. If there’s an opportunity for a youngster to come in and make an impact right away, then all the more power to him. I look at (wide receiver) Brisly Estime, we were excited as heck about him but there’s still that learning curve. Being away from home, learning a new system, learning the new verbiage, learning the playbook and all of the things you ask him to learn and then you add the academic structure. I hate to anoint kids before they get in here and prove themselves. We have a great football team coming back. We have a lot of quality young men who know what it takes to win and know where we need to be and how high that bar is in this conference. We’re going to start there and then turn it into a competition across the board like we always have.”
On the demographics of Syracuse’s the recruiting base:
“We targeted six or seven kids in the state of New York that we really wanted and we got those offers out to those kids early and we hit them hard and we came away with two commitments out of New York. To be quite honest, I would have loved to get all seven of those kids. We’re still fighting that fight to keep the kids at home and all we can do is continue to improve our product and hope that we can keep those kids at home.
“Just like South Florida, I’m indebted to Chicago. The years I was at Northern Illinois, the year I was at Illinois, we played Chicago kids. Some of those high school coaches are some of the most respected people in the business that I know. They know how (former Northern Illinois) Coach Novak and the assistant coaches took care of those kids and how we made sure that they graduated and how we made sure we did right by them so it is really easy for me to go back into those neighborhoods and talk to those people. There is a comfort factor.”
On what he has learned after two recruiting cycles:
“I let the recruiting staff go out and do their job. They know what we’re looking for. The thing that’s most comforting is not the fact that they bring players and say, ‘We’ve got some great players for you coach.’ It’s the fact that they come back and say, ‘These kids are rated really high but they don’t fit.’ We speak the same language. We’re going to keep doing what we’ve done. As long as we surround ourselves with people who want to play at Syracuse we’re going to be in good shape every year.”
On the emotions of the high school student-athletes on National Letter of Intent Signing Day:
“This is an exciting time. These kids are 17 or 18 years old, we just got done recruiting a bunch of teenagers (smile). They’ve been dreaming since they were little kids to go play football at a prestigious university. This is a new beginning. This isn’t an end point and now the real work begins. They were giddy on the phone and it’s a wonderful time for these kids. It needs to be celebrated today but give them a couple more days and then we’ll get to work.”
On the size of offensive and defensive linemen in the recruiting class, such as Denzel Washington and Wayne Williams:
“Denzel Ward, the first thing that he brings to the table is his attitude. He has a nice way about him. When you get a chance to talk to him, you’ll see what I’m talking about. He has that twinkle in his eye. He’s also a kid who brings physical attributes that you can’t coach. He’s about six feet and seven and a half inches and a little more than 300 pounds now. The thing I like about our big kids is that they’re big, long, lean-looking bodies that are going to continue to grow the right way. I’d much rather take a young man that can put the weight on the right way than a kid that you’re trying to take it off. That said, we had to go and get some beef at the defensive tackle position, starting with Wayne Williams. He’s an explosive player we’ve been trying to get in here for a long time. He had to go the junior college route but we’re excited he’s on campus now and [strength and conditioning coach] Hicks is working with him. The physical attributes to our big kids are impressive.”
On developing under-rated high school student-athletes into NFL-caliber players like Arthur and Chandler Jones:
“All of these kids have had a chip on their shoulder. Talking to [defensive lineman] Jalen Harvey, he’s in SEC country. A lot of people had offers when they were sophomores and the beginning of their junior year and he felt like he hadn’t even gotten on the field yet and all of these guys are committed and he knew he could play with them. To hear him speak like that reminded me of so many kids who have walked in here with a chip on their shoulder and our coaches did a good job projecting where they could be someday, not necessarily who they are today. Syracuse football, for years, has been a program that knows how to truly develop a young man. The kids who aren’t four and five star guys understand that there’s a lot of work to be done to get where they want to be so they’re hungry and I like kids who are hungry to play the game the way we want them to.”
2014 National Letter of Intent Signing Day
February 5, 2014
Opening Statement:
“Before I talk about the players who we’ve recruited I’d like to take my hat off to our recruiting coordinators Eric White and Cole Dial. They’re the unsung heroes, along with Laurene Porillo. They did such a great job and I’m so fortunate to have those folks on our staff.
“We went into the recruiting season a week after signing day last year, our focus was, one, to find a group of young men who were of character and fit the mold of what we’re looking for at Syracuse. Two, we wanted to do a really good job of having balance across the board. We had some skewed numbers when I first took the job a year ago and we had to find a balance. Our coaches did a nice job putting together a board that was deep and that adhered to the things we were focused on, and that’s finding high-character kids who can play the game and have great respect for truly being a student-athlete.
“In the secondary I was looking to bolster the numbers, both at cornerback and at safety, because those guys not only give you a chance to fill in the gaps with the couple of corners who we lost, but also to help us in the kicking game. I thought it was an area that we needed to improve upon with guys who can run and make plays in space. I’m excited about these guys that we took in the secondary.
“From a wide receiver point of view, the goal was to go out and find some long guys. I like tall, long receivers who can go up and make plays when they’re covered. Good wide receivers make plays when they’re covered so when we watch the tape, we weren’t just looking at 40-yard dash speed and we weren’t just looking at size, we were looking at who could make plays when people matched face-to-face with them.
“At the linebacker position we wanted to go out and get four to five linebackers, depending upon who was available. I felt really good about the three kids we’ve had committed for a long time and then we needed to find one more space player who could run and blitz, a Dyshawn Davis type of kid. We found that youngster.
“On the defensive line we lost (defensive tackle) Jay Bromley, but down the road we’re going to lose some other guys so we wanted to try and take two to three defensive tackles, and we’d take a defensive end if we thought we had a special player. We found that and we feel really good about that position.
“In my opinion you can never have enough quarterbacks, especially when they’re athletes. We learned a valuable lesson watching the Super Bowl and watching Russell Wilson play and how valuable it is to have a quarterback who can create and extend plays. I’m excited about our quarterback situation now.
“On the offensive line we lost (center) Macky MacPherson, but we have pretty much everyone back and ready to go, especially when (offensive tackle) Sean Hickey made the decision to come back. We said the only way we were going to take an offensive lineman is if we felt that they could play tackle, had some length and if we thought they could be exceptional players and we got two of those.
“It’s a tough year to try and recruit running backs because these kids knew that we had them stockpiled. We have kids who can play. We wanted a dynamic individual and we’d only take one. We wanted a kid who could play both at the tailback and even get out and play in the slot and give us a chance to catch the ball in the backfield and I think we found that guy.
“We wanted to find kids with leadership qualities. Eighteen of our kids were captains in high school and of those 18, we had four or five who were multi-year captains. I feel really strong about this class and I’m really excited and proud of the way our coaches and support staff went about finishing this class off, especially in these last two weeks, holding on to kids who were getting bombarded by a lot of people.”
On defensive back Lamar Dawson and his health issues:
“Lamar Dawson is a young man from Saint Rita High School. I’ve had a lot of success with that high school over the years. It’s in a Catholic league on the south-side of Chicago and they’re tough kids. The one thing about Saint Rita kids, especially in the secondary, they can play the game the way you want them too, but they’ve always been good tacklers. Coach Kuska I’ve known for years. He’s always in the state playoffs and vying for a state championship. Lamar is exactly what we’re looking for. He’s been ill, he’s had a strange viral situation. We’re going to hang on and see how he’s doing. If we need to, we’ll wait and bring him in January if we have to. He’s a great kid, he’s a good student and he has great parents. He comes from a family of faith and we’re excited to have him on board.”
On the number of NLI signees from the state of Florida:
“I’m excited about the Florida kids. They play a good brand of football. I really like the skill from down in that area, I have for many years. I feel indebted to the kids from South Florida. They’ve helped my career and made me look like a much better coach than I really am, especially secondary-wise and with the wide receivers over the years. We’ve got a top fleet of kids in the skill positions, not only from Florida. Steve Ishmael will be the 12th or 13th kid I’ve coached from North Miami Beach High School. All of [head coach] Jeff Bertani’s kids have gone on to play football at all of the schools I’ve been at and (SU safety) Ritchy Desir we have in-house right now. We’re happy to get another one of Jeff’s players. I’m excited about the Florida kids. They can play both sides of the ball. It’s good to have kids come in and bolster our speed in our skill positions.”
On the number of wide receivers in the class and whether that is related to offensive coordinator George McDonald’s recent comments about opening up the offense next season:
“We have big wide receivers who can make plays when they’re covered. Part of opening up the offense is having guys that can make plays and make them when they’re covered. Corey Cooper is on campus now. He and [quarterback] A.J. Long are rooming together, they’re getting their feet wet and will be with us in the spring. There’s an example of two kids who give you the ability to open up the offense, both with their feet and down the field making plays.”
On Syracuse native and West Genesee standout Naesaen Howard:
“I first noticed Naesean Howard when he was finishing up 10th grade. I went to talk to [former head coach] Doug Marrone at the time and showed him the tape and he said, ‘We’ve got to get this kid. We can’t let this kid out of our own backyard.’ So we got the offer out to [West Genesee head coach] Joey Corley and he let Naes know and we’ve been watching him ever since. He almost killed my own son (Wolfgang) in a game a couple of years ago, knocking the heck out of him. He’s just a great kid, great personality and a strong student. He’s become a respected football player in the area and I know he’s excited to join the Orange.”
On how much depth SU will have at the wide receiver and quarterback positions:
“Our productivity needed to increase and the wide receiver position we have numbers above and beyond what you would like to have. When we went through the wide receivers I thought we had some high-quality kids who were interested in this offense, and saw who we were and who we weren’t, and they weren’t afraid to come in and compete.
“I was really pleased with the way [quarterback] Terrel Hunt finished the season. He’s a competitive person and I think the kids behind him, both on campus and now adding Alin Edouard to the mix, are guys who give us a chance to have great competition. There’s nothing better than competition, plus when I was at Northern Illinois, many years ago, we had our fifth-string quarterback starting for seven games due to injury. You can just never have enough of those guys.”
On what the response to Syracuse University football was when the staff went into homes to recruit:
“It’s easy to get the kids excited on the phone telling them what you want to do, but to finally get into the homes was extremely exciting for me. It was great to get to pass on our message. What was most revealing was that people knew that we won three bowl games in the last four years. People knew that we have a great education to offer. They were also impressed that we graduate 77 percent of our student-athletes, we only have 14 schools above us that are playing major college football from the big conferences. Our retention rate is 91 percent and in comparison, which we do a lot of, and when you put the numbers down it was so easy to sell a school like Syracuse. I always say, the hardest part of my job is to leave (wife) Missy and (kids) Wolf and Elsa during recruiting, but the greatest part of my job is to meet those involved in the lives of our recruits. It was a pleasure to get to know everybody. It’s the greatest part of my job.”
On what type of student-athletes he wants to bring into the program:
“The biggest thing we wanted to do was match up our core values here with these kids and make sure that it fit. It fit in most instances. I give our coaches a ton of credit for that. There were only a couple of occasions where I decided to go in another direction because I didn’t think that the character met the expectations and the high bar we’re setting here for the future.”
On whether or not any of the NLI signees will come in and make an immediate impact:
“We’ll know how good this class is in three to four years, honestly. On paper it’s a good class and around these kids I’m excited about it but the maturation and the speed of those kids, to be able to come in and make an impact, that will be different for each kid. In my opinion, you don’t want to anoint a kid for something that he did in the past. You want to give him credit for it and you want to be excited that he chose to come and play for your team and your system, but you also want to give that kid an opportunity to be a freshman. If that’s sitting back and waiting a year to play, then we have to make good decisions there. If there’s an opportunity for a youngster to come in and make an impact right away, then all the more power to him. I look at (wide receiver) Brisly Estime, we were excited as heck about him but there’s still that learning curve. Being away from home, learning a new system, learning the new verbiage, learning the playbook and all of the things you ask him to learn and then you add the academic structure. I hate to anoint kids before they get in here and prove themselves. We have a great football team coming back. We have a lot of quality young men who know what it takes to win and know where we need to be and how high that bar is in this conference. We’re going to start there and then turn it into a competition across the board like we always have.”
On the demographics of Syracuse’s the recruiting base:
“We targeted six or seven kids in the state of New York that we really wanted and we got those offers out to those kids early and we hit them hard and we came away with two commitments out of New York. To be quite honest, I would have loved to get all seven of those kids. We’re still fighting that fight to keep the kids at home and all we can do is continue to improve our product and hope that we can keep those kids at home.
“Just like South Florida, I’m indebted to Chicago. The years I was at Northern Illinois, the year I was at Illinois, we played Chicago kids. Some of those high school coaches are some of the most respected people in the business that I know. They know how (former Northern Illinois) Coach Novak and the assistant coaches took care of those kids and how we made sure that they graduated and how we made sure we did right by them so it is really easy for me to go back into those neighborhoods and talk to those people. There is a comfort factor.”
On what he has learned after two recruiting cycles:
“I let the recruiting staff go out and do their job. They know what we’re looking for. The thing that’s most comforting is not the fact that they bring players and say, ‘We’ve got some great players for you coach.’ It’s the fact that they come back and say, ‘These kids are rated really high but they don’t fit.’ We speak the same language. We’re going to keep doing what we’ve done. As long as we surround ourselves with people who want to play at Syracuse we’re going to be in good shape every year.”
On the emotions of the high school student-athletes on National Letter of Intent Signing Day:
“This is an exciting time. These kids are 17 or 18 years old, we just got done recruiting a bunch of teenagers (smile). They’ve been dreaming since they were little kids to go play football at a prestigious university. This is a new beginning. This isn’t an end point and now the real work begins. They were giddy on the phone and it’s a wonderful time for these kids. It needs to be celebrated today but give them a couple more days and then we’ll get to work.”
On the size of offensive and defensive linemen in the recruiting class, such as Denzel Washington and Wayne Williams:
“Denzel Ward, the first thing that he brings to the table is his attitude. He has a nice way about him. When you get a chance to talk to him, you’ll see what I’m talking about. He has that twinkle in his eye. He’s also a kid who brings physical attributes that you can’t coach. He’s about six feet and seven and a half inches and a little more than 300 pounds now. The thing I like about our big kids is that they’re big, long, lean-looking bodies that are going to continue to grow the right way. I’d much rather take a young man that can put the weight on the right way than a kid that you’re trying to take it off. That said, we had to go and get some beef at the defensive tackle position, starting with Wayne Williams. He’s an explosive player we’ve been trying to get in here for a long time. He had to go the junior college route but we’re excited he’s on campus now and [strength and conditioning coach] Hicks is working with him. The physical attributes to our big kids are impressive.”
On developing under-rated high school student-athletes into NFL-caliber players like Arthur and Chandler Jones:
“All of these kids have had a chip on their shoulder. Talking to [defensive lineman] Jalen Harvey, he’s in SEC country. A lot of people had offers when they were sophomores and the beginning of their junior year and he felt like he hadn’t even gotten on the field yet and all of these guys are committed and he knew he could play with them. To hear him speak like that reminded me of so many kids who have walked in here with a chip on their shoulder and our coaches did a good job projecting where they could be someday, not necessarily who they are today. Syracuse football, for years, has been a program that knows how to truly develop a young man. The kids who aren’t four and five star guys understand that there’s a lot of work to be done to get where they want to be so they’re hungry and I like kids who are hungry to play the game the way we want them to.”
