Scott Shafer's Syracuse Defense
The Syracuse University defense ruined Homecoming Day for the Bulls and Daniels by sacking him four times and intercepting two of his passes while sending waves of blitzers at him from every angle conceivable. The result was a season-low 219 yards of offense for South Florida (3-2, 0-1 Big East) and a stunning 13-9 loss to a team they had defeated five consecutive times by an average of 24 points over the last five years.
“They pressure the ball,” Daniels said quietly. “They did a lot of different stuff.”
And that was the second half of the equation for the Orange defense. It was able to shut down the run game without allowing a touchdown pass for the third time in five games this season. A year ago Daniels completed 12 of 20 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-20 victory at Syracuse, with the TD passes traveling 85 and 33 yards. Saturday, he was 9-for-23 (.391) for 124 yards, zero TDs and two picks.
http://blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2010/10/syracuse_defense_smothers_sout.html
October 11th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
Is anyone else getting tired of people throwing in these cheesy pictures all the time? This thread has had pretty reasoned debate. This is not necessary.
October 11th, 2010 at 8:52 AM ^
I have paid a lot of attention to what is going on there. Skip Holtz may eventually do well, but USF would probably go 0-8 in the BT right now. Holtz is running an option, but has gotten rid of most of the spread plays. The players aren't experienced enough to cause the misdirection and chaos that it eventually will.
Michigan's defense would look great against USF, too.
October 11th, 2010 at 9:23 AM ^
decent from 04-07
total D
04- 36th - 339 y/g scoring D 29th
05- 15th - 310 scoring D10th
06- 62nd - 336 scoring D 20th
07- 7th - 301 scoring D 8th
All that is a far cry from now. Casteel may be a part of it, but I think talent and experience has more to do with it than anything
October 11th, 2010 at 9:48 AM ^
Gotta figure opponent/schedule strength plays some role in those numbers as well.
October 11th, 2010 at 9:48 AM ^
Akron, Maine, Colgate, South Florida.
Maybe USF is a good team, but they certainly aren't ranked. The one big school they played, UWashington, they got smoked 41-20
Let's not regret Shafer until his defense starts shutting down big east teams.
October 11th, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^
Picking one game against a midpack Big East team loses validation unless you mention what else they've done this year and against what type of competition.
I think Greg Robinson showed he's not afraid to dial up the blitzes but you see what can happen with our inexperienced secondary. I will take the defensive gameplan against MSU any day provided our secondary and linebackers learn from their mistakes and can improve their tackling as the season progresses. If they cannot do that, then just rush 3 or 4 and pray the d-line can get to the QB before he finds an open guy in coverage.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:10 AM ^
Syracuse's schedule is very soft outside of Washington, to whom they gave up 41. I don't see this as an indictment or validation of any DC. MSU was one game - let's see what happens this week. Knock off Iowa and we're all happy again.
October 11th, 2010 at 11:03 AM ^
I think this was one of the best discussion threads ever. I haven't had the time or experience to really understand the problem with M football. It's frustrating that we are losing and not sure who to blame. Defense - is it Coach Rod or GERG(btw why do we call him GERG). Is it the players lack of experience or talent. I just want to thank everyone, that this was very informative.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:39 PM ^
The blog Every Day Should Be Saturday wrote an article about Greg Robinson when he was coaching Syracuse and accidentally typed "Gerg," then decided that it would be a fitting nickname.
October 11th, 2010 at 11:29 AM ^
Remember when The Knowledge said Rex Ryan was coming to take over as D coordinator? Or was it head coach? Either way, that would have been damn nice.
October 11th, 2010 at 1:54 PM ^
There are too many variables to consider when comparing defenses of different teams and years, even if the common denominator is the same guy (Schaffer).
1, strength of schedule
2, amount of experience on the defense
3. penalties by the other team's offense
4. turnovers and what kind of turnovers made by the opposing team
5 what style of offense does the opposing offensive play
October 11th, 2010 at 2:14 PM ^
A good point. So we should break his body of work into silos. Let's see, horrible at UM, horrible at SU, questionably good at UT (co-DC), good in the NFL. What part of that exercise changes the conclusion?
October 11th, 2010 at 2:30 PM ^
October 11th, 2010 at 7:58 PM ^
I've wanted Robinson out for quite some time. If RR gives him another year we're going to have the same results. I'm tired of this paper thin bend and break shit. It doesn't work in the big ten and it didn't work anywhere else he's been. The guy just stands there and makes zero adjustments while RR and crew act clueless. With such a great offense it is a damn shame that we can't compete on defense at any level. It's actually ridiculous. I honestly think we could throw together steve sharik and a couple other guru's from this site and have a better product then what's on the field right now. In fact, I know we could. Mgoblog could run the defense better then Robinson could ever dream of.
October 11th, 2010 at 10:55 PM ^
It has been speculated that RR is the one who favors bend but don't break.
I guess he and Casteel would get into it from time to time, and WVU's defense has been far more agressive since RR left.
I have no stats to back this up. Just things I've heard, that seem interesting to me seeing the result of the last three years.
October 13th, 2010 at 12:10 AM ^
I feel like Schaffer was in a tough spot from the beginning
October 13th, 2010 at 1:23 PM ^
Anyone who doesn't think that RR knows this defensive problem may cost him his job is naive. RR knows. Now if it doesn't get fixed by next season, which I believe means replacing GERG who has no track record of building a strong D, then we do not challenge for B10 and RR gets fired. RR knows this and Brandon knows this. Because as stacked as we will be on offense next year, if we don't challenge for a B10 title then we never will under RR.
As to GERG's track record... it's not good. I think we all know that. Shaffers success is just more evidence.The facts have been laid out on several occasions, and he just flat-out didn't work out here as well. It's pretty obvious. Brandon needs to hire a PROVEN top-notch DC and make him the highest paid assistant in college football. Start the search now.
October 16th, 2010 at 2:47 PM ^
Pitt has put up 35 so far today against this defensive genius. Washington already put up 41 against him this year.
Though I guess he did shut down those "college football powers" of Akron, Maine and Colgate...