Syracuse football coach Scott Shafer.
Scott Shafer is the son of a football coach. He captained the Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets as the star quarterback of the Division III squad in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Former Syracuse Orange punter Rob Long said tonight Coach Shafer still throws the tightest spiral the Carrier Dome has seen in years. Shafer has bounced his family across the country including stops at Stanford and Michigan before settling in Syracuse four years ago. Now it looks like he is signed up for an even longer hitch. He's going to be the head man in charge.
His introductory news conference as Doug Marrone's defensive coordinator four years ago made it apparent that Shafer is highly articulate in the language of football success. He talked about his roots as a young assistant coaching at Rhode Island where he picked the brain of former Syracuse coach George Deleone when they met out on the recruiting trail. He talked about the importance of recruiting the kids from New York and New Jersey. That's a game plan that was in sync with Doug Marrone then and will serve Shafer and the program well as they work to close to deal on recruits that have been nervous over the last week as they watched Marrone leave for the Buffalo Bills.
Shafer and his wife Missy settled in the Manlius area four years ago with their daughter Elsa and their son Wolfgang. Wolfgang ended up quarterbacking the Fayetteville-Manlius Hornets to some pretty strong seasons the last couple of years. On Twitter tonight Wolf said, "proud of my Dad, living the dream." That Tweet came out about the same time CBSSports broke the story that Shafer had received the offer from Athletic Director Darryl Gross.
Scott Shafer talks family when he talks football too. He talks about the need to commit to success everyday to pull a football team together into a winning program. He is on the front end of the curve of the attacking nature of today's football.
By the way, while being serious about his dedication to the winning he also has a friendly presence and a nice sense of humor. A reporter asked him before the Pinstripe Bowl what kind of weather he would prefer. He said he'd like subzero temperatures and fifteen or twenty inches of snow. He smiled a bit saying that would help his defense a little more than it would the offense. As of tonight he now officially has to worry about both sides of the ball.
Most of us would not recognize Scott Shafer if we saw him at Wegmans. Pretty soon he will become one of the best known faces in town.
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