I'm really big on targeting the areas that I feel are necessary to give us a chance to win, and then practicing those types of things," Shafer said. "For instance, we talk about the first down and defensively we won that battle big time. Seventy percent of the time we won the first-down war. Our offense has the same exact goal, except they want to get four yards or more. They did a good job, but they were still a little bit short at 55 percent. Third down, both sides dominated. Defense was 86 percent in the win category. Offense was 59 percent, which their goal is 45 percent. READ MORE
| Syracuse (0-2) vs. Wagner (1-1) | |
| Date & Time | Saturday, Sept. 14 | 4:00 p.m. |
| Location | Syracuse, N.Y. | Carrier Dome (49,262) |
| Tickets | Box Office |
| Television | ESPN3.com |
| Radio | Syracuse IMG Sports Network |
| Game Notes | Syracuse | Wagner |
| Live Audio | SUathletics.com |
| Live Stats | SUathletics.com |
| Social Media | Facebook | @cuse |
| Twitter Hashtags | Tweet #orangenation Tweet #beatWagner |
| Football Blog | cusefootballblog.blogspot.com |
I'm fired up to be coming home and so are the kids," Shafer said. "I talked to the kids after the Northwestern game and I told them it will be good to come home and play in the dome and be in front of our home crowd and to get our students out there. We're excited to get the kids back on campus, play at the dome and get that first 'W'.Read the rest of the article here.
A chance to go to the Meadowlands and see Penn State come running out and see our Syracuse boys come running out is what it is all about. For me, it's a dream come true," Shafer said earlier today. "There are going to be highs and lows and ugly things and pretty things but at the end of the day that's the fight that we all love as coaches and players. It's the grind and the fight that you love. Saturday will be a great challenge and a great opportunity for us to see what we can do against a good football team and we're going to know a heck of a lot about ourselves after that game."
My first college job was a graduate assistant position for Bill Mallory at Indiana," Shafer said. "We opened up the season against a real good Notre Dame team and the head coach there was Lou Holtz. When I looked at those two guys, both from Ohio, where I am from, and coaching at the higest level, what I remember the most was during pre-game warmups Coach Holtz yelled at me for being on the wrong part of the field. I remember thinking, getting kind of pissed at him, thinking, alright we are in someone's backyard now and it's on. All the stuff I read about him went down the drain and I realized that it's on.
Good practice in the Dome today,” Coach Shafer said. “It was good because it was really hot. What we did was we had a mock-game today. We tried to throw as many situations as we could at the kids. We had a lot of personnel changes and made up injuries. We were trying to create a mock-game and I think they did pretty good with it.
The next two or three days are important,” Coach Shafer said. “We’re going to mimic a Tuesday and Wednesday regular season practice, which are the hardest days of the week. Then we will start moving forward and get into mock-situations where we think about everything and anything that could come up and then we will start to taper off with some of the contact.Check out the full coverage of today's practice:
It was a great time, the little kids all starry-eyed,” Macky MacPherson said. “It was a great time. They’re all giving a lot of effort. They’re ages 5-12, so those are the glory days of football. That was just a great time for everyone involved, and us included. I was laughing my butt off
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"The best thing about the day was having 30 military personnel come join us at lunch," Shafer said. "It was great to see our kids and their kids immerse themselves together and share some time together."
"There are multiple reasons we go to Fort Drum," Coach Shafer said. "First and foremost it's to get away, to be alone. There's no cell service, we're not going to have the internet and a lot of the luxuries the kids have on a day-to-day basis are going to be taken away from them and the coaches. There will be fewer distractions. The other reason we're going to Fort Drum is to be around the world's greatest military, and one of the greatest divisions in the military, the 10th Mountain Division."
"I had to watch my mom cry, and she always stressed that she wanted to work but nobody was hiring," Eskridge said. "Just seeing that look on her face, seeing how upset she used to be because she wanted a better life for us, I think something just clicked around my junior year that I just gotta do this for my mom."
"I'm looking forward to getting out there, everyone is going to be excited on day one," Shafer said. "Coaches, players, managers, everyone included, is going to be ready to go but we're going to set the tone, focus in on our initial objectives which are to work extremely hard and prove daily and start to gel as a team."