(01-20-2017 04:28 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote: As we've talked about we don't even need Shafer to be great. As good as the offense is we just need a serviceable defense.
Your defense will be far more than serviceable. The guy is honestly one of the best DC's in the game - at any level.
His defensive schemes are also a ton of fun to watch. They're incredibly aggressive, and they're very adaptive. You will suffocate the other team's offense by the end of the game.
He's also great w/ players, and a great human being - in general.
He didn't work at SU because he had to hire a staff very late in the year due to A) Doug Marrone's late departure and B) the fact that Doug took almost all of his old staff w/ him. And, since the staff hiring process was very last minute and on a tight budget, the only people that SS could hire were his friends from his days in the MAC. He then went to a bowl in his first year, so he couldn't really change staff.
Then weak assistant coaches impacted year 2, and he shook up the staff - especially on offense.
And graduations and new coaches settling in impacted year 3, as he was fired about halfway through the year by a new AD who didn't really give SS a shot to succeed.
However, while a DC at SU, SS instantly turned SU's defenses into a force to be reckoned w/. And, he had just started turning around the SU offense. SU's ppg rank improved by 40 spots between years 2 & 3. In fact, if you pace adjust, SS' offense was actually more effective in his last year than current Dino Baber's offense was last year.
Dino is SU's current HC, and he runs the Art Briles Baylor offense.
Also, the AD that fired SS left to be the AD at Minnesota, and the mishandling of the FB players this year happened under his watch. His judgement is very, very questionable.
That's the very long way of saying that MTSU just made an absolutely amazing hire.
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Scott Shafer Middle Tennessee's New Defensive Coordinator
