When Doug Marrone left for the Buffalo Bills, he took a total of seven coaches from Syracuse with him. After Scott Shafer was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach, he reached into his coaching past to build the Orange’s new staff. Syracuse’s new coaches not only have vast coaching experienced, but also have strong recruiting backgrounds. The Daily Orange broke down Shafer’s staff, and looks at their backgrounds in football.

 

Scott Shafer

Head Coach

Doug Marrone left Syracuse for the Buffalo Bills after going 25-25 in four years. With an 8-5 season and a Pinstripe Bowl win, the Orange has momentum heading into the Atlantic Coast Conference. Now Shafer, Syracuse’s defensive coordinator for the past four years, takes over. Shafer’s promotion gives the program stability, and helps keep the program moving without forcing the players to get to know a new coach. This is Shafer’s first head coaching job, but his familiarity with the program and players makes him a logical choice.

Shafer showed the attitude he will instill in his team at his fiery introductory press conference, talking about the hard-nosed team Syracuse will be.

Said Shafer: “We want to put the fear of God into the opposing football player that happens to have the ball underneath his arm.”

Chuck Bullough

Defensive Coordinator

One of Scott Shafer’s closest friends, Bullough brings a tough attitude to SU as the team’s new defensive coordinator. A former linebacker at Michigan State, he worked with Shafer at Western Michigan in 2005. They’ve remained close for the last eight years, and Shafer’s first move as head coach was to bring Bullough aboard. Bullough was a defensive assistant for the Cleveland Browns the last two seasons, but worked as UCLA’s defensive coordinator in 2009. Like Shafer, Bullough will run a 4-3 defense with the Orange.

“Obviously going into the ACC, we’re going to have our work cut out for us,” Bullough said, “but we’re going to be ready for that.”

Many of Bullough’s former players say he’s a defensive guru, and that he’ll make sure Syracuse’s defense is extremely rugged and physical.

 

George McDonald

Offensive Coordinator

Syracuse ran a no-huddle, hurry-up offense this season that McDonald plans to continue.

“My vision for the offense is that it’s going to be an up-tempo, exciting offense,” McDonald said at his introductory press conference. “But the thing everyone needs to know is that it’s going to be a physical offense.”

He worked with former Orange offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett at Stanford, and the two share similar offensive philosophies. McDonald was the wide receivers coach at Miami for the last two seasons. He left in December to work at Arkansas in the same role, but within a month he joined Scott Shafer at Syracuse. McDonald also spent time as the wide receivers coach at Minnesota, where he mentored Denver Broncos standout receiver Eric Decker. In addition to his strong coaching background, McDonald is also known as one of the country’s top recruiters. He knows the South Florida area well from his time at Miami, and that’s an area the Orange has excelled in recruiting-wise in recent seasons.

 

Tim Lester

Quarterbacks

The new quarterbacks coach comes to Syracuse from Division-III Elmurst (Ill.) College thanks to his relationship with head coach Scott Shafer. Lester was the quarterbacks coach at Western Michigan in 2005 and 2006 when Shafer was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator. Lester will replace Nathaniel Hackett, who was the quarterbacks coach in addition to Syracuse’s offensive coordinator a year ago, then left with Doug Marrone to the Buffalo Bills earlier this month. Lester’s already-tough job of developing Ryan Nassib’s replacement under center got a bit tougher this month when quarterback recruit Zach Allen flipped his commitment from the Orange to Texas Christian. Charley Loeb, Terrel Hunt, John Kinder, running back Ashton Broyld and incoming freshmen Austin Wilson and Mitch Kimble all figure to be in the mix as SU’s starter.

 

Clark Lea

Linebackers

When former linebackers coach Steve Morrison resigned earlier this month, it left Syracuse with a void. Lea, who held the same role at Bowling Green a year ago, stepped in. He was the linebackers coach at UCLA for three years prior to the season he spent with Bowling Green, during which time he worked with Chuck Bullough. The linebacker position should be a strength for the Orange as Marquis Spruill, Dyshawn Davis and Cameron Lynch return.

 

Patrick Perles

Offensive Line

When Greg Adkins left his role as offensive line coach at Syracuse to join Doug Marrone with the Buffalo Bills, the biggest void he left seemed to be on the recruiting trail where he was widely respected as the Orange’s top recruiter. But it also left a hole as offensive line coach. SU has yet to confirm the hire, but Perles is listed in the Syracuse University directory as an assistant football coach. Recent commit Alex Hayes’ high school coach Bryan Lamar also confirmed to The Daily Orange that Perles has been hired as offensive line coach. Perles was an assistant coach with the Kansas City Chiefs from 2009-2011, where he was a defensive quality control coach and then an assistant offensive line coach in 2010 and 2011.

 

DeAndre Smith

Running Backs

Smith joins the Orange after a decade of assistant coaching at the Division-I level, almost entirely as a running backs coach. He coached the Atlanta Falcons’ Michael Turner at Northern Illinois from 2001-2003. There, he worked with Scott Shafer and George McDonald for the first time. Smith himself starred as a triple-option quarterback for Southwest Missouri State from 1987-1990, winning All-American honors in 1990. He also won a French league title playing with the Aix-en-provence Argonauts in 1993.

Smith replaces Tyrone Wheatley, who joined former head coach Doug Marrone in Buffalo in the same role.

 

Tim Daoust

Defensive Line

Daoust is one of two holdovers from the Doug Marrone era on Scott Shafer’s staff. He began working under the then-defensive coordinator as a graduate assistant from 2002-2003 at Northern Illinois. He also linked up with Shafer for the 2006 season at Western Michigan as the defensive line coach. Daoust rejoined Shafer at SU in 2011 as the defensive ends coach, where he coached Chandler Jones. Jones was picked as No. 21 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft and recorded 45 tackles, six sacks and three forced fumbles in his rookie season.

 

Rob Moore

Wide Receivers

The only former Syracuse player on staff, Moore is the other holdover from Doug Marrone’s staff. This will be just his sixth year of assistant coaching, all of which he’s spent as a wide receivers coach. After earning All-American and Syracuse All-Century honors as a player starting from 1986-1990, he went on to a 12-year NFL career during which he was named to the Pro Bowl twice – once with the New York Jets in 1994 and again with the Arizona Cardinals in 1997. He returned to his alma mater in 2010.

Published on January 29, 2013 at 1:24 am