Scott Shafer is reportedly turning to two former colleagues to take control of Syracuse’s offense.

According to reports, Arkansas wide receivers coach George McDonald will be the Orange’s new offensive coordinator, while former Elmhurst College head coach Tim Lester will be Shafer’s quarterbacks coach.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Tuesday that McDonald was leaving Arkansas. SportinglifeArkansas.com reported he was headed to Syracuse to take over as the Orange’s offensive coordinator.

McDonald was at Miami in 2011 as the Hurricanes’ wide receivers coach, and was with the Cleveland Browns the previous two seasons in the same position. McDonald was the offensive coordinator at Western Michigan in 2005 and 2006. He also spent time on the coaching staffs at Minnesota, Stanford, Illinois, Bucknell and Ball State.

On Monday, Lester stepped down from his position at Elmhurst. Footballscoop.com reported he would join Shafer as Syracuse’s quarterbacks coach. Lester was the quarterbacks coach at Western Michigan in 2005 and 2006 when Shafer was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator.

Lester led Division-III Elmhurst to a 10-2 record in 2012. In Lester’s five seasons as head coach, Elmhurst went 33-19. As a player, Lester was Western Michigan’s all-time leading passer. He was fifth in NCAA history in passing yards with 11,299, and seventh in touchdown passes with 89 when he graduated from WMU in 2000.

He also spent time playing in the Arena Football League, the Arena Football League 2 and the XFL.

In a press release Monday, Elmhurst announced Lester was resigning as head coach to take an assistant coaching position at “a Division I institution.”

Nathaniel Hackett was Syracuse’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the past two seasons, but left to join Doug Marrone in Buffalo as the Bills’ offensive coordinator.

Both Hackett and Marrone were responsible for building the Orange’s up-tempo, no-huddle system this past season.

McDonald and Lester and taking over an offense that will have a new quarterback and two new wide receivers.

Published on January 15, 2013 at 1:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman