Tuesday night George McDonald said he was “blindsided” by the news of his demotion, and that he never would’ve left Arkansas if he knew the rug would be pulled out from under him in just 18 games at the offensive coordinator.
These are the soap opera details that we alluded to on Sunday when speculating about McDonald’s future as OC. It was clear A) the offense was stagnant and B) Terrel Hunt was stuck in a rut. So the move to Tim Lester as the play-caller would appease fans in the short-term, but would it alienate one of SU’s best recruiters in the long-term?
For the moment, it sure seems like McDonald has been rubbed raw. He remains on staff, and insists he will remain hard-working and positive through this. However, in his first opportunity to put on a smile and do the “good soldier” act, he went in the other direction. He admitted to crying when he heard the news, and said¬†he didn’t sign up to be demoted before the halfway point of Year 2.
What does it mean for the season? There may be players who feel loyal to McDonald who are bothered by this, especially since he has now suggested this was an unfair hook. If Lester’s offense is more productive however, players will eventually buy in. Their scholarships and playing time are on the line. There could be tension on the staff, though. One has to imagine Scott Shafer isn’t happy with McDonald being so candid. Will McDonald resent any success Lester achieves?
What does it mean for recruiting? A more diabolical question. Recruiting is incredibly reliant¬†on relationships with high school coaches. They steer kids your way, give you inroads to certain families, and paint your program in a positive or negative light. There’s no secret McDonald has many very close and strong relationships throughout South Florida and elsewhere. Will his contacts feel like Syracuse shafted McDonald? Will high school coaches be less inclined to sell the SU program to their kids and families? Will McDonald leave in the offseason and land at another school?
All of this is in play now for the Orange, a drama-filled season just turned more dramatic. Not what the Orange needed.
Posted: D.A.
12 responses to “McDonald Speaks Out: Trouble Brewing on Syracuse Coaching Staff”
None of us on the outside really know what’s going on‚Ķ.on the “Inside.” We can only speculate. It appears to me that coach Shafer is feeling the heat and was most likely pressured/influenced in making this decision. We as fans are pushing the panic button too fast‚Ķ..calling for Shafer to be fired‚Ķ.Gross to fired‚Ķ.and if the Chancellor wasn’t new‚Ķ..people would be calling for his head as well. WOW‚Ķ‚ĶThe ship that is SU football is taking on water‚Ķ‚Ķ.but remember, ships can do that and do‚Ķ.do that without sinking!!! Shafer, as the Captain, it is his job to see that it doesn’t sink. He had to demote one of his leaders and his friend, for a poor performance. The question that I am asking is this: As the leader, did shader do all that he could do to see that this problem was fixed without having to demote McDonald? Could McDonald and Lester have worked better together‚Ķlike maybe Lester took over the play calling in the games? Who says the offensive coordinator has to call the plays? Doug Marone was the OC in New Orleans‚Ķ..yet, Shawn Patton called the plays!! I was not happy with the play calling like all of us, but McDonald has value, he is our best recruiter in the most talent rich region of the country. Life is all about relationships‚Ķ..could we not have solved this offensive problem and preserved McDonald’s loyalty and commitment to the program? Where is the Win-Win strategy here? This move tells me more about Shafer’s leadership than it does about McDonald’s. This move tells me that shader must be planning to blow up the staff and make multiple changes‚Ķ.he just threw dynamite into the coaching room without yelling “fox in the hole.”
I actually read the news reports about what McDonald said before I saw the tape of his interview. After watching the tape and looking at McDonald and hearing his answers, I now feel a little better. I think the media is making way too much of this. I have no idea why he even felt the need to apologize! He was asked direct questions about how he felt‚Ķand he gave direct honest answers. We often complain about politicians and coaches and people in the public eye being asked difficult direct questions and not answering them either at all or certainly not honestly. What I heard was a man who was hurt by being removed from a job that he enjoyed, worked hard for, and felt he was not given enough time to achieve the desired results. When asked, he supported his fellow coach and replacement!!!! He said he would work hard to support Lester and work hard at his new assignment as wide receivers coach. He supported Syracuse University as well. All of the staff members are professional coaches, they know the territory and the environment in which they work. I heard nothing “Unprofessional” come out of McDonalds’s mouth. Mcdonald, just like the entire team, now has to regroup. He seems like an honest hard working guy, and I hope he is able to stay at the Cuse beyond this year.
Dr Bill
You have way to much time on your hands. Lincoln used less words in the Gettysberg Address…. at least he said something!
MCD has done a bad job… it’s cakled accountability.
Many of us have been calling for Gross to take a walk for years… way back to the GRob days!
He is a midget sicophant!
Cuse 17
Leave me alone! You are starting to sound like a Cyber Bully. I may have to report you to the authorities!!!!!
Why is everyone blaming George McDonald for his candor? The person that deserves the blame is Head Coach Scott Shafer. He hired these people, put them in place, and doesn’t have answers or control over his staff. Hopefully Lester will get the offense straightened out (which may be easier without Hunt, but still a tall order using a RS frosh), but there are still systemic issues with this staff. Maybe McD is toxic and he is the problem, I don’t know… we’ll soon find out and if Shafer doesn’t have any real answers or solutions then he should be terminated.
let’s see… when you attacked me…
“negative, don’t need your opinion on this site..who are you”…
etc… that was fine… when you turn out to be completely wrong I’m a bully!
Stick with girls basketball!
Sorry this team sucks the big one. Even if the best OC in college football was there, there is no hope for SU!!!!! The talent level for YEARS is way off. And this year it shows. The Ron 2 stars and NR’s are not doing it. Sorry Ron, but hope and prays got SU into this mess. I feel GROB all over again!! But didn’t SU at least beat ND back then!!
I like HCSS but he’s hokey. He’s starting to sound like GROB too!! SU after this season needs to sit down and figure this out. Either be a DIV 1 talent college football program or be a DIV 1 talented program always the laughing stock of NCAA COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!
But at the same time I think McDonald was out of line opening his mouth. Hell we can’t get info on injured players so he should keep his mouth shut too!! Personally he’ll never be the same now. Let him go now. Let the ripples hit where they may. They are any way. He’s history. If he’s bitchy about it fire him.
Now is the time to recruit a quality 3 star or better QB. SU has NO ONE on the bench now who can play. Sell that to a quality HS QB and it might sell for staring time next year. PSABUSEDU just lost their QB from NJ. Why not SU too!!
DO NOT FORGET THE KIDS OF PSABUSEDU!!! THE NCAA DID!!
Good article. The season is going down the toilet, and Shafer handled this in an amateurish fashion, kind of like the press conference after the Louisville game. The team will be lucky to finish 4-8 and McDonald is gone after the season. Truth be told, he shouldn’t have been given playcalling responsibilities to begin with, or at least not sole responsibility. It would’ve made far more sense to have co-coordinators and that would’ve given McDonald a little more room to grow on the job. Shafer should not be reacting to what amateur critics think, rather he should take a page out of Boeheim’s book and view the press and the fans as what they are: people who are interested in the program who have incomplete information about the workings of the program. Shafer needs to do what he can to limit the recruiting damage, and SU could probably help by either negotiating an exit for McDonald now, or paying him a coordinator’s salary to be the recruiting beast he is, and the wide receivers coach. That may not work, but he won’t get a job with a major conference team as a coordinator. This season has proven he isn’t ready yet. Shafer should be given 4 years since GRob was, and at this point, there’s not enough to justify firing him. Finally, I am sick of the “fire Gross” talk. Some interpret that as thinly veiled racism. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I remember Jake Crouthamel, and Dr. Gross is about 1000 times better as an AD than Jake was. In Jake’s day, SU was rarely competitive in any sport other than men’s lacrosse, men’s basketball, and for about a decade, football too. That was due to Coach Mac, and not Jake. Dr. Gross has improved all the other nonrevenue programs, including the long suffering men’s soccer and women’s field hockey programs. He has demanded excellence out of all the coaches, and the overall athletic program has never been stronger. Maybe some locals don’t like the games in MetLife, but SU got over $1 million for each of those games on top of the TV money. If SU was selling out the Dome every week, maybe games in MetLife wouldn’t be needed. However, SU is lucky to get 40,000 into the Dome. Yes, the program’s struggles are the justification for some who don’t go to games. However, if you want the program to improve, it needs money to improve. If fans aren’t filling the Dome, SU will continue to play elsewhere in its quest for more revenue. That’s exactly why they are about to sign a contract for a series of games at Yankee Stadium, and SU’s take from those games will be even more than the games at MetLife. So, please put the Gross must go talk to rest. He’s doing everything he can to build the entire athletic program, particularly the football program, into a national power. He was a big part of the move to the ACC. Be glad he’s proactive, otherwise SU would be in the AAC and that would be far worse than the current situation.
Dr. Bill
Look,when you talk about Nancy Cantor being fired your correct. I said even before she stepped on Campus it was a huge mistake by the board of trustees to even have hired her in the first place. you should have looked at her doings while she was Chancellor at the University of Illinois where she almost totally destroyed the athletic dept and to this day haven’t fully recovered from the damage she caused. While at Syracuse University,she raised the schools debt 300% from $145 million to $459 million dollars and not one penny of that money went into the athletic dept for any up grade’s to it’s facilities.
Should we fire Dr.Gross? That’s a real good question. Kind of presents itself as a double edged sword,doesn’t it? On one hand Gross does a fair job at raising money for the athletic dept. and on the other hand I feel he’s in over his head as athletic director. i’ve said it before,if he was so dam good why did he leave USC to come here? I figured you being an alumni that you would have the answers to a question like that. I agree with “CUSE17” it’s time for him to go.
It had to be someone in the media who started the rumor of having Coach Shafer fired at the end of the season. I honestly believe that he’s the man that will turn the program around and letting him go would be a huge mistake. I say give him a couple more years to recruit and possibly bring in a couple of different coaches to help him right the ship and things will be good at Syracuse University again. We need to be patient and get behind and support him as our head coach.
Rumor’s going around the univerasity is the new chancellor Kent Syverud,is cleaning house of all of Nancy Cantor’s cronies and that he’s currently spending money faster than what Cantor had done. We’ll all know if they are true when and if Dr. Gross is relaesed from his duties and joins Nancy Cantor at Rutgers and if they renovate the chancellors private box at the dome ,making it bigger and adding luxury seating to it. If it’s true that he’s spending money faster than Nancy Cantor,how much of it is going to the athletic dept? Did he give the coaches more money? You graduated from Syracuse University and became successful by becoming a doctor. Congratulations,maybe if you gave the new chancellor a call and asked him questions about his plans on supporting the team in the future ,we might get to the ACC & National Championship game’s faster.
Ron, as an alum myself I can tell you that I have absolutly not communication pathway to the chancellor. I doubt there is 10% of the entire alumni that has that access. I don’t agree that Jake was a joke when compared to anybody. I do agree that Gross has improved all the other non-revenue sprts. I don’t feel teh overwhelming urge to see Dr. Gross go. I understand that some don’t think his money is well spent, and I too would like to see more dollars put to the football program (or maybe just free it up to be used faster and more strategically). I do beleive the Syverud is only still trying to get a grip on what is being spent where, because I hear that was a huge mess of hidden spending and unreported expenses. I am assuming that the “increased spending” (this is the first time I am hearing of that Ron) might simply be the chancellor finally getting the house in order and properly report what is spent by whom and where (i.e. still Nancy’s over-spending). She is making no friends in Newark either, I can assure you.
On the topic of the article, I think both Shafer and McDonald handled this poorly. Shafer should have addressed this much more quietly behind closed doors. I would have assumed he could have handed the calling to Lester and left McD in place as the OC or co-OC. That may have kept peace and lasted the season. What McDonald did by going to teh press and to some extent, pouting is bad, but what he said about Shafer, and most importantly “trusting” Shafer and believing Shafer would give him more time, while probably all valid points, calls the man’s integrity out. I don’t think that’s fair, and it will hurt recruiting. The fact that McD was not ready for the OC position is nobodies fault but McD’s. That he was put in that position is Shafer’s doing, but I beleive he did what he thought he needed to to get a high level Florida recruiter. Anyone could see that the on field product was not working. Both coaches are sloppy and lack the necessary discipline.
Any recruit, whether from Florida or Anywhere else, should not be rattled by this. The guy was clueless as an OC, but was given a chance and did not succeed. Any recruit on the fence now should look at how McD acted up in response to the decision. His comments were toxic, in essence hurting the spirit of the players. McD seems to be one of those guys who loves everybody when things are going well and his way. Young men, that is not what you need for UPS and downs of competition. You’ll have a chance to start at Cuse, and shine in the ACC with a solid staff who will boost your confidence. All McD did with his comments was hurt morale. His comments may have made him feel better, but that’s self serving.
Dang, they can be a good small bit of write up which i’ve discovered with regard to lengthy long term. Do of course drop by a few web.