Update: Syracuse and Scott Shafer confirmed the news. On top of the change at Offensive Coordinator, the quarterback will be different too. Terrel Hunt is out for at least a month with a fracture in his leg, a Fizz suspicion that was confirmed Monday. It’s a bad time for the #1 team in the nation to be walking into the Dome. The move is surprising in some ways because McDonald is a top recruiter for Shafer, but is probably the best move for the X’s and O’s of the team. The offense has been brutal with GMcD at the helm.
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The much-maligned George McDonald has been stripped of his play-calling duties and Tim Lester will take over, according to a report Sunday night from 247Sports.
BREAKING: Per source, Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer has demoted offensive coordinator / associate head coach George McDonald. Moving forward, quarterbacks coach Tim Lester will call the plays.
This could be the first of significant changes on the Syracuse offense. There is major worry within the program that Terrel Hunt’s injury is significant. ¬†He left after apparently hurting his leg Friday night. Shafer understands he’s at the precipice of this season spiraling down the drain. With a seemingly unwinnable game this weekend against #1 Florida State, the future is getting darker for this campaign.
The Fizz speculated this weekend McDonald could be stripped of his duties, simply because the attack is so toothless and Hunt has regressed. Hunt’s last three games have been particularly awful. But it seemed like SU would stay the course with McDonald so as not to publicly embarrass him since he’s one of the staff’s top recruiters.
In March McDonald said:¬†”We’re going to open it up on offense and go full-bore fast.¬†Like an Oregon, Texas A&M style of offense.” That feels like a punchline at this point.
It may be the 11th hour for this season, and Shafer knows there needs to be a dramatic change. Also, McDonald has never called plays at any level. He’s been exposed.
Lester served as the head coach at Elmhurst College for five seasons before joining Shafer’s staff. He also coached the quarterbacks at Western Michigan while Shafer was the Broncos defensive coordinator. If Lester is without Hunt for the next month, this makes the change even more interesting.
Posted: D.A.
19 responses to “McDonald Stripped of Syracuse Play-Calling, Lester Takes Over”
“Also, McDonald has never called plays at any level. He‚Äôs been exposed.”
First, of all, McDonald was the OC at WMU under Bill Cubit. I’m not sure how much play calling he had, but I’m sure as OC he had his fair share of calls.
Secondly, where you living under a rock last year? Did you not watch McDonald as the OC for Syracuse during their 7-5 campaign en route to winning the Texas Bowl?
I’m becoming more-and-more convinced that the real problem with Syracuse’s offense this year are the key losses of Pugh and Macky. The latter was the brains behind the offensive line, and took a lot of pressure off of Hunt (who is by my estimation, not that bright). Factor in the injuries to Estime, Broyld, and the loss of Jerome Smith and you can see why the offense is struggling.
Having said that, George McDonald does need to find some answers and if he can’t, then next man up. Tim Lester certainly can’t do any worse than GeorgeMcD has this year.
Correction: the key loss of Macky (Pugh was drafted the 2013, I was confusing the Giants drafting him last year with Bromley).
Clarification: The 2013 team finished 7-5, including a win at the Texas Bowl.
Lesson learned: finish coffee before commenting on articles.
If true that McDonald has been demoted, this is a correct and bold move by Shafer.
You have to believe that McDonald who is seemingly a very good recruiter, may leave then after this season.
We may see a few more decommits and lose out on more Florida talent as a result in the future.
Stumpy..I believe our record after the Texas Bowl was 7-6.
I’m kind of feeling where you are coming from in some respects. Like I said in one of the other threads(hell a lot of them). The offensive problems are a combination of things. I think its red meat to essentially write pieces that focus in on one individual as the blame for all the problems the team has been having. Its not as simple as pulling Hunt and starting Wilson, nor is it as simple as pulling GMCD(who I felt was not calling plays that are tailored to his particular player’s strengths). There are a multitude of problems with the team and its play. I’m not against a change of playcalling because I do still maintain that Hunt has enough talent to be a quality NCAA college qb. I haven’t really wavered on that despite his struggles.
When team’s don’t have that higher caliber of talent, the coaching and strategy goes a long way in success. We have seen programs over the years play good football despite not being pipelines for the 4 and 5 star guys. They find under the radar talent that fit their philosophy and they coach them up. Thats what the Orange has to do until they reach another level. I tweeted Danny Kanell yesterday to ask him whether or not it was premature to pull Hunt(I mentioned that the Offensive problems go beyond just a qb issue) and he agreed citing key injuries. If Hunt was the sole reason for the offenses struggles, I would say a qb change is warranted. Truthfully, Hunt is not very accurate but he isn’t so bad to where he needs to be pulled. His mobility has given an otherwise average offense some ability to get sizable gains in yardage. He throws the deep pass better than what he is given credit for. Everyone can definitely cite badly thrown passes, but I can cite badly dropped passes that could have been big plays and first downs.
Tim Lester has been working with the qbs, ofcourse, and may make it his mission to call plays to accentuate the strengths of Hunt(or Wilson if he is inserted into the lineup). This may seem counter intuitive, but I’d want to see Hunt get a chance to run more plays with 3-4 wr out there with a rotation of runners behind him. Yes it may seem weird having big boy AAM in with 4 wr since AAM doesn’t seem like a viable safety valve, but I see it this way: A combination of any 4 of this 5 , Ishmael, a healthy Broyld, Cornelius, Estime and West in a 4 wide can possibly create some nice opportunities for the runningback and a mobile Hunt to get chunks of yardage on carries. PTG and Morris seem to have enough speed to break runs. AAM can be good with a head of steam and I pity a db if he gets to the next level. Heck throw in a 5 wr set every now and then and challenge a defense downfield with Hunt’s legs being a viable option if he can’t find somebody. In the redzone, I honestly want to see the team attempt to go to Jamal Custis, K Moore, Flemming and Parris,. Maybe you get that one on one matchup where you let height and athleticism win out.
These ideas were with Hunt in mind as qb. But if Wilson gets to play, tailor the offense to meet his particular strengths and abilities. You may have to dust off Kobena and let him fly downfield. To close it out, I’ll support whoever the qb is, I just feel like blaming Hunt as if replacing him fixes everything is an overstated view
orangeinva;
I hope your wrong about more recruits decommitting. Looking back to the Maryland game Coach Shafer brought in KJ Williams and 7 or 8 other players from Milford Academy that included OL and DL. It seemed awful funny to me at the time that he would bring that many JUCO players in for a game. There must be something going on that we don’t know about. I wonder if more recruits have already decommitted and we’re not being told about it?
I too wonder i this affects recruiting..as kids usually commit to the guys who recruited them and not the school itself.
Brooklyn SU Football fan
Great piece kiddo,I believe that we are already using the 3 wr’s including the TE’s giving Hunt 5 recewiver’s set’s that your talking about. The problem is I believe “TUNNEL VISION”. Let me explain,when we line up and everyone knows it’s going to be a pass,the play is called for a certain receiver to get the ball and Hunt tries to get it to him. He doesn’t look over the whole field to see that other’s are standing WIDE OPEN waiting for the ball on the opposite side of the field. That happened over and over in the Louisville game.
I think we often look at talent and ability as the same thing. There are a list of college QB’s that have talent who even succeeded on the college level who didn’t have the ability to use that talent. Hunt has talent but I’m not sure if his ability matches his talent. Last year I wasn’t a fan of pulling Allen but it didn’t look like his teammates liked his leadership. Hunt came in and had success, not as much for his ability, but the overall effort of the team improved because it appeared they played harder for one of their own. This year’s expectations were too high for him and from the first game he has shown he can’t handle the pressure (I can’t name another QB that has ever thrown a punch before, probably because if they did they weren’t a good QB). Stripping play calling duties is a band-aid for a laceration. Our problems lie in lack of talent and poor execution. That is not going to change with a new OC, QB or even HC. It starts and ends with the players. They are going to have to be the ones who pick up their heads and start playing smart football. Coaches can scream, yell, coddle, be creative, and coach their hard noses off but if the players don’t execute smartly it doesn’t matter.
In the LVille game I can definitely see that T Vision more. That game was just a complete abomination. But I have seen him scan the field, slide his feet and find guys. . I think his main problem is not consistently being accurate. He doesn’t have the kind of ability to throw guys open or fit balls into tight spaces consistently. Thats bad when you don’t have a lot of dynamic guys who beat coverages regularly. Yes, there have been drops but there are times where we’d have sure fire gains but he lofts it a bit too much and a smaller guy like Estime just can’t get to it.
And schematically, I want to see them just throw 4 wr out there, tease some deep passes but then gash them on the ground. If the line holds up and gives PTG AAM and Morris holes, I can see them making a defense pay. I like the TEs and want to see them utilized, but I think having pure wr out there can help. I also want to see Broyld forced into being more than just the YAC guy(when he’s healthy). I look at Broyld and see a physical specimen who should be able to erase any qb targting areas that are in his catch radius. 6’4′ 221 and athletic. A slightly overthrown ball should be his. A redzone fade route should be his(and Custis’).
I think the color guys like Hunt and his possibilities a little more than the fans do. I’ve never called him elite(like one of the writers have) but he isn’t the “Big Problem” like this writer suggests either. In life, there are problems that boil down to one root cause. But there are other issues where a multitude of factors lead to it. I think this is a case of it being the perfect storm of issues resulting in bad offense. Everyone who has been here a while knows how much I like Hunt and how good I think Wilson can be(even predicted that he’d transfer and put up numbers in the preseason). But if the various parts of the offense don’t shape up all of our qbs are going to look like mush. The O Line has to get back to being aggressive with a chip on their shoulders. They need to take the line of scrimmage as a personal mission. If anyone gets by them to make a play on the qb or rb, they need to be personally offended by it. In run blocking they gotta wanna steamroll whoever is in front of them. PTG needs to do more north south and less dancing..and honestly, I want to see AAM get more carries in situations outside of the obvious short yardage since he has had some pretty good runs.
Alll in all I share in the frustration. Again, the game felt like a kick in the stomach. Each failed opportunity, each botched scoring opportunity, each poorly thrown ball, each dropped pass, each penalty just tore me up inside. But I tend to be an optimistic guy looking at the big picture because stewing and harboring negativity isn’t the healthiest …especially in regards to something that is meant to be entertainment like sports. I respect the opinions of everyone here because I know that you feel the same pain I feel when we lose football games. You all desire to see SU mentioned on the pre game shows. You want so badly for SU to be playing in major tv games and bowl games. You want to see Syracuse University announced as players are being drafted. You are all big time fans through all turmoil and trouble. I tweeted the injured Wayne Morgan and told him that I’m riding with this team through it all. That Brooklyn breeds em tough , so keep your head up and do the unthinkable. Lets see SU pull off a monumental upset!!!!!
Let the Wilson era begin. I’m done kicking a man when he’s down. Just saw hunt is out for 4-6 with a broken leg.
So it looks like all of the arm chair QB’s and OC’s will be getting our wish‚Ķ.McDonald is out as Play caller‚Ķand Wilson‚Ķ..or some QB other than Hunt will get his chance. I agree with Brooklyn all the way‚Ķ.our problems are multifactorial! More complex, than PHD level mathematics! We are changing a couple of variable, which could produce the desired result in a simple High School level calculus problem‚Ķ‚Ķ.We will all see if we are dealing with simple arithmetic..or Quantum Physics! If you have ever dealt with complex equations, you have to ask yourself, am I totally lost here, do I need to start over from scratch or do I need to change some more variables? Many would withdraw from the class, take an incomplete, and start over again next semester‚Ķ.What say you?
My freshman year at Syracuse was the last year of Archobold Stadium and I was there when we opened the Dome!!! I followed the great Floyd Little teams with my Dad and have bled Orange for a long time…not as long as some on this site, but a long time never the less. This program finds itself as I said in an earlier thread, staring into the Abyss. It is times like these that Leadership is tested, loyalties are tested, and yes, manhood is tested! It will be up to the collective men in the locker room to determine their own Destiny. Before our eyes, we will all see the results! I will be in Death Valley when the Cuse goes down to Clemson….I will be in Winston Salem, when the Cuse visits Wake. My family and I will be in our Orange and we will be rooting on our team! I hope to see some fight, some unity, some pride, some effort, and a never say die spirit!! We shall see……………..
orangeinva
You are correct…the orange finished 7-6 last year…I’m not sure what I was thinking.
McDonald’s demo ion is the right move . The decision must have been the result of pressure from above and th fans disgust with the offense. I’m certainly one of them. Losing the starting QB and facing FSU is more than a trial by fire.. This sturdy will no doubt be a another slaughter at the hands of an elite program in the country.Anyone tempted to ut money on this game and Syracuse would be better off making a donation to a favorite charity and get a bit of a tax break. This game is not going to be pretty. By half time it will be over.
Dr Bill…and anyone else… I will be at the Wake Forest game also and would be happy to shake your hand.
I’ll be noisy- can’t make the 2+ hour drive and sit on my hands!!
Ron
Milford academy is prep school not JUCO.
All players still have four years to play football.
Dan
I wondered where you took off to. Glad to hear from you again and thanks for the correction.
I’m here, I’ve just been taking it all in.. As is everyone else I’m disappointed in what I have seen.. Been to Nova and Maryland games. Watched Louisville game at Rosie’s with cheap beer and chicken wings in hand.
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