Now in his sixth decade of covering SU sports, Brad was sports director of WSYR radio for eight years into the early 1990s, then wrote the Orange Watch column for The Big Orange/The Juice print publication for 18 years. A Syracuse University graduate, Brad currently runs his own media consulting business in the Philadelphia suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @BradBierman.
Scott Shafer joined his 13 ACC counterparts on a media call Thursday to wrap up spring ball and gaze into the future of their programs, personnel, and with some coaches the upcoming College Football Playoff starting after next season.
Would you have believed it before the season if we told you that at 10-3 before facing Big East co-leader Notre Dame Saturday at MetLife Stadium, those loses would be versus Albany, Villanova and Hobart, and not among Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Princeton or Cornell?
Like Doug Marrone versus Minnesota in 2009, Shafer will have a chance to watch a likely quarterback battle for the starting job before opening up in his first game also against a Big Ten opponent.
Coming off the spring game Saturday and heading into summer workouts and August camp, we’ll begin to find out if Syracuse is good enough in Scott Shafer’s maiden season running the show to lasso one of the eight secured conference bowl tie-ins for 2013.
The first important aspect of each trip under Syracuse’s Hall of Famer has been three successful national semifinal performances against the likes of Providence (1987), Mississippi State (1996) and Texas (2003) to move on to play in the title game
On this his 50th anniversary of attending Syracuse as a student, serving as an assistant coach then head coach, he’s been part of all four of the school’s Final Four appearances, one each decade since the 1970s (1975, 1987, 1996, 2003).