Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim doesn't see 2015 as a make-or-break year for football coach Scott Shafer.
Shafer is 10-15 in his two seasons at Syracuse. He was 7-6 in his first year and the Orange went to the Texas Bowl. However the team was 3-9 last year and scraped past FCS-level Villanova at the beginning of the season. Before he was hired as Syracuse's head coach, Shafer was the team's defensive coordinator for the past four seasons.
"Coaching is very hard at this level and you have to work very hard," Boeheim said. "Coach Shafer, I think, works as hard as anybody I've ever been around.
"Obviously, it takes some time. I think Coach (Dick) MacPherson was here four years and he had a losing record (18-25-1, before going 48-21-3 in his final six seasons). But everybody out here thinks they should win this year or we need a new football coach. And that's the most ridiculous way to think that I've ever heard in my life.
"And everyone standing right here thinks that. And that's ridiculous. I mean, you gotta give coaches a chance to get things going and to get the job done. And we all have to support those coaches. There's going to be ups and downs. You have to understand that.
"Mike Krzyzewski would have gotten fired after four years (62-57). He didn't have a good record (at Duke). You have to be patient. You have to wait. We have an athletic director, I think, who knows what he's doing and I think he'll make good decisions, based on everything I know."
His first two seasons have coincided with Syracuse's move to the ACC. And also with the success of Clemson and Florida State. The Orange are in the Atlantic division along with the Seminoles and Tigers, though they played the two teams much closer in 2014 than they did in 2013.
Shafer also enters his third season with a new athletic director. Mark Coyle is the school's AD after Daryl Gross resigned in March. His resignation also came when the school said Boeheim would retire in three years following the results of an NCAA investigation into misconduct within the basketball team. So while Boeheim is the most influential person in the Syracuse athletic department, his words may not have the same sway that they did a few years ago.
A coaching switch after three years would be hasty, but certainly not unprecedented. Will Syracuse and Coyle think about it if 2015 is a repeat of 2014?
For more Syracuse news, visit CuseConfidential.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
