Scott Shafer took a wide look at Syracuse’s 28-6 loss to Louisville on Friday night. A really wide, retrospective look.  

Here’s what SU’s head coach had to say when asked about the emotions experienced during the loss:

“No despair. I’m the luckiest guy alive. I see ISIS is out there cutting people’s heads off. The real world’s got some major problems. Some major problems. And we’re just so doggone lucky to be coaching and playing a sport and being criticized for not getting a call made with a couple seconds left in the game, or being criticized for not catching a dead pig with air in it. To me, life’s pretty damn good. And I’m so lucky to be having to field these types of questions, and I feel so blessed to be a football coach. And I’m living the dream. Every once in a while it’s uncomfortable, but that’s what makes the highs so much better.”

And when asked how the Orange will regroup in the eight days leading up to its game against No. 1 Florida State, Shafer continued:

“… You beat yourself up when you watch the film and go through a little bit of depression until you turn on CNN and see what’s going on out there. Then you say you’re pretty lucky, because life is pretty damn good. We just go to work and fight our butts off and try to teach the kids to be tough. And if they start to look at each other and point a finger for a quick second, we grab their hand and put the thumb in their chest and tell them, ‘Don’t be a finger-pointer.’”

Shafer’s postgame press conference was a deeper look at a loss where the Syracuse offense gave up four points on two safeties and only scored six. A loss where the touchdown horn behind the Syracuse end zone fired off two false alarms — one on a penalty and another on a dropped pass. A loss that left Shafer talking more about the game of football and the anatomy of “toughness” than the negative tally in the standings.

“… I think there’s a huge misconception of what toughness is. Toughness isn’t just the physicality of it, toughness is the ability to get your mind in a very nice place where you can execute better and find that balance. That’s toughness.

“Being soft is not having the fortitude to be able to say to yourself, ‘I’ve got to stop thinking about the negatives.’ Mental toughness is saying, ‘I’m going to get it done’ when someone asks why didn’t you catch the ball because you dropped it. You can’t be a smart-aleck about it, but you’ve got to get your mental toughness to get to the point where you believe what you’re saying. It’s a self-fulfilling philosophy. It takes ability and it takes heart.”

Published on October 4, 2014 at 12:21 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse