Syracuse Football: Ranking best SU coach at producing NFL talent

Scott Shafer

• 2013-2015, Syracuse

Scott Shafer was hired by Doug Marrone back in 2009 to help turnaround a horrible defense. Prior to Shafer arriving, Syracuse was one of the worst defenses in the country (101st in 2008).

Talk about a dramatic turnaround: Syracuse went from being 101st all the way to a top-20 defense in the country. He really turned things around at every level, here are some of the highlights of the Orange defense under his reign:

• 12th in the country in first downs allowed.
• 10th in pass defense.
• 14th in pass efficiency defense.
• And a top-15 unit in scoring defense.

Now let’s take a gander at what players he was able to produce during his time as a head coach. Now before we dive into each NFL draft class, he does deserve a head nod for coaching up the defense and getting Chandler Jones into the NFL.

While he wasn’t the head coach, he still deserves a ton of credit for coaching up Chandler and making him the highest selected Syracuse player in over a decade from 2002 to 2012.

• 2014 NFL Draft:
  • Jay Bromley, DL, third round pick (74th overall)
    • Jay Bromley is still the highest drafted Syracuse player in the last five years. Bromley was one of the better interior defensive linemen to come out of Syracuse in the last decade.
  • Marquis Spruill, LB, fifth round pick (168th overall)
    • Spruill is the second highest drafted Syracuse player in the last five years. People can say what they want about Scott’s time as head coach of the Orange in terms of wins and losses, but you can’t say anything about his ability to get SU players to the pros.

• 2015 NFL Draft
  • No Syracuse players were taken in the 2015 NFL Draft. That’s only the third time that has occurred since 1976.
• 2016 NFL Draft
  • Riley Dixon, P, seventh round (228th overall)
    • One of the most popular players in modern Syracuse history. Riley was more than just a great punter, he was also famous for his trickery on fake punts and field goals. #DixonForHeisman is still trending on social media.

This is obviously an extremely small sample size and just like Marrone, Syracuse is the only time he’s ever been a head coach of a college football program.