Regardless of how the questions were phrased, Scott Shafer shot them down.

Holding his weekly press conference Thursday morning, the Syracuse (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) head coach didn’t entertain questions about his demotion of George McDonald from offensive coordinator to solely wide receivers coach and his subsequent promotion of quarterbacks coach Tim Lester to the head of the offense. The switch was announced Monday following the Orange’s third consecutive loss on Friday.

In his interview sessions earlier in the week, Shafer discussed the matter and how the coaching staff has handled it. But as a meeting with No. 1 Florida State (5-0, 3-0) loomed 50 hours away, the head coach put his foot down Thursday morning.

“Every decision I’ve made is in the direction that points towards the best interests in developing our players and becoming a better football team,” Shafer said. “I’m not going to go backwards and rehash all these things. I don’t believe in living life that way.”

When a reporter attempted a follow-up question, Shafer cut him off before the question could be finished.

“I’m having a hard time with your questions because I’m not looking forward to going backwards and I’m not going to do it,” Shafer said. “You want to keep asking them, you can. But I’m done. I answered them. I feel good about where we’re going and it’s not in the best interests of this team to continue to go backwards, so I won’t.”

About six minutes later, Shafer was asked if he was concerned about the trend in college football of coaches leaving programs and bringing recruits with them.

McDonald’s demotion raises doubt about his future in Syracuse — and as a master recruiter, doubts about the Orange’s recruiting future have surfaced — but Shafer again took a firm stance and declined to discuss the negative implications of his decision.

“You’re asking backwards again,” Shafer said. “You two need to get together because I don’t want to talk about this and I’m not going to because it’s not in the best interests of our team. The best interests of our team is to say we’re fighting our butts off as a family to get better every single day. I know you guys get paid to look backwards, but that’s not what we’re doing because that’s a waste of time.

“I’ve addressed it. I’m done addressing it and I really can’t say any more.”

Published on October 9, 2014 at 11:35 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb