The Pro-Shafer, Anti-Shafer Dialogue
“Thus, for the past 66 years, the only non Greg Robinson coaches to be below .500 for two consecutive seasons were Ben Schwartzalder’s last two and Dick MacPherson’s first two. Two straight losing records at Syracuse is simply unacceptable.” Also, Frank Maloney–who coached in between Schwartzwalder’s last two and MacPherson’s first two, never had two straight losing seasons.
The Confidential 
As posted elsewhere:
After taking over for Ben S, under whose watch Syracuse had declined to 2 wins… Maloney matched that in the next season. After that, he was 30-37. And got FIRED.
His final two seasons, he was 12-11 overall. And got FIRED.
The worst two-season stretch for Maloney was 8 wins. And he got FIRED. Long before the microwave, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately era.
Think Maloney faced patsies? Think again:
1980 schedule: an 11-1 school (Pitt), a 10-2 school (Penn State), a 9-3 school (Ohio State), an 8-4 school (Navy), two 7-4 schools (BC and Rutgers), and a 6-6 school (West Virginia). The remainder of the schedule was Northwestern (horrible back then), Kansas (not as horrible back then), Miami Ohio (5 win team), and Temple (4 win team). No FCS teams here. He went 5-6 and got fired.
1979 schedule: 11-1 (Pitt), 11-1 (Ohio State), 11-1 (McNeese State in bowl game), 10-2 (Temple), 8-4 (Penn State), 7-4 (Navy), 5-6 (BC, WVU, and Miami-Fla). The rest was Northwestern, Kansas, Washington State. No FCS teams here.
1978 schedule: 11-1 (Penn State), 3 9-win teams, 3 8-win teams. Miami (Fla) won 6 games. The three “bad teams” by record were BC, WVU, and Illinois.