At his weekly press conference on Monday morning, Dino Babers shared his excitement from his team’s most recent loss. He highlighted some positives from Sunday’s film session — the second-longest touchdown in program history and Chris Elmore’s first career tackle for a loss. He also noted some negatives, such as the continued struggles on the offensive line and more injuries.

“Football is fun to me because all of this stuff comes into it,” Babers said. 

Babers likes the mashing of the good and the bad, deciding what combination might create a net positive outcome. Entering a matchup at Florida State (3-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast), Syracuse (3-4, 0-3 Atlantic Coast) will need that right mixture following two-consecutive conference losses. The Orange allowed nine sacks last week and saw both Trill Williams and Antwan Cordy leave the secondary injured while quarterback Tommy DeVito also didn’t return following a big hit in the third quarter. 

Babers said if DeVito is healthy, he’ll be playing, despite backup Clayton Welch taking some snaps prior to DeVito’s injury last Friday night. There was no clear update on any of the injuries as Babers cited seeing the doctors for updates later on Monday night. 

While not all position groups are shifting due to injuries, Babers once again said that other players who aren’t normally starters will be getting more opportunities this week. 

“At certain positions, it’s really important for the continuity of things to be working with a certain group of guys next to you all the time because that’s the best way to do it,” Babers said. “Now I think we’re at the point where we’re willing to break up that continuity to make sure that we have the right people in the right spot.” 

With the offensive line specifically, Babers noted the growth he hoped to see hasn’t been there. As has been mentioned before, Syracuse’s offensive line struggles can’t be attributed to one thing. On Monday, Babers highlighted the difference between this year and last is youth. 

“That offensive line in 2018 was legit,” Babers said. “You had guys that have played a lot of college football and they were grown cats. They could walk down the street by themselves and people didn’t bother them.” 

This Saturday the offensive line will face a less stout defense than in previous weeks as the Seminoles rank 113th in yards allowed per game and 46th in total sacks. Still, the Orange enter as 10.5 point underdogs searching for their first conference win. 

“I don’t think we’re going to fall apart,” Babers said. “I think we’re going to come closer together, we just need that first break and we don’t know where it’s going to happen but we’re looking to the horizon and we have faith that it’s going to happen.”

Published on October 21, 2019 at 1:45 pm

Contact Josh: jlschafe@syr.edu | @Schafer_44