Syracuse, N.Y. — Dino Babers said postgame following Syracuse football’s win over Pittsburgh that its new style of offense wasn’t based on starting quarterback Garrett Shrader’s health status.
But it wasn’t not based on that either, Babers’ comments Monday seemed to say.
“I think the biggest thing once again is this thing is dictated off of personnel,” Babers said when asked if the style could and would be used again in the the final two weeks of the regular season. “We can’t keep basing our [offense] on ‘Hey, so-and-so’s gonna be healthy. So-and-so’s gonna be healthy. So-and-so’s gonna be healthy.’ And then so-and-so’s not healthy.
“That’s not fair to everyone else. We’re basing these things off of guys who are healthy, not somebody we’re expecting to be healthy. It could changed based off how our health changes.”
Syracuse’s radically different offensive game plan against Pittsburgh turned heads as it relied heavily on a three-pronged rushing attack led by tight end Dan Villari and not at all on the down-field passing game.
Shrader is dealing with an apparent upper-body injury that the team says occurred early in Syracuse’s loss against Virginia Tech two weeks ago. He did not play in Syracuse’s loss to Boston College.
Asked whether Shrader would have been able to throw the ball more than 5 yards comfortably Saturday, Babers said it was “too much information to give.”
Shrader attempted just two passes in the game, only one of which went complete and after which he was visibly uncomfortable. That pass was for 5 yards and a touchdown on the game’s opening drive and was Shrader’s first pass attempt.
Babers said that team doctors told him Shrader was a “maybe” and second-string quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson was a “no” throughout last week.
Babers was cagey Saturday about how much time Shrader had spent on the practice field leading up to the game, saying it was “more than half the week.”
Though he would not disclose when Shrader was officially given the green light for Saturday’s game, Babers said that once the team did know, it only required switching a few things in the playbook.
Del Rio-Wilson suffered a lower-body injury at the end of the Boston College game, which he started while Shrader was sidelined.
Babers said he saw Del Rio-Wilson on Sunday and told him he was moving around “better than [he’d] thought [he’d] be moving” but that the team, as usual, is waiting to see what doctors say later Monday.
As for the other backups, Luke MacPhail and Braden Davis, Babers said they weren’t used against Pittsburgh because they didn’t factor into the game plan, and not because of a lack of confidence in their abilities.
The pair had warmed up Syracuse’s wide receivers pregame, and McPhail had taken snaps with both centers.
“They’re quarterbacks. They can throw the football,” Babers said. “We didn’t feel like based off of what was going on in the game plan, we didn’t feel like we had to.”
Here are some other topics Babers covered in his weekly press conference.
-- Babers said he did see the replay of LeQuint Allen having his eye poked by Pittsburgh linebacker Brandon George but declined to explicitly say whether he considered it a dirty play. “I know Pat Narduzzi extremely well. He’s a very close friend of mine,” Babers said. “I’m sure that that’ll be handled. The play speaks for itself.”
-- Syracuse awarded game balls to Jayden Bellamy (defense), Alijah Clark (special teams) and Dan Villari (offense).
-- Following a weekend of high school football championships at the JMA Wireless Dome, Babers was asked about what it means to still have local interest in the program: “There should be local interest in the program. This program’s historic.”
-- Babers used three words to describe what type of game he’s expecting against Georgia Tech this week with both the Yellow Jackets and the Orange one win away from bowl eligibility: “Physical. Exciting. Close.”
-- Asked whether making a bowl game equates to a “successful” season, Babers said “The bottom part of success is getting these guys to a bowl game. They give up their summers. They go through broken bones, torn ligaments, surgeries. If we can find a way to get ‘em to a bowl game, to me, that’s a good thing.”
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