Syracuse finished its spring practice sessions with 79 plays on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome. After Syracuse’s first 10-win season since 2001, the 2019 showcase gave a glimpse into how Syracuse could string together consecutive bowl seasons for the first time since the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Below are takeaways from Syracuse’s final action before fall camp this summer.

Big shifts

After graduating three offensive lineman from the 2018 team, Syracuse was short an additional two blockers on Saturday. Center Sam Heckel, who rotated in at a guard a season ago, was ruled out for the spring at the end of March and had surgery on an undisclosed injury. Redshirt sophomore Dakota Davis, who was expected to start at left guard, was also out for the spring scrimmage and had a brace on his right leg.

Defensive backs Evan Foster, Scoop Bradshaw and Kyle Strickland, who were all limited throughout the spring, were also held out of the scrimmage. Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said he expects all injured players to be back in time for the start of the season.

When the starting offense matched up with the starting defense, the Orange defensive line made it difficult for much ball movement. Freshman Anthony Red played right tackle while redshirt freshman Carlos Vettorello played left tackle. Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson, who both had 10 sacks in 2018, met at quarterback Tommy DeVito simultaneously on one play and terrorized the outside.

“You’ve got both of those guys as seniors going against two guys that have never played,” said Babers, while smiling and opening his eyes wide. “It looked like the way it was supposed to look like. It looked bad for them. The good thing is they’re only going to get better. If you’re covering Michael Jordan and you’re stopping him at all, you are getting better even though he’s scoring all those points.”

The line will likely shift significantly before Syracuse opens its season against Liberty as Heckel’s return would likely push Airon Servais back out to tackle. Southern Alabama graduate transfer Ryan Alexander will also compete for a starting tackle job in fall camp.

Fresh and fast

Two of the seven touchdowns scored came from true freshman. Running back Jawhar Jordan broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and dashed down the middle of the field on a zone run for a touchdown run of 47 yards. He later flaunted his speed once more running for 50-yard touchdown on an outside zone in which Jordan’s speed created a poor angle for the secondary. The second run was called back for holding, though, and Jordan finished with five carries for 56 yards.

Jordan, a three-star recruit out of Hamilton (Arizona) High School, ran a 4.48 40-yard dash in high school per his Hudl account.

At 5-foot-10, 170 pounds, Courtney Jackson saw time in the slot receiver role with the first group. Jackson caught three passes for 26 yards and also rushed once on a jet sweep for three yards.

“We’ve had other wide receivers, who are still in the program, their first, three, four weeks, five weeks on the team they’ve made big moves and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a standout guy,’” Babers said. “And then as the playbook gets bigger and bigger, mentally they slow down and that slows them down physically on the football field and they really haven’t made the push and made the move.”

Jackson’s bright spot on the day came inside the 10-yard line, when he beat defensive back Trill Williams on a quick slant, and fought through a Williams tackle to fall into the end zone for a touchdown while playing with the first team offense.

Jackson attended Gateway (Pennsylvania) High School and ran a 4.5 40-yard dash per his Hudl account.

Lined up

While Andrew Armstrong dotted sideline-to-sideline with Syracuse’s first-team defense on Saturday, it was the rest of the linebacker corps that showed the future at the position. For the third season in a row, SU has to replace a senior linebacker pairing. In 2017 it was Zaire Franklin and Parris Bennett. Last year, it was Ryan Guthrie and Kielan Whitner. At the precipice of the 2019 season, senior Lakiem Williams joined Armstrong in the second-level of the defense.

Williams, Armstrong and the reserves rotated through the scrimmage and flashed the different talents that Williams said could define the group. Williams often filled holes, benefiting off the film review most of the unit has done this spring. He also stayed on the quarterback at the mesh point on potential handoffs and stuffed a few keepers. But at times, he was late in the passing game. On one possession, Williams was flat-footed as DeVito threaded a touchdown to Jackson near the goal line.

Other linebackers were caught out of position, too. On a fourth-and-short, with four wide receivers spread out and Jarveon Howard in the backfield, the linebackers bailed as the ball was snapped and had to scramble to tackle Howard who broke off a big gain. Later in the scrimmage, they were late to the boundary and watched as Jordan scampered for pay dirt.

The reserves, mostly comprised of young linebackers, showed their aggressiveness while at times committing the slight mistakes that Babers said comes with underclassmen. Tyrell Richards continued his shift to linebacker full-time. Juan Wallace scraped down on a few outside runs. And Tre Allison caused a fumble that was later blown dead.

“(The younger linebackers) make mistakes, but they do it the right way,” Babers said. “They get to the ball angry, they knock things around. When you do that as a young linebacker you’re gonna grow up to be something. So we’re excited where those guys are.”

Practice notes

— All three quarterbacks rotated on Saturday. DeVito (178 yards) was intercepted on his first drive as Trill Williams sat on a post and nearly jogged the ball into the opposing end zone before the whistle blew. Redshirt senior Clayton Welch (75 yards) responded with a 71-yard bomb to Nykeim Johnson down the sideline. Rex Culpepper (149 yards) found Anthony Queeley on a toss-up in the back right corner of the end zone a possession later. DeVito tallied two touchdowns with the strike to Jackson and a 55-yard catch-and-run from Sean Riley on a slant route.

“I think he’s grown a lot,” Babers said of DeVito. “… We’re challenging him. … We’re not driving Miss Daisy. We’re not driving the speed limit and stopping at every stop sign. And when it’s yellow, we stop and everybody else goes. You’ve got a racing car. We gotta make the tires sing. So we’re really on him.”

— Redshirt senior Brandon Berry led the defensive line with five tackles, four of which were solo. Berry, a native of Griffin, Georgia, also had a tackle for loss. Robinson added a pair of tackles and a forced-fumble while Coleman and Kingsley Jonathan each had two tackles going against SU’s reserve tackles. In the secondary, Allen Stritzinger had six stops, and Andre Cisco had a 57-yard scoop-and-score.

Published on April 13, 2019 at 4:18 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez