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Head coach Dino Babers goes further and further down his depth chart each week to look for players who can contribute. 

Syracuse’s inexperience and shortening bench length makes winning games difficult, which Babers has acknowledged. Its depth doesn’t run as deep as many of his opponents. He’s admitted that, too. But the mistakes keep coming from the Orange, from both young players and veterans.

When safety Rob Hanna briefly left SU’s game against Wake Forest with an injury, Babers turned to true freshman Ben Labrosse. Walk-on defensive lineman Kevon Darton played significant snaps for the first time. Aman Greenwood has become a regular player in SU’s secondary, especially as Trill Williams didn’t play on Saturday due to illness and injury. 

Syracuse’s injuries at this point in this season are well-documented across the roster, especially on defense, where the Orange were without many of their starters and even their backups, who began the season in September. The Orange are thin, and they’re getting thinner with each passing game, Babers said. But he’s expecting to see more from the younger players than he actually is, and he said they struggled to make game-to-game improvements in Syracuse’s (1-6, 1-5 Atlantic Coast) 38-14 loss to Wake Forest (4-2, 3-2) on Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

“The younger guys were out there battling, and you expect them to grow,” Babers said. “For some of those guys out there, this is their third or fourth or fifth game, they need to be getting better and not staying the same.”

Last week, Syracuse had an encouraging battle with No. 1 Clemson, a game that was within six points late in the third quarter. Babers and freshman cornerback Garrett Williams were confident the Orange’s younger players were making progress. Syracuse’s head coach mentioned the mistakes, but he was excited for them to develop.

“They’re going to get older and they’re going to get bigger and they’re going to get better,” Babers said. “And I’m going to have to take all these lumps until they do. But they’re coming to a theater near you when they’re going to be older, and they’re going to be better.”

A week later, though, Babers’ tone was much different. 

Mistakes littered the field, much like the yellow flags that consistently flew out of the referees’ hands and across the Carrier Dome turf. They were a reminder of the halted progress, a slowing of the Orange’s development and free yards for Wake Forest on both offense and defense. On the Orange’s opening offensive drive, a Sharod Johnson offensive pass interference negated a third down conversion. The next drive, an illegal block by sophomore Luke Benson backed SU out of field goal range. 

Midway through the third quarter, the Orange committed three penalties on the same drive, all by underclassmen. Redshirt freshman Aman Greenwood — a week after dropping an interception multiple times against Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence — committed a defensive holding and, later, a defensive pass interference to negate a third down stop. Then, sophomore Lee Kpogba was called for a hands to the face penalty to negate an SU sack.

“The penalties are big, they were all young people,” Babers said. “There was a facemask, and it was a facemask. And there was a hold, and it was a hold. You’re not going to beat good football teams if you give them stuff like that.”

Garrett Williams contributed one of three pass breakups by the Syracuse defense against Wake Forest. Courtesy of Mark Konezny | USA TODAY Sports

Syracuse’s run defense has struggled, especially at limiting big plays, since the injuries to safeties Eric Coley and Andre Cisco. Only three defenses in the ACC are worse at preventing rushing explosiveness. And while the Syracuse pass defense doesn’t allow many big plays, the Orange now rank second to last in the ACC in passing success rate allowed. 

On WFU’s second touchdown run, three different SU players missed tackles as Kenneth Walker III turned what should have been no gain into a 20 yard score. Instead of a potential field goal and 13-7 halftime deficit, the Orange went into halftime down 17-7. 

The offensive line is one of the few position groups that hasn’t been affected by injuries since the start of the regular season. But when the Demon Deacons used a stunt to generate a pass rush on Culpepper, SU’s offensive line and running back Markenzy Pierre couldn’t pick it up. Culpepper was blindsided, and he fumbled. 

Without freshman back Sean Tucker — who Babers knew he wouldn’t have early in the week because of an injury — the Orange turned to redshirt freshman Cooper Lutz. He entered the season as a slot receiver, where he spent his first two years practicing with the Orange. But when the former fifth string running back had 15 carries on Saturday, he totaled 81 yards and added 25 yards as a receiver, second-most for the Orange.

“You stood behind him in August and stood behind him in September, you could see he was getting it,” Babers said. “I think he’s got some real natural ability and can help us.”

As Wake Forest kept methodically poking and prodding its way down the field on Saturday, the Orange’s offense continued to trade short, unsuccessful drives for the Demon Deacons long and successful scores. 

Syracuse didn’t make the jump from game to game or from pre-bye to post-bye. Now that the Orange’s performance against Clemson is firmly behind them, wide receiver Nykeim Johnson didn’t see any progress, either.  

“We just have to make sure we lock in, watch the film and know where our problems are at,” Nykeim said. “Against Clemson, we made a lot less mistakes early on than we did this week.”

Published on October 31, 2020 at 6:41 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo