In The Huddle: UConn

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Heat check

TOMMY DEVITO has played in all three games for the Orange. The redshirt freshman saw his first action against Western Michigan and scored his first touchdown two weeks later against Florida State when he threw for 144 yards and a touchdown. He also scored on the ground. max freund asst. photo editor

Roundtable: Beat writers talk DeVito, 3-0 start and Top-25 potential

By The Daily Orange Sports Staff

American Athletic) at the Carrier Dome.

or the first time under Dino Babers, Syracuse (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) has won its first three games of the season. Last week Syracuse defeated Florida State, 30-7, for the first time since 1966. In the game, the Orange defense held the Seminoles to 240 yards and redshirt freshman Tommy Devito threw for 144 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for a score.

Below, The Daily Orange football beat writers answer questions headed into Syracuse’s 4 p.m. Saturday matchup with Connecticut (1-2, 0-1

How much can you read into the FSU win?

F

Andrew Graham: A little bit. The name “Florida State” carries a lot of weight and the Seminoles roster was talented as always, but the team Syracuse beat on Saturday was horrendous. FSU’s offensive line looked lost, the run game stalled and the defense crumpled. That said, Syracuse recognized this and steadily beat back the Seminoles. In years past, I don’t know if SU did that. Syracuse’s most impressive facet on Saturday was the defense, allowing just seven points to an Atlantic Coast see roundtable page 10

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football

Q&A with the Hartford Courant’s UConn beat writer

By Andrew Graham senior staff writer

Undefeated Syracuse (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) hosts UConn (1-2, 0-1 American Athletic) on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Carrier Dome. SU is coming off a 30-7 blowout against Florida State while the Huskies are reeling from an 0-2 start and a close game against Rhode Island.

To get the lowdown on the Huskies, The Daily Orange talked with the Hartford Courant’s UConn beat writer, Alex Putterman.

The Daily Orange: UConn enters this game 1-2 with a close win over FCS Rhode Island. What’s the deal with the Huskies?

Alex Putterman: Where they are is they’re an extremely, extremely young team. Especially on defense where in any given game, somewhere between six to eight, nine, of the starters on defense will be freshmen, and some of them are true freshmen. As soon as someone gets hurt, it’s always a freshman coming in to replace them. It’s just really almost a preposterously young team. All these guys who have probably not taken their first college midterm are being asked to guard highpowered FBS offenses.

So that has been tough. Luckily the offense has been pretty good at times, especially David Pindell, the quarterback, who has put up some pretty impressive numbers against UCF and then again against Rhode Island. Really agile, can run, but he’s also completing passes at a much, much higher rate than he did last year. What I like to say is that they have a competent offense and a pretty bad defense, at this point.

We knew it was going to be a transitional year, because of how young the team was, but it has been pretty ugly at times.

The D.O.: For Syracuse fans, who is a player to watch for the Huskies?

A.P.: I would say the player to watch has to be

David Pindell, the quarterback. Really UConn goes as he goes. He’s extremely athletic, really fast, really elusive, really good in open space, hard to bring down. And like I said, he can complete passes. UConn doesn’t try a lot of deep balls, you could say their offensive line doesn’t give them time to try deep balls, but it’s a lot of short passes, a lot of QB runs — some of them designed, some of them scrambles.

He’s really the guy. If UConn is going to put up points against Syracuse, it’s going to be because he is converting on the ground and through the air.

The D.O.: Outside of Pindell, has anyone else excelled for the Huskies, despite the poor record?

A.P.: This is maybe a kind of cheat-y answer but I would say the offensive skill positions, offensive skill players as a group.

I mentioned Pindell, Kevin Mensah is the starting running back, he’s had a really good season, just rushed for a career-high 144 yards against Rhode Island and has really looked great giving them another element to the offense.

And the receivers are kind of a strength, led by Hergy Mayala, who is a senior.

Tight ends are really good, Tyler Davis and Aaron McLean. So I would say the team’s strength is that on offense, it does have some playmakers.

The D.O.: Who wins on Saturday and why?

A.P.: Well, Syracuse wins, probably pretty handily, I was thinking something like — well you didn’t ask me for a score but I’ll give you one anyways — something like 48-24. I know Syracuse isn’t built around its offense, necessarily, but with how the UConn defense has been so far, I don’t think the Orange will have any trouble moving the ball. I think another thing to watch is that UConn’s only road game so far was at Boise State in a really loud atmosphere, and they committed six

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false starts. Which is not what you want, to say the least, so it will be interesting to see how they respond to playing in a fairly loud atmosphere at the Carrier Dome.

Just today in practice, they were piping in extremely loud artificial crowd noise. It was

really kind of a pain for me, so clearly they’re trying to mitigate against the impact the Carrier Dome will have, but I think that will play a role and it shouldn’t really be a tough game for Syracuse. aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Grhaam

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Turning the

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Through three games, Syracuse has two more interceptions than it had in 2017

By Josh Schafer sports editor

S

yracuse picked off a Western Michigan pass four defensive plays into the 2018 season. It was the Orange’s first interception in nine games, dating back to September of 2017.

Junior Scoop Bradshaw pounced on a WMU receiver as he brought the pass in on a short comeback route. The ball flew high in the air and freshman safety Andre Cisco snatched it, grabbing the first of two interceptions in a 55-42 win over WMU. Syracuse (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) has intercepted its opponent in three consecutive games to start the season. In 2017, the Orange tallied four interceptions in a three-game span before not intercepting an opposing quarterback’s pass for the final eight games of the season. SU finished the year ranked 115th in turnovers. Entering Saturday’s game against Connecticut (1-2, 0-1 American Athletic), which averages an interceptiocn thrown per game, Syracuse is tied for seventh in the country with six interceptions, four shy of its highest mark under Dino Babers.

“It’s kind of like a batting average in baseball,” Babers said. “You go back and check how many opportunities we had for

interceptions and how many we made last year, I bet you our batting average would be really low. You go back to how many times we’ve touched the ball this year and we had a chance for interception and how many times we’ve got that ball, I bet you our batting average is really high.”

Syracuse doesn’t have a turnover chain like the University of Miami or celebrate “securing the bag” like FSU, but it does have what Chris Fredrick called the “turnover tape.”

The redshirt junior defensive back said defensive coordinator Brian Ward sat his unit down in the spring and played a lowlight reel which contained all of SU’s missed opportunities to take the ball away in 2017. Some were dropped interceptions.

Others were forced fumbles the Orange didn’t scoop. Even the defensive line was featured when it could’ve swiped the ball from the quarterback’s arm.

In practice, the secondary unit runs a turnover circuit, redshirt senior defensive back Antwan Cordy said. Among other drills, SU players run through a classic tip-drill, in which players run at an oncoming pass and tip it in the air to the person behind him in line. When the ball reaches the last player, he secures the interception.

“Turnovers are important, it’s easy to get the momentum going. If we have a

ANDRE CISCO caught two interceptions against Wagner a week after snagging his first interception against Western Michigan. max freund asst. photo editor

turnover, we could be in a hole but once a turnover comes,” said Cordy as he snapped his fingers, “we got the momentum now.”

Fredrick said he “can’t be sure” as to why there has been an influx in turnovers this season. He and Cordy both noted the secondary’s coverage of routes this year have been tighter. Cordy added the team’s disguised coverages — shifting from zone to man just before the snap — have led to mistakes by opposing quarterbacks.

In Week 2, Cisco picked off Wagner quarterback T.J. Linta on consecutive third downs. The first came off undercutting a drag route in man coverage and the second came out of a robber look in which Cisco shifted down toward the line of scrimmage just before the snap. On both plays, Cisco started the play in a different spot than the quarterback last saw him, leading to Cisco jumping routes.

Both Cisco takeaways granted the Orange possession inside the Wagner 30-yard line. SU’s interceptions have landed SU inside its opposition’s 35-yard line five of six times, leading to 17 points off turnovers.

“Someone says ‘Oh that guy doesn’t have to catch, he’s a DB,’” Babers said after the Wagner game. “Well if there’s a DB that knows how to catch it can be a huge weapon.”

Babers attributes the turnover increase to an improved pass rush. When a defensive linemen is barreling at a quarterback, it limits time to make the throw with proper mechanics and judgement.

Against Florida State, Syracuse’s defensive line knocked down Deondre Francois nine times, four of which were sacks. Defensive linemen Kendall Coleman noted after the 30-7 win, “It was pretty visible he was feeling us,” of the Syracuse pass rush.

In the second quarter, Francois had time, but his unsteady feet, often a product of heavy pass rush, showed. The redshirt junior dropped back and threw a line drive down the seam toward a receiver running a vertical route. Fredrick, who noticed on film that Francois had a tendency to throw passes with little loft, undercut the pass for an interception.

Even after the interception, Ward told his defense they needed more turnovers, Fredrick said. Syracuse could have had three more, had they recovered any of their forced fumbles this season. Perhaps those will make the tape Ward shows. For now, Syracuse’s focus hasn’t wavered.

“We have to get turnovers,” Cordy said.

“That’s our mindset … turnovers, turnovers, turnovers, turnovers.” jlschafe@syr.edu |@Schafer_44

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football

Opponent preview: What to know about the Huskies

By Matt Liberman staff writer

Syracuse (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) welcomes Connecticut (1-2, 0-1 American Athletic) to the Carrier Dome on Saturday at 4 p.m. In Week 3, Syracuse took down Florida State, 30-7, defeating the Seminoles for the first time in 52 years. Meanwhile, the Huskies struggled to finish off Rhode Island, edging out the Rams 56-49.

Here’s what to know about UConn heading into this week’s matchup:

All-time series: UConn leads, 6-2

Last time they played: Syracuse toppled the Huskies in East Hartford, 31-24, in SU head coach Dino Babers’ first year at the helm.

Amba Etta-Tawo broke the Syracuse singlegame record for receiving yards, netting 270 on 12 catches. Eric Dungey posted a career day as well with 407 passing yards, three total touchdowns and no turnovers. The Orange never trailed and pulled away for good in the third quarter.

The UConn report:

The Huskies are an extremely young and inexperienced team on both sides of the ball. When UConn played Boise State on Sept. 8, five true freshmen started on defense and not a single upperclassman.

That has been the narrative of the season thus far for the UConn defense. The Huskies are the only team in the country to have given up more than 2,000 yards in their first three games. Several teams have played four games

without giving up that number. UConn is the only team in the country to give up a little over 600 yards (673) in a game and the only team to give up more than 50 points per game (55.7).

The next closest is Oregon State at 46.3.

That’s understandable, to an extent, considering UConn’s first two opponents, No. 21 Central Florida and No. 20 Boise State. But Rhode Island is an FCS opponent that scored 49 points on 550 yards of offense against the Huskies. This defense is bad.

How Syracuse beats UConn:

SU wins by playing the way it has all season long: fast. A defense without a single upperclassman will struggle against Babers’ up-tempo style of play, especially with Eric Dungey’s capabilities in the air and on the ground. If the SU defense plays like it did

against Florida State, constantly giving the ball back to Dungey to run the offense all over the place, UConn will have absolutely no chance against the Orange.

Player to watch: David Pindell, quarterback, No. 5

If there’s anyone that has a chance of surprising Orange fans, it’s senior quarterback David Pindell. He is someone that certainly has big play potential. In two of his three games this season, Pindell has generated more than 400 yards of offense. Against UCF he threw for 266 and ran for 157, and those numbers were 319 and 137, respectively, against Rhode Island.

He’s fast, he’s experienced and he has the capabilities to light up the scoreboard. mdliberma@syr.edu

Syracuse and Connecticut used to play against each other when both were members of the Big East. Connecticut leads the all-time series 6-2 but has struggled this year. The Huskies have allowed 49 points or more in each of thier first three games, leading to a 1-2 start. daily orange file photo

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from page 3

roundtable Conference opponent for the first time under Dino Babers. Ultimately, how mundane the win was speaks volumes more than the opponent.

Matt Liberman: The win over FSU really doesn’t mean much except for the fact that they beat “Florida State.” The Seminoles barely even resemble the team we saw last season, and that was a team that struggled to reach a bowl game. The only important takeaway that I have from this game is Syracuse beat a team that they should’ve beaten at home. The Orange have struggled to do that in years past, such as last season against Middle Tennessee State. This season, SU was the better team, and they finally proved it.

Josh Schafer: Don’t put too much stock in Syracuse’s win over Florida State, at least not in the name they beat. Florida State isn’t the program it was for the majority of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure when it won three ACC titles. Through three games, the Orange have been the better team in yardage and points scored on both sides of the ball. The better team won on a Saturday and that’s the biggest takeaway.

In 2017, Syracuse lost five games that were within 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Against a comparable conference opponent, Syracuse finished.

What can be made of Tommy DeVito’s first couple of games?

A.G.: With about a games-worth of playing time, all I can fairly say about DeVito is that he’s exactly what SU needs him to be right now: A competent, talented backup who will be a future starter. DeVito struggled at Western Michigan, but played well against Wagner — though take that with a grain of FCS-opponent salt — and most recently took control of the FSU game. DeVito made some pretty throws, didn’t turn it over, and led SU to 27 points.

He looked good. SU fans can be confident

that in a blowout, or if an injury occurs, DeVito is a capable option. But as I’ve said, this was, is, and continues to be Eric Dungey’s team.

M.L: The kid has confidence. After struggling pretty handily in his first two games against two mightily lesser opponents, DeVito’s first throw against FSU was a beautiful and gutsy 29-yard lob to Jamal Custis on the one-yard line, falling against the pylon. He didn’t try to come out and throw a few dump-offs; he went straight for the end zone. DeVito has looked nervous in the pocket at times and has also looked like a seasoned veteran.

With some more time under Dungey and in this offense, he’ll be a good centerpiece moving forward.

J.S: It’s too early to fairly evaluate DeVito. Against Western Michigan, in his first snaps as a college quarterback, he had an inconsistent performance. Wagner, an FCS team, is just hard to pull from. FSU, on the other hand, showed DeVito is getting comfortable with time. He ran well on a designed run, looked comfortable under center and led Syracuse to 27 points. But as noted above, that wasn’t an FSU with a conference best defense and it wasn’t for a full game, none of which is the fault of DeVito. For now, SU fans should be happy to see the flashes of what DeVito can become, and wait patiently for more evidence.

What’s one thing Syracuse can’t afford to falter in?

A.G.: Running the football. Syracuse currently averages a shade over 257 yards a game on the ground, a surely unsustainable figure, but the Orange need to continue pounding the rock. In 2017, SU punched it in 16 times on the ground. Only a quarter of the way through this season, Syracuse has nine rushing scores. Moe Neal and Dontae Strickland have done most of the damage from the running back position, aided recently by freshman Jarveon Howard. And of course, there’s Syracuse’s leading rusher, Eric Dungey. Much has been

made and said about Dungey running the football over the years, but this season, he’s taken more to falling forward and getting out of bounds to protect himself, and his legs are an invaluable asset to this offense. If that unit can maintain a balance between run and pass like this, SU should be in good shape.

257

Syracuse’s average rushing yards per game

J.S: Syracuse’s defense needs to be consistent. Through three games, it’s difficult to read trends. As Matt pointed out, the Orange have two more interceptions this season than they did all of last season. After holding FSU to a touchdown, Syracuse averages 19.67 points allowed per game, about 13 fewer points than last year.

In SU’s season opener, the defense showed its inexperience in a 28-point third quarter. Those f laws never showed against the Seminoles. Florida State totaled 240 yards, more than 200 yards less than Syracuse opponents averaged last season. Syracuse hasn’t played formidable opponents yet, and UConn won’t fill that role either, but when it does Syracuse’s defense can’t take a step back.

M.L: If I have to pinpoint something, it’s turning the ball over. Syracuse has done a nice job protecting the ball this year and its defense has given the offense plenty of opportunities to score. But the defense also hasn’t played a high-powered offense yet like they’ll see in future conference play and the best chance SU has at beating those teams is with its offense. If suddenly we were to see Syracuse’s offense struggle against a good ACC defense, I don’t know if its defense could keep a

team like Boston College or Notre Dame in check.

Will Syracuse be ranked if they win week four against UConn?

A.G.: Will SU be ranked? Maybe. Should SU be ranked? No. I split hairs because Syracuse did earn its first AP Poll vote since 2011. If the Orange wallops UConn and the right teams lose, it’s entirely possible SU gets a number by its name. All it takes is one or two teams in the No. 20-25 range to lose and the Orange could sneak in, but should they? Syracuse isn’t one of the 25 best teams in college football, at least not right now.

That can obviously change in the next nine games, but a scare against a MAC team, an FCS blowout and a solid win against the worst Florida State team in awhile is not the strongest three-game resume. As it stands, Syracuse is not currently one of the 25 best teams in college football, but it’s knocking on the door.

M.L: Not a chance. UConn surrendered 49 points to Rhode Island. The last time Syracuse played Rhode Island was Eric Dungey’s first game in 2015, the season opener. In that game, a 47-0 blowout, the Rams netted just 64 total yards of offense and two first downs. Rhode Island nearly beat UConn. A win over the Huskies doesn’t mean anything in the eyes of the AP Poll, plus there are 16 teams not in the Top-25 that received more votes than SU this week.

J.S: It depends on the score. Syracuse opened up Saturday’s game as 27.5 points favorites. They have to win by somewhere around that number to be at par with other FBS opponents UConn has played this season — Central Florida won by 39 and Boise State by 55. Both No. 21 Central Florida and No. 20 Boise State rank near the bottom of the Top 25 but are still in.

If Syracuse wants to put their name in the conversation with those kinds of teams, they need to play like them. In my opinion, they will. sports@dailyorange.com

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New Amsterdam Flavors (1.75 L)

André’s Champagne (750 mL) expires 10/6/18 • excludes other sales or discounts

Low prices!

Svedka Vodka (1.75 L)

Yellow Tail Assorted Wines (1.5 L) expires 10/6/18 • excludes other sales or discounts

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Tito’s Handmade Vodka (1.75 L)

Jose Cuervo Gold or Silver Tequila (1 L) expires 10/6/18 • excludes other sales or discounts

Huge inventory!

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