Offense

Although Prince-Tyson Gulley figures to be the feature back for Syracuse, junior George Morris II took a few snaps with the first-team offense during 11-on-zero drills in open practice Thursday. 

During the first series of reps, the quarterbacks threw approximately 10-yard passes — all of them completed — to the tight ends. With starter Terrel Hunt leading the first team, sophomore Mitch Kimble continued to head the second-string offense. Sophomore Austin Wilson and freshman A.J. Long split third-team snaps, as they have all week.

After two rounds of handoffs, the signal-callers aired it out a bit, sending throws at least 30 yards downfield.

Hunt hit Ashton Broyld and Kimble connected with Ben Lewis, but Long overthrew Corey Cooper, who didn’t have a chance to make a play on the ball.

Hunt found tight end Josh Parris on the next snap, and Kimble and Wilson threw screens to running backs Adonis Ameen-Moore and Ervin Phillips, respectively.

Special teams

Ryan Norton continued to take the first field goal reps and Riley Dixon was again his holder, but it was safety Darius Kelly — another candidate for the starting holder spot — who flashed some explosiveness. While holding for senior Alex Hodgkinson, Kelly took off with the snap, rolled to his right while looking for a receiver and eventually bolted down the right sideline for a would-be score.

Dixon is in the lead for holder, a spot vacated by the graduated Charley Loeb, but Kelly’s play indicated some possible deception from Syracuse’s field-goal unit. 

“He can run, he’s quick,” head coach Scott Shafer said during his post-practice press conference. “We have to practice those things as if he had a bad snap or something. It wasn’t really a designed trick play. I think he gives us some speed, but Riley will be our first-team holder right now. That’s just something we’ll work on in a couple of days.”

Running backs

Staying low to the ground was a point of emphasis for running backs in Tuesday’s open practice, and on Thursday the group took it a bit further.

Drills earlier in the week entailed the ball carriers ducking underneath a chute and running straight ahead. They repeated that drill Thursday, but in the second reps they took handoffs, avoided the chute and added a cut back underneath it. 

To practice absorbing contact, position coach DeAndre Smith was waiting there to hit them with a shield after the cut backs. 

Later in the practice, Smith threw a mini obstacle course at his players. They high-stepped and side-stepped over dummies before charging through a blaster — a piece of equipment with dummies at various heights — to continue working with contact.

Tight ends

The tight ends continue to hone their receiving skills.

On Thursday, tight end coach Bobby Acosta threw high passes — excessively high, at times — to his players, who had to elevate to haul them in.

But in a series of throws during open practice, many of Acosta’s passes ended up on the ground. 

“Oh, shoot! Oh, shoot!” he yelled, as he moved on from an errant throw and prepared to release the next.

After the 11-on-zero snaps, Acosta fired passes over the middle for his tight ends to catch, his accuracy improved. 

 Offensive line

Separating his line into guards and tackles again, offensive line coach Joe Adam had his guards go through individual drills in which they pulled to the right off the snap and hit the shield with their right shoulder. After a few minutes, they reversed to the left.

Adam had especially noticeable praise for junior guard Omari Palmer during the drill.

“That’s it, Omari! That’s it,” he yelled.

After the entire offense convened for a few reps and then re-split into positional groups, the offensive linemen worked on one-handed blocks. Just before the practice was closed to reporters, the linemen went through a drill in which two of them lined up next to each other, and pushed their blocks outward at a 45-degree angle to create an opening between them.

Published on August 7, 2014 at 7:57 pm

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