No other Atlantic Coast Conference has to endure what Syracuse just did this season.

After a nine-week stretch of games the Orange can finally rest a bit during its current bye week. SU (3-7, 1-5 ACC) is the only team in the conference to have that long of a streak of games without an off week, SU head coach Scott Shafer said during the ACC coaches’ teleconference Wednesday morning.

It provides the bumped and bruised Orange a chance to heal up for the final two games of the year, starting with Pittsburgh on the road on Nov. 22.

“It’s a short window,” Shafer said. “Every year, bye weeks are different because of where they are in the schedule.”

When asked about injured players that may not be available the rest of the season, Shafer referred to the injury report that Syracuse will send out two days before playing the Panthers and said, “hopefully, there’s some guys off the list.”

The Orange’s team health reached a season-low in advance of Saturday’s loss to Duke. Eleven players were ruled out — tied for the most all season — and a 12th, quarterback AJ Long, was listed as doubtful and was didn’t dress or play in the game.

Shafer said the added time allows his coaching staff to make progress in recruiting, by hitting the road to meet with recruits and also scheduling visits for the winter recruiting season.

And while Syracuse works on building its future, it also has to worry about the issues that injuries have brought to the team presently — particularly its offense.

Shafer said he plans to run some light practices as the bye week gives the team extra time to game plan for the Panthers.

“As far as scheme-wise, you’re still playing with the same cards in the deck right now,” Shafer said, “so there’s not a lot of change agent there that goes into a bye week. The one thing we can do is we can spend a little bit of extra time looking at Pitt as we prepare.

“More than anything, I think it’s trying to get kids healthy in the situation that we’re in right now.”

Published on November 12, 2014 at 12:36 pm

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