Syracuse and the NCAA haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye in 2015.

But in the case of Luke Arciniega, the two aligned.

After months of waiting for the NCAA to grant — or not grant — Arciniega additional eligibility due to injuries, it was announced last week that he’ll get two more years.

“As much crazy stuff you see going on with the NCAA, every now and then you feel like you got one back,” Will Hicks, SU’s assistant athletics director for athletic performance, said Tuesday. “I mean it’s only fair to (Arciniega).

“… You hate to see an athlete that loves it as much as he does that ends on a sour note due to injuries instead of ending their own way, ending the way they want to.”

Two more years will allow Arciniega to do that, and the linebacker-turned-defensive end will continue to work at his new position at Syracuse’s annual spring game in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. With three semesters at Nevada after high school, a year at Sierra (California) College and having his second season at Syracuse strewn with injuries, SU head coach Scott Shafer said he’d need 30 minutes to explain which years Arciniega “got back.”

In an Instagram post last week, Arciniega wrote “I was only hoping for one.” Now he’ll have twice the amount of time to transition onto a defensive line in need of his speed and experience.

Arciniega was feeling under the weather on Tuesday and was not made available at SU’s media opportunity.

“It’s exciting because he’s actually picked up defensive end real quick from day one,” SU defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough said. “Obviously he’s never played there but there are some things he just did naturally, which is exciting. So two years is really good.”

In 2013, Arciniega appeared in all 13 games and recorded 18 total tackles and two tackles for loss for Syracuse. He also recorded a sack in each of the last two seasons, and Bullough said the Orange moved him to defensive end to utilize his speed in the pass rush.

It’s also a unit that has thinned since last season and returns just one starter in defensive end Ron Thompson. The defensive line will be without departing seniors Micah Robinson, Eric Crume and Robert Welsh, lost Marcus Coleman to career-ending foot issues and defensive tackle Ryan Sloan left the program in early March.

That leaves a mash-up of inexperienced players at both the tackle and end positions, including Isaiah Johnson, Donnie Simmons, the injury-riddled John Raymon and Wayne Williams, and redshirt freshmen Kayton Samuels and Chris Slayton. The Orange will also bring in eight defensive line members in the Class of 2015.

Arciniega is still learning the nuances of the position, according to Bullough, but could slide into the mix if he stays healthy.

Bullough added that Arciniega needs to put on a little weight to be an effective defensive end, and Hicks said that will come naturally to Arciniega. He trimmed down over the last two seasons, and Hicks said that bulking up to play defensive end gets Arciniega back to his “natural size.”

Because Arciniega originally came to the Orange as a 265-pound linebacker, Hicks and Bullough don’t think he’ll need to sacrifice any speed or athleticism while bulking up.

And if his physical attributes and visceral understanding of the position meet a cooperative body, Arciniega could be an important part of a retooling defensive line.

“He’s an older guy,” Bullough said. “When you have a guy who’s older, stronger and more physical, that always helps.”

Published on April 2, 2015 at 11:17 pm

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