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Helmed at the left tackle spot by senior Matthew Bergeron, a potential first round pick in next year’s NFL Draft, Syracuse’s offensive line has paved the way for Sean Tucker to become a preseason Heisman candidate. Including Dakota Davis and Carlos Vettorello, it has stood in front of Eric Dungey first, then Tommy DeVito before ultimately Garrett Shrader.

It’s weathered a difficult stretch of Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, yet ensured that its offense can become one of the most efficient in the conference. On Wednesday, Shrader found out the offensive line would look invariably different than what it has all year. Bergeron, Kalan Ellis and Christopher Bleich all went down with injuries — Bergeron and Ellis didn’t even travel with the team.

So against Wake Forest, a struggling team defensively in its first season under defensive coordinator Brad Lambert, the Orange trotted out five backup linemen, and the two starting linemen were in different positions. Despite a completely different line, the Orange (6-5, 3-4 ACC) managed to score 35 points, the most in a conference game since its win against Louisville. A backup left tackle, center and right guard didn’t prevent SU from totaling 477 yards of offense in its 45-35 loss to Wake Forest (7-4, 3-4 ACC).

“I’m proud of the way those guys fought and hung in there,” Shrader said. “We hung in there for the most part early on. We were explosive.”

There were moments throughout the game when the inexperience showed through, especially with Josh Ilaoa, the center starting his second collegiate game. On Syracuse’s opening drive of the second half, another mishap halted what looked to be a promising drive. Tucker had cut back a counter run and bolted for the first down to help charge the SU offense, but two plays later, LeQuint Allen lined up in shotgun for a wildcat play. 

Ilaoa snapped the ball to Allen, who was looking to his right and motioning for Tucker to come in motion. The ball jolted behind Allen and landed back inside the 15-yard line, and when Allen fell on it at the 14-yard line, it set up the Orange with a 3rd-and-24. Shrader tried to scramble on the next play after viewing tight Demon Deacon coverage, ultimately gaining 18 yards, but SU still had to punt. There were seven total penalties, including a false start and two holding calls, but ultimately the new-look offensive line committed fewer penalties than the starting unit tends to.

“For those guys to go out and score that many points against that defense, and for everyone else that played with that unit, I thought they did a really nice job,” head coach Dino Babers said.

Though Syracuse has struggled when linemen have been out this season, namely Ellis against Pittsburgh, its offense worked as well as it has all season. The offense hummed to a familiar tune in the first half, and on SU’s fifth drive of the game, it started from its own one-yard line. Then the unit dropped back in pass coverage, protecting Shrader from deep in his own endzone, while D’Marcus Adams flew down the middle of the field on a post route. Shrader stepped up and dropped the ball in to Adams across the Wake Forest logo for a 44-yard gain.

Then Vettorello and Jakob Bradford created a nice hole on the right side that Tucker cut back through for an eight-yard rush. Syracuse went back to the ground on the next play with a run-pass option in which left tackle Enrique Cruz Jr. and Davis paired with Shrader for a wall of blocking that allowed Tucker to fly to the first down. To cap the drive off, Shrader pitched the ball to Allen as the offensive line slid over in protection. But no one barreled down the field. Allen was about to loft a pass to Devaughn Cooper in the endzone to put the Orange up 21-10.

It was a “give it our all” approach, according to Vettorello, to a game that was close for two quarters, then became quickly out of reach. It was a good experience, Vettorello added, a glimpse — aside for he and Davis — into what the future of the offensive line will look like in central New York. The unit is generally smaller, built and recruited under former offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh for a more up-tempo offense. But the younger guys — Ilaoa, Cruz, Bradford — are bigger, likely leaning toward an offense that can handle a running quarterback and successfully block for someone like Tucker.

“Definitely stuff to clean up,” Shrader said. “There’s also a lot of good stuff. Frustrated, frustrated with how it turned out.”

There were moments that showed the mix-up, plays that demonstrated the length the younger players need to travel to become talented ACC linemen. In the second quarter, Wake Forest defensive lineman Jasheen Davis swung around from the right side and easily blew through a double team of Bradford and Vettorello. Davis ultimately sacked Shrader, leading to a short 52-yard field goal attempt from Andre Szmyt. Shrader was sacked three times for a total loss of 35 yards and got called for intentional grounding after barely escaping a fifth.

But Tucker still finished with 106 rushing yards — his most in an ACC game this season — while scoring two touchdowns. The Orange implemented more wildcat plays, allowing Allen to become a more integral part of an SU lineup as he was already bursting with skill position potential. Shrader consistently had tons of time to survey the field, and he finished with 324 yards and a touchdown pass.

“We weren’t perfect,” Vettorello said. “But guys wanted to be out there, which was good to see. Even when things got rough. They were still wanting to compete.”

Published on November 20, 2022 at 1:27 am

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @anthonyalandt