Syracuse Football Practice Recap: Day 7

The NCAA isn't a big fan of two-a-days so they severely limit how often a team can hold one (er, two).  Monday was such a day and Doug Marrone learned to be careful what you wish for.  He got the offensive production he was looking for...but at a cost...

The offense out-played the defense so much that DC Scott Shafer actually switched sides at one point.

"Coach Shafer went over (to the offense) and said, ‘I’m staying over here with the winners today,’ " head coach Doug Marrone said. "He was upset, too."

Scott Shafer terrifies me.  In a good way.

QB

In case you were wondering, it looks like the QB depth chart goes Ryan Nassib, Charley Loeb and then Johnny The Kinder.  Even though the freshman seems to have made his mark so far, don't expect to see him on the field too often this year.

"Right now we’re not looking at (him) contributing to the same (degree) Ryan had last year," Marrone said. "He has a lot to learn offensively. He’s done a nice job, but now with the installation where it is there are a lot of plays for him. So you see more inconsistency from him. We’re excited about where he is and we’re going to continue to work with him."

Of course, he's not the only one that needs to work on consistency. Charley Loeb's gotta get more consistent as well.

"He’s done some nice things," Marrone said. "Again, it becomes the consistency at that position. He just needs to trigger a little bit quicker for us. Once he starts to trigger quicker I think he’ll be at a higher level in his game."

RB

Jerome Smith, welcome to the NCAAs.  Smith left the field later in the day after takEing a helmet-jarring hit from Olando Fisher.

TE

Charlie Copa spent the day on the sidelines after an injury suffered on Saturday.  Meanwhile, Dave Rahme thinks Nick Provo will be an impact player this year...assuming Nassib has time to throw to him.

OL

Justin Pugh has gone from no playing time to starting left tackle this season and Doug Marrone has no qualms about that:

"Justin Pugh will be a very good football player for us. I feel very, very comfortable with him playing left tackle..."

"He’s ahead of the curve, in my opinion. I think he could play for a lot of schools in the country," Marrone said.

HCDM is also high on Pugh's backup, Sean Hickey, whom he thinks is ahead of where Pugh was when Justin was a freshman.  For his part, Hickey is saying all the right things:

"I love it," said Hickey. "He knows so much about the offensive line, it’s tremendous. He has helped me so much in just one week of being here."

LB

The battle between Gillum and Spruill for the final starting LB spot is full of drama and intrigue.  Gillum seems to be accepting the challenge quite well, showing off some great tackling ability in practice.

Hey, remember when Doug Hogue missed media day for academic reasons?  Well that was a very wise decision and something that paid off for Hogue and his teammates, who mobbed him with congratulations after finding out he passed the class.

"(Hogue) wound up really doing well on the final and getting a passing grade in the class so that’s a credit to Doug," Marrone said. "So i just wanted to make sure that that was rewarded."

Though Marrone did add the line " I believe that Doug Hogue will graduate," which is still slightly ominous...I should hope so...

DB

Shamarko Thomas and Kevyn Scott remain on the sidelines and you can expect to see them there for a while longer. Doug Marrone said it normally takes two to three weeks for such an injury to heal.