Syracuse Football Camp: We Be Fort Drummin'

The Syracuse Orange football team kicked off their week of training at Fort Drum Monday. They did so bright and early and looks like it took a little while for everyone to wake up and fall in line. Once they did, things got moving quickly...

Maj. Gen. Mark Milley, who is in charge of the 10th Mountain Division, welcomed the team to Fort Drum with a tell-it-like-it-is pep talk.

"Now last year wasn’t such a good year as I understand it," Milley told the players of SU’s 5-7 record. "But this is a different year. In warfare, you can’t worry about the battle you had yesterday. You can’t worry about whether you won or lost in the previous firefight. You don’t have time to do that."

Milley is a big Floyd Little fan and he was happy to talk about the Hall of Famer and Syracuse legend who was on hand. We also learned something kinda crazy about No. 44:

"This guy’s 70 years old right now. Seven-zero. And you know what he runs the 40 (yard dash) in right now? Four nine, and he’s working on 4.7 (seconds)."

Little, who drove up from Syracuse to watch the practice, confirmed that he does, indeed, still run a 4.9-second 40-yard dash. At his best, Little said, he used to run 4.3.

Uh, that's kinda insane. And...I'm demanding video.

Doug Marrone spent the day wearing the football jersey of the 10th Mountain Division football team, so don't get any ideas and think that's some kind of alternate jersey.

As for the specific positions...

RB: The running backs may be competing for playing time but they worked as one unit during one drill.

Junior running back Jerome Smith said one exercise the running backs engaged in during the morning session was carrying a 200-pound dummy over a military vehicle without letting it drop.

Rahme says George Morris III is "the best natural cutback runner on the team." With Steve Rene out for an indeterminate amount of time, he could see his stock rise quickly.

WR: Jarrod West and Adrian Flemming stepped up in the absence of Alec Lemon, who's resting due to an injury. Rahme says West and Ryan Nassib are developing nice chemistry.

Alvin Cornelius and Ben Lewis are catching everything thrown their way.

Even though he won't play this season, Quinta Funderburk looked good. Nice promise for next season.

DL: Davon Wall, John Raymon and Zian Jones are rotating in with the second defense and represent a large contingent of land mass.

Jay Bromley was on hand but is wearing a boot on his left foot due to a sprained ankle. It's not expected to be a major issue.

Ryan Sloan is out with a "lower body injury" and his return date is unknown.

DB: Keon Lyn re-introduced himself after returning from injury by snagging two interceptions.

There was a notable absence in the defensive secondary. Dave Rahme reports that #Shamarko Thomas doesn't arrive until today as he "dinged his hand Sunday" and will miss a few days according to Doug Marrone. Hopefully, Shamarko has gotten his yearly injury out of the way early.

Ritchy Desir and Durell Eskridge played in Thomas' absence and performed well.

Ri'Shard Anderson apparently had his hands full all day with Jarrod West, which does not sound great on the defensive side.