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Some news, notes and updates as we get closer to the Saturday game between the Syracuse Orange and Maryland Terrapins.
Bud Light enthusiast Ryan Norton will be back with the team and starting a week after getting suspended.
"Yes," Shafer responded when asked if Norton would return to his starting job.
Asked how he settled on a one-week suspension as the appropriate penalty, Shafer said, "It's my policy."
SU will be glad to have him back after having an XP blocked and feeling forced to go for two instead of a second one last week against Wake.
Still, some of the writers on the call found Shafer's explanation a little bizarre and it sound like Shafe might have been in a bad mood or rubbed the wrong way. If anything, it sounds like he really doesn't want to discuss the Georgia Tech loss and any mention of it irks him.
Eric Crume, who only saw limited action last week, is close to 100% and "looks like the old Eric Crume on tape," so expect to see him back on the field. It's still up in the air whether or not George Morris II will be available. The starting kick returner is dealing with The Dreaded Upper Body Injury.
Hey, whatever happened to Jeremiah Kobena? He seems to have lost reps to guys like Brisly Estime. Let's ask George McDonald...
"Hey, you earn everything you get here. It's a lesson in life. You come to work every day, you get paid. You don't come to work, you don't get paid."
Coach, let's lay off the "you get paid" metaphors when discussing college football players. BUT, I see where you're going. McDonald clarified that Kobena is working hard but other guys seem to be working harder.
Finally, there will be lots of talk about Wilmeth Sidat-Singh during the game. Maryland is honoring the SU legend, SU will wear No. 19 on their helmets in his honor and Scott Shafer is making sure all of the Orange know who they're honoring:
"I talked to the kids about the fact that Maryland was doing a good job at kind of taking the better-late-than-never approach to honor Singh's family," Shafer said. "It's been 76 years ago that the ugliness of our country's battle with racial injustice reached the football field, and it just happened to be the Syracuse football team and one of our own, one of our great former players.
"It's a teaching moment and an opportunity for our kids to look backwards and look at the history of our country and the history of our country's ugliness at times in the past and be part of righting a situation that was horribly wrong just 75, 76 years ago."
Now listen to Isaiah Johnson reflect on the season so far and look forward to the Maryland game…