Dino Babers won’t say if Brad Wittke will remain on the sideline

The Syracuse Orange (4-4) are riding high heading into their bye week after pushing their win streak to two games following their overly-stressful 28-20 win over Boston College on Saturday.

However, the win didn’t come without controversy.

On Syracuse’s opening drive, quarterback Eric Dungey’s pass was intercepted by Boston College defensive back William Harris. Dungey appeared to be overly aggressive when tackling Harris out of bounds, and a scuffle ensued. Syracuse Director of Football Operations Brad Wittke quickly stepped in-between the two and made contact with Harris, knocking the defensive back to the ground.

Syracuse issued a public reprimand to Wittke for his actions on Monday night.

When asked on Wednesday about Wittke’s conduct and if he would remain on the sideline for the rest of the season, Babers refused to answer the question.

“Well, first of all, that stuff has already been handled by the ACC,” Babers said while appearing on the ACC coaches teleconference. “They’ve made an announcement. Our Athletic Director has already made an announcement. I’m just going to leave it at that and make no comment on the rest of that stuff.”

Wittke previously issued a statement regarding his actions on Monday night.

“I apologize to William Harris, Coach Addazio and the entire Boston College football team for my actions Saturday,” Wittke said. “While trying to prevent the situation from becoming worse I made contact with William, causing him to fall to the ground. I take responsibility for that and regret that it happened.”

In Syracuse’s public reprimand to Wittke, Athletic Director John Wildhack determined Wittke had “engaged in unsportsmanlike behavior” while attempting to deescalate the situation between Dungey and Harris.

“I hold all members of our athletics program to highest standard of conduct, and support the Atlantic Coast Conference’s commitment to sportsmanship,” Wildhack’s statement reads. “I’ve spoken with Brad and he fully understands that his actions were not appropriate.”

Outside of the opening drive scrum between the two teams, Babers said he believed both Syracuse and Boston College personnel acted in a positive manner throughout the rest of the game.

“If you watch what the Boston College coaches did, and what our coaches did, you say scum, there were no blows, nothing was thrown, no fists,” Babers sad. “I thought both staffs handled it the correct way, except for the one incident that has been handled.”

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What do you think of Wittke’s actions and Babers’ comments regarding them? And do you think Wittke deserves to remain on the sideline? Leave a comment below.