Syracuse Orange head football coach Dino Babers always chats with the media on Mondays, but this Monday, you REALLY wanted him to share details about a certain SU quarterback’s (Eric Dungey) injury.
Not surprisingly, Babers did not. Nor did he provide any sort of update or timeline around the status of Brisly Estime or Moe Neal, who also suffered injuries against Clemson.
With regard to Dungey, he only had this to say:
"I'm not sure what it is right now. We still haven't finished the test."
He shared that Dungey was undergoing testing during Sunday’s team meeting, and he hadn’t yet seen the quarterback since. He also had little to share around who might play QB this coming Saturday if Dungey can’t go:
Syracuse HC Dino Babers on backups QBs: "I think both of them did OK." No set plan for practice reps yet (at least publicly).
— Stephen Bailey (@Stephen_Bailey1) November 7, 2016
The same goes for Estime and Neal, who are also waiting for medical clearance -- which Babers has no influence on, and won’t receive updates on until they’re done.
The only injury update Babers did share was that Jamal Custis will redshirt this season. Custis, a junior wide receiver, was potentially going to be a major contributor on the offense this year. An injury prior to the start of the season derailed him seeing the field at all — so it’s good to see that he’ll get an extra year to become part of SU’s passing attack going forward.
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Elsewhere, Babers wanted to keep things upbeat and still has the team focused on trying to make a bowl game this week, no matter who’s at quarterback. As he told media today: "You couldn't ask for a better schedule” to reach the postseason. He expanded slightly:
Dino: all three of our final games are winnable because of who we're playing and where we're playing
— Syracuse Football (@syrfootball) November 7, 2016
It’s a fair point, really, whether or not Dungey’s healthy (but especially if Dungey’s healthy). Two home games means the Syracuse offense should be operating in its ideal environment. And NC State and Pittsburgh are more winnable than a bunch of other games the Orange have played this year. There are no guarantees, but it’s a solid outlook to have going into this critical final stretch.