Syracuse football: Injuries prevent several defensive backs from practice

The Syracuse Orange football team returned to on-campus practice after spending Sunday at Fort Drum. And there were several players absent from drills. As Syracuse.com’s Nate Mink reported, four different defensive backs — CB Wayne Morgan, S Rodney Williams, S Evan Foster, S Evan Clarke — were in street clothes with undisclosed injuries. Additionally, receivers Alvin Cornelius and Clay Austin were also on the sidelines.

Morgan, Williams and Cornelius have all seen injury problems in their past at SU, while Clarke has been in a sling for at least a week or two. The staff has yet to provide a firm update on each players’ condition and status with regard to the season opener against Colgate.

Stephen Bailey also brought some additional observations in terms of on-the-field action. Particularly, with regard to the field goal block unit, the team will use defensive backs to apply pressure from the edge. He provides a quick snapshot here:

Elsewhere, Bailey noted a couple different players working with new/non-natural position groups on the morning. Those included:

• Linebacker Kyle Kleinberg with tight ends
• Wide receiver Jacob Hill with running backs (where he played last year)
• Safety Scoop Bradshaw with wide receivers (where he was late last week too)
• Wide receiver Devin Butler with running backs
• Running back Moe Neal with wide receivers

All of that is another reminder that nothing’s really written in stone with this staff yet as Dino Babers & co. still work to figure out what they have. Offensive players being utilized at several different positions seems likely this fall while they see who’s taking to the system well. There’s also the chance that players like Bradshaw and Kleinberg, who’d see limited action on defense, get shifted in the short-term to help with depth.

There’s a chance that updated depth charts come out this week, but in any case, we should know by next Tuesday how the roster will look against Colgate next Friday.