Dino Babers plays coy, says Antwan Cordy’s been at every practice this week

When the Syracuse Orange released this week’s depth chart, Antwan Cordy received an “OR” designation, and that didn’t really help us figure out whether he’d return from injury or not.

Cordy, the Orange’s starting free safety, suffered a leg injury early in the first half of the Central Connecticut State game and was seen with crutches and a boot afterward. After missing over 10 games last season, it had the potential to be a crushing blow to a Syracuse defense looking to improve in 2017.

Based on some of SU coach Dino Babers’s feedback to Brent Axe on Thursday, he may still be able to contribute to that effort — maybe even as soon as this Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders game.

As Axe expressed there, that statement doesn’t necessarily clear anything up for us. Being AT practice is not the same as Cordy participating IN practice. Babers seems hopeful that Cordy could return, but who know how much of that is a mix of optimism and coach-speak.

If Cordy can’t go, Toledo transfer Jordan Martin will fill in there. The redshirt senior safety had a quality game one as a fill-in, despite playing his first game at safety. Our own Julian Whigham had this to say about Martin’s work:

“I liked that (Martin’s) jersey number seemed to always be in the frame on run plays and his presence over top was also felt... I liked his patience in deep coverage letting a route develop and then breaking over top of the receiver. We saw that on a couple pass plays Friday.”

Whether Cordy returns on Saturday or not, this sort of outward confirmation that he was at practice (in some capacity) is encouraging and the optimism/hope that he comes back is also more vocal than Babers usually is.

What do you think? This sound like Cordy’s returning? Or just more of Babers being coy?