Dino Babers provides injury updates for Syracuse players

Syracuse Orange football head coach Dino Babers held his weekly press conference on Monday ahead of SU’s next game against Duke. As expected, there were questions surrounding the status of injured players who had hopefully healed up during the bye week.

However, Babers has never been one to disclose the exact status of a player heading into the game, as he probably rightly feels that it gives his opponents a strategical advantage to know who’s active or not. That continued this week as we don’t know the full status of injured players heading into the weekend, but Babers did confirm some injuries.

The one player fans are most concerned about is of course Syracuse’s preseason All-American Andre Cisco. Babers did confirm that Cisco suffered a “lower-body extremity injury in the pregame.” He also mentioned that in 39 years he’s never seen that happen. For those curious, 39 years would take Babers back to his college football playing days at the University of Hawaii. However, Babers did seem somewhat confident that he’ll have Cisco at his disposal sometime this season.

“I’ve seen him every day and he’s been smiling and he’s been excited, so we’ll see,” said Babers.

Babers also commented on Eric Coley’s status, who hasn’t featured in a game since SU’s first contest against UNC. Babers confirmed that Coley has an “owie” and that they’re waiting for his owie to “clear up.” He also mentioned that they could use Coley’s presence on the field sooner than later to relieve some of the pressure of the younger defensive backs who have filled in.

“We’re really looking forward to the opportunity that we can get Eric’s experience back there to put one of those guys to back in a rotation-type situation or at least be able to spell them for a couple of plays where they’re not out there all the time,” said Babers.

Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Babers also addressed injuries on the offensive line front: specifically Dakota Davis. Babers mentioned during the preseason that the offensive line would have to battle through some injuries through the first four weeks of the season. He said on Monday that there wasn’t a timetable set for guys like Davis to return to the playing field, but like with Coley, Syracuse needs the injured offensive linemen to come back.

“We’re waiting with open arms like the father with the prodigy son coming back,” said Babers. “We need them. The day that there is a change [to the injury timetable], we’ll be excited.”

Once again, this doesn’t really confirm the status of Cisco, Coley or Davis heading into the Duke game. But Babers does confirm that all three of those guys are critical to the success of the Orange this season and that the sooner they come back from their injuries, the better for Syracuse.