Syracuse football: players’ thoughts on Friday night game against Virginia

The 3-0 Syracuse Orange are ready to pounce on primetime tomorrow night against the Virginia Cavaliers, but first we have our weekly player roundup to go through.

Garrett Shrader

• “When you can play as sloppy as we did, offensively, in the first half and then come out and get a win against a team like that, it’s pretty impressive. It feels good ,and we’ll try not to do that again.”
• Shrader is not overselling the team’s 3-0 start. “We still got a long way to go.”
• QB1 wouldn’t dive into the details, but he did confirm that there was some sickness in the locker room last week.
• On Virginia: “It’s tough to win early on, but at any moment they can (wake up).”
• Expects other receivers to make up for the injured Isaiah Jones.
• Short weeks like this are “always tough” to prepare for.

Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images

Oronde Gadsden II

• WR room is “pretty deep” and will recover from loss of Jones.
• Coach Anae and Beck have worked with SU receivers on picking specific routes to run against their old team.
• Gadsden took advantage of NIL and secured a Players’ Trunk offer after his game-winning catch on Saturday.
• Said he’s been working with Dan Villari since he made the move to TE.
• More crickets on last week’s team illness, except that it wasn’t COVID.

Caleb Okechukwu

• Earning ACC Player of the Week was a blessing, but the focus is already on the next game.
• Pick-6 in the 4th Quarter against Purdue was a “special moment” both for him and the team as a whole.
• Crowd noise played a huge part in the win and was the loudest he’s heard.
• Looking ahead to a likely sold-out Notre Dame game: “I probably won’t be able to hear.”
• “Mob Mentality” that has floated around the defense this year originated with the guys from the DMV area and has since caught on with everyone else.
• “Obviously we’re happy that we’re 3-0, but we’re not satisfied.”

Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images

Mikel Jones

• On what he’s doing as a leader: “Remind them what it took to get to this point. Remind them how many things we saw in the media going against us.”
• “We just came out in the first game and proved ourselves right.” Still focused on proving other people wrong.
• Said you could see Aidan O’Connell and his linemen looking around and having trouble with the crowd noise for most of the game.
• “We never point fingers at anybody if someone gives up some man coverage... we should have got (to the QB) faster.”

Garrett Williams

• “Understand that everything we got has to be earned... This is a privilege and you got to earn it every day.”
• Defense kept good communication through most of the game but had some slip ups late.
• Preparing for a “night and day” difference in playstyles this week with Brennan Armstrong coming to town.
• Said he and Duce Chestnut are handling their emotions much better this year, building off one another and picking each other up when mistakes are made.