Syracuse Football: Dino Babers Hoping Versatility Will Help Soften Potential Injuries

Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers met with the media following spring football practice. What could versatility provide this season?

The Syracuse football team continues to work on their craft hoping they can turn the corner next season and get back to a bowl game. Head coach Dino Babers has made it clear that those are the expectations heading into this upcoming season.

But to do that, they’ll need to correct some of the things that resulted in them ending up 4-8. While injuries can be a fickle thing, we learned today that Babers is doing everything he can to be prepared for the inevitable.

"“We’re trying to build depth. We had a lot of injuries last year and obviously I think our schedule this year is even tougher than last year. So we’re trying to make sure we have enough flexibility at key positions, so we don’t have that stall we had at the end of the season.”"

To give you a quick refresher via our friends over at Syracuse.com, here were the four players that were lost for the season during the 2016 campaign.

"Out for the SeasonDL Steven Clark (lower leg)DB Antwan Cordy (forearm)DB Juwan Dowels (knee)OL Jason Emerich (shoulder)"

While the key injuries occurred in an already depleted secondary. People came into the year

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expecting this Orange defense to be historically bad and that was before the injuries.

After they lost both Antwan Cordy and Juwan Dowels, the floodgates opened and caused record breaking numbers on defense, in a bad way.

So this spring with some time to work on things, the local media gets to watch 10-15 minutes worth of practice everyday. Earlier this morning we got to see players working in different positions than they’re labeled.

I think this is a genius ploy by Babers, because if any of those players go down he won’t have to just rely on inexperienced freshmen to try and lead the team. Instead he’ll have versatile players who can do a lot of different things well.

The pundits have labeled the Orange as a potential riser in the ACC through the offseason. It’s going to be tough with another hard-hitting schedule this year. Speaking of that, later in that interview with the media above, he spoke about playing in the ACC conference for the first time.

In that diatribe, he said that he learned some things that he’s bringing to the practice field for instance, increasing the intensity. This is a tough conference and Babers learned that the hard way. He also noted that the spring offers you a luxury of playing harder in practice because when it’s time for the Fall you’re getting ready for opponents you can’t afford your players potentially hurting each other during the season.

Next: Syracuse Football: Position Grades for 2016-2017 Season

That intensity will be something to watch for, especially considering that Babers said they made their spring football sessions longer. Usually it lasts four weeks, Babers said they’re pushing over five weeks this offseason. We know they’ll be conditioned, that’s a Babers staple from his initial press conference to seeing it in action last season.

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