Syracuse Football: Dino Babers assesses his QB situation moving forward

Syracuse football HC Dino Babers addressed his quarterback situation after the game. Here’s what he had to say and what it all means moving forward.

Heading into the 2019 Syracuse football season one of the biggest unanswered questions was at quarterback.

Sure Tommy DeVito has been the heir to the throne since he stepped foot on campus, but no one knew who his backup quarterback would be.

That uncertainty left some Orange fans uneasy, especially when you consider Syracuse quarterbacks have struggled to stay healthy for the entirety of recent seasons.

Halfway through the 2019 season that question still very much remains up in the air.

The current options are Clayton Welch, David Summers, and Rex Culpepper. Between them, they only have 83 combined career passing attempts.

That lack of experience really explains why the Syracuse football coaching staff refused to turn to any of these guys when DeVito got hurt.

The injury occurred late in the Holy Cross game and it forced Tommy into the medical tent. Fresh off a bye the next week, Tommy and the coaching staff gave the thumbs up on him being ready for the NC State game on Thursday.

Prior to the game starting, he was wearing some additional padding around the rib area in pre-game warmups. Throughout the game, Tommy DeVito played differently. He looked cautious in the pocket and it seemed like avoiding contact was more so on his mind in this game than ever before.

When both Tommy and Dino Babers were asked about it after the game, they denied it:

"“What did he throw for? 300 yards? What was his percentage? Around 75 percent? I think he’s doing okay. I’m not going to put his business out on the street, he has to go to battle the rest of the season. The way he plays is the way he plays and if he plays well we’ll keep him in, if he doesn’t we’ll put someone else in.”"

This is the first time Babers has even hinted at making a quarterback change since Tommy has taken over the No. 1 role in 2019.

Although throughout the rest of the presser Dino praised Tommy:

"“After the game, I went over to Tommy and it was a lot of reflection. We talked about his growth. DeVito is going to be here for another 2.5 more years hopefully. I want him to get the positives and the negatives into him quickly. That’s what you need as a son: immediate feedback. So he can make the adjustments and that’s what good quarterbacks do.”"

Babers would later on say that he handles Tommy DeVito differently because he’s “part-coach”.

"“The one thing about being the starting quarterback is everybody gets to second guess you. Everybody doesn’t matter. Although some people do. I think we have a fabulous quarterback that is going to be really good. DeVito is growing and he’s getting better and better.”"

Tommy DeVito from purely a box score perspective probably made a lot of fantasy football owners proud: he threw for 300 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and finished with a 74 percent completion percentage.

On the season Tommy has 1,358 passing yards, a 12:3 touchdown to interception ratio, and a 68 percent completion percentage.

Most people would be pretty satisfied with that. Although we all understand that you have to look deeper than the box score.

DeVito is clearly not in any danger of being benched for two reasons.

Firstly it just seems like Dino Babers believes in him and that makes sense since Dino picked him to be the centerpiece of his offense so many years ago when he recruited him.

Secondly, even if he wanted to make a change, there are no legitimate options on this team. If there was coming out of the bye with Tommy struggling and him being hurt, he would’ve made a change and he didn’t.

For the Orange, it’s Tommy DeVito or bust in 2019. The team is sitting at 3-3, already owning as many losses as they incurred throughout the entirety of the 2018 season. If this team is going to turn it around it’ll have to be with Tommy leading the charge.