Syracuse football owns the worst offensive line in college football

When you look at the analytics Syracuse football owns the worst offensive line in college football. Here are all the details and reaction from Dino Babers.

Syracuse football is in first place after seven weeks of play! In what you ask?

The Orange are No. 1 in the nation in most sacks allowed. Out of 130 college football teams, Syracuse has given up the most sacks with 35 on the season.

They were able to accomplish this historic feat thanks to the Pitt Panthers who helped them get there.

Syracuse dropped to 3-4 on the season thanks to a 27-20 loss to Pittsburgh on Friday night. A large reason the Orange faltered was because of their inability to protect the quarterback.

The Panthers racked up nine sacks and now lead all of college football in that category with 36 sacks on the season.

"“The sack total was the most in a game for Pitt since 2001, and 10 players had a hand in them,” per the Associated Press."

So what did Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers think of his offensive line’s historic performance?

"“Well, we could not throw the ball ever again to see if we could go after a record. Or we can keep competing and getting better. So we can go through a bunch of games later where we never give up a sack based on how much practice time and how much game experience these guys have in the future.”"

Because of how poorly the line played, Syracuse fans got to witness three different quarterbacks go under center for the Orange in Week 7: Tommy DeVito, Clayton Welch, and even Rex Culpepper.

Syracuse entered the season with three new starters on the offensive line. On top of that early in the season the Orange lost starting center Sam Heckel who has been out of the lineup since Week 1 vs Liberty.

After all that change, it’s fair to say the offensive line has struggled in 2019. So much so that perhaps the Orange need to do something drastic to change the crappy results they’ve received. Coach Babers shared his thoughts on what the Orange can do on that front:

"“Everybody’s job is in jeopardy. We are going to go through the tape and if guys haven’t done the type of job they need to do we’ll put other guys in there. It’s not fair to keep playing the same guys if the results don’t change. Although the other guys that step in have to be good too. This isn’t intramural where you’re the next guy and you automatically get to play. It’s not like that. If they’re good enough and they give us an opportunity down the road then we need to give those guys a chance to see what they can do. Because there are certain guys in the game that aren’t doing good enough.”"

The poor offensive line play has derailed the rest of the offense.

An example from early in the game really told us the kind of day the Orange offensive line was going to have. It was third and medium, Syracuse wanted to give DeVito extra time to throw so they kept two extra blockers in (Moe Neal and Aaron Hackett), that’s on top of the five offensive linemen.

Pittsburgh decided to rush four. This means the Orange had the numbers advantage 7-to-4, this must’ve worked out right? Wrong. The Panthers got to Tommy immediately. How does that happen?

Poor communication.

It’s shocking how bad the chemistry and lack of cohesion that has existed for this team. While Heckel has been out, Airon Servais (a two-year starter at center) has manned the middle of the trenches. A player with that much experience should be comfortable in that role, but he’s struggled which has been a ripple effect for every other player on the line.

With the Orange already over halfway through their season, they may not have many options to fix their issues on the fly. If they can’t this season could implode entirely.