Syracuse Football: It’s early, but Garrett Shrader has put up big numbers

The 2022 season has a long way to go for Syracuse football, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but what quarterback Garrett Shrader has done in the Orange’s first two games is really impressive, and really encouraging.

A year ago, when the ‘Cuse dropped its final three games and went 5-7 overall, Shrader struggled in the passing attack, and the Orange’s offense was one-dimensional, relying way too heavily on All-American running back Sean Tucker and Shrader’s running abilities, too.

I get that the ‘Cuse has only competed in a pair of contests to date in 2022, a home trouncing of Louisville and a road domination of a bad UConn squad, but still, one has to feel good about what Shrader is doing so far.

When Syracuse football smoked the Huskies over the weekend, 48-14, two things most stood out to me. One is that the Orange vastly cleaned up its ridiculous number of penalties that it incurred against the Cardinals in week one.

And two, a ‘Cuse offense that was so run-heavy a stanza ago actually collected nearly twice as many passing yards versus UConn as the Orange registered on the ground.

Syracuse football starting QB Garrett Shrader is off to a hot start in 2022.

With the ‘Cuse (2-0) set to face off against Big Ten Conference member Purdue (1-1) this Saturday afternoon in Central New York, Shrader at this juncture in 2022 has completed a whopping 79.2 percent of his passes for 523 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions, per statistics on the ESPN Web site.

https://twitter.com/CuseFootball/status/1569097771583520769

His quarterback rating of 84.8 is No. 14 in the country, according to ESPN. I perused a bunch of stats on the NCAA’s Web site, and Shrader at present is No. 3 nationwide in completion percentage.

Considering that, in 2021, Garrett Shrader threw for just 1,445 yards (although he didn’t start every game for Syracuse football), he’s well on his way toward shattering that number in 2022.

Let’s review some other positive and encouraging numbers for Shrader at this point in the season, courtesy of ncaa.com.

He is in a tie for No. 22 nationally in passing touchdowns. He is No. 35 nationwide in passing yards per game, at 262.

Shrader checks in just inside the top 30 overall in passing yards per completion, and that is a stat that I’m really pleased to see.

With five passing TDs and three rushing scores, Shrader is responsible for 48 total points, which is in a tie for No. 9 nationwide. His points responsible for per contest, at 24.0, is in a tie for No. 7 nationally.

Oh, and Shrader also has 118 rushing yards through two games, in case you’re wondering.

Per a release from SU Athletics on Monday, Garrett Shrader has been added to the midseason watch list for the 2022 Davey O’Brien Award, which annually honors the top quarterback around the country.

To reiterate, there are many games left for Syracuse football in 2022, and the competition is going to intensify big-time. But if you don’t think that new offensive coordinator Robert Anae and new quarterbacks coach Jason Beck aren’t a huge reason for Shrader’s improvement thus far this term, you’re kidding yourself.