Recap: Spring Scrimmage #1

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Orange football team capped its second week of spring practice with a 153-play scrimmage inside the Ensley Athletic Center Saturday morning.

The scrimmage lasted 1 hour and 51 minutes with the offense and defense squaring off on drives that started from various points on the field. The outing featured several red-zone periods and no special teams work.

Syracuse scored 12 touchdowns, eight of which came on the ground. Tommy DeVito quarterbacked the first offense, while Clayton Welch and Rex Culpepper took turns leading the second team.

Defensively, the Orange logged eight sacks, four takeaways and two safeties.

Head coach Dino Babers said he saw many positives Saturday, but noted there's still much work to be done.

"I thought that the defense came out ready to play. Some guys only had one backup today, so they played over half a football game," Babers said. "They played 75 plays, so fantastic job by those guys running to the football and getting turnovers.

"On offense, we're lacking consistency right now. We've got to do a better job of getting the ball to our playmakers in space the correct way to give them an opportunity to make plays."

Four players accounted for Syracuse's eight rushing touchdowns, as Jarveon Howard, Markenzy Pierre, Abdul Adams and Moe Neal each found the end zone twice. Howard and Neal were responsible for the two longest touchdown runs. Howard scored on a 50-yard burst, while Neal crossed the goal line from 20 yards out to cap a 60-yard scoring drive.

Welch threw three of Syracuse's four TD passes. His 2-yard scoring strike to tight end Chris Elmore marked the first completion of the scrimmage. Welch also hooked up with receiver Anthony Queeley for touchdowns twice during red-zone work. A 23-yard pass from Culpepper to Ethan Fischler resulted in the Orange's fourth aerial score.

Kendall Coleman and Shaq Grosvenor led the defense with two sacks apiece. A Kenneth Ruff sack in the end zone produced one of the defense's two safeties. The other came when Christopher Fredrick and Andre Cisco combined to tackle Sean Riley behind the goal line on a screen pass.

Cisco, Cam Jonas and DuWayne Johnson each had interceptions. Zack Lesko recorded the defense's fourth takeaway when he recovered a bad snap.

Overall, Syracuse has completed six of its 15 allotted spring practice sessions. The nine remaining practices will be spent polishing the plays and schemes that have already been installed.

Said Babers: "We need to clean up the little things. We've got a lot of the offense in. We're going to pull back now and fine-tune that stuff. We need to work the techniques and fundamentals to make sure these guys are ready to go for the fall."

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Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Abdul Adams

Andre Cisco

Kendall Coleman

Rex Culpepper

Tommy DeVito

Chris Elmore

Christopher Fredrick

Shaq Grosvenor

Jarveon Howard

DuWayne Johnson

Cam Jonas

Zack Lesko

Moe Neal

Markenzy Pierre

Anthony Queeley

Sean Riley

Kenneth Ruff

Clayton Welch

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