Sunday Sidebar: Orange Remain Optimistic

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Despite a disappointing result on Saturday night against reigning national champion Clemson in front of a sold-out Dome, head coach Dino Babers and the Orange remain optimistic for the remainder of the 2019 campaign. Syracuse hosts two non-conference contests in the next two weeks at home against Western Michigan and Holy Cross before the first of its two bye weeks.

For Syracuse, the upcoming stretch offers an opportunity to rebound from back-to-back losses before getting into the meat of conference play. It's also a chance for the Orange to come together and grow with nine regular-season games still to go.

"As bad as it may look, I feel like when it's all said and done we're going to be one of the teams that people are going to talk about in 2019," Babers said.

The Orange stayed with nation's top team for the first half and had opportunities in the third quarter to close the gap or perhaps take the lead. Trailing 17-6 at the start of the second half, redshirt senior defensive back Christopher Fredrick picked off Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, setting up first-and-goal for the Orange offense. However on the next play, Syracuse quarterback Tommy DeVito was forced out of the pocket and his pass was intercepted by Tiger defensive back Mario Goodrich at the 4-yard line. Clemson took advantage of the miscue, as Lawrence found wide receiver Amari Rodgers for an 87-yard score on the next series to extend the advantage.

"With young quarterbacks, they're going to make mistakes, and as they make mistakes they get better and better and better," Babers said.

Another interception later in the period, this time by Trill Williams, had the Orange knocking on the door again. Williams' return put the ball on the Clemson 3-yard line, but the Tigers stiffened and kept Syracuse out of the end zone. Overall, the Orange had four chances in the red zone Saturday night and were not able to punch it in.

"It's just a lot of growing, trying to get better every game moving forward, and trying to be the best leader possible in order to move the offense down the field," DeVito said.

There was no shortage of support for the Orange, as 50,248 fans filled the Dome for the highly-anticipated contest. It was ninth sellout in Dome history and the third-largest crowd in the building's history. The only larger crowds came back in 1980 when Syracuse opened the Dome by hosting Miami (Ohio) in front of 50,564 fans and welcomed a gathering of 50,350 for a game against Navy.

Babers acknowledged the turnout from the Orange faithful and assured them that his team would bounce back.

"They wanted the giant upset and we sure wanted to deliver for them. The student body was fantastic, as well as the band, and the entire city's support," Babers said. "We're disappointed that we couldn't deliver, but our guys will be back. Our guys will be ready to go."

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Syracuse University Athletics

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Tommy DeVito

Christopher Fredrick

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