Syracuse had plenty of bad problems Friday night against Nova, but it also actually has a good problem as well.
Syracuse has depth at the running back position. We mentioned in the offseason how even with the departure of Jerome Smith, the Orange has a veteran in Prince-Tyson Gulley to step in. Add in Hunt’s legs, Devante McFarlane, George Morris III and Adonis Ameen-Moore, and George McDonald has to figure out how he is going to distribute carries and quarterback keepers to keep every running option productive and active.
A look back to¬†Friday‚Äôs¬†game shows Gulley will continue to be the go-to option. He clearly has breakaway speed, showing it off with a 65-yard touchdown. On the other hand, McFarlane and Morris did not produce at all with very limited carries. However, we shouldn’t look into their statistics too much (1 carry-4 yards and 5-for-0 yards, respectively) because of a limited sample size and what we have seen they are capable of in the past.
Hunt made a major mistake in Friday’s incident, but there is no denying he is also a major threat on the ground. Hunt rushed for 500 yards last season with 7 touchdowns. Unfortunately he was kicked out of a game in which is counterpart had a field day running the ball.
But perhaps the best surprise was the return of the “tank package” with Ameen-Moore. A throwback to the Marrone Era, Ameen-Moore showed he could still help the Orange in the red zone and near the goal line. He finished with a 2-yard touchdown and a big burst up the middle in overtime to set up a field goal. Ameen-Moore could be the difference this season between a touchdown and settling for a field goal.
The issue for McDonald will be to gauge which running option to use at a given time. It will be tempting to play the hot hand during the game, but not every running back’s skill set is designed for every situation.
It will be up to him to decide who is the running back that gives the Orange the best chance to pick up yards or touchdowns given the circumstance.
Posted: Zephan Mayell
10 responses to “Orange Optimism: Syracuse Hopes Backfield Jumpstarts Offense vs. CMU”
I don’t know what game the writer watched.
I’m going to be kind here. We should have run all over NOVA. We didn’t. I’ll lay the blame at the absence of Palmer and Robinson at the guard spots. Due to poor play calling/formations- THE TANK PACKAGE WAS A JOKE!! 5 tries from point blank range and we get a fieldgoal?
I’m gonna say it was a bad day at the office(I hope).
Your absolutely right…this guy was at a different game. In overtime “tank” got us to the 1 yard line….then ..in the worst example of bad line play against an undersized d-line they kicked our ass.
It was the most embarrassing moments in a terrible embarrassing evening.
If Hunt was a major threat on the ground.. I missed that too!
I wish these writers would stop trying to pretty a pig! We stunk the place up. I hope along with orangeinva that it was just a bad day.
Unfortunately I don’t believe it!
Got to say…. I enjoy the posters on this site but the writers are really bad.
Tough to read. I assume they go to Newhouse… Doesn’t bode well for the next generation of Syracuse Newhouse Journalists.
They stink!
I’ll say this much, I can feel cuse17 on his stance of trying to dress up the performance. I mean it was what it was. Not a great performance. The O line didnt dominate the line the way every one expected and that hampered the real consistency in the offense..running game in particular. I still think the Tank package is viable tho. Its mans football at its purest. You line up your hogs, we line up ours and let aggression meet force. AAM is a big boy but you still want a good push.
On a larger note, this may be the end of largebruisernbacks at SU for a while well as long as the current offensive pphilosophy is in place. Think we see smaller , shifty, multi dimensional guys for the near future. Maybe a tyrone perkins becomes the closest thing to a Jerome Smith type of guy. After a couple of yrs gets up to 215 220 lbs. He is one of those one cut, great vision type ofnbacks based on his film. His frame looks like he can safely add 15 lbs
Dammit.forgot to add:
While the overly rosy representation of how the Cuse played mightnbe overstated..I think the overly pessimistic outlook is too.
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