J
ason Beck walked over to his five quarterbacks all sitting in a circle on the sideline. Following an 11-on-11 set, Garrett Shrader stretched his quad muscle and backup Carlos Del Rio-Wilson squirted water into his mouth. Shrader, who is the confirmed starting quarterback for Syracuse, watched from the sidelines as Del Rio-Wilson took snaps with the first team offense. Beck put his hands on his hips and looked down at the second stringer.
“I gotta be honest, I’m not too happy about that hesitation Carlos,” Beck said.
Moments before, the transfer’s heave was intercepted by safety Bralyn Oliver. Damien Alford was open, but Del Rio-Wilson had waited too long after his cut to throw the ball. Oliver creeped up and stole the pass away from Alford.
The Orange continued to dial up long passes on Aug. 9 to execute new offensive coordinator Robert Anae’s more balanced approach. The Orange want to improve from 2021, where they ended up with the fewest passing yards in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Over the offseason, they brought in Anae and Beck, whose Virginia offense finished fourth in points per game (34.6) and first in passing yards per game (392.6) last year.
The hire of Anae and Beck opens up the offense’s playbook going into head coach Dino Babers’ seventh season with Syracuse. From rub routes and more halfback screens to incorporating an otherwise unused tight end room, Anae and Beck have quickly transformed the makeup of the Orange’s offense. All-American running back Sean Tucker will still be mixed into a plethora of run plays. But SU is looking to test Shrader’s arm, something that he hasn’t done yet with the Orange.
“Ultimately, the goal is to have less carries and the same amount of yards,” quarterback Garrett Shrader said on Aug. 3. “We’ve got a lot of play makers though … that I’m happy running around with.”
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Opening up the playbook has allowed receivers like Oronde Gadsden II to emerge as reliable options for Shrader, especially when the Orange have conducted 11-on-11 two-minute drills chock-full of deep passes. On Aug. 16, Devaughn Cooper took off from the right slot position and broke left into a slant route. Shrader waited too long to hit Cooper, and safety Rob Hanna broke up the pass.
While jogging back to the line of scrimmage, Shrader quickly snapped his arm to the left and motioned Gadsden to line up as the X receiver. As the ball was snapped, Gadsden flew across the left hash mark and cut across the middle of the field for a post route. Despite obvious double coverage, Shrader lofted a 30-yard pass to Gadsden, who leapt over Rob Hanna and Alijah Clark to bring the ball down for the reception.
“I think this offense really fits some of (Gadsden’s) skill sets,” Babers said. “It’ll give him more value than he had in the past for us. It’s the versatility of how many different things you can do.”
Anae and Beck began their coaching careers as graduate assistants with the University of Hawaii under the late head coach Dick Tomey. Anae was at Hawaii two years after Babers’ arrival as a graduate assistant in 1984 and now stands as the fourth offensive coordinator to work under Babers since he was hired at SU. The plan at the beginning of the spring season was to hear out Anae and Beck’s ideas.
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Babers trusted the new tandem to install their updated offense. Now, Babers said the new offense is a “blend” of their respective coaching styles.
Anae and Beck have experience coaching mobile quarterbacks like Shrader, including Taysom Hill at BYU and Bryce Perkins and Brennan Armstrong at Virginia. Throughout training camp, quarterbacks worked with running backs on ball security drills. Shrader, followed by Del Rio-Wilson, Dan Villari and Jacobian Morgan, held the ball in the running back’s chest for two seconds. A whistle blew, prompting Shrader to tuck the ball and run through a gauntlet of two coaches attacking Shrader with orange pads.
“The biggest thing with this offense is it may not be perfect, each tape how we want it, but if we’re on the same page, we make it happen, that’s all that matters,” Shrader said.
Beck has worked on Shrader’s vision downfield throughout camp, ensuring that he’s “not trying to be so robotic” with his passing motion. Tucker and multiple offensive linemen said they know Shrader is talented in the run game and allows the offense to open up without passing. But Shrader also garnered almost 1,200 passing yards as a true freshman with Mississippi State.
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To help Shrader’s passing, Syracuse brought in receivers like Cooper and D’Marcus Adams to bolster an unproven unit. While Damien Alford and Courtney Jackson are at the top of the wide receiver depth chart, the rest of the unit hasn’t made a serious impact in previous years. Anthony Queeley and Isaiah Jones are returning, but both are working back from injuries. CJ Hayes has been behind Alford and Jackson. Umari Hatcher has also been working with the first team.
As training camp came to a close, Michigan transfer quarterback Dan Villari was seen working as a wide receiver. With Del Rio-Wilson working solely as the second string quarterback and the new offense hoping to open plays up, Babers wanted Villari on the field.
“I think it’s more that we know who our starting quarterback is,” Babers said of Villari playing receiver on Aug. 22. “He’s a fantastic athlete and we’re trying to get all of the athletes out there.”
The biggest threat, be it on the ground or in the air, in a new style or Anae’s schemes, is still Tucker. After racking up preseason awards following a school record-breaking 1,496-yard rushing season, Tucker can now show NFL scouts that he’s a passing threat, Babers said. Tucker has liked running back options since his time at Calvert Hall College High School (Maryland). He loves spinning around after catching the ball and having an ample amount of space.
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Shrader just needs to be accurate, something he and Beck continue to harp on during film sessions and practice. During an 11-on-11 set on Aug. 19, Caleb Okechukwu pressured Shrader from his blind side, forcing the quarterback to scramble out right and force a pass to Tucker on a flat route. He had a man across the middle, but the pressure skewed his vision.
A few minutes later, Tucker leaked out for a mesh route to the right side. Alford ran a deep route, pulling the 3-3-5 defense away from the line and allowing Tucker to have that space to work with. He collected the throw at the line of scrimmage and bolted past one defender before being pushed out by another for a gain of seven yards and a first down.
“It’s gonna be a lot of the same and the same way,” Shrader said on Aug. 17. “But we’re going to have a much more balanced and complemented offense.”
Photo courtesy of SU Athletics
Published on September 1, 2022 at 1:13 am
Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt
