Even Dino Babers — who is as good as any college football coach at putting some shine on an otherwise poor situation — had no positive spin on Syracuse’s injury situation earlier this week. 

“I would not say it’s going to change,” Babers said Monday of SU’s injury situation. “Because every time I come up here and think it’s going to change, it hasn’t changed. So I’m sitting here going, I’m not going to say — It hasn’t changed yet.”

It did change, as preseason All-American sophomore safety Andre Cisco returned, alongside starting cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu to make their first starts since sustaining injuries against Clemson.

But, as the Orange folded two starters back into the mix, two other defensive backs — nickel corner Trill Williams and multi-position senior Antwan Cordy — both left SU’s (3-4, 0-3 Atlantic Coast) 27-20 loss to Pittsburgh (5-2, 2-1) with apparent lower-body injuries. Sam Heckel and McKinley Williams — linemen for the offense and defense, respectively — both did not dress and quarterback Tommy DeVito was pulled for his own protection midway through the third quarter. Babers has stressed SU’s need to get healthy for the back stretch, but after a smash-mouth loss to Pitt, SU is seemingly no closer to being healthy.

“Now we’ve gotta see who’s healthy and who’s not healthy,” Babers said postgame.

DeVito’s last play from scrimmage was, according to Babers, a “really good shot.”

DeVito’s had an undisclosed injury to the upper body since the third quarter of SU’s win over Holy Cross, where he appeared to favor his throwing shoulder after a deep ball. After a cautious outing against North Carolina State last week, DeVito was taking too much punishment this week, Babers said.

And after Paris Ford put his right shoulder hard enough into DeVito’s right shoulder to dislodge the ball and leave the quarterback face down on the turf, Babers decided that was enough. Backup Clayton Welch spelled DeVito the rest of the game. DeVito could have reentered the game, Babers clarified, but he chose to keep his starting quarterback out.

“He wanted to go back out there,” Babers said. “But I’m like, ‘No. You’ve done enough for this one.’”

Williams sustained his apparent lower-left leg injury late in the second quarter. He and Evan Foster combined to take down a Pittsburgh running back deep in SU territory. How exactly Williams injured himself isn’t clear, but after briefly attending to him on the field, trainers immediately escorted Williams to the locker room while he put no weight on his left ankle.

Later, Williams could be seen on the sideline in sweatpants and a walking boot on his left foot.

Cordy, who started at cornerback for Syracuse, came up hobbled on a play early in the fourth quarter in front of the Syracuse sideline. He came to the bench and could be seen examining his lower body. Cordy did not return to the game.

Babers was not asked about either player’s injury postgame and their potential status moving forward remains unclear.

Cordy’s injury forced Melifonwu back into action. After pulling his right hamstring in the second half against Clemson, Melifonwu didn’t even practice the following week ahead of playing Western Michigan, he said. For Holy Cross, he began non-contact practice. Following an idle week and a few days of prep before traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina, Melifonwu said he was “very close” to flying with the team to play the Wolfpack.

He knew, then, that he’d be back on the field this week.

“I knew coming into this week I would get in,” he said postgame, tugging at the saran wrap holding the pack of ice to the back of his right thigh. “I just didn’t know how much.”

Melifonwu ended up playing nearly the entire fourth quarter. His transition back to game speed was aided, he said, by his first two series being three-and-outs for Pitt. He knew his injury was a non-factor when he planted Taysir Mack into the turf on a shallow cross.

Cisco started the whole game and looked like his usual self, filtering calls from the sideline to the rest of the defense and finishing fourth on SU with six tackles in the game.

“I felt good,” Cisco, who traveled to North Carolina but didn’t play last week. “It was rough being on the sideline the last few weeks.”

With Williams and Cordy’s status up in the air, it’s hard to say how hard the injury bug will affect SU moving forward. What’s certain is that Babers refrain of his team needing better health still rings true.

“We gotta see how guys heal up,” Babers said.

Published on October 19, 2019 at 1:05 am

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