Syracuse Orange College Football Pregame Quote, 08/26/2019

Just came off of a difficult camp. It really was a little frustrating on my part with some of the situations we’ve had going on, nothing negative. We had some injuries we need to overcome, have some guys working in and for the most part the team is fresh getting ready for the first contest versus Liberty University. Obviously, Coach Hugh Freeze does a fantastic job over there. I’ve already gone on record that I’m nervous about this one. We really don’t know what these guys are going to do. We’ve been watching games from Ole Miss, games from Georgia Southern, and games from Liberty to look at the personnel. There’s a lot of film to look at and you try to tie it all together and figure out what they’re going to do. So, we’re nervous about that, but I think for the most part our football team is healthy. I think our defense is in fantastic shape, I think we have a very good defense. Our kicking game I think will be very very good. I think that hopefully we’ll continue on the things we did on the special teams last year; Coach Lustig does a fantastic job, Coach Ward does a fantastic job. Offensively, we are still putting some pieces together. I think there are still some questions about our offensive line, there’s no doubt about that, and we’ve had numerous guys that are good players in and out of the lineup during camp. We’re getting them all back, but I am not sure we are all on the same page, but we’re gonna make sure we work to get on the same page for our first contest.

On the importance of setting the tone and winning the first game:

You know I think that first game is important, but like I said I’m really nervous about this one. And this reminds me so much of a game at a previous university where we were 21-point underdogs and we went out and won the game – because the team just didn’t know what kind of team that was coming into the stadium. We had some hope, we were behind at halftime, came back, and won by 21. We’re playing a good football team we don’t know a lot about, we’re playing some fantastic coaches. So, we are going to have to ant- I don’t even like using that word – we’re trying to anticipate what they’re gonna do, but we really won’t know until we get out there and there will be lots of game adjustments once the game starts.

On staying focused after preseason hype:

I just flip back the pages 365 days where everybody said we were going to take last and we took second in the ACC Atlantic. From a media standpoint, to me, it’s exactly the same. We know what we got on the inside, but we need to make sure we stay locked in and let the process happen. We have a very very difficult non-conference where we’re away for two games. On the road, that’s not what you want to do with a football team that has a chance to do the things people think that we can do and that the media’s been talking about. Wou want to get some home contests underneath your belt and you want to get your team off to a fantastic start at home. We’re on the road against two very dangerous opponents and we need to make sure we do everything we can to get the first one.

On Vettorello starting over Alexander on the Offensive Line:

It’s not solidified, guys are going to play a lot of football. Again, it comes down to learning a lot of offense, learning and practicing it at the tempo you need to practice in. The one thing about tempo is that we’re only as fast as our slowest offensive linemen and it’s hard for those big guys to get used to the speed. I think back to last year with my son-in-law when I told him you’re gonna have to get into shape, you’re gonna have to figure out how fast we play and I’ll never forget he said ‚ÄòWell we went up-tempo at Texas A&M’ and I just smiled and some of the other guys started giggling. I mean 300-pounders to giggle that’s unusual. And then I still remember, the first drive when we had to call a timeout in practice, he knows what I’m talking about because his whole body was beet red. So the point being is this when you haven’t been in the system you have to get used to it, and Carlos has been in the system. He’s got a better taste of how we need to operate and that doesn’t mean it’s going to end up that way which is the reason why you wish you had a couple of games until you get into the heart of your schedule. Okay, but that’s fall and we’re going to have to play the cards that were dealt to us.

On his personal expectations for the season:

You know we’re gonna play it one game at a time. This team has nothing to do with last year’s team and last year’s team has nothing to do with this year’s team and so much of the expectations is based off of people who are no longer in the room. And I think that they have to form their own identity and they have to decide – along with the coaches and myself – we all have to decide what kind of team we want this to be. And it’s a work in progress it really is and come Saturday night somewhere around 10 or 11 o’clock we’ll have an idea.

On if DeVito is ready to take over for Dungey:

I don’t know if anyone’s ready to step into that roll, but I know this: He’s gonna have the ball and the guy that has the ball has a lot to say what’s gonna happen whether it’s a positive or negative. When you look on the offensive side of the ball you see guys like Airon Servais, Evan Adams, and Moe Neal. You know Moe Neal is like a quarterback on the football field. That guy’s been through so much. It’s his senior year and he knows it inside and out. Hackett has played a lot of football for us, Chris Elmore knows four positions and that’s not even counting the defensive side, so there’s a lot of leaders, but people have a tendency to look at the quarterback because he touches the ball all of the time. Tommy DeVito will do a fantastic job leading, but he does not have to lead the offense by himself.

On what makes a successful training camp and being prepared:

I think the first part of it is right, I mean we came out and lost one – I shouldn’t say one – we’ve lost some players, but we came out okay and if you’re gonna train the team the right way you’re gonna have some owiees. You might lose a guy or two and that’s part of it, and if you don’t push them that hard then you’re gonna have a healthy team that’s not ready. And I’d rather be a little banged up and ready rather than a healthy team that’s not ready. Then you’re trying to explain why these guys aren’t doing the things they need to do and you’re like what are you talking about just look at the couple of games that happened this Saturday. I mean you can watch the game and go wow and you have your own comments – those comments are to yourself though. I’m not gonna talk about other people’s football team. There’s a lot that goes into getting ready for the very first game. And we’re relatively healthy coming out of camp, there’s some guys that have missed some practices and the training room needed to keep them because they needed to be healthy for this game. But, I am a little uneasy about what they missed and going into games if something like that popped up, so we’re trying to cover that in meetings and in crossing our T’s and dotting I’s and making sure these guys are 100 percent mentally ready to go. Physically they’re good, but if we can get the physical and mental together then maybe we can have a nice clean game and not a messy game.

On the challenges on defense in the coming weeks:

I’m not gonna talk about the second one (next week’s game), but I’ll talk about this, Hugh Freeze is the real deal. We all know that and this is a huge challenge and we had our troubles with Western Michigan coming out of the gate last year. This guy knows exactly what he wants to do and he knows how to do it so it’s a big challenge, Hugh Freeze versus our defense, and we don’t have a clue what they’re gonna do.

On Dino’s excitement and emotion heading into Saturday night:

To me it’s like an exam and I’m a professor and I’m getting my students ready for the exam, then you hand out exam which is the game. The really cool thing is unlike an exam I can actually give them some answers during the test to make sure they have an opportunity to be successful. If they miss one question. I want them to get 99. If they missed two, I want them to get a 98, because if most of them get A’s we have a heck of an opportunity of passing the test which is winning the game. So, I’m gonna be out there with them, but the excitement part of it, I’m more concerned about them being mentally right because if they’re mentally right, then we should be okay.

On starting linebackers and importance of defense:

I think you’ll see some of those guys that you mentioned (linebackers on the bench to start the season). The two main guys do it right more than anyone else, so that’s gonna give them the opportunity to go out there first. So for the defense to be right and we do need our defense to be right, especially in the early part of our schedule.

On players who take on demanding academic schedules among them Chris Fredrick who is an engineering major:

First of all, Fredrick, he’s a really even-keeled guy. I’ve had guys that have been engineering students. Football it is very taxing so you have to be very disciplined with your night-life and what you’re gonna do with your spare time. I’ve had guys who have graduated with those degrees at other universities, I won’t name the other universities, but normally those guys are really locked in and they’re normally very even-keeled, they operate like myself with a lack of sleep most of the time, but they find a way to get it done. If you’re around Fredrick he’s very [makes a flat line motion with his hand] and a really cool thing is he plays like that on Saturday’s or Friday’s or Thursday’s the exact same way. He doesn’t really get too high or too low, very sharp dude I’m sure he’s on everybody’s dance cards on campus.

On allowing students to study whatever they want and major whatever they want:

We never tell them what they can major, they major in what they like to major in. We’ve even had situations where, it depends on how good of a player they are and if they’re really good, we’ll actually move practices for them. You know your freshman, sophomore or your junior year you can do some things with classes and not interrupt the flow, but as a senior, you have to take the classes you need to take to graduate. We even move times of our practices or have allowed players to skip practice based off of how their major is. Now once again it depends on who the player is and how important they are to what we’re doing and whether they can make it up. Some guys are literally so sharp that if you give it to them on a board or give it to them in video they can physically do it. And if they can do it, we’ll help them out.

On what he sees in DeVito’s development from last year to this year:

I see someone that’s eager to get everything started. He’s eager and he’s waited and if you got that energy it is good, that nervous energy is good, but you gotta be careful with that at that position. This young man, I think he has an opportunity to be good, but he’s gonna have to go through some things you know. Like the Notre Dame game he went through something. The Florida State, the NC State, he’s gonna have to go through those game experiences that you develop and as he develops those experiences he won’t be fooled again. Okay, you fool really good quarterbacks one time and the second time you try to fool them with the same thing, they burn you. And this is the type of individual he is, but he’s going to have to go through some growing pains of seeing some stuff that he hasn’t seen and then once he locks it in, once he memorizes it he’ll be really really good.

On the new transfers Tristan Jackson and Abdul Adams:

The thing I’m really excited about with both of those guys (Jackson and Adams) are they’ve been fantastic practice players. Both of those guys have led our scout teams for an entire year. Obviously, the community got an opportunity to see them perform in the West Virginia game, but that was an entire year of just being the scout team tail back and the scout team wide receiver and getting banged around by the ‚Äúvarsity‚Äù so to speak and not saying boo because they understood their role. I really did appreciate it, especially where they came from and their backgrounds of how they fit in with the family in the ohana. Now they get an opportunity to do something else and we’re gonna have to see. They did not go through an entire season and it’ll be fun to see their growth in this offense as well, especially with both of them having the opportunity to come back for another year.