Scott Shafer said Wednesday that the team is taking it easy with nose tackle Eric Crume, and that was apparent at the beginning of Thursday’s practice.

For the 25 minutes of practice that the media was allowed to attend, Crume stretched with the team before going off to the side for a light individual workout. While the defensive linemen shuffled through drills with defensive line coach Tim Daoust and other team personnel, Crume ran short wind sprints and continued stretching toward the middle of the two practice fields. 

Crume, at 6 feet, 2 inches and 297 pounds, started for the Orange in its Texas Bowl win over Minnesota at the end of last season. When about guys that could potentially step up in Crume’s place, SU head coach Scott Shafer sided with the field. 

“All of them really,” Shafer said. “Trying to bring the young kids along, probably the toughest transition of all the positions in college football to me are the offensive line kids. Both Jalen (Harvey) and Kayton (Samuels) are good guys, they’re young but we’re trying to get them going.

“All of those kid are going to have to compete, like Wayne Williams. It’ll be a gut check and a chance for us to check their toughness out because they’re getting a lot more reps than they usually would.”

Daoust rides young guys during drills

Whether it was making tackles off a block or pushing the sled, Daoust was watching the freshmen with a close eye Thursday. 

After giving individual direction to Harvey and Chris Slayton during the unit’s first drill, Daoust crouched down in front of the sled to sharpen senior Trevon Trejo’s technique. While he was doing so, he looked over his shoulder and said, “Hey, young bucks, you better be listening when you’re not in.”

And when Slayton got in his stance and readied to push the sled up against the base of the goal post, Daoust stopped and told him he wasn’t focusing on the ball. But when he finished his next rep, his coach noted a step in the right direction. 

“Your hands are still high but at least you ran off the ball,” Daoust told Slayton. “That’s progress, Chris.”

Published on August 7, 2014 at 6:19 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse