Quarterbacks lined up in shotgun on every play, there were few huddles and there certainly wasn’t any waiting for the defense.

The Syracuse offense stuck to the expected hurry-up scheme at the FanFest intra-squad scrimmage at SU Soccer Stadium on Saturday, and here are five takeaways from what it did.

 1. Screens, screens, screens

There are only so many ways to throw a screen pass, and the Orange offense worked out every last option on just about every last play. Running backs were in motion on almost every play when Terrel Hunt was on the field — whether it was seniors Prince-Tyson Gulley and Adonis Ameen-Moore, junior George Morris II or freshman Ervin Phillips — and the screen served as both a first option and safety valve. Both wideouts and slot receivers also collected a bevy of screen passes. Screens were almost all that freshman A.J. Long threw while in the game. The SU offense didn’t seem to want to show too much in a live, open scrimmage, but the combination of tempo and speed suggests that the screens are here to stay.

2. Austin Wilson, backup quarterback battle 

Aside from Hunt — who connected on two deep balls to Jarrod West and another to Sean Avant — Austin Wilson was the only other quarterback who found success. A.J. Long was the first to relieve Hunt and seemed flustered by the pass rush. Mitch Kimble gift-wrapped an interception for freshman linebacker Colton Moskal before it went through his hands. Wilson relayed signals to Hunt for the first part of the scrimmage and then showed off his arm in the latter stages. After throwing high to Jeremiah Kobena on a 5-yard button hook, Wilson connected with Kobena for a touchdown that was called back for a make-believe sack. He responded by finding freshman Steve Ishmael for a sizable gain on the next play.

Here’s a breakdown of all of the plays the four quarterbacks ran:

*Screens are also passes in the chart

3. Left tackle depth 

When Hunt was working with the first-team offense and Sean Hickey manned the left tackle spot, there wasn’t much activity in the backfield. But when Long played with the second-string offensive, Micah Robinson was around the quarterback on almost every snap. The coaching staff whistled plays dead before a quarterback was touched, but Robinson broke through for two would-be sacks in the beginning of the scrimmage and continued to provide pressure throughout the day. He mostly picked on sophomore Jamar McGloster and freshman Denzel Ward, exposing a lack of depth on the left side of the line.

4. Sean Avant

With Brisly Estime not at FanFest due to a sprained ankle sustained in practice on Friday, Sean Avant was impressive in the H-back role. SU head coach Scott Shafer said that the offense ran around 70 plays in the scrimmage and Avant was targeted on nine plays. Eight of them were completions. The ninth was an attempted deep ball from Long that was broken up by sophomore safety Chauncey Scissum. Avant’s best play of the day came on a perfectly weighted fade pass from Hunt that hit him right on the left corner of the goal line.

5. Jarrod West

The first play of the scrimmage was a lofted pass to West that he hauled in before being knocked out of bounds. The rest of his day consisted of a lot of shorter passes, much like the rest of the receiving corps, but he did burn newly minted cornerback Corey Winfield for the longest touchdown of the day. West shook Winfield at the line before Hunt hit him in stride, and finished the 40 or so yards by himself. In a day filled with a lot of short gains, if anyone looked like Hunt’s No. 1 option, it was West.

Published on August 9, 2014 at 8:14 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse