Led by Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson, Louisville scored three touchdowns last year against Syracuse — on its first five plays from scrimmage. Head coach Dino Babers addressed the performance on the Atlantic Coast Conference teleconference on Wednesday morning.

Jackson, then a sophomore, was effective with his zone reads against SU’s Tampa-2 defense, racking up 199 yards on 21 carries for four touchdowns. That was just on the ground. He threw for another 411 yards and one TD, which came on the first play of the game.

Against the Orange inside the Carrier Dome, Jackson became the second player in FBS history to record 400 passing yards and 150 rush yards in a game. He was one rushing yard short of becoming the first player in FBS history to run for 400 yards and pass for 200 yards in a single game. On Saturday at 3:30 p.m., Syracuse (4-6, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) will be tested again as Jackson plays what’s likely the final home game of his college career for Louisville (6-4, 3-4).

“I don’t even know if you can control the guy,” Babers said. “It’s like the (Michael) Jordan Rules: Lamar’s going to get his … you try to stop everything else if you’re going to win against those guys. That guy is so dynamic, he’s so hard to stop by himself.

“Last year he ran all over us and he threw all over us. He got both parts in last year … people were taking pictures (with him) out of the stadium after the game.”

Babers said Jackson does “everything” better than WFU QB John Wolford, who racked up 502 total yards last week in SU’s 64-43 loss. Syracuse allowed a season-worst 64 points and 734 yards against. Wake Forest’s spread, no-huddle offense clicked via run-pass options, which Jackson has practically mastered at the college level. And Wednesday morning, Babers said that he thinks Jackson is having a better season than he did last year.

“That’s not good for us,” Babers said. “We need to find a way to play team defense.”

Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino said Wednesday that Jackson may not be able to exploit the SU defense the same way Wolford did. Petrino said most teams UofL has played this season draft up different defenses specifically for Jackson, who is averaging 418 total yards per game (393 in 2016). He is 11th in the country in passing yards, 25th in passing efficiency and fourth in points responsible for.

“All year long people have come in with a different game plan for Lamar,” Petrino said. “Lamar’s been very good at adjusting, understanding the fronts, coverages, who they’re trying to get to … we’ll need to be aggressive early.”

Other notes from Babers’ teleconference:

• Babers said he believes junior quarterback Eric Dungey is getting better and is hopeful he can play at Louisville. Dungey did not play against Wake Forest. On Monday, Babers said: “If he’s capable, I expect him to go.”
• On the WFU loss, during which Syracuse blew a 17-point lead: “I think they’re a little embarrassed. I think they’ve got a bad taste in their mouth.”
• On backup QB Zack Mahoney, who threw for nearly 300 yards in the first half against WFU but was picked off twice in the second: “When he’s on, we’re capable of scoring a lot of points with him. Hopefully we get first-half Zack and not second-half Zack.”
• Babers on personnel: “We have to play more people. We’ve got to get more people in there especially when you don’t have the depth that we have. With the amount of snaps offensively and defensively we have, you have to rotate those guys in there so they’re fresh at the end of the game.”

Published on November 15, 2017 at 12:27 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21