Sean Riley transitioned from running back to wide receiver during his freshman year at Syracuse. He returned kicks and punts but didn’t have as many catches as games played. His reception total dropped by three in his sophomore season.

While the SU offense churned out two 1000-yard receivers, Riley watched and learned.

“I kind of had to wait my turn,” Riley said.

But the two years weren’t wasted. Riley learned head coach Dino Babers’ intricate playbook back to front, studied defenses and refined the necessary skills for a 5-foot-8 receiver. Syracuse (2-0) is starting to lean on the inexperienced, yet veteran, Riley — who caught his first career touchdown pass against Wagner last weekend — as Florida State (1-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) visits the Carrier Dome on Saturday.

“Really just have to run good routes,” Riley said. “My position, they go to that a lot. Just good route running and getting open.”

Riley’s potential emergence can provide more balance to the offense by complementing No. 1 Jamal Custis and the run game.

The harmony isn’t just in production but in play style and size, too. Custis stands nine inches taller and weighs 43 pounds more than Riley. Without the size so coveted at the wide receiver position, Riley has learned to maximize other parts of his game, namely his speed, route running and vision.

“Sometimes when you’re in a big man’s game, to be the small guy can be an advantage,” Babers said on Wednesday’s Atlantic Coast Conference coaches teleconference.

Straight-line speed has been a constant in Riley’s game since high school, where he reportedly ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash. That speed, coupled with injuries to Antwan Cordy, landed Riley as SU’s primary kick and punt returner the past two seasons.

Now, Riley said, he applies speed in different ways, whether it’s winning a foot race with a defensive back on a deep ball or taking a sweep around the edge.

With time, he’s learned speed isn’t enough. Riley credits his field vision to his high school days of playing running back. He’d read the whole field coming out of the backfield, to prevent against getting blindsided coming through the hole or missing a blitzer in pass protection. When split out wide or back deep trying to evade a kickoff unit, he reads the field like a runner, gunning for a seam and calculating where the 11 defenders might go.

Riley’s route running has developed steadily. He played some wide receiver in high school and ran routes out of the backfield, but never encountered a route tree as complex as Syracuse’s.

He figured it out by combining his vision and speed, Riley said. He ran fine routes, but he excelled once he started studying and understanding defenses.

“He brings a lot of speed, he brings a lot of savviness with him,” starting quarterback Eric Dungey said of Riley. “He’s very witty with his routes. What he lacks in height, he makes up for with the quickness and the speed that he gets open.”

Defensive film study wasn’t new to Riley at SU, but the level of detail and wealth of film available changed. As years went by, he grew more confident in recognizing defenses on tape — fronts, coverages, even the occasional blitz.

“When you know your defenses and who you’re going up against,” Riley said, “It’s not that hard to find those spots to get open, and Eric is good at finding me.”

With his insights into opposing defenses, Riley dissects the opposing team defense, then runs countless reps against that defense in practice. By game time, the looks, and what to do against them, are muscle memory.

The trio of vision, speed and defensive knowledge leads Riley into good routes and open spots on the field.

Against a zone, he has studied that defense well enough to run his route directly into a soft spot. Against man defense, he knows his defenders’ tendencies and has a reserve of speed to fall back on.

“I gotta be perfect,” Riley said, “Because guys that are bigger than me, (they) can probably make more mistakes than me.”

On a team searching for its most consistent options at wide receiver and trying to defeat the Seminoles for the first time since joining the ACC, Riley has a chance to make his patience pay off.

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Published on September 12, 2018 at 10:53 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham