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Football

Shafer still experimenting with quarterbacks, units

Don’t let which quarterback is practicing with which unit fool you.

That’s according to the man who knows the situation best.

Wednesday evening Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer told assembled media to not place too much stock into who’s throwing with which crop of players. All the quarterbacks are jumbled together now and spending time with different units. Shafer said he’s been impressed by all of the quarterbacks he’s watched through three days of training camp.

“Try not to figure that out right now,” Shafer said. “Ones and twos and threes, they’re all mixed together.”

Even Mitch Kimble, a freshman who’s currently fourth on Syracuse’s quarterback hierarchy, saw time with the first unit on Tuesday, Shafer said. He said he has two good quarterbacks for down the road in Kimble and fellow freshman Austin Wilson.



Shafer said he’s looking for a quarterback that can run the offense with a sense of urgency, command and control.

So far he’s seen “what he thought he signed up for” out of Drew Allen. Allen has good ability, good feet, a good delivery and a big arm, according to Shafer. His main goal with Allen is to get him to the point where he’s playing reactionary football, instead of thinking too much. Though Shafer says he’s still witnessed only good things from the 6-foot-5 quarterback.

“I also saw Drew make some throws today,” Shafer said. “Made a deep ball throw. Might have been sacked, but threw the damn thing about 70 yards in the air.”





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