Head football coach Doug Marrone delivered more than just a blueprint of the upcoming season Monday during Syracuse’s annual media day.
“I recently just learned that Delone Carter will be reinstated back into school,” Marrone said. “We expect him to be traveling tomorrow (Tuesday) and do not know exactly what time he will arrive.”
As long as SU’s leading rusher arrives before the Sept. 4 season opener vs. Akron, teammates and Orange fans should be happy to see the running back on the field.
After rushing for 1,021 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, Carter was kicked off the team and barred from campus in the spring following a February altercation with another student.
Marrone has not decided if Carter will start in the opener, but said he is eligible to play and will not receive further disciplinary action.
While Carter will likely be a key option in Marrone’s arsenal this season, Aaron Weaver and Jose Cruz are looking to be offensive weapons as well. The two players transferred from Hofstra after their football team was dismantled.
Weaver, a 6-foot-2 senior wide receiver from Freeport, said stepping up to playing in the Carrier Dome has him excited to be part of the Orange.
“It’s nothing like it and I haven’t even experienced it yet,” Weaver said. “The biggest crowd at Hofstra was probably about 5,000, so when you come out here it’s a great feeling.”
Also, Weaver has his sights on helping the Orange get to the post-season, which hasn’t happened for SU since the 2005 Champs Sports Bowl when Georgia Tech thrashed SU 51-14.
“I feel like you don’t really focus on individual stats,” he said. “You focus on winning as a team. So it’s just about getting to a bowl game.”
The ambitions of one of SU’s newest players are shared by the team’s veterans who are coming off a 4-8 season last year.
Senior linebacker Derrell Smith is confident his team can reach a bowl game this season.
“We are going into every game thinking that we can win,” Smith said. “We are very confident that we can make a bowl game, but I don’t want to make a bowl game.
“I want to win a bowl game.”
But long before players can start planning bowl victories, Marrone said he has a couple road games against Akron and then the Washington Huskies in Seattle on Sept. 11 that he’d like to win first.
“To get off to a good start, that will create the confidence that we need.”
Wide receiver Marcus Sales answers questions from the media during Media Day in the Carrier Dome. (Photo by Andrew Hida).
