When the Syracuse Orange announced the hiring of Robert Ana as offensive coordinator, an immediate reaction from Virginia Cavaliers fans was to warn us about his penchant for trick plays.
The play was fresh in his mind since Virginia’s game against the Virginia Tech Hokies last season.
A distinct variation on Syracuse’s longtime staple, the tight end throwback, but the result wasn’t McNab’s Brominsky and it apparently wasn’t what the Cavaliers expected. As it was too late to defeat its state rival, the play was heavily criticized.
I bring this up because Anna has been creative so far this season without delving too deeply into the devices. They relied on pre-snap movement and game design that gave Syracuse opportunities for big plays. Yes, he hit a running back pass to Léquint Allen against Purdue, but we didn’t see anything else that we would file as cheating.
That’s likely to change the rest of the season, and we hope it starts with Clemson, but not because it’s Syracuse’s only chance to win. We’ve seen some comments about not settling for field goals and being aggressive on 4-down calls, which may make sense in context but may not be in the flow of the game. Orange is pretty good on defense where punts and field goals don’t fail and I know Dino struggles with these decisions, but he has to be smart about taking risks on this one.
Where Syracuse can be aggressive is on offense and in situations where they feel like they have a game that can result in a huge lead. Every week, we’ve seen Anna add a few new wrinkles to crime (which is really weird and really exciting after the last few years). We know that some of these appearances have a purpose beyond the drama that we see and I think today is the day that we see some of them.
The staff gets the sense that Garrett Schrader is at his best when he has one main goal and has some pretty wide-open releases planned. Clemson is about to come in ready to do what they think is going to happen and this is where Anne can mix things up and where we hope she deviates from what we’ve seen so far. Don’t be alarmed if special plays are called for other receivers like Damien Alford, Trebor Pea and D’Marcus Adams. That’s not to say Sean Tucker and Ordon Gadsden won’t be heavily featured, just don’t be surprised if a major game in today’s game ends with both of them.
This is not the time to play for moral victory or keep it closed. If Orange dares to be spectacular this season, she can’t be scared or safe.
