Dino Babers Weighs-In on QB Competition

The Syracuse QB room is crowded for a reason. No one's job is guaranteed.

Syracuse, N.Y. — Tuesday was Syracuse's first day of spring football practice. With the first day of spring comes renewal and, according to head coach Dino Babers, competition.

Position battles are happening all over the field. Chief among them is the scrap for starting quarterback. The contest features as many as six contenders, but all eyes are focused on a two-man struggle between incumbent Tommy DeVito and Mississippi State transfer Garrett Shrader.

DeVito, the most successful of three starters in last year's one-win campaign, is coming off a season-ending ankle injury. While Babers confirmed Tuesday that DeVito has recovered, he did not formally endorse DeVito as the returning starter.

"He's full go," Babers said Tuesday about DeVito. "Everybody's out there competing. This is a different deal. With so many guys being here, the lines are longer. You can scrimmage more, you can go up-tempo more because of the lines and the depth, and the guys are getting an opportunity in game-like situations to show and prove what they can do.

"They either need to earn a job, win a job, or cement a job. So, there's guys out there competing and let the best guys win."

When asked what specifically about Shrader made him appealing enough to add into the mix, Babers spoke about the need for a veteran presence behind center.

"With Rex [Culpepper] leaving and us having just Tommy, and JaCobian [Morgan] as a freshman, Dillon [Markiewicz] as a freshman, [David] Summers entered the portal, we just we didn't feel like we had enough guys that have been in a football game for a long period of time.

"We think those guys are going to be good. But we just felt like we needed to get a guy in here to really compete for the job so that we could have at least two guys that started a lot of college football games and have been in games that would give us a better opportunity to win."

After seeing his signal-callers sacked 38 times in 11 games, Babers believes Shrader's mobile and assertive style of play gives him a better chance to succeed.

"When you look at his game, he has an aggressive style to him," Babers said about Shrader. "He definitely has legs; he can definitely run. He plays a very tough style of football, so he's not afraid. We'll work on it and develop if he does not have the other stuff. Hopefully, he can be a fit for somewhere."

It's way too early to tell who's making strides and who's falling behind. Players are still in shorts but are working up to full speed and fully-padded practices starting Friday.