To Adam Rosner, one number from last season has to change: 87.

That’s the number, the position — despite the presence of Delone Carter and Antwon Bailey in the backfield — Syracuse finished in rushing offense last season. To Rosner, it’s a direct indictment of the Orange’s offensive line.

‘Eighty-seventh in the nation doesn’t look good,’ Rosner said. ‘So we want to get in there and step it up. We’re ready to go.’

For Syracuse to improve its total offense from a poor 94th showing overall last season — and to improve its chances at a bowl for the first time since 2004 — Rosner, center Ryan Bartholomew and even head coach Doug Marrone know where it has to start: the offensive line. Running game, passing game, or on special teams, it all begins in the same place.

With a young offensive line that returns just one starter, it won’t be easy. Two starters, left tackle Justin Pugh and left guard Zack Chibane, are just sophomores. And even that one returning starter, Bartholomew, shifts to a new position — from guard to center — this season.

With his young group, offensive line coach Greg Adkins set goals for the team with each conditioning session in the offseason and with each day of camp.

‘You set goals on a daily basis of what you’re trying to accomplish in football practice,’ Adkins said. ‘It may be, ‘Hey, we’re going to win these one-on-one battles today.’ That was the focus of one particular practice. ‘Hey, (the) ideal is, on these third downs, how many balls are we going to get off and not let the defense touch our quarterback?’

‘Whatever.’

As a three-year starter on the line for the Orange, Marrone himself understands the unit’s importance. And it shows in the offensive line’s meetings. Though Marrone tries to spread out his work with each unit evenly, Rosner notices the extra interest in the line.

It’s Marrone’s Jekyll and Hyde impersonation.

‘Absolutely, Coach Marrone is a big part of our meetings,’ Rosner said. ‘He shares his knowledge of the (NFL) and explains each detail to us step by step, making us better. He contributes a lot. I feel really comfortable with him as a head coach, because he always says he’s a head coach, and when he comes to the O-line room, he’s an O-line coach. It’s like Jekyll and Hyde, but he’s a great model to learn from.’

With Bartholomew leading the way, captain’s practice was called at various points during the summer. The unit worked on sets, coming off the ball and specific play calls. The goal: to be far ahead come the start of camp.

‘We did a lot of things on our own to make sure that when we got into camp, we weren’t starting over,’ Bartholomew said. ‘Because when you start over, that means you have a much further path to where you want to go.’

Because it all comes back to 87. In the numbers game, 87 has to improve for other numbers to improve, namely four (wins) and eight (SU’s finish in the Big East last season).

‘I believe as the line goes, the offense goes,’ Bartholomew said. ‘The better we are, the better, overall, the offense will be. And with that, the better the team will be. It’s very important for us as an offensive line to be the best that we can be.’

This and that

On Tuesday, Delone Carter said he is ‘absolutely’ 100 percent in football shape heading into Saturday’s contest at Akron. Marrone had officially named Carter the starter on the depth chart on Monday. ‘I’m going to approach it just like any other game,’ Carter said. ‘I’m not going to try to step outside myself.’ … With a new head coach in Rob Ianello, there hasn’t been much film for SU to watch or much history for the Orange to study. For linebacker Doug Hogue, ‘you study everything. You have to be ready for anything and everything they throw at us. Trick plays, running right at us. … There’s not a lot of film, so you just have to go out there and play. The first game is always the hardest to prepare for.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

 

Published on August 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm