Depth. It’s a word that, just more than a month ago, Doug Marrone simply would not have used to describe the state of his secondary.

Yet there Marrone was, at his weekly press conference Monday, noting the unit’s depth that, in part, has enabled it to become a key strength of the Syracuse pass defense. Marrone’s statements symbolized just how far the unit has come — from the trials and tribulations of last year and from the trials and tribulations of preseason camp.

‘I feel pretty good about where we are from a secondary standpoint,’ Marrone said. ‘We have enough players and we have decent depth back there, more so than some of the other positions on our football team.’

With seven defensive backs playing significant roles, the Orange secondary has evolved quickly from a preseason, injury-riddled question mark to the primary reason for SU’s 23rd-ranked pass defense. As Syracuse continues to prep for a trip to Tampa, Fla., to face South Florida on Saturday (noon, Big East Network), the unit will be tasked with keeping the high-flying USF offense led by quarterback B.J. Daniels in check.

Coming off the most points the SU defense had allowed since 2001 in last season’s 56-31 loss to Connecticut to end the year, the secondary was the defense’s weak link, producing the 85th-ranked pass defense in the nation. Current members of the unit admit as much.

‘We were the weak link last year on the defense,’ senior safety Max Suter said. ‘We didn’t want it to be like that anymore when this year came around.’

That meant this summer, there were no breaks. In those summer practices, running gave way to going over footwork in specific packages. Which led to work on coverage schemes. Little things members of the secondary credit with making the unit what it has become through SU’s first four games of the season.

For senior cornerback Da’Mon Merkerson, the past two summers under Marrone have produced a different focus, particularly with the defensive backs. After this summer’s work and with more than a year under Marrone’s system, it all finally paid off.

‘Previous years I’ve been here, sometimes the summer workouts haven’t necessarily been taken as seriously as these last two summers I’ve been here,’ Merkerson said. ‘The last two summers, it has been different. There’s a different atmosphere — a different culture. Everybody on the team, especially the (defensive back) room, in my opinion, made that into a culture and into a religion. We come out here, we come to the field, and it’s business.’

But all of that work was thrown into question at the start of preseason camp. It wasn’t a question of talent, but rather a question of numbers.

First, Kevyn Scott and Shamarko Thomas went out with hamstring tweaks. Nothing more than that, but they still each missed two full weeks of camp. Then, Keon Lyn went out because of mononucleosis. Finally, Ri’Shard Anderson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury on Aug. 18.

They dropped like flies. At one point, all Marrone could do was joke about it.

‘It’s unbelievable. It really is,’ Marrone said on Aug. 23 of the injuries piling up on his squad. ‘It’s like, every day. I’ve lived my life well. I’ve done a lot of good deeds. I hope it starts to pay off.’

And for the members of the secondary, as well, the unit suddenly became a question mark when its players had done all they could to eliminate that question mark.

For Merkerson, Anderson’s injury was the breaking point. The injury brought about a flurry of questions in Merkerson’s own mind. But Merkerson said there were never any doubts.

‘Just to see people get injured and be out for the season, you feel sad,’ Merkerson said. ‘You’re a little disappointed, because you know they, too, had aspirations of having a great season. But at the same time, I guess it inspires me to have to play well or want to play well so that I can dedicate the season to them and make sure they know I’m doing it for them. They were a big part of this.’

Though Anderson was lost for the season, Scott, Thomas and Lyn all made it back by the Orange’s home opener against Maine.

With their returns, that starting talent — Phillip Thomas and Suter at the safety spots, and Merkerson and Mike Holmes at corner — and the depth of Shamarko Thomas, Olando Fisher and Jeremi Wilkes playing behind them, the secondary was back near full strength.

And immediately, the profound effect the unit’s performance has had on SU’s overall success is evident. In the Orange’s three victories, it has given up 128.7 passing yards per game. Against a tougher test in Washington, facing Heisman Trophy candidate Jake Locker, SU allowed 292 yards through the air.

‘We struggled,’ said Lyn of the secondary’s performance against Washington. ‘I feel like we were supposed to win that game. I feel like the big plays messed us up. … Missed tackles. We’re working on that so we don’t have any more missed tackles. We’ll be ready to go so we don’t have any more mistakes like that.’

Against Daniels and the Bulls, correcting those mistakes will be crucial if the Orange hopes to come away from the matchup victorious for the first time. It’s another true test after the warm-ups with Maine and Colgate.

The secondary has, in the words of Marrone and the unit itself, hurdled the question marks. Now come the expectations. With the bye week, the unit is back to as close to full strength as it possibly can. And with that come the expectations. The expectations to carry those performances through to SU’s toughest tests.

‘I think this team is a good team,’ Merkerson said. ‘This is a very well-coached and very fast team. This is going to be a good challenge.’

Then he smiled.

‘We feel like,’ he said, ‘if we do our job, we’ll have a good chance of winning the game.’

Florida key

Keon Lyn symbolizes Syracuse’s inroads into the Florida recruiting trail under Doug Marrone. The freshman defensive back chose to come to SU rather than South Florida, which also offered him a scholarship. His home of Miramar, Fla., is about four hours away from Tampa.

On Saturday, Lyn will be facing many friends, former teammates and opponents in a homecoming game of sorts.

‘It’s cool,’ Lyn said. ‘I have a lot of friends on that team. (South Florida) offered me, too. So it’s going to be great going against them and seeing what they got. I’m going to show them why I chose Syracuse.’

Lyn isn’t the only one. Freshman cornerback Jeremi Wilkes is from Tampa, about eight miles away from the USF campus. In all, the Orange has 11 players on its roster from the state of Florida.

So for Marrone and Syracuse, Saturday’s matchup is also something of an audition to keep up a strong presence in Florida’s recruiting pipeline.

‘I’m not going to be naive and say if we don’t win this game, we won’t get our share of players from down there,’ Marrone said. ‘But if we win the game, we may get in on some kids we may not have before. That is a possibility. Anytime you play a team that is in a recruiting area for you, if you win, you get benefits from that.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on October 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm