In what might have been Syracuse’s most methodical drive all season, it made its intentions clear: SU wanted Dontae Strickland involved.

Eight of SU’s first 13 plays were called runs to Strickland and the running back caught one pass on the drive, too. The SU running back racked up 45 total yards on the drive. It lasted 4 minutes 59 seconds, took 79 yards and ended with a Syracuse touchdown.

“I have to give a lot of credit to my offensive line,” Strickland said. “Blocking schemes and play calling were great. All the credit goes to my offensive line. I couldn’t have gotten those yards without my offensive line.”

Strickland had his best day as a Syracuse (1-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) running back on Saturday, racking up 127 yards on 30 carries in a 45-20 loss to South Florida (3-0). Despite getting 30 carries, Strickland didn’t score a touchdown. He also grabbed three catches for 17 yards.

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More Coverage

• With shrinking margin of error against USF, Syracuse football makes too many mistakes in 45-20 loss
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For the first time since the 2015 season opener, SU had a running back go over 100 yards. Strickland’s rushing yards surpassed SU’s total from each of the last two games against Colgate and Louisville.

“It’s not really eating the hot hand,” Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said. “It once again ties into why we do certain things. They were taking certain things away, and it became Strickland’s day. Something we tell all of our personnel is you never know when your day is going to be.”

On Saturday, Syracuse ran more four wide receiver sets than it had in games past, which helped spread out the USF defense. The offense is predicated on spreading teams out and then running up the middle against them, which the Orange did to the Bulls.

Strickland didn’t break many long runs but did get one 19-yard run in.

In the first two games of the season, Strickland tallied just 17 touches for 48 yards. His career day propelled SU to finish just short of its first 200-yard rushing game of the season. The Orange rushed for 199 yards on 55 carries.

Like the rest of Syracuse’s offense, however, most of Strickland’s success came during the first quarter when he rushed for 75 yards on 15 carries —half his total rushes for the whole game. Even Strickland’s longest rush came during the quarter.

“A lot of teams we have played recently feel like we don’t have a running game,” Strickland said. “I feel like this game established that we can run the ball on offense, so I’m pretty happy about that.”

Published on September 17, 2016 at 10:48 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati