Syracuse (2-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) will travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to take on Wake Forest (4-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) at 7 p.m. at BB&T Field. The Orange is coming off a 50-33 loss against Notre Dame. Meanwhile, after only winning three games in each of the last two years, the Demon Deacons won their first four games this season before losing to North Carolina State last weekend.

Here’s what SU head coach Dino Babers had to say on the ACC coaches teleconference on Wednesday.

Syracuse is right where it was expected to be

SU has seen some highs, like an offense that’s in the top 25 in yards per game, and some lows, like a defense that’s allowing over 500 yards per game. Through it all, sitting at 2-3, Babers admitted that this is what was expected of his team.

“Obviously the numbers don’t look good, but when you look at our opponents, the people we’ve played … I think our record is kind of what a lot of people thought our record would be,” Babers said. “We thought we’d be a little bit better than that, but I think we’re right on pace, we have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Babers later went on to refute a claim that his team might be ahead of schedule despite the high numbers the offense has put up.

Multiple plans in place to deal with weather conditions

Hurricane Matthew, which had a devastating effect on Haiti, is expected to have a significant impact along the southeastern coast of the United States from Thursday, possibly into Sunday, according to The Weather Channel. Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina have all declared a state of emergency. Forsyth County, which is where Winston-Salem is located, was one of the counties listed as one of the emergency areas.

From a football perspective, Babers said that he has to come prepared with two different game plans going in, depending on the conditions.

“You’ve gotta prepare for both situations if you’re really gonna give your team a chance,” Babers said. “You’ve got to do the wet ball drills, you’ve gotta prepare for wind, you’ve gotta maybe know if you can get the snap from shotgun or whether you need to go underneath the center.”

No timetable for defensive improvements

In the past, Babers has stressed that he thinks the SU offense running this new system will reach its full potential by the middle of his second year. But with the injuries and inexperience of his defense, he said it’s hard to put a timetable on when that unit will turnaround.

“We’re so young. When you’ve got 18-year-old defensive linemen rushing against … guys from Notre Dame that are 6-foot-7, 300-something pounds and about to be drafted in the first three rounds, it’s hard,” Babers said. “It’s going to be hard to estimate exactly when this is going to turn around, especially with all the injuries on the back end.”

Babers added that would he look for in a defense is whether or not it could get three-and-outs, whether or not it could create turnovers and points, and whether or not it could be stout in the red zone.

Published on October 5, 2016 at 12:29 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer