ORLANDO, Fla. — Dino Babers and Dana Holgorsen’s early careers were similar with stops along Southwest as wide receiver and quarterback coaches to accompany stints as offensive coordinators. In 2001, Babers, the current Syracuse head coach, was the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M. West Virginia’s current head coach, Holgorsen, was then a receivers coach at Texas Tech.

The two coaches met an air-raid clinic, Holgorsen said, where coaches met in a room similar to the press conference room at the Rosen Plaza Hotel on Thursday morning. Babers remembered a room full of “big-time football coaches,” presenting their best play for each coach to learn from.

“I was so nervous about going up and preparing,” Babers said. “…you go and you do that presentation and you have your best play and you throw it out there and you look out in the audience and everybody’s writing stuff down and you feel good that you contribute to this clinic.

And then going back out there and watching everybody’s best play and kind of feeling like you got cheated a little bit, like somebody left some of their best plays at home and kind of gave you some of the basic stuff.”

Led by Babers and Holgorsen respectively, No. 20 Syracuse (9-3, 6-2 Atlantic Coast) and No. 16 West Virginia (8-3, 6-3 Big 12) will square off at 5:15 p.m Friday in the 2018 Camping World Bowl.

Despite several weeks to prepare for the game and presumably mend lingering injuries, both teams will enter the bowl game with a less than a full roster. Three mountaineer players — star quarterback Will Grier, wide receiver Gary Jennings Jr. and offensive tackle Yodny Cajuste — will be sitting out of the matchup.

On the Syracuse side, defensive linemen Alton Robinson and McKinley Williams as well as defensive back Antwan Cordy won’t suit up for the Orange. Robinson and Williams won’t play due to what Babers said Wednesday were “personal issues,” while Cordy wasn’t seen at any of the practices leading up to Syracuse’s departure for Orlando.

“We’re both pretty much the same record and got a couple offensive guys out and he’s got a couple defensive guys out,” Holgorsen said, “so we’ll line up and see what happens.”

With record-setting quarterback Grier sitting due to high draft implications, the Mountaineers are expected to start a quarterback who has thrown 10 passes in game action this season. But due to the new redshirt rule implemented by the NCAA prior to the 2018 season, redshirt sophomore Jack Allison won’t be alone.

The rule allows players to participate in up to four games before claiming the year as a redshirt season. In many cases, this leads to more action for underclassmen in early season blowouts against FCS opponents. But for the Mountaineers, it has led to their second remaining scholarship quarterback dressing with the intention to play for the first time this season.

Holgorsen reiterated Thursday that freshman Trey Lowe III will play for the first time in the Camping World Bowl. Lowe III, a three-star, dual-threat quarterback, hasn’t taken a college snap to date. Holgorsen noted that without the new rule, he’d “be lining up with a walk-on quarterback here.”

“It’s an opportunity to be able to get these inexperienced guys up and see what they can do,” Holgorsen said. “I’m excited about what they’re going to do.”

Holgorsen noted that he has roughly five players that have played three games this season and will play Friday with no penalty. He added that an additional five who “have been getting better throughout the course of the year,” could also see game action.

Babers and Syracuse could also benefit from the rule in an unintended way. Running back Abdul Adams, a transfer from Oklahoma, and wide receiver Trishton Jackson, a Michigan State transfer, are both juniors who haven’t used a redshirt season to date. Both Adams and Jackson sat out this year due to NCAA transfer rules but were cleared to play once the fall semester of classes officially ended.

In theory, both former four-star recruits could play against WVU and claim this season as a redshirt year, saving a year of eligibility.

“They might have a chance. We’ll see,” Babers said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football and we’re going to be loyal to the guys that were out there. Those guys are members of our team. If they get an opportunity to contribute to our team a little bit, it’ll be fun to see what they do.”

Published on December 27, 2018 at 12:04 pm

Contact Josh: jlschafe@syr.edu | @Schafer_44