Every college football team deals with injuries. Greg Paulus realizes as much. Nobody will feel sorry for Syracuse, even as the athletic trainer’s room begins to become the most popular destination at Manley Field House.

But even Paulus, a veteran who built a four-year career handling adversity at Duke, could not prepare for this. The Orange lost four key starters to injury during Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh, leaving the team reeling and searching for answers. Nose tackle Art Jones, one of SU’s top defensive playmakers, highlighted a group of important players who will miss the final three games.

The players who remain responded Tuesday for the first time since learning of the latest batch of injuries. One by one, they came to the podium to face an identical question: What now?

‘You think about that for a second and then you try to figure out ways in order for the team to be successful without a guy or two, or what we might need to do with personnel or switching it up,’ Paulus said. ‘We’re going to miss them .We feel bad that those types of things have to happen. It’s a part of the game and it’s time to get ready for the next one.’

Jones, offensive tackle Jonathan Meldrum, safety Max Suter and tight end Cody Catalina all suffered season-ending injuries Saturday. This comes less than a week after wide receiver Mike Williams, Syracuse’s best offensive weapon, quit the program.

Losing Jones hurts the most. As a senior captain and a projected top-15 pick in the upcoming NFL draft, Jones served as the face and voice of a defense that continues to improve with each passing week.

Safety Shamarko Thomas, who head coach Doug Marrone said will replace Suter in the starting lineup, didn’t deny Jones’ significance to the defense. Since learning of the injury, the unit has tried to grow closer and use Jones’ loss as an added incentive moving forward.

‘It’s a big loss because he was the captain of the defense,’ Thomas said. ‘He ran us, he kept us motivated in the games. He’s a NFL player. He was one of the best. It’s not going to bring us down. It’s going to motivate us to push harder to make this season better.’

Jones’ injury represents why the last week has proven so difficult for Syracuse. True, every team has injuries. Every player who spoke Tuesday acknowledged that much. But few teams lose their best offensive and defensive player in the span of one week.

That’s exactly what has happened to the Orange.

‘It’s hard because we’re not only using little players, we’re losing a lot of big players,’ Thomas said. ‘Like our big factors in the game.’

Thomas, Collier prepare for new roles

Thomas arrived to games so far this season not knowing what position he would play. The true freshman has seen time at linebacker, cornerback and secondary, bouncing around between the three spots from week-to-week, game-to-game.

It seemed like he finally found a home at weak side linebacker, where he filled in during E.J. Carter’s two-game suspension. Last week, his name appeared at the top of the depth chart.

Then, Suter got hurt. Just when Thomas finally became comfortable at linebacker, he is moving again back to safety, where he will start Saturday against Louisville.

‘When I was at linebacker and moving back to corner and safety, I was confused by the defensive schemes,’ Thomas said. ‘Now that I’m settled at one position, I can learn more.’

Running back Averin Collier will also try a new position this week. In light of Catalina’s injury, Marrone said he plans to use Collier, a redshirt freshman, at the ‘U’ tight end spot. It is a hybrid position, similar to an ‘H’ back or a fullback, which frequently goes in motion before the snap and assists in the short passing game.

Collier scored his first career touchdown last week against the Panthers on a 1-yard rush.

‘That’s the nature of the beast. It’s football,’ Collier said of the position change. ‘People are going to get injured. And guys have to step up, fill parts. That’s one of my roles this week. Hey, it’s football. I got recruited as an athlete. They see I can play multiple positions and do multiple things on the field. That’s how I’m going to be used.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on November 10, 2009 at 12:00 pm