Duke football will be up against a Syracuse team that lost its starting quarterback Steve Angeli to a torn achilles following the Orange‘s Week 4 win over Clemson.
In Angeli’s place against the Blue Devils will be redshirt sophomore Rickie Collins, an LSU transfer that played 23 snaps vs. Clemson after Angeli’s injury. Collins made four appearances at LSU and has made two with the Orange, against Colgate and the Tigers.
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The quarterback change, though, is nothing new for Syracuse. The Orange lost last year’s starter Kyle McCord to the NFL, who led the FBS with 4,779 yards passing and 367.6 per game. In his place this year was Angeli, who currently ranks second in the FBS with 1,316 passing yards and fourth with 329 yards per game, just ahead Duke‘s quarterback Darian Mensah.
Nonetheless, the Blue Devils are preparing for Syracuse’s same high-powered passing attack despite the quarterback change.
“They lost their starting quarterback in the offseason too, right, to the NFL,” head coach Manny Diaz said on Monday, Sept. 22. “And last year, they were number one in the nation in passing. And they replaced him with a guy who didn’t have a lot of tape and hadn’t played a whole lot. And they slipped all the way from number one to number four. So this is a really well-coached offense that knows how to throw the football. And so the expectation of our defense is that their execution and how they do that.”
The Orange also have an arsenal of receivers, with five that have more than 100 yards receiving on the season, led by Darrell Gill Jr. with 14 receptions for 310 yards and three touchdowns.
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“I think their system proves that they’re going to throw the football,” Duke defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke said on Monday, Sept. 22. “They got a lot of talented wideouts. So when they throw in that other quarterback, I think he knows what to do with the ball.”
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The Blue Devils are coming off a 45-33 win over N.C. State to open ACC play in a game that saw its defense come up with four turnovers: three interceptions and a fumble recovery. Kick off against the Orange is set for 12 p.m. ET on ACC Network.
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“We don’t expect there to be any sense of drop-off, no matter who the quarterback is,” Diaz said.
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@gannett.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke football preps for Syracuse’s pass-heavy attack despite QB injury
