If Saturday’s annual Spring Game serves as a prediction, next fall won’t be too kind to the Syracuse football team.

An 80-minute scrimmage pitted Syracuse’s offense against its defense in the Carrier Dome. Using a modified scoring system, the defense won, 42-38, but the score was not indicative of how poorly the offense played.

The offense had 16 drives but scored a touchdown on only one of them. It came away with field goals four other times. Most of the points it gained were for first downs and for a few long plays. The defense, though, earned points for holding the offense to numerous punts, tackles for losses, sacks, fumble recoveries and interceptions.

The game was Syracuse’s final chance of the spring to tie up some loose ends before heading into the summer. But it appeared to only create more question marks.

‘Today we ran a lot of plays and had the opportunity for a number of guys to gain a lot of experience,’ Syracuse head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. ‘We have a lot of young guys, and I think that the fact that they’re on their own today is the big emphasis of the scrimmage.’

SU’s biggest area of concern heading into the spring – the quarterback position – came away just as muddied, or even more so, after Saturday.

Sophomore Perry Patterson, junior Xzavier Gaines and true freshman Joe Fields all shared time – and all struggled.

Patterson fumbled the center-snap exchange on the second play of the scrimmage as starting defensive end James Wyche recovered. After Gaines and Fields each took the field for drives, Patterson came back in and promptly fumbled the first snap he had – making it two of his first three snaps fumbled. He immediately stayed on the field for the next series but struggled to do anything, getting sacked by Wyche on one play.

Patterson led just one scoring drive, a 20-yard Collin Barber field goal. He had a strong throw to Jared Jones on the drive but struggled the rest of the afternoon, completing 6 of 8 attempts for 52 yards.

Gaines improved his status the most Saturday, taking the Orangemen on their only touchdown drive of the afternoon. He connected with Steve Gregory on the first play of the drive, a 45-yard play-action pass down the sideline. Damien Rhodes eventually scored a 1-yard touchdown run.

Gaines, who completed 6 of 9 passes for 84 yards, looked shaky at times, too. He badly underthrew one pass, which Marcus Clayton intercepted. He also had problems with clock management at times as well. He burned two timeouts on one drive because the play clock was winding down, and he also was called for several delay-of-game penalties.

‘We were all trying to show everyone what we can do because we are all pretty inexperienced,’ Gaines said, ‘and we all want to get that starting job.’

Fields did little to impress. He showcased his speed and athleticism while trying to avoid defensive pressure, but he also showed an erratic throwing arm. Fields connected on only 3 of 8 passes for 16 yards.

The defense dominated the scrimmage overall. It intercepted two passes and forced four sacks and also provided a glimpse as to how the starting lineup might shape out next fall. Clayton started opposite sophomore Tanard Jackson at cornerback and picked off one pass while making three tackles.

The defensive line, looking to replace three-fourths of its starters from last year, also had a new look. The only returning starter – James Wyche – had two sacks and a fumble recovery. Senior Julian Pollard, redshirt freshman Tony Jenkins and junior Kader Drame started alongside Wyche.

Jenkins’ stock continued to rise. He looked closer to cementing a starting job at defensive tackle. If not, though, he’ll likely receive regular playing time next fall.

‘We thought he did really well,’ SU defensive coordinator Steve Dunlap said. ‘He was probably one of the surprises of spring football on the defensive side. For a guy that only weighs 275, he has remarkable leverage and strength. He’s holding us his own and not getting killed.’

Sophomore Jerry Mackey also made his debut at middle linebacker, appearing more and more likely to be the starter come September after a solid afternoon

‘It felt great,’ Mackey said of starting at middle linebacker. ‘I love it. I had a lot of fun.’

Overall, though, for as many questions that seemed to be answered Saturday, just as many seemed unanswered. The only real positive was no new injuries came out of the game.

‘We are ready to get the season rolling,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘We know we have some kinks to straighten out, and we are going to try to go out and win game after game and have a good season.’

Published on April 25, 2004 at 12:00 pm