“We don’t have to play until the 31st,” Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer said earlier this week. “So the final decision won’t truly be made until we step on that field.”
For Penn State fans looking for a little bit of peace in their own quarterback battle between Christian Hackenberg and Tyler Ferguson, Syracuse fans know your pain. The Orange are choosing between redshirt sophomore Terrel Hunt and Oklahoma transfer Drew Allen.
Unlike Penn State though, a team with two inexperienced quarterbacks with similar skill sets, Syracuse has two very different types of signal callers. Allen is a more prototypical pocket passer where Hunt has the ability to pass out of the pocket and scramble during broken plays.
That means keeping the selection a secret works in the favor of Syracuse. It might not be a huge piece of information, but in the gamesmanship of coach speak and “no comments” it’s one tick in the favor of the Orange. It won’t change the outcome of the game next weekend, but there is no reason to help your opponent prepare if you don’t have to.
Penn State coach Bill O’Brien is unsurprisingly confident it wouldn’t matter either way.
“I think in this day and age of college football, you have to be ready for everything,” O’Brien said of not knowing Syracuse’s quarterback. “Whether it’s a pro-style attack or a shotgun-run attack, whatever it is, we do it all offensively here at Penn State. We give our defense exposure to a lot of different schemes.”
So while nothing is set in stone, Shafer’s intentional disinterest in naming a starting quarterback gives O’Brien no reason not follow suit. And in all likelihood it means he won’t.
