Scott Shafer was pleased with how the play was unfolding. 

After practice on Wednesday, he couldn’t remember if it was an over or corner rout. But he did recall a receiver being open and the throw coming on time, all before senior free safety Durell Eskridge hauled in one of his two interceptions on the day. 

“From a coach’s point of view, schematically, you say ‘OK, it looks like a pretty good offensive scheme,’” Shafer, Syracuse’s head coach, said. “The throw really wasn’t late. It was just a really nice play by a damn good safety.”

Eskridge was one of the Orange’s defensive leaders last season despite missing time down the stretch. He led SU in tackles and interceptions in 12 games, and was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference third team at year’s end. He also moonlighted as a wide receiver and had a 19-yard reception against Boston College. 

He had to think a moment before describing his two interceptions on Day 5 of training camp, before attributing both to his leaping ability. 

“A guy tried to run a bender behind me and I used my length and went up and got the ball,” he said. “The other one I had man-to-man and I ran with it and the quarterback just put the ball up there and I snatched it out of the air at the highest point.”

After a great junior season, it was a finger injury that kept Eskridge out of Syracuse’s Texas Bowl win over Minnesota on Dec. 27. He was in full pads for the first time in awhile on Wednesday — he said probably November — but that didn’t show. 

Said Eskridge: “It felt a little different but you know I snagged two interceptions, made a couple good plays.”

Published on August 6, 2014 at 10:05 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse