The list of questions about Syracuse’s quarterback situation had been long exhausted by the time Scott Shafer stepped to the podium in the Iocolano-Petty Football Wing on Thursday morning, but it didn’t mean the head coach wouldn’t be asked again.

“I know you don’t want to tell us who the starting quarterback is…” the first question began, and it was on once again.

The first handful of questions lobbed at Shafer focused on the still uncertain quarterback situation.

The first-year head coach didn’t add much that he hasn’t already said over the past days and weeks, but reiterated a point that’s become a hot topic this week: there could be more than one quarterback to get significant snaps, even at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., against Penn State on Saturday.

“I think the ideal answer and the realistic answer may be two different things,” Shafer said. “I think once we get into the flow of the game both kids will be ready to play, but I want the starter to feel like he’s got the luxury of understanding that he is the starter.”

A reporter followed up Shafer’s first answer with another simple question as to whether the quarterbacks had been told who will start  Saturday at 3:30 p.m., and Shafer again danced around it.

“Both of them know that they’re ready to play,” was all that Shafer would offer.

Shafer insisted that whoever gets the call, whether it be Drew Allen or Terrel Hunt, will have a bit of a leash and won’t be pulled out after an error or two.

Mistakes are going to be part of the offense this year — it’s an inevitability with a first-year starting quarterback — but in Shafer’s ideal world he’ll need just one man for the job.

“Realistically, we could see both,” Shafer said. “Idealistically, you’d like to see one guy go in there and just tear it up.”

Published on August 29, 2013 at 12:26 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2