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In the last five seasons, Syracuse’s defense has been led by three different defensive coordinators: Tony White, Rocky Long and now, Elijah Robinson.

Throughout the continuous change, linebacker Marlowe Wax has been the consistent piece of the puzzle, appearing in all 50 of SU’s games since 2020. However, Wax went down with a right-leg injury in the third quarter of SU’s season opener against Ohio, knocking him out of the game and sidelining him for at least six weeks.

Syracuse revamped its defense in its first game without Wax, moving to a largely three-man front and dropping edge rusher Fadil Diggs to the second level alongside linebacker Derek McDonald. The adjustment paid off, as Diggs and McDonald recorded a team-leading seven tackles each.

Without their leading tackler from the last two seasons, the Orange improved their Pro Football Focus tackling grade by 28.2 points from Week 1, while holding No. 23 Georgia Tech’s offense just enough to secure a 31-28 victory.

“(Diggs) is not a linebacker, it was for this defense,” SU head coach Fran Brown said after his team’s win over GT. “But we were able to replace (Wax) for a quick weekend, being as though the other guys were able to still stay at their spots.”

While Brown described Syracuse’s look versus the Yellow Jackets as a completely new defense, McDonald and Diggs said it was merely an expansion of its red zone defense a week prior.

In Week 1, SU played a front in the red zone that featured Diggs dropping back and filling the gaps of the three down linemen. Syracuse held Ohio to a 2-for-11 clip on third down and three first-half field goals.

Against Georgia Tech, Robinson used the concept on a larger scale.

“It’s (Robinson’s) mindset to be physical in that red zone area or just in the front,” Diggs said. “It was more violent downhill stuff. (Wax), usually he does that. So we were trying to get some of that energy back with him being out.”

Wax was the man in the middle of Long’s 3-3-5 defense in 2023, totaling 110 tackles and being named a Second Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker. In a new role in Robinson’s 4-2-5 defense, Wax recorded six tackles and a sack in less than three quarters.

After Wax exited in the third quarter, Robinson plugged a rotation of redshirt freshman James Heard Jr. and redshirt junior Anwar Sparrow to pair with McDonald. Both held their own, as Heard Jr. recorded an interception and Sparrow added a tackle.

“They showed production, so you just hope that they can do that job,” Brown said of the linebacker duo two days after SU’s win over Ohio. “You’re gonna need two or three to fill (Wax) not being there.”

Though Wax’s absence from the lineup was known early in the week, Brown emphasized keeping him around the team. According to McDonald, Wax was in most meetings throughout the week and even put on a headset in practice to speak with teammates.

The expectation entering the ACC opener was to see Sparrow and Heard Jr. continue their roles from late against Ohio. Heard Jr. said last Tuesday that the mentality in the room was to follow the route Wax set for them by stepping up when called upon.

Saturday, Heard Jr.’s role was to mostly watch from the sideline. Sparrow played 30 snaps as the third linebacker in the refurbished front. Wax moved up and down the sidelines via a knee-rover, donning a navy sweatsuit.

When the offense took the field, Wax was communicating with the linebackers, sharing what he saw from the sideline. When it was the defense’s turn, Diggs stood out.

“It’s a difference looking at (Diggs), especially when you lose Wax,” Brown said. “And now the next week, in the middle of our defense, you had to go be able to replace that with someone that would almost be who (Wax) is at linebacker.”

Diggs infrequently dropped in coverage in his four years at Texas A&M. But Robinson, who also coached Diggs with the Aggies, felt he had enough experience to at least aid in the rushing game. At 6-foot-5, 261 pounds, Diggs is larger than the average linebacker, an attribute that gave McDonald comfort.

“It felt pretty good knowing that (Diggs) was going to be there,” McDonald said. “We just had to be physical. We had to go meet it. And then when they passed, just get (Diggs) comfortable and have him kind of do more of the underneath work.”

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Knowing the opponent fairly well also played a factor in Diggs’s different role, per Brown. GT quarterback Haynes King, like Diggs, began his NCAA career in College Station. King entered the 2020 season as a freshman with the Aggies in the same class as Diggs before transferring to Georgia Tech ahead of 2023.

In an attempt to contain King, Diggs often began at the second level and ripped through Georgia Tech’s interior offensive linemen with a running start.

He made his impact on the first play, bull rushing the right guard to force running back Jamal Haynes to the middle. Late in the second quarter, he beat the right guard again, this time with a quick swim move to take down Haynes for a two-yard loss.

Nearing the end of the third quarter, Diggs and McDonald simultaneously applied added pressure. Diggs hit the A gap, and McDonald curled left to right into the B gap, forcing King to throw the ball up for an incompletion.

On a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter, Diggs bulldozed the left guard, blowing up the play in the backfield. Through two games, the Texas A&M transfer’s 6.0 tackles for loss leads Division I players. His two against the Yellow Jackets came as a linebacker.

Though it was a different look for the Orange front in Week 2, Brown emphasized that Diggs isn’t a linebacker. With 13 days between its game against GT and its next contest, it gives added time for more adjustments and getting Heard Jr. and Sparrow up to speed.

SU will need to replace Wax for at least four more games, and there’s no telling what its strategy will be against Stanford on Sept. 20. But in its first game without its lead linebacker, Syracuse made the necessary tweaks.

“We knew (Wax) is a hard guy to replace,” McDonald said. “So we were going to have to do it by committee, and that was just everybody stepping up their game and coming out and playing as hard as we could. Knowing that we’re playing for him.”

Published on September 9, 2024 at 9:02 pm

Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky