Dan Varello

[PhatOrange]

I think his showing against Army has earned him more PT. 10-17 is 59% and not too shabby. Even if Williams is a 100%, Varello should get his share of draws to take some pressure off Williams. I think the effort should jump him to #2. Go with him until he starts losing. I'll live with 59% for a true frosh in his first action.

 

[Orangtiz]

Agree, Varello was very impressive in his first true test. I do not anticipate Ben to play this weekend based off of Desko's lack of enthusiasm towards the topic in the post-game presser. If Varello was out there for the entire game, we would have won. Bottom line I still like out team with him in there if he's winning at a 60% clip.

I expect him to hold his own this weekend, UVA's guy isn't great. We will need Ben back for the Carolina's, Notre Dame's, and Duke's of the world.

 

[RoofBeam]

Has Nick Martin ever taken a face off for the team? He came out of Michigan with a good reputation and performed well in some camps, I think...Big kid, maybe the staff thinks he just can't do it at this level?

We got very lucky with Ben, the Holy Cross transfer, and Varello looks promising. But the staff has not done a great job with FO's for the last decade or so.

 

[JeremyCuse]

I think his showing against Army has earned him more PT. 10-17 is 59% and not too shabby. Even if Williams is a 100%, Varello should get his share of draws to take some pressure off Williams. I think the effort should jump him to #2. Go with him until he starts losing. I'll live with 59% for a true frosh in his first action.

While I agree with your thoughts, if Ben plays he's taking 98% of the draws at a minimum. Desko has shown that he is going to live and die with Ben and in most cases that has proven successful. I think getting Varello a handful of draws a game would be a good thing but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Has Nick Martin ever taken a face off for the team? He came out of Michigan with a good reputation and performed well in some camps, I think...Big kid, maybe the staff thinks he just can't do it at this level?

He redshirted last season.

 

[WoodyUK]

Varello is no secret he was a highly touted recruit who held his own and excelled on Long Island! He's a good size for a face off guy and has raw strength, I've noticed successful face off men around the league are pretty much the same size mid height stocky build with strong arms and legs! It's becoming the same as miniature attackman with great skills and quickness!

Great to see Varello see extensive mins and will get him the experience he needs for the future, for some reason the team doesn't look quite there this year but are still finding their way with new players, transfers and injuries.
Our coaching staff have been very successful in making adjustments to maximise improvement throughout the season! It has been a trend in the last few years that the team that wins it all doesn't start the season well but finishes it as the best, maybe just maybe!!! There is always a hope.

On the flip side we have the basis of a very strong young team that is going to be hard to stop in 2 years time in my opinion!

 

[Orangtiz]

For those who didn't know, Varello's cousin is former Syracuse DE Robert Welsh. He was instrumental in Varello's coming to Syracuse. As Woody mentioned he was very highly recruited.

 

[CreaseRat]

If you're not going to play Williams, hold him out till Hopokins at the earliest. However, I fear Williams will be out longer than 2 weeks.

 

[JeremyCuse]

If you're not going to play Williams, hold him out till Hopokins at the earliest. However, I fear Williams will be out longer than 2 weeks.

Desko has to be smart with this. If Williams injury is significant and were talking 6-8 weeks or a Mellen situation your better off shutting him down and applying for the medical red-shirt and bring him back for 2018 as a redshirt senior. Now this assumes Ben is interested in this and doesn't have post grad plans already. But assuming the med redshirt is in play there is no need to rush him back and have him re-injure it and his career be over.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Varello is no secret he was a highly touted recruit who held his own and excelled on Long Island! He's a good size for a face off guy and has raw strength, I've noticed successful face off men around the league are pretty much the same size mid height stocky build with strong arms and legs! It's becoming the same as miniature attackman with great skills and quickness!

Great to see Varello see extensive mins and will get him the experience he needs for the future, for some reason the team doesn't look quite there this year but are still finding their way with new players, transfers and injuries.
Our coaching staff have been very successful in making adjustments to maximise improvement throughout the season! It has been a trend in the last few years that the team that wins it all doesn't start the season well but finishes it as the best, maybe just maybe!!! There is always a hope.

On the flip side we have the basis of a very strong young team that is going to be hard to stop in 2 years time in my opinion!

He's clearly the faceoff guy of the future and his performance on Saturday only confirmed that. With Paduda and Williams gone (assuming no med reshirt) it will be Varello, Martin who hasn't taken a draw at SU and two incoming frosh next season. I thought he did a good job coming into a tough situation on Saturday and if he could have scooped a few more contested ground balls his #'s would have been even better.

As you noted the staff has done a good job of making in season adjustments and turning seasons around that appeared to be headed to a bad finish. That being said this season maybe tougher with so many guys already out for the year including Thorpe and Forkin who could have worked there way into more PT as the season went on. Obviously Mellen being out is a killer but the D needs to play a lot better then it did on Saturday including Mollo who needs to keep that chip on his shoulder if he doesn't want Desko making a move like he did last year to Hill.

The D remains young and there are some young offensive weapons on the team in Trimboli Carlin, Dearth, Rehfuss, Solomon, Voigt Romano etc. Still this team appears to be lacking high end offensive players that hopefully will be in this falls class of 2017 players.

 

[JeremyCuse]

If you're not going to play Williams, hold him out till Hopokins at the earliest. However, I fear Williams will be out longer than 2 weeks.

Also Hopkins is actually struggling at the X this year with there main guy well under 50% and the co-starter hurt and unlikely to play against SU.

 

[RoysRunts]

That's very Scary considering what Hopkins did to Carolina..

 

[Orangelax]

That's very Scary considering what Hopkins did to Carolina..

Not sure Hopkins can keep up that type of play though. Hopkins goalie had the game of his life with 16 saves. I wasn't that impressed with the D as they allowed a lot of open shots but their goalie bailed them out every time.