As Josh Parris went down with a knee cartilage injury, announced Tuesday, Jamal Custis, Kendall Moore, Tyler Provo and Jacob Green were thrust into a fight for his playing time.

“Parris was playing at a high level, playing at a totally different level,” Syracuse offensive coordinator George McDonald said.

The junior Parris is set for a Wednesday surgery with Dr. Todd Battiglia and hasn’t been ruled out for SU’s Aug. 29 season opener against Villanova in the Carrier Dome. On Tuesday, the Orange’s other tight ends took reps in his absence.

“Hopefully it’s something that they can just go in and clean up and get him back quickly, very similar to Adly (Enoicy),” head coach Scott Shafer said. “But you never know, if they have to suture it up then it could be a little bit longer. It’s a tough time for him, we’re keeping him in our thoughts and our prayers.”

Custis practiced with the second-team offense in 11-on-0s in the portion of Tuesday’s practice open to the media. Most of the sets with Terrel Hunt’s unit did not involve a tight end.

On Custis’ one first-team rep, he caught a check-down pass from Hunt that he ran into the end zone.

“Everybody gets lucky once in a while, Jamal,” McDonald shouted to him afterward.

Moore returned to cutting and running routes — for the 25 minutes that the media saw on Tuesday — for the first time since limping out of practice Saturday morning. He worked on a stationary bike and did ab exercises in the Carrier Dome on Monday.

On Tuesday, he ran down the sideline and did not participate in any of the designed plays during the open part of practice. Later, he ran routes and caught passes from tight ends coach Bobby Acosta in addition to practicing blocking and bursting out of his three-point stance, with the rest of the tight ends.

“(Parris) is a dynamic football player for us and we’re hoping that he’s out minimally,” Acosta said, “that he can definitely come back and be ready for that Villanova game.”

Shafer discusses Parris injury, departure of defensive back Josh Mims

Published on August 19, 2014 at 8:15 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_