17-year-old freshman Demetres Samuel Jr. is doing one-of-a-kind things for Syracuse. The youngster from Palm Bay, Florida has established himself as one of the versatile players for SU that can play on both sides of the ball.
Jamie Tremble has entered that discussion, too, in the last several weeks for Syracuse with head coach Fran Brown acknowledging Tremble’s athletic ability and wherewithal as the reasoning why he felt comfortable moving Tremble around.
One thing we’ve learned about Brown in the last few weeks: he isn’t afraid to shift his players and put them in spots that they don’t have much experience in, but he believes that the uncomfortable can make them comfortable.
By the way, Tremble was a two-way player before Samuel.
Anyway, back to Samuel. He just officially established himself as someone who could do it all in Friday’s blowout win versus Colgate at home.
Samuel finished with five tackles, an interception, and caught a pass for the first time in his extremely young collegiate career for 10 yards in the first quarter.
Brown is someone who’s believed in Samuel’s versatile abilities and acknowledges that he’s seen Samuel step up to the challenge, whether it’s mental, overcoming mistakes, or being up to the task.
One of the main examples of this stems from SU’s first game of the season against Tennessee when Brown was ecstatic to see Samuel’s response, both mentally and physically, to the high-powered Volunteer receivers.
Instead of moping around, Samuel appeared to shake it off and be ready for the next play and Brown was very happy with his ability to not dwell on the past even if he took a wrong step.
Syracuse fans can find out how Brown decided to place Samuel this Saturday at noon against Clemson.
The road game gives Samuel a chance to go up against another perennial power four team and show the college football world that age is just a number.
