Syracuse football loses first player to season-ending injury

Syracuse, N. Y. — Syracuse football lost its first player to a season-ending injury in Week 1 of fall camp.

Fourth-year tight end Steven Mahar Jr. is out for the year with an ACL tear in his left knee that he suffered during Friday’s practice, Babers said Tuesday. The diagnosis came in Monday night, Babers said, and Mahar will have surgery after his knee has settled and the swelling has gone down.

His knee was bandaged and he was wearing a brace while watching practice Tuesday. Mahar, who’s from Rochester, New York, has appeared in 28 games in three seasons for Syracuse, though primarily on special teams. The tight end depth chart was unlikely to include Mahar.

Last season, three Orange players are known to have torn their ACLs: Chris Elmore, Stefon Thompson and Garrett Williams. SU lost five depth chart players to injuries in the opening five games of the 2022 season and a handful of other players battled week-to-week injuries in the back half of the year, which contributed to a five-game losing slide. In the spring, Babers said he was “not quite sure” why there were so many injuries in the previous season, but that the program had looked into it and implemented some things aimed at mitigating injuries this year.

He did not disclose what injury-prevention techniques were implemented, but it is known that SU hired a team nutritionist in March, filling a previous void in its support staff. .