'Unselfish': The Immeasurable Impact of Chris Elmore
Syracuse, NY — "Adversity" is the word to describe Syracuse's 2020 season. A season that almost never happened. Slammed by injury, tangled in transition, and sucker-punched by a pandemic, Syracuse is somehow on its way to playing an uninterrupted 11 game schedule. It's easy to look at a 1-9 record and ask, "What went wrong?" But it's more worthwhile to ask, "How were they able to go the distance?" Ask that question to any number of Syracuse players or coaches, and you'll hear the same name over and over again. Chris Elmore.
"Chris Elmore is so unselfish," Syracuse head coach Dino Babers said during his Monday press conference.
"I mean, We would not have been able to finish the season without him. There would have been 11 no-contests without Chris. And I can't thank him enough for the unselfish act he did in keeping us afloat and keeping us running through these games."
Elmore agreed to take on the unenviable task of trading in his fullback No. 5 for an offensive lineman's No. 63, joining the unit perhaps most targeted and blamed for the team's offensive woes in 2019. The position group wasn't only taking punches from critics but from eviscerating injuries as well. Denied access to the talents of Florida transfer OL Chris Bleich, Babers looked to Elmore to keep this team together.
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"From a team standpoint, we needed to play these games, Babers said. "We needed the growth, we needed the knowledge that these games are going to bring to us into the future. And he's one of the main reasons, along with some other guys, why we were able to pull this off."
Elmore is used to being moved around. Before his senior season even started, fans had seen Elmore lined up at tight end, full back, defensive tackle, and even saw him making an impact on special teams. His newest role, however, was one he hadn't practiced since he was in the eighth grade. Standing at exactly six feet and weighing in well shy of 300 pounds, Elmore wasn't sure he matched the Power 5 offensive lineman prototypical build.
"When you think of o-lineman, you don't think of a six-foot nothing guy who hasn't played o-line in a minute," Elmore said last week.
"I was just like, 'Uh, I don't know, but I'll do it for the team, and I'll give it my best."
Some may have been surprised to see a fullback slotted at starting left guard. "How desperate can they be?" some may have wondered. Don't count Orange WR Taj Harris among those skeptics. If anybody could do it, Harris knew it'd be "Rhino."
"Chris 'Rhino' is an amazing football player," Harris said on Tuesday. "Since I got here, I watched him step into roles that not a lot of guys can step into. Whenever he's asked to do anything, Rhino's going to get it done.
"He's a heck of a player. Him moving to o-line just shows you how adaptive he is. He can play any position on the field, and I mean it. I mean it. I mean it. I came in as a freshman, and I've seen him catching balls, lined him in the backfield. He's a hybrid, definitely."
Syracuse's 2020 season will be remembered for many things, mostly for being the season most hope to forget. But if you were looking for a face capable of characterizing the resilience it took to survive all 11 games, would you pick Chris Elmore's chasm-cast smile? Orange WR Nykeim Johnson doesn't believe you could make a better choice.
"That's a good thing," Johnson said Tuesday when asked if he saw Elmore as the face of the team.
"The character that guy has to be able to switch positions and play a position that isn't his, you have to tip your hat off to a guy like that. He put the team first. He didn't worry about himself. He put the team first. That's not a wrong statement to make at all."
After nine games, Elmore's tenure at guard has come to an end. He's hung up the clunky No. 63 and is back in his familiar No. 5, back where he was supposed to be.
"Now in the last two games, it's time to get Chris back to where he's going to have an opportunity to maybe get a chance to play in the league," Babers said Monday.
"We see him as a big fullback, blocking tight end type guy in the National Football League if he's going to get an opportunity. We wanted to get back to that. And when we get all our offensive linemen back, that's the position that he'll be playing next year."
When the Orange take the field in South Bend in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus, look for Elmore to blaze a path for Sean Tucker and Cooper Lutz from his fullback spot. And if things should go south, as they often do for the Orange, WR Taj Harris wants you to know they have a back-up plan.
"If every quarterback goes down, guess who's going to be playing quarterback…"
