Syracuse coach Dino Babers said Wednesday that one Syracuse stabbing victim, Corey Winfield, has already been released from the hospital, and he is optimistic that the second one, Chauncey Scissum, will be released this weekend.
The two defensive backs were stabbed Saturday evening on the university's south campus, allegedly by former Syracuse defensive back Naesean Howard. The 20-year-old Howard was charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He entered a not guilty plea Monday and was immediately suspended from the school.
Howard, a former Orange defensive back, left the program in September 2014 before re-enrolling this year with the hope of rejoining the team. He has never played in a game for Syracuse.
Speaking on the ACC coaches' spring teleconference in his first public remarks since the stabbings, Babers elaborated on his earlier decision not to allow Howard back on the team.
"I just think that any time you're starting a program, I think you're really worrying about the camaraderie of a football team, and you're looking for positives, not negatives," Babers said. "When you go in and you start talking about people's backgrounds, everybody has a right to change, everybody has a right to right wrongs and have an opportunity to overcome mistakes, but when you see a pattern, patterns are something that you try to stay away from.
"We just decided as a staff that the pattern was too strong, that we needed to not give him an opportunity. It's not a right to be on a football team. It's a privilege and we just decided to deny it."
Babers also refuted a report that said the coach told players in a Tuesday meeting not to wear any Syracuse football gear in public because associates of Howard -- a native of nearby Camillus, New York -- could be looking for them.
Babers said he meets with his team in the offseason every Tuesday at 8 a.m. to talk about their lives off the field, and he stressed that he told the players this week to wear their Syracuse clothing proudly around campus.
"I told those guys to have common sense in the things they do in life," Babers said. "You should look both ways when you step off a curb so you don't get hit by a bus. I think that you can't live life looking over your shoulder, you have to live life. You can't be afraid to live it. I think these young men will be just fine. I think the university will be just fine."
The 54-year-old Babers was hired in December from Bowling Green, where he went 18-9 in two seasons, capped with a Mid-American Conference title. He said he has relied upon 30-plus years of coaching experience to deal with the fallout of the situation at hand in his new job with the Orange.
"Well it's a very difficult phone call to take. I've only been here a couple months, but I've been coaching over 31 years, and things happen, and things happen on the football field and things happen in life, and when you get someone that's been around a little bit like I have myself and I have children who are daughters, you're always leery of those late calls in the middle of the night," Babers said.
"But it's a blessing, both of those young men are still with us, and they're gonna have an opportunity to raise families themselves someday."