Dino Babers met with reporters on Monday morning for his weekly press conference.

As the Orange hit the midway point of the season, they have struggled with injuries and lack of depth in back-to-back losses to Clemson and North Carolina in ACC play.

Babers spoke to that depth issue on Monday and said it’s a result of other programs recruiting Syracuse’s talent from the transfer portal.

“it’s the same old thing. Depth is gone. Depth is in the transfer portal. You know how many guys we lost, you know what schools they play at,” Babers said. “Schools like us, we’re not going to have a lot of depth because it gets bought away.”

To Babers’ point, Syracuse did lose several contributors on defense to the transfer portal this past offseason. The list includes Duce Chestnut (LSU), Ja’Had Carter (Ohio State) and Jatius Greer (South Carolina).

Syracuse’s depth has been further eroded away by injuries and NFL departures. Three stars of last year’s team, Matthew Bergeron, Sean Tucker and Garrett Williams, are now on NFL rosters. Additionally, start tight end Oronde Gadsden II has already been ruled out for the season with an injury.

Of course, Syracuse did have the opportunity to sign players out of the portal as well this past offseason. The Orange landed transfers from programs such as Nebraska, Notre Dame and Alabama in the portal this cycle.

Syracuse will head to Tallahassee this weekend to try to snap its two-game losing streak.