Chris Bleich took out his barbecue set: stainless steel tongs, a grill and a smoker. He made his way outside his apartment in University Village to the parking lot where he was met by Tommy DeVito and Dakota Davis, two teammates injured during the 2020 season.
Thousands of miles away from their team, the group watched Syracuse’s away games on a television screen while Bleich cooked.
“We just talked about getting healthy and getting back to playing again,” Bleich said.
Despite also rehabbing from surgery, Bleich wasn’t like the rest of his teammates. He couldn’t play during the 2020 because the NCAA didn’t grant him a transfer waiver — an opt-out of the NCAA’s rule that prohibits transfer students to play in the first season at their new schools.