Week two of fall camp is heating up on the hill for the Syracuse football team.

Day six of practice saw the Orange come out in full pads. But even though there was an uptick in intensity, head coach Dino Babers is keeping it in check.

While the pads were popping at times, the Orange didn't really go full contact. For most of practice on Tuesday, the Orange eased their way into it, knowing the season is a marathon, not a sprint.

“[The] first day today we really didn't tackle anybody to the ground, just want them to get used to their pads," Babers said after practice. "But it was a lot more physical and a lot more quiet, which means people are hitting, listening and learning.”

While Babers is solely focused on Syracuse this season, the topic of conference realignment did come up on Tuesday. Babers offered his thoughts on the decimation of the Pac-12 and the ever-changing landscape of college athletics.

Babers spent time at Arizona State, Arizona and UCLA during his coaching career.

“I can still remember when the Pac-12 was the Pac-8," Babers said. It's interesting. You would never think that that league wrapped around one of the bowl games, the Rose Bowl game being the granddaddy of them all with the Big Ten that they would ever lose it. But here we are in this day and age, adjusting [and] improvising. I'm sure though everybody in the conference is looking at that stuff just a lot different from six years ago, 10 years ago, 12 years ago. To think that all this stuff would be going on. It's just very interesting.”

On the injury front, Babers said that tight end Steven Mahar suffered a torn ACL and will miss the upcoming season.