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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1853396, member: 289"] [I]Quarterbacks[/I] The key player in the new offense will be the quarterback. The incumbent is Eric Dungey, who came in as a true freshman when Terrell Hunt went down on the ninth play of the opener. Hunt had had a shaky season in 2014 and even in those 9 plays, (against a bad FCS team, Rhode Island), was playing poorly. Dungey came in and by the end of that game it was obvious that he was an up-grade. He seemed calmer and more poised. He seemed to be able to read the defense better. He didn’t have a rifle arm but threw a very catchable pass. He was mobile and could improvise when he had to. One downside, and I think it will be a factor this year because of all the sideline passes in Baber’s offense, is that those catchable balls were also available to be caught by the other team on sideline plays where you’d want your quarterback to fire the ball past the defender, who will have nothing in front of him but the goal line if he could get to the ball. It was a ticking time bomb all season and it finally exploded in the Louisville game when Trumaine Washington gave the Cardinals a lead they never surrendered with a 39 yard pick six. Another ticking time bomb was Dungey’s health. Like a lot of young quarterbacks he liked to get out and use his legs and challenge the defense. He got a lot of play nationally when he lept over a defender at the goal line to score against Virginia. But his first injury had nothing to do with his style of play. It had to do with the style of coaching at Central Michigan. Dungy threw a pass just as he was hit from behind. The ball sailed past the eyes of linebacker Mitch Stanitzek – he had to have seen that Dungey no longer had it. Stanizek was about 5 yards away. He lowered his head and targeted Dungey right under the chin. Eric’s head snapped back violently as if he’d taken a Mike Tyson uppercut and he fell to the ground. CMU coaches would alter claim Stanitzek didn’t see the ball, had no time to react, it was a bang-bang play, etc. But a careful look at the film showed that the guy who hit Dungey from behind was aggressively twisting one of Eric’s feet while he was down, clearly intending to injure him. That tells the logical mind that this was something ordered from the sideline. I’ve seen it before. Years ago Bill Hurley was being hyped for the Heisman and directed three consecutive first downs on the first drive in the opener against Florida State. On the play where he scrambled for the third one, two Seminole defenders got control of him but didn’t bring him down. Instead they pried apart his arms while a third teammate speared Hurley in the ribs. Hurley was out for the year and we went 3-8, likely the opposite of the record we would have had with him. Unlike that occasion, the refs at the CMU game recognized what had happened and threw Stanitzek out, although the missed the guy who twisted Dungey’s foot. People assumed Dungey had a concussion, which was significant because a couple of Syracuse players had been dismissed from the team due to the school’s “three strikes and you’re out” concussion policy. Dungey was only a freshman and the likelihood that he’d have two more concussions in his career here is probably high. Eric said later that the primary symptom was that his neck hurt. In a later game, (I think it was Pittsburgh) Dungey was seen to collapse to the ground after he’d been hit. It wasn’t a dramatic thing: he was already on his side and not everybody saw it. But enough did. Was that strike two? Then came the Louisville game. We were down 10-41 with 5:45 left when Syracuse got possession on a fumbled punt at the Louisville 38. On second and 12 Dungy scrambled for 16 yards but got hit from two directions and had to be helped off the field. He didn’t play again that season, even with three games left. Tim Lester, the offensive coordinator, was asked after the game why Dungey was still in there with the team down 31 points with 5 minutes left. He mumbled something about the back-up QB not being warmed up yet due to the suddenness of the turnover. Then head Coach Scott Shafer was asked the same question and came up with a different answer: he still had hopes of a comeback, meaning he thought Dungey could lead us to 31 points in 5 minutes when we hadn’t scored that much in regulation against FBS teams all year. It made it sound as if nobody was in charge or at least there was no communication between the coaches. That was probably the last straw and ensured Shafer’s departure at the end of the season, especially considering the health of a promising young quarterback was on the line. It leaves Dungey’s future very uncertain. The school cannot release details of his medical condition so we don’t know how many concussions he has had, if any. Every football player plays with the knowledge that his career could theoretically end on the next play. With Eric Dungey, that could be a distinct possibility. We’ve been hearing reports about how much stronger Dungey looks now after he’s been in our conditioning program for a year, (he’s listed at 6-3 212). That doesn’t protect him from concussions. It also sounds like what we heard about Andrew Robinson after he was sacked 54 times in his freshman year. He wasn’t the same player the next year, even though he was bigger and stronger due to his work in the weight room. Going into last year our quarterback depth chart looked like this: Terrel Hunt was the returning starter. A. J. Long had played the most when he was out but got knocked around himself. Austin Wilson had seemed like a strong prospect because of his size , (6-3 217) and arm strength, which unfortunately was not accompanied by accuracy. Then came Dungey, a highly rated true freshman and Zach Mahoney, a JUCO transfer whom no one had ever heard of. Long was disqualified in the pre-season camp because of the three concussion rule. He transferred to Wagner after getting cleared by a neurologist. Long said "I couldn't even tell you how many (concussions) I possibly had in the last three or four years. And I didn't want to bring them forward because I knew my time would be done." (Good luck to you A. J. I think you’re going to need it.) Dungey, who was learning the offense fast and showing the skills the coaches wanted moved past Wilson and when Hunt went down again, Dungey found himself #1. Mahoney also passed Wilson and when Dungey got dinged, suddenly this total unknown was our starting quarterback- for a game against #8 ranked LSU. Our chances were slim at best with everybody healthy. Now we seemed to have no chance at all. Remarkably, we gave LSU all they could handle, losing 24-34. Mahoney didn’t have great passing numbers: 16 for 38 for 154 yards, but threw three second half touchdown passes and also ran for 40 yards. Later in the year, after Dungey was down again, Mahoney started against the #1 team in the nation: Clemson and again we improbably gave them a battle, this time losing 27-37. He was 8 for 21 passing for 80 yards but ran for 76 yards and two TDs. He’s a dual threat quarterback with a stronger arm than Dungey’s but he doesn’t have Dungey’s touch, especially on the shorter throws and doesn’t have his accuracy. Dungey also knows the offense better. I don’t know that Mahoney is the type of QB Babers is looking for, (in his offense, they QB doesn’t run the ball much). But it’s good to know that we have a back-up quarterback who allows us to hang in there against top teams. Austin Wilson passed the look test and his throws are strong and deep. But in two years he’s 32 for 58 (55%) for 302 yards, 1TD and 5 interceptions. The fact that both Dungey and Mahoney, (who walked on), beat him out last year tells you all you need to know about him. He’ll be trying to fight off two freshman for the #3 spot on the depth chart. There are two new faces in town: Rex Culpepper,, who was a Shafer recruit who held to his commitment and Mo Hasan, who Babers brought in. Culpepper has good size (6-2 225) and is listed as a three-star “pro-style” quarterback, which would mean he’s projected as a potential college starter and is more of a drop-back QB than a multi-threat guy, which is probably why Babers liked him. He was ranked #43 among pro-style HS QBs in the country when he was recruited. Clemson, Florida, Miami and Ohio State were among the schools that offered him. Looking at his film, he reminds me of Dungey, heady, mobile and can make all the throws, maybe with a stronger arm. Nunes said: “Rex will need to make better decisions at the college level. His arm strength allowed for him to make some throws in high school that he won't be able to make in college.” [URL="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/1715388/5721baacbd746d007c52fbd8"]REX CULPEPPER (6'3 215) JUNIOR SEASON[/URL] Culpepper may have stuck with Syracuse because Syracuse had stuck with him. He tore his ACL before his senior year in high school but we didn’t pull the offer. Rex is from Florida but is not related to former Central Florida and NFL star QB Dante Culpepper. Instead, he’s the son of Brad Culpepper, who played DT for Florida and the Chicago Bears, among other NFL teams. So Rex is likely a tough kid. He enrolled at Syracuse early and made it to #4 on the depth chart, which is where Dungey was a year ago. But he hasn’t played in two years so I don’t know what kind of contribution he can make this year. Hopefully we won’t need him to. It appeared Culpepper would be our only freshman QB but then Babers signed another Florida kid, the lanky, (6-3 185), Hasan, who is also from Florida. Ours was the only offer from a Power-5 school and he’s being given an academic scholarship as a “premium preferred walk-on”, meaning he could be given an athletic scholarship. (Zack Mahoney was also a preferred walk-on.) He’s ranked the #79 pro-style QB in the high school class. He played with two other SU freshmen, Kenneth Ruff and McKinley Williams, so the coaches knew about him. He ran a similar offense to Baber’s in high school. His film shows him working almost exclusively from the pocket and almost exclusively throwing the ball downfield, (there were a few scrambles and running throws toward the end). His arm seemed strong and accurate, (although, just as a basketball players highlight film makes it look as if he never misses, Hasan’s throws are all completions. They say in basketball the misses- and why they were misses tell you more about a player’s shooting than his makes. It’s probably just as true here.) [URL="http://www.hudl.com/video/3/2126665/5721d7760c5e681224b126ac"]Senior Highlights[/URL] Kenterius Womack played QB in high school but was moved to wide receiver by Shafer/Lester. He could be play QB in an emergency. He’s much more of a running quarterback and would serve the team much better in that capacity at another positon. Freshman wide receiver Devin Butler was also a high school QB. The Syracuse passing records are: 471 attempts, 294 completions 3,749 yards,26 touchdowns, (all Ryan Nassib 2012). Hopefully none of those will be the record after this season. They had better not be if we are to have a good year. [/QUOTE]

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