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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1226508, member: 289"] The Passing Game Then: [I]Terrell Hunt will be our quarterback this year. Period. He was the heir apparent to Ryan Nassib last year, having been in the program for two years, (one a redshirt year), and out-competed the other quarterbacks we had on the roster. (I went on to tell the Drew Allen story.) The next week a decision was made to start Hunt, rather than Allen against FCS opponent Wagner. It would have been a game for Allen to rack up some big stats, (we won 54-0), and get some confidence back. Instead, the staff had decided that Hunt’s development was more important. He had two more years of eligibility after this and Allen didn’t look like such an upgrade after all. Hunt ripped the Seahawks for 15/18, 265 yards and 3 scores with no picks while running for another 22 yards…. Hunt had another big game against Tulane, who was thought to be a bad team but wound up 7-6, (Northwestern shockingly wound up 5-7), going 16 for 21 for 181 yards and 4 scores, again with no interceptions. He also ran for 39 yards and a score in a 52-17 win. A star had been born, it seemed. Then he hit the wall. In the next six games, he was 59 for 130 (45%) for 553 yards (92 a game), NO touchdowns and 7 interceptions. We somehow split those games, thanks to injuries that crippled, Wake Forest and Maryland’s offensives, (those teams weren’t all that good when healthy), and allowed our defense to shut them down. But the losses were horrendous- to Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State by a combined 17-164. At the end of the season, things started making more sense for Terrell Hunt and he looked more confident and was more productive. Against Pitt and Boston College, he was 47 for 71 for 429 yards, 3TDs and 1 int. He ran for 103 yards on 25 carries and scored once. We split those games and got into the Texas bowl, where he was 19 for 29 for 188 yards. He didn’t throw a TD pass but didn’t throw an interception, either and ran for 74 yards and 2TDs, including the winning score to give us a final record of 7-6 after a very difficult season. His final stats: 167 of 273 (61%) for 1,638 yards but for only 10TDs in 12 games, with 8 interceptions. He ran for 610 yards and 7 TDs but lost 110 yards on sacks for a net 500. He’s a big guy, too at 6-3, 234. He’s much more mobile than Allen. He’s not a track-star type quarterback but has a niftiness that allows him to pick his way through an open field. He looks to pass first but can take advantage of running opportunities when they are there. He doesn’t have a rifle arm but is accurate enough on short and medium passes when he’s not been put on the run by the defense of a national title contender. He seems like a good and vocal leader who has the confidence of his teammates and that can help a lot. What would help a lot more is an improvement in the receiving corps, (see below). He had very little to work with last season and badly needs some reliable and dynamic receivers to emerge. I agree with the notion that it might have helped if he’d been the starter from the beginning last year but that’s water under the bridge. He became a pretty good college quarterback by the end of the year and should be better this season. I could see him having a Nassib-like career: redshirt, doesn’t play much his first season, struggles his first year as a starter, begins to put some serious numbers up as a junior and explodes as a senior. This is Hunt’s junior year. His back-ups are Austin Wlison, Mitch Kimble and AJ Long but the name to conjure with is freshman Alin Edouard from Florida who could be the “next big thing” here. But Hunt is “the man” here for the next two seasons.[/I] Now: Hunt got our season off to a bad start, getting ejected in the second quarter of the opener against Villanova for punching a guy who had tackled him. He came back from that to put up decent passing numbers, passing for 175, 219, 294, and 201 yards. He completed 57% of his passes in those games, which would have been good in the old days of throwing the ball down the field but was poor in the short passing game. He threw the ball behind his receivers, over their heads or on the ground in front of them so often he looked as if he needed glasses. The most telling stat was his touchdown to interception ratio: 1-4, in three full games and parts of two others. He greatly resembled RJ Anderson in 2002 or Andrew Robinson in 2008: quarterbacks who had been at least competent the year before but came out the next year and didn’t look like the same player. One thing Hunt did do well was run the ball. He was huge, (6-3, 233) and nifty enough to pick his way through a field of blockers and tacklers. All he lacked as a runner was break-away speed. And we used him a lot because in these modern one back offenses, the only deception available to a team is to have the quarterback fake a handoff and run the ball himself. Terrel ran for 92 yards vs. Central Michigan and scored three times. He ran for 156 yards and scored twice against Maryland. But even a big quarterback takes a beating carrying the ball as much as 23 times in a game. That may have bene a factor in his inaccurate passing. And, although his injury came on a sack, running the ball so much might have been a factor in the eventual injury against Louisville that ended his season. That turned it over to Austin Wilson, a guy who had the most powerful arm on the team and was also a big guy at 6-3 210. But unlike Hunt, he was no runner. And he also had accuracy problems, hitting 56% and never threw a TD pass, being intercepted four times. His season basically ended when he was sacked from behind and suffered a concussion. He came back briefly when AJ Long got hurt but never got back the #1 spot. Long was a confident, talented buy in a rather small body for modern big-time football, generously listed at 6-0 184, (he might be 5-11 and 175 but I doubt it. He seemed to throw a soft, catchable pass. And he has some speed and elusiveness as a runner. He started against Florida State, the #1 team in the country and performed credibly, 16 for 27 for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns. Going into that game our punter, Riley Dixon was tied with Terrel Hunt for the season lead in touchdown passes with 1, 6 games into the year. In one game, Long had taken the lead. He later had a 302 yard passing game against Wake Forest. But then he developed some kind of nerve problem and lost feeling in his fingers. He sat out the Duke game and had a bye week. But after coming back, he was mediocre. Mitch Kimble got a shot when Wilson replaced Long and was again injured. He could run the ball some and even scored a touchdown but was awful at throwing it. He eventually decided not to return to school next year, obviously feeling he couldn’t win a completion against Hunt, Wilson or Long. He’s looking to reenroll at an FCS school so he can play immediately next year. He’ll have to get a lot better at throwing the ball, even at that level. I hear on the radio recently that the quarterback positon next year will be Hunt’s to lose. I think he has to regain it. What we saw last season will not give us the turn-around we desperately need. I think Wilson has potential because of that arm but he needs a lot of work and experience- and he needs to stay healthy for that. Long could someday be a good quarterback for us but he’s got to get stronger. Alain Edouard, who returned home for personal reasons, is supposed to be enrolling in January. His high school, film looks great, like he’s better than any of these guys. But it’s high school film. The next recruiting class has one quarterback in it, Eric Dungy but I highly doubt he’ll see any action next year. But off of this season, you never know. Then: [I]Last year our leading receiver was Ashton Broyld, who, in 13 games, never scored. It was the first time in 40 years that SU’s leading receiver hadn’t scored. On that 1973 team, it was Bob Petchel, who caught 22 passes in 11 games for a team that wound up 2-9. It was Ben Schwartwalder’s last season. We lost our first 8 games and a national newspaper article declared SU to be “the worst team in the country”. Last year Broyld caught 52 passes in 13 games but still couldn’t score for a 7-6 team. Ashton seems to be the classic “athlete without a position”. He came out of high school having led Rush-Henrietta of Rochester to the state title while looking like a Cam Newton clone as a quarterback. He’s a big dude at 6-3 216, (he must have slimmed down: I’ve seen him listed at 230), who was the biggest and fastest guy on the field in high school. And he could throw the ball. I thought maybe he might emerge as SU’s next QB after Nassib and we’d see if he looked like Cam Newton in college. Obviously, he isn’t. We used him as a running back in 2012 and he looked good in that role, (36 carries for 171 yards and an actual touchdown), but fumbled in a couple critical situations. That plus some immaturity he says he’s now put in the rear view mirror had him in Doug Marrone’s doghouse. Scott Shafter and George MacDonald put him in “the slot” where he served as a sort of extra tight end, (which is why he got only 452 yards, (8.7 a catch) on those 52 passes he caught and never found the end zone. This year, they tried putting him out on the flank to take better advantage of his speed but they’ve switched him back to the slot- and to his old role. I hope he scores this year. Actually, he’s sharing the slot with a very different and, I think, a very special player. I first saw Brisley Estime, (“Esteem” seems to be the most popular pronunciation) in his You-Tube recruiting videos. I saw a water-sprite who zig-zagged all over the field and, when he got an opening, could burst through the defense like a laser beam. LSU’s Tyrone Mathieu was getting a lot of publicity as a great defensive back and return man for them. His nickname was “The Honey Badger”. I noted that Brisley was about the same size, (but a bit lighter) and actually had a better 40 yard time. I decide to dub him “The Salt Badger” and hoped he could do the things for us that the Honey Badger was doing for LSU- break up games with big plays. I think Estime will gain plenty of esteem this year. I think SU will do everything It can to get the ball into his hands on passes, kicks, even the occasional running play, (he’s be great on the end-around). He has the type of talent that elevate this team to more than just another .500 season. The Salt Badger may roar in 2014! Jarrod West was the #3 receiver behind Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales in 2012. He played last year like he was still the #3 receiver. He went from 43 catches in 13 games to 26 in 11 and scored once. He’s a big target at 6-3 but not very fast or dynamic. Jeremiah Kobena came to SU with a reputation as the sort of speedster we needed. But catching the ball has been a problem. He caught 16 of 30 passes thrown to him last year for 206 yards and- of course- no scores last year. He’s not even on the three deep at any wide receiver spot going into this year. Nunesmagician.com says : “There aren't a ton of teams in the conference with this type of experience this far down the depth chart, and that should help SU out immensely. Whether it's tutoring younger players or playing an active role off the bench, Kobena has ample chances to help out in 2014”. That’s not what we had in mind when he showed up here. For seemingly years no we’ve heard about how talented Adrian Fleming is. He’s tall, (6-4) with good hands and speed. The problem is the rest of his body. Something keeps breaking down. Injuries have limited him to 20 games, (mostly on special teams, waiting for Lemon and Sales to graduate), and 2 catches for 18 yards. He didn’t last one half before getting hurt and out for the season last year. He’s going to give is another try this year. It was a big deal when Quinta Funderburk transferred here from Arkansas. He’s as big as West or Fleming, (6-4 201), and coming out of high school he was a four star recruits described this way on At their request, this network is being blocked from this site.: “A big, strong receiver that’s an acrobat in the air adjusting to the ball. Has terrific body control and boxes out smaller defensive backs like he’s going for a rebound. More than just a jump ball specialist though, Funderburk runs crisp routes and is capable of breaking a tackle and running over, around, and by potential tacklers. A tough receiver that will cut inside looking for extra yards instead of hunting for the sidelines .” He rated the #35 receiver prospect coming out of high school. But he couldn’t seem to get on the field last year for reasons that were never specifically stated. He got into four games, got thrown to five times and caught three of them for 28 yards and no scores. Whatever his problem(s) was/were, I hope their over. People who have attended practices have had good things to say about Alvin Cornelius and Ben Lewis for a couple years now. They too, have good size, (6-1 and 6-2) and some speed. Cornelius caught 9 passes for 142 yards and a score last year. Lewis has 1 catch for 7 yards. Sean Avant “has the team’s best hair” per NunesMagician. Keenen Hale was injured in the spring game and is “buried on the depth chart”. There was supposed to be a wave of new talent descending on the wide receivers positons from the freshman class. KJ Williams was the highest rated but his grades weren’t rated as high so he’s in prep school and has opened up his recruiting again. Corey Cooper got homesick and went home. He’ll be transferring somewhere closer to home, (North Carolina). Adly Enoicy is coming off surgery. Corey Winfield was moved to defensive back. The one freshman wide-out left that might make an impression is Steve Ismael, if he doesn’t redshirt. (And it appears he won’t as he’s risen to #2 in the depth chart). Tight end Josh Parris got hurt in pre-season practice and had surgery. He’ll be out at least 3-4 weeks. He caught 13 balls for 90 yards and two scores, both against Boston College in the bowl-clinching game. Kendall Moore caught a TD pass in the northwestern game. Tyler Provo is the brother of Nick Provo, one of Nassib’s favorite targets. Jamal Custis is 6-6, 225, supposedly with 4.37 speed in the forty yard dash, (I’ll believe it when I see it). Deandre Smith, SU’s running backs coach said of him: “He is as good as I've ever seen a kid look as a freshman. Oh my goodness, he's unbelievable." He could be a wide-out or a tight end, and a difficult match-up for anybody covering him in either capacity. It will be up to returning players to turn this unit around and give Hunt the sort of wide receivers he can thrive with. They are not without ability but their accomplishments so far have been limited. We need at least a couple of guys to bust out this year. I think Estime will be one of them. Who will be the other? [/I] Now: For the second straight year, our leading receiver never found the end zone. This year it was Jarrod West, who actually had a good year with 49 catches for 700 yards. But if your leading receiver isn’t getting into the end one, (now for two years in a row), then there’s something wrong with your scheme. Broyld and Estime both had stillborn seasons due to injury. They combined for 25 catches, 314 yards and one score, (by Estime). Estime hurt his ankle in preseason drills and never had the speed or elusiveness that his game is all about. Broyld went down hard after a catch against Maryland and pounded the ground, knowing that he’s had a serious leg injury that basically ended his season, although he did play briefly later at Clemson. Neither player has come close to their potential at Syracuse, although Broyld’s problem is that they have never found a positon he’s comfortable with. Estime’s is that he’s not very big at 5-9, 172. Kobena, Fleming, Funderburke, Cornelius and Avant combined for 20 catches for 175 yards. None of them scored. Funderburke had none- nada. He now has 3 catches in two years here. Ben Lewis looked impressive at times but had a couple of big drops as well. He was about our only receiver who could actually slip or break tackles and turn a bubble screen into a decent gain, (the play was a basis for the offense, at least at the start of the season. He had 24 catches for 275 yards and a score. Steve Ismael gave us hope for the future, catching 27 passes for 415 yards and two scores. He looked like a genuine star in the making. Corey Winfield was shifted to defense. Custis was barley sued with 4 catches for 15 yards and Enoicy not at all. Josh Parris got hurt and then came back. But he caught only 9 passes. Kendall Moore caught only 4 before he got a bad concussion and didn’t play again. Tyler Provo appeared in six games and never caught a pass. I wish we threw to our tight ends more. They can be big targets in a tight situation. To be honest, with all the quarterback changes and the injuries to Broyld and Estime, we can’t really be sure what we have here. Having one offensive coordinator and one quarterback for the whole season might help. Ismael could be an emerging star. Custis combination of size and speed is interesting. And I want to see what a healthy Estime can do. [/QUOTE]

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