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Syracuse Football: Orange QB Eric Dungey Even Calls His Own Plays

You knew we had to at least discuss this a LITTLE, right?

By John Cassillo
Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

According to a quick interview between Syracuse.com's Nate Mink and Orange offensive coordinator Tim Lester, SU quarterback Eric Dungey called a couple plays of his own during Saturday's victory over Wake Forest. Said Lester, "... it's not even in the playbook, and we ran it."

The true freshman apparently messed up some signals on a third and 10 from the Syracuse 29-yard line in the fourth quarter, calling a pass when it was meant to a be run. The result, however, was a 21-yard gain that extended Syracuse's drive and set up the QB's 53-yard touchdown strike to Steve Ishmael just two plays later. (Obligatory: read up on the full progression of the drive in our weekly offensive play-calling breakdown)

... All in all, it's not all that big of a deal, especially given the positive outcome. But some questions:

  • How's the team running plays not in the playbook? Like, really just questioning how that works out...
  • What's the total number of times this happened on Saturday, Coach Lester? Just want to make sure I'm praising/criticizing the proper person each week for play-calling.
  • If Dungey can successfully execute something like that as a freshman, you have to think we have a pretty cerebral player under center (if you weren't already sold), no?
  • Why were we going to call a run on third and 10 on our own end of the field?

Putting a nice final note on the piece, Lester tells Mink that Dungey continues to impress Syracuse's coaching staff with how far along his development is and how well he responds to mistakes:

"A lot of times with young kids there are peaks and valleys, and with him one thing I've found are the valleys aren't very long."

... We need to find more creative ways to temper our excitement about this kid, don't we? In the meantime, hope he appreciates Brett Favre jokes.

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