Syracuse Football: QB Eric Dungey Talks Offensive Transition Under Dino Babers

Coming out of the Syracuse Orange spring football game, we knew things would be high-scoring and fast this year. But those are tough things to truly quantify after just one scrimmage for fans. There's a lot that goes into making those wholesale changes, especially for a team that struggled to move quickly over the past few years.

Luckily, quarterback Eric Dungey got some time to speak with ESPN.com's David Hale, to discuss the transition.

On the differences and ramp-up:

"It’s a lot different. It’s new tempo, new offense, new defense. There’s a big learning curve. The first week was a little rough. It was just sloppy, the first time installing stuff. But as the weeks went on, we got better and better. We’re still not where we want to be, but it looks a lot better than the first day."

That sounds a whole lot like Dino Babers's own feedback around current speed vs. end goal. This Dungey character, he's smart. He already sounds like his coach.

Talking about how fun this offense is:

"Oh, it’s a blast. The spring game was a lot of fun. It’s just out there. It brings back a whole new aspect of the game. Some people say college is more of a job, but this offense, it’s so enjoyable. The offense, it’s a whole new kind of fast. I thought I went no-huddle in high school, but this made that seem like the Wing-T almost."

So if Dungey's no-huddle was the Wing-T, what would he call Tim Lester's offense last year?

On (everyone's favorite topic) taking hits:

"I’ve just got to be smarter with getting down. Coach Babers and Coach [Sean] Lewis have made that clear. I’m trying to get bigger in case I do need to take a hit. I mean, obviously I’ll get hit. It’s college football. You can’t go un-hit. But I’ve got to be smart and limit the hits, and I’ll be all right."

He also shared that he hasn't look at film from last year. I suppose that's a good thing, and again, echoes his coach, who's also said he will ignore anything that happened last season.

For what it's worth, Dungey and Babers seem to understand each other already:

"He demands perfection. You’ve got to be perfect. No matter what you’re doing. I like that. He’s always going to hold you accountable. You can’t take a rep off, you can’t slack. And that’s great. It just makes you better."

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Dungey also discussed timing and confidence in the offense, and how he seems to be buying into Babers's mantra of the entire offense "starting with the quarterback."

While Babers certainly hasn't named a starter of yet, all signs here point to Dungey setting himself up well to retain that role. For more, read the full Q&A between the sophomore QB and Hale over on ESPN.com.