Dungey Believes Syracuse Ready To Turn Corner

After losing 33 of 48 games over the last four years and registering back-to-back 4-8 seasons under head coach Dino Babers, Syracuse isn’t getting a ton of respect heading into the 2018 season.

Las Vegas has set the Orange’s win total for the year at 4.5, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.

In 2016, Syracuse upset #17 Virginia Tech and also accounted for one of the biggest upsets of the 2017 season when it shocked then-#2 Clemson 27-24 in the Carrier Dome in October.

So, regardless of Syracuse’s record coming into the game, Notre Dame will be on alert when it travels to Yankee Stadium to play the Orange on Nov. 17, right between a home contest with Florida State and the season-finale against USC in Los Angeles.

“A lot of the people, a lot of reporters say, ‘4-8, they're a bad team,’” starting quarterback Eric Dungey said from last week’s ACC Kickoff.

“You look at our schedule, I don't see a lot of teams going on our schedule and putting up wins like that. We're in every game, and unfortunately in November I wasn't able to play, but I'm looking forward to this year and going out there and giving it all.”

Prior to a season-ending leg injury that caused Dungey to miss the final three games of 2017, losses to Wake Forest, Louisville and Boston College, none of Syracuse’s five losses came by double-digits, including one-possession defeats at Miami and Florida State.

“We had one possession here and there that could have really changed the outlook of our season,” Dungey added. “It's just learning how to win and playing against the best schools and the best teams.

“You're not going to get better playing against lower competition, so you want to be with the best, you've got to play against the best. I'm looking forward to that, and that's what our schedule has been in the past three years. I think personally it's given us a lot of experience, and for that I'm looking forward to going into the next year.”

One thing every opponent will have to be on alert for is the Orange’s hyper-tempo offense.

“I think Coach will always tell you it's not fast enough, so that's what he's going to tell us,” Dungey said when asked about the pace of an offense that snapped the ball about once every 21 seconds last season.

“That's what he's been harping on us, and for our practices that's what I've been trying to do, I've just been trying to up the tempo even faster because the faster we go, the better it goes.”

In addition to throwing for almost 2,500 yards with 14 touchdowns in nine games, Dungey added just about 600 yards and nine more scores as a runner.

“Running the football is real fun,” Dungey said. “I'm a competitive person, so I want to do what I've got to do to win. But from a gameplan perspective, it's very tough. If you have a dual-threat quarterback, you kind of have to account for another person to watch him, so it kind of limits the pass (defense).

“If you're going to have more people in the pass game, you can run the ball a little easier. If you've got a savvy quarterback who understands coverages and stuff like that, you're always a man up with that.”

Defenses may challenge Dungey to beat them through the air more this season, at least until some of Syracuse’s receivers prove they’re capable of being the threats Steve Ishmael and Ervin Phillips were in 2017. Combined, Ishmael and Phillips caught 194 passes for 2,251 yards last season.

“In my sophomore year, you guys were saying, ‘You lost Amba, so what are you going to do next?’” Dungey said, referring to Amba Etta-Tawo, who caught 94 passes for 1,482 yards in 2016. “And then Steve and Erv stepped up, so people saying the same thing. I'm still waiting to see that.”

Dungey said he’s been encouraged by what he’s seen from potential replacements over the spring and summer.

“A lot of potential in the room, so just waiting for that one guy to step up during our workouts,” he said. “We've got a lot of guys that look good, but still waiting on that guy to be consistently good, not occasionally great as Coach says. That's what I've been looking for.

“We've got some veterans in there, but the young guys is who I'm excited about. They're going to have a major impact whether it's this year or two or three years down the road. They're going to make a lot of noise.”

Dungey said he has his eye on about four or five guys to fill the void.

“Obviously, somebody is going to catch the ball, so we've just got to wait and see who it is.”

He should have that answer long before meeting the Irish in the Bronx in mid-November.