Terrel Hunt only spoke at every other media opportunity during the preseason. He was the face of a program turnaround that would’ve been swamped every day to shed light on his, and Syracuse’s, quest for redemption. Seven minutes and 27 seconds into that quest, a torn Achilles ended his season before it even began.

Since then, the fate of Syracuse’s offense has rested mainly in the hands of a freshman often critiqued by coaches for taking too many hits on the run, with a game and a half belonging to a walk-on and eight passing attempts to a third-stringer.

Add in a medically disqualified sophomore who started five games last year and SU’s quarterbacking corps has taken as many hits as Eric Dungey out of the pocket. Hunt. Dungey. Zack Mahoney. Austin Wilson. AJ Long. Quarterback-turned-wide receiver-turned-cornerback-turned-emergency quarterback Kenterius Womack is currently third in line.

Now, Dungey is out after another hit to the head. Syracuse is 3-6 with three games remaining and it’s up to Mahoney, the walk-on from the College of DuPage whose only other start came against LSU, to salvage SU’s realistic bowl hopes against No. 1 Clemson this Saturday.

“Have I ever been around a situation where a walk-on gets to start against two high-caliber teams like LSU and Clemson?” SU head coach Scott Shafer said Thursday, referring to a question he got earlier in the week, “and I was like ‘… nope, haven’t seen that.’”

Here’s how that came to be, with a look at the evolution of Syracuse’s quarterback situation this year.

Preseason: After fracturing his fibula on Oct. 3, 2014 against Louisville, Hunt is primed to make up for a lost year. He’s grown more comfortable in a leadership role and held himself and his teammates more accountable in the offseason.

“I really don’t care what anybody says. The media can write what they write. The fans can say what they say,” Hunt said before the season. “But my teammates believe in me. And they know that I believe in them. It really doesn’t matter what’s being said. I feel like I got way better. I got smarter.”

Week 1: Hunt tears his Achilles doing what he wanted to prove he could do more of, escaping the pocket. Dungey replaces him in the first quarter against Rhode Island and the freshman throws for two scores before Wilson takes over in the third quarter of a 47-0 SU win.

“We really didn’t anticipate or want to throw him to the wolves like this so quick,” Shafer said after the game. “But God love him … I liked his reads, he was on the right side of the field with a lot of his preparation.”

Week 3: After Dungey throws for 221 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 2 win against Wake Forest, he leaves in the second quarter of SU’s Week 3 win against Central Michigan after taking a hit to the head. Wilson and Mahoney share snaps and the latter eventually guides the Orange to an overtime win.

“I saw him get hit, the helmet-to-helmet thing, and you know it’s unfortunate,” offensive coordinator Tim Lester said after the game. “He laid down for a minute and he started getting up and I got excited. But he’s safe and he seems to be doing good.”

Week 4: Then-No. 8 LSU only beats Syracuse by 10 and Dungey doesn’t play. After a shoddy first half, Mahoney throws for three touchdowns in the second but likely sees his last meaningful snaps for the foreseeable future. Syracuse has a bye week and Dungey looks good to return against South Florida.

“He threw for three touchdowns,” Shafer said after the win. “That’s not too damn bad for a young man that we were just figuring out his name here a few months ago.”

Week 5: Long is medically disqualified after suffering multiple concussions at SU. In an interview with The Daily Orange, he says Shafer told him to be ready to play against LSU. Long was participating in practice after recovering from a hand injury, but a concussion suffered the Wednesday before playing the Bulls further thins SU’s QB situation.

Week 6: Syracuse loses to one-win Virginia in triple overtime after falling to one-win USF the week before. The highlight of the game comes right before halftime when Dungey hurdles All-American safety Quin Blanding before being leveled in the head and spinning into the end zone. Despite coaches’ instructions to slide more or throw the ball away on the run, Dungey doesn’t oblige.

“They want me sliding and not taking any shots,” Dungey said after the game. “It’s not really in my nature.”

Week 8: A blowout loss to Florida State follows a game decided on the last play against Pittsburgh. Syracuse loses but the talk again centers around Dungey’s head. He takes a hit in the third quarter and lies motionless on the ground for several seconds. Trainer Denny Kellington has to restrain Dungey from going back on the field but the freshman eventually finishes out the 23-20 loss.

“Obviously, we are hypersensitive to our guys getting hit and not getting up,” Shafer said after the game. “He popped right up and wanted to go right back in, but our medical staff did a nice job.”

Now: Dungey is out after suffering yet another hit to the head in a 41-17 loss to Louisville last Saturday. He was knocked out of the game with 4:21 remaining and the Orange down 31, but Shafer thought Dungey could jumpstart a comeback. Mahoney has looked good in practice, coaches say, and is less nervous than the week leading up to LSU.

“He knows who he is and he knows who he isn’t,” Shafer said of Mahoney.

Mahoney is a quarterback also held back from the media, this time to gain a competitive advantage against the country’s best team. Who he isn’t is the one Syracuse expected to try and save its season.

Matt Schneidman is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at [email protected] or @matt_schneidman.

Published on November 12, 2015 at 7:39 pm