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Syracuse doesn’t have a quarterback controversy. 

A controversy would imply SU has to decide between two opposed options, but that’s not the case. The Orange’s options include a redshirt senior who’s proven only to have a propensity for mistakes and a lack of throwing power and a completely unproven freshman. 

It’s not a controversy when both options back you into a corner. There’s no real tension, no real stakes. Pick your poison.

The Orange have nothing to lose. At 1-6, SU can’t put together a winning season, even with a turnaround for the ages. Two new coordinators, no spring practice, a plethora of injuries and several opt-outs sunk SU before the season really got going. 

Head coach Dino Babers and his players can say they want to run the table all they want, but SU needs to start turning its eyes to 2021 and beyond. That starts at the quarterback position, where it’s time to see what freshman JaCobian Morgan can do.  

Babers said after Saturday’s 38-14 home loss to Wake Forest that a decision at quarterback will come “down the road,” indicating Rex Culpepper will likely remain the starter. He replaced injured quarterback Tommy DeVito during the Duke game on Oct. 10 and has largely disappointed since. In three starts, all Syracuse losses, Culpepper has completed just 47.3% of his passes for 157 yards per game, five touchdowns and eight turnovers.

“You have to look at every position,” Babers said. “With a handful of games left, the one thing I’m going to do is try to play for a winning season. The best way to have a winning season is to have as many upperclassmen as you can. Those guys care more about winning than anyone else.”

For Culpepper, the sample size is significant enough and the evaluation is clear. How many more times does Culpepper need to throw a hanging duck on an out route that gets jumped by a defensive back before it’s clear he doesn’t have the arm strength? How many more times can he stare down receivers over the middle, leading them to get blown up by a linebacker? 

In three games with Culpepper as the starter, Syracuse has played two-and-a-half competitive quarters. All those competitive downs came against No. 1 Clemson. Culpepper’s inefficiency has hurt an SU offense scrambling for a steady arm.  

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It’s not totally his fault. The lack of spring ball, plus taking second or third-team reps for the majority of his SU career, has likely made it extremely difficult to get on the same page as his receivers. But he’s just not the answer for this team, in this season from hell. 

Morgan, meanwhile, got his first real action with about seven minutes remaining against Wake Forest. He engineered a 80-yard touchdown drive, going 7-for-7 for 57 yards and nearly tripling Culpepper’s second half total (21 passing yards).

On one play, Morgan ducked to his left out of the pocket, set his feet and found Ed Hendrix open for a 31-yard gain. Still, Babers said postgame not to put too much stock into that drive. WF was playing prevent defense, which allowed Morgan to find open receivers underneath. 

“Those guys are giving him those throws,” Babers said. “Pretty sure he didn’t get blitzed, that’s like throwing 7-on-7, not a real football game.” 

But Morgan took what the defense gave him, exactly what he’s supposed to do in that situation. Babers said Syracuse has to pare down the playbook with Morgan under center, and a more limited playbook lowers the offense’s ceiling.

“I’m pretty sure he didn’t face a blitz, face an overload, he didn’t have a check,” Babers said.

Well, let Morgan face a blitz. Let him try to read a defense. If he can’t do it, that’s OK. Let him make mistakes, because mistakes from Culpepper now do nothing but deflate SU. Morgan can learn from them.

The 6-foot-4, 200-pound 3-star from Canton, Mississippi wasn’t a highly touted recruit, and he might not be Syracuse’s long-term answer. But he certainly has more of a chance of becoming a contributor in the QB room than the 23-year-old Culpepper. 

Regardless of Morgan’s viability as a starter, all the available evidence suggests he and Culpepper are far from opposites in ability. Starting Morgan isn’t controversial. It might be the Orange’s only move to compete now and see what’s in store for the future.

Danny Emerman is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @DannyEmerman.

Published on October 31, 2020 at 8:01 pm