KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Eric Dungey wanted to go back in the game. The senior quarterback told SU head coach Dino Babers as much on the sidelines. Freshman Tommy DeVito checked in with a 24 point lead, but it dwindled to six. Babers held on as long as he could.

“I wanted to see if we could battle out of that deficit without (Dungey),” Babers said. “We didn’t get that done so we put him back in.”

When Dungey wasn’t in the offense, Syracuse gained a net total of 78 yards on 23 plays. When he was, they gained 482. When Dungey was on the field the team scored 55 points. When he was on the sidelines it didn’t score a point.

During a 55-42 win over Western Michigan at Waldo Stadium on Friday night, Syracuse’s offense went as Dungey went.

Dungey didn’t reach 10 completions and it didn’t matter. His work came on the ground to the tune of 200 rushing yards, two touchdowns and a program record for most rushing yards in a single game by an SU quarterback. For the quarterback who’s always said he’d run less, Dungey’s running Friday kept SU ahead.

“I love to win,” Dungey said. “I want to do everything I can do to win. And once it started to get close, I was in Babers ears. He was probably getting annoyed with me but I really wanted to get back in there.”

Dungey’s first rush came via a fake jet sweep where he pulled the ball from the man in motion and dashed up the middle for a 14-yard gain. On the next play, he sat in the pocket and dropped a 27-yard pass to Jamal Custis for a score. After an Andre Cisco interception awarded Syracuse the ball at the WMU 30, Dungey ran up the middle before bursting up the sideline nearly untouched for 18 yards. The Orange finished that drive with a field goal and scored 24 more points before Dungey took his break.

In the last two Novembers, Syracuse has gone winless and Dungey hasn’t played a full game. The offense at times looked stagnant during those November games and was held to 20 points or fewer five times in eight games. In all of those games, the defense allowed 27 points or more.

With Dungey on the sideline against WMU, Syracuse reverted back to the team it’s been in years past. The defense collapsed. It allowed 21 unanswered points and 336 yards in the third quarter.

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“Dungey carries a lot of weight and people have to play him differently than everyone else,” Babers said. “He’s got too much experience. He’s hard to get fooled on coverages. He’s hard to get fooled on blitzes.”

When Dungey came back in, things flipped once more. On the run that broke SU’s program record, he went to pull up a WMU defender but tripped and fell on him instead. He said postgame that it was an accident and “looked a lot worse than it really was.” Nonetheless, it resulted in a skirmish. Both teams exchanged blows and SU offensive linemen Evan Adams as well as WMU’s Drake Spears were ejected.

Seven plays later, Dungey found Custis in the left side flat. The redshirt senior wide receiver snagged the ball with one hand and sidestepped his defender. As he finished his 21-yard touchdown catch, Dungey looked toward the Western Michigan bench and made money signs with his fingers, a move formerly made famous by 2012 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

“Yeah you know that’s competition,” Dungey said. “It’s the most fun. It’s college football you know, game was on the line, it was game time.”

Published on August 31, 2018 at 10:22 pm

Contact Josh: jlschafe@syr.edu | @Schafer_44