Syracuse Football: Is Eric Dungey A Legitimate Heisman Contender?

The Syracuse football team wasn’t well represented when the college football award watch lists were released. But one SU player made the cut.

It’s that time of year where the hype for college football starts to bubble. With that comes the names that appear on the award watch lists and not surprisingly Syracuse football players weren’t well represented.

One thing you could blame is that the ACC is deeply talented.

"Fun Fact: The Atlantic Coast Conference had 18 players selected to the 2017 Preseason Bednarik Award Watch List, the Maxwell Football Club announced Monday. That is the highest total of any conference, via the official ACC Press Release."

That’s a lot of players, the most by any conference. Despite the ACC producing a ton of players, only one Syracuse player was mentioned on any of these lists. It just happens to be the biggest award in all of college sports, the Heisman trophy.

11 players from the ACC made the cut. Four of those were quarterbacks. Several future first round draft picks appear on the list. Does Eric Dungey belong?

Lets delve in.

In the 21st century, the winner of the Heisman has been a quarterback 14 out of the last 17 years. It’s basically who’s the best quarterback who can put up the gaudiest stats.

Check that one off for the Dungey camp. One thing Dino Babers can do is pad the stats. The official Syracuse hashtag is: Orange Is The New Fast (#OITNF). It’s not just a nice advertising campaign. SU had one of the fastest offenses in the league last year.

Of course even more so when it’s running on all cylinders. Which according to the Babers’ timeline, should be happening in between weeks two through four of this upcoming season.

They’ve got weapons galore, the coaching, and the stage (four huge ACC games against the cream of the crop) to show the Heisman committee why Dungey is worthy of the honor.

An honor, mind you that’s only been accomplished by one individual in a Syracuse uniform. That’s Ernie Davis in that 1961 season becoming the first African American to win the award. Although if you ask some Orange fans, Don McPherson should’ve won the award in 1987 instead of Pro Football Hall of Famer Tim Brown, but I digress.

Tale of the tape

The tape never lies.

Dungey has the mental wherewithal to dominate for a season. He’ll always do whatever it takes for a win, for a game winning drive, and even a first down.

Although the latter has gotten him into trouble during his time in Central New York. Dungey missed three and a half games last year and another four and change the year prior.

He was noticeably bigger last season. Dungey packed on a lot of muscle and really added to his

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frame which is a must at the next level to withstand the punishment of a 16 game season. Although the one area of real concern for Dungey he couldn’t add any muscle too and that’s the neck/head area.

There’s no conditioning, medical equipment, that can really prevent the concussion phenomenon. Regardless of what medical advances we discover and improve on, your brain is still rattling around in your skull.

Due to the college bylaws we don’t truly know how many concussions Dungey has had, but a fair amount appear to have taken place. The reason for bringing this up is because the biggest thing holding back Dungey from becoming the second player in franchise history to hoist the trophy, is himself.

Is Eric Dungey (@EricDungey) A Legitimate @HeismanTrophy Contender? #InsideTheTwitterbag
— InsideTheLoudHouse (@LoudHouseFS) July 12, 2017

He’s played two seasons and hasn’t remained healthy. Odds say he won’t stay healthy this season, but with an improved roster around him, I can see a magical season in the waiting. Later this week we’ll check what our other contributors think of this topic. Make sure you make your opinion loud and clear by voting above!