It appears things are closer than we thought in the quarterback room between Syracuse football stars Eric Dungey and Tommy DeVito. ITLH breaks it down.
There’s no doubt that the Syracuse football quarterback room is healthier than it has been in a long time. Not simply ‘health’ wise, but more so the state of the position.
Eric Dungey is a senior and when healthy is one of the top quarterbacks in the conference. The young buck Tommy DeVito is the future of the Orange. While they have a slew of other guys in the mix like Chance Amie and Rex Culpepper.
But heading into the Syracuse Football Spring Preview, the roles seemed to be defined on this team. Dungey was the present and DeVito was the future, or so we thought. In a recent radio interview Dino Babers revealed maybe the gap isn’t as large as you would’ve thought:
"“I think he really closed ground having so many opportunities to work with the No. 1 offense, to work with the No. 1 wide receivers,” Babers said via Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com. “And that development is going to pay off.”"
This is a bit of a shocker because in the past Babers has been pretty tight lipped when it comes to things like this. But for some reason Babers felt tempted to bait the bear. So now this leaves endless amounts of speculation. What does this mean? Is Dungey’s health status in question? Has DeVito taken advantage of more opportunities? What does this mean for 2018?
So many questions, yet so few answers. What I can tell you from what I saw, there is a clear divide between DeVito and Dungey. DeVito showed great accuracy on short and intermediate routes, but when he went deep, he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.
While we didn’t get to see Dungey in action due to his rehab from offseason foot surgery, we’ve already seen what Dungey can do when he’s healthy. If both players are healthy, there’s no question in my mind who should be leading the Orange out of the tunnel next year.
If you’d like to get some more inside information from the Spring Preview, I spoke with former SU football star Julian Whigham on ‘Drive Time Sports’ on The Score 1260 to talk quarterbacks, who impressed, and more:
DeVito did show a lot of promise. He looked great in the RPOs (run, pass, option) where he showed some nice touch with passes, great footwork getting inside and outside the pocket, albeit against scripted plays.
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My best guess is Babers is doing this to keep both men ultra motivated. There are three kinds of coaches in football: strategists, motivators, and team builders (well at least according to the EA Sports Madden video game). Babers is a motivator, you can see that in the pep speeches and the fiery passion on the sideline. Competition is good for everyone and it’s a huge positive to see Dungey and DeVito battling each other so vigorously.