Syracuse football has always been known for its’ running backs. However, there have been many noteworthy QBs that have also worn the Orange and Blue. ITLH counts down the Top 10 QBs in Syracuse football history.
Syracuse Football has had a storied history. The Cuse has won a National Championship, had a Heisman winner, and has been the college for eight Pro Football Hall of Famers (with more on the way). While the Cuse has been known for its’ running backs over the years (Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Larry Csonka), it has had great players at practically every position. We decided to rank the Top 10 quarterbacks to ever play for Syracuse Football.
Multiple things were taken into account when grading these QBs. First and foremost were the statistical components. Passing yards, touchdowns, and completion percentage were key. Rushing yards were an added bonus. After that, was how well the QB performed. This could be anything from amount of wins while at Cuse, bowl game record, and wins over quality teams. Finally, if the QB was fortunate enough to play at the next level, NFL success was counted.
After looking at these components, we were able to knock it down to 10 guys. Of course, there could have been many more, but these were the 10 QBs that we thought had the biggest impact on Syracuse Football in more ways than one.
Lastly, we hope you enjoy. Let us know what Cuse QBs you thought got left out and how you thought the rankings should have been.
It’s a shame that Hunt had injury problems, because he was a very solid QB for the Orange. Hunt’s career stats won’t blow you away. He passed for a little over 2,500 yards with 11 touchdowns and 13 picks in 19 games. However, it’s the fact that he was a dangerous dual threat that puts Hunt on this list. He rushed for almost 800 yards for an average of 5.0 per carry, reaching the end zone 13 times.
Hunt also gets points for being the last Cuse QB to get the Orange to a bowl game. It was also Hunt’s only full season, as he only played in six games in 2014 and one game in 2015. However, Hunt showed a winning formula in 2013, as Cuse finished 7-6 (4-4) with a bowl game win against Minnesota.
If Hunt had never gotten injured to end his career, he may have led Cuse to a few more bowl games, as he showed potential late in the 2013 season. With a trip to a bowl game on the line in 2013, Hunt completely balled out to take down rival BC. Hunt threw for 270 yards and 2 touchdowns along with 90 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Hunt sealed it with a game-winning two minute drill game winning drive, throwing the game winning touchdown to Josh Parris with six seconds left.
Sadly, Hunt never got drafted, so we can only imagine if he would have translated into an NFL QB. However, with only one full season, he did enough to make this top 10 list, which shows the capability he truly had.
Bill Hurley needs to be on this list. Although he really only had two full seasons with the Orange, Hurley threw for a lot of yards and helped the Orange win 13 games and one bowl game in those years.
Stat wise, the numbers won’t jump out. Hurley actually only had a career passing percentage of 49.0%, which wouldn’t be enough to be drafted if there were 20 rounds. However, he had a big arm, passing for a few yards short of 3,400 along with 17 touchdowns.
What really puts Hurley on this list is the fact that he was a dual threat quarterback, and did it well. In fact, Hurley was mainly a running back his freshman year, but translated to a QB for the remainder of his career. While at the Cuse, Hurley rushed for over 2,550 yards and 19 touchdowns. Hurley was both a gunslinger and a solid rusher.
Bill got drafted by the Steelers in the 4th round of the 1980 NFL Draft. However, at 5-11, and inaccurate, he was forced to transfer positions. He never made a huge impact at the NFL level, but can brag about one career reception as well as an interception.
R.J. Anderson played for the Orange from 2000-2003. Again, a dual threat QB, Anderson was more known for his passing, in particular his senior season.
Anderson’s career stats show what type of player he was. In four years at Syracuse, R.J. threw for close to 5,000 yards and 21 touchdowns. R.J. did have accuracy problems however, with 23 career INT’s. He also ran for almost 650 yards and had 13 rushing TD’s.
He wasn’t the full time starter until his senior season, but in 2001, Anderson came in as the backup in the Insight Bowl, and played very well, throwing a long touchdown. To this date, that is the last time Cuse has had double-digit wins.
It was Anderson’s senior season that really puts him at 8th on this list. Playing in all 12 games, he led the Orange to a 6-6 record, just missing a bowl game. However, his stats were out of this world. Anderson had a completion percentage of 60.0%, threw for a little over 2,000 yards and 10 TD’s. On the ground, R.J. scrambled for over 250 yards and 5 touchdowns.
To me, it was the fact that Anderson grew immensely over time that puts him at 8th. He played phenomenal in all four years, but really showed his worth in his senior season. In addition to his collegiate stats, Anderson helped lead Cuse to a 26-22 overall record, often serving as a key backup QB.
Although Perry only led the Orange to one bowl game, as he played his final two seasons in the Greg Robinson era, he did have tremendous stats each year.
His sophomore season was easily his best. Patterson threw for just under 2,000 yards had 7 touchdowns along with about 150 rushing yards for 3 more touchdowns. He also led the Orange to a bowl game, after he threw for 88 yards and rushed for 48 more in a Cuse upset over then ranked 17th Boston College.
His junior and senior seasons may have been a different story if Greg Robinson never took over. Sadly, Perry never truly developed, and only won five games over the next two seasons.
Perry’s career stats do point to a QB that with some work, could have been an even bigger force. In his three complete seasons, he threw for over 5,000 yards, 25 touchdowns and a passer rating over 100. He also rushed for seven touchdowns, but was never really known for his speed.
It may be giving Perry a benefit for the doubt, but I truly believe that with better coaching, he easily would have surpassed 6,000 yards and threw for over 30 touchdowns. We never really got to see the truly Perry, but he easily earned a top 10 spot in Cuse QB history.
Troy Nunes is one of the most respected QBs in Syracuse history. Playing from 1999-2002, Nunes had a good completion percentage at just under 60%. He also threw for over 4,500 yards and had 32 touchdowns through the air. His passer rating was also well above 100.0.
Nunes wasn’t regarded as a running quarterback, however he did have some success on the ground. In his career, he ran for just over 300 yards and scored 6 times.
What puts Nunes at 6th isn’t his eye popping stats, but his steadiness. He always came to play and could be counted on to perform at a level that would put Syracuse in a good position to come out on top.
Late in the 2002 season, Nunes showed how good of a quarterback he could be. In a triple overtime upset over 8th ranked Virginia Tech, Nunes threw for over 400 yards. This type of performance didn’t come often, but does show the kind of player that Nunes was capable of being.
With just a bit more speed, Nunes could have been a very good dual threat QB. Unfortunately, he never developed that part of his game, and just wasn’t a good enough of a pocket passer to really become a force. With all that being said, QBs like Nunes don’t come around often.
Ahh, someone the young Orange fans will know. Yes, Dungey deserves to be 5th, and if you disagree, you may not really know too much about football. In fact, if Dungey continues to perform at a high level, he could potentially go even higher on this list.
Perhaps it is the new wave of passing the ball combined with Dino Babers’ offense, but Eric Dungey’s stats are really, really, really good.
In 26 career games, Dungey has passed for 40 touchdowns, has only half as many interceptions, and has thrown for almost 6,500 yards. On the ground, Dungey has ran, slid, and leapt for over 1,000 yards and has scored 20 touchdowns.
Last season against No. 2 Clemson, Dungey performed at such a high rate that Cuse came home with the improbable upset victory. Eric passed for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns and rushed for another 61 yards, for the win of the century for the Orange.
I truly believe that we need to appreciate Dungey more. Yes, he hasn’t really led us to many wins, but I wouldn’t say it’s even close to his fault. He has had to endure a coaching change that completely changed the offense, and has thrived with no complaints.
Dungey has been known to be injury prone, which may have hurt his ranking a bit. With more wins to the resume, he could easily make a case for top 3, because he does lack those. However, barring a successful 2018-19 season, Dungey should surpass 50 passing touchdowns, 25 rushing touchdowns, and MAYBE (with a Heisman type season), 10,000 career passing yards. No matter what, Dungey deserves to be here easily.
Marvin Graves made this list easily. A four year starter at the Cuse, Graves led the Orange to multiple bowl game wins, including a Fiesta Bowl dub in 1992.
He could pass the ball with the best of them, and when called upon could pick up a few yards if needed. Graves led the Orange to well over 25 wins at QB, including multiple 10 win seasons, which highlight his ability to take control of the game.
Graves had stellar career stats while playing for the Orange. In his four years, Marvin passed for about 8,500 yards, and came up a few short of 50 touchdowns. He surpassed the 2,000 yard mark in two seasons, as well as the 10 TD mark in three seasons. Graves’ passer rating was close to 150 and his average yards per attempt were close to 10. In short, Graves wasn’t afraid to use his arm, and had to accuracy to be confident about it.
What really set Graves apart was his leadership. Four year starters are very hard to find nowadays, especially at QB. However, Graves was just that. He took control to put Cuse on top multiple times. He could easily be the best quarterback of all time at many colleges.
Ryan Nassib is the most complete quarterback to play for Syracuse Football in recent memory. He could pass with the best of them, and won a good amount of football games. We need more QBs like Ryan.
Nassib did play in all four seasons while at Syracuse, but almost 100% of his stats are from his sophomore through senior seasons. He threw for a little over 9,000 career yards, found the end zone an incredible 70 times, and completed about 60% of his passes. His passer rating was above 125 and he only threw 28 interceptions.
Nassib was the primary starter from 2010-2012, where he led the Orange to a compiled record of 21-17. Along the way he took home two pinstripe wins.
Nassib also had a capability of showing up big time against big time opponents.
As a sophomore, Nassib led the Cuse to an upset over 20th ranked West Virginia. In the Pinstripe Bowl, the first Syracuse bowl appearance since 2004, Nassib threw for over 200 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Orange over Kansas State.
The Orange missed out on bowl eligibility in 2011, but Nassib again upset West Virginia and Geno Smith, this time with the Mountaineers ranked 15th. Ryan only threw eight incomplete passes and threw for 4 touchdowns in the blow out win.
Finally, in 2012, Nassib dueled with Teddy Bridgewater and 9th ranked Louisville, with Cuse coming out on top, 45-26. Nassib passed for close to 250 yards and 3 touchdowns in the win. The Orange also defeated West Virginia handily in the Pinstripe Bowl, good for Nassib’s third career win over Geno Smith.
His strong arm got him drafted by the New York Giants, but since then Nassib has bounced around, signing with the Saints and most recently the Jags. He does have career NFL stats of 128 passing yards, serving as backup late in the game for Eli Manning on two different occasions. Overall, Nassib was one of the best quarterbacks in Syracuse Football history.
Don McPherson finished 2nd in Heisman voting and (in our hearts) led Cuse to an undefeated season. Enough said.
Actually, we have more to say about McPherson. He had an incredible career, as McPherson was the primary QB for the Cuse from 1985-1987. He led the Orange in passing in each of those years and rushing from 1985-1986.
Don’s career stats were extremely solid. He passed for just short of 6,000 yards, rocketed 46 touchdowns, and had a career passer rating of almost 140. He also surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards and came up just short of 20 career scores on the ground.
Wow…
McPherson’s senior season is what easily puts him this high on the list. He led the Orange to a record of 11-0-1, ultimately tying with Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. McPherson also came up just short of becoming the 2nd player in Syracuse history to win the Heisman, as Tim Brown took it home.
His 1987 stats show why McPherson almost won the Heisman and got Cuse their second chip. That season alone he passed for almost 2,500 yards and over 20 touchdowns. His completion percentage was shy of 60%, but he averaged over 10 yards per completion. On the ground, McPherson scrambled for 230 yards and 5 TDs. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Unfortunately, McPherson never amounted to much in the NFL. However, he will forever be a college legend, and that is good enough for me.
Donovan McNabb was the easy choice for the best Syracuse Football quarterback of all time.
For starters, McNabb was a winner. A four year starter at the Cuse, he compiled an all-time record of 35-14 while playing for the Orange. This included trips to the Fiesta and Orange bowls, which unfortunately Cuse came up short in both. Finally, while at QB, McNabb’s Orange never finished worse than 2nd place in the Big East, won the conference outright twice, and tied for 1st place once. Lastly, each year SU finished the season ranked in the top 25.
Donovan’s career stats at the Cuse were also extremely impressive. He passed for over 8,000 yards and rushed for over 1,500. McNabb also threw 77 touchdowns and rushed for 19. His passer rating was great, above 150. His senior season stats were good enough to place McNabb 5th in Heisman voting.
McNabb is 1st overall on this list for another reason: his NFL success.
Drafted 2nd overall by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1998 NFL Draft, Donovan enjoyed a ton of success in his pro career. He played 13 total seasons, 11 of them with Philly. Over the course of his career, McNabb passed for almost 40,000 yards, as well over 200 passing touchdowns. Both of these are career-bests for the Eagles. He could be inaccurate at times, with a completion percentage just below 60%, but barely threw for over 100 interceptions, throwing less than 10 in seven different seasons.
McNabb also used his speed to his ability in the NFL. He rushed for just short of 3,500 career yards and 29 touchdowns, most of these numbers coming in the early stages of his career.
McNabb was also noted as a winner in the NFL. While in Philly, he led the Eagles to over 100 wins in 11 seasons, as well as 5 Conference Championship appearances, and one trip to the Super Bowl. McNabb’s No. 5 has been retired for the Eagles.
Next: Syracuse Football: Ranking every SU first round pick in NFL Draft history
McNabb’s stellar College and NFL careers and his ability to win are what put him in first place on this list. I think we can all agree that it’s hard to find QBs like him.