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Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey enters his sophomore season with a chance to put up big numbers under new coach Dino Babers.

(Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com)

Syracuse, N.Y. — The phone call came 24 hours after Eric Dungey absorbed another shot to the head, the final interlude to a season laced with eye-opening moments that have some people in this college town believing it's bearing witness to its next great quarterback.

Former head coach Scott Shafer and offensive coordinator Tim Lester got on the phone with Eric Dungey's parents and explained to them why their son was being shut down for the remainder of his freshman season with three games to play.

Enough was enough. A day earlier, he suffered his second concussion — albeit one much more mild in nature compared to the brutal hit taken two months earlier — of the season in the closing minutes of a loss at Louisville, and given the toll his body took over the course of the season, it was in everyone's best interest to think about the future.

Dungey will not hide the fact he needs to be more judicious in the open field to help preserve his body, but his approach to this season has little to do with erasing the final image of him lying on the turf at Louisville surrounded by medical staff and more to do with erasing the perception of Syracuse football being a doormat in the ACC.

"Some people," his roommate, Kielan Whitner, said, "view last season as he's super prone to getting injured. But if you look at the shots he took, anyone was going to get injured from those hits."

Dungey flashed enough potential in eight games last season to tantalize the Syracuse football fan base into believing the quarterback's marriage with new coach Dino Babers could eventually result in shattered records and more wins than the program has been accustomed to for close to two decades.

"Dungey," junior wide receiver Steve Ishmael said, "has a chance to be one of the best quarterbacks in college. I truly believe that."

Whether he will attain these goals is unknown, but Dungey has been preparing for the opportunity to prove it ever since he jumped at his only offer to play major college football.

'The entire Pac-12 missed on him'

Eric Dungey throws during a 7-on-7 passing camp in 2014. (Mike Richman | The Oregonian)

Few in suburban Portland will forget the game anytime soon.

You could call it the Thomas Tyner show because the former Oregon running back rushed for a staggering 643 yards and 10 touchdowns in an 84-63 victory against Dungey's high school his sophomore year.

For his part, Dungey accounted for six touchdowns and threw for 362 yards on 21-of-30 passes.

Yet after putting up gaudy numbers as a four-year varsity player, he received no Power Five scholarships offers entering his senior season even after a summer in which he played in a national 7-on-7 tournament in Las Vegas and led his team to a top-20 finish out of about 100 teams.

Myriad reasons are given for why Dungey was under-recruited, including being located in a geographic region not heavily recruited outside of the Pac-12.

Aside from the 7-on-7 tournament, Dungey rarely attended camps or showcase clinics during the summer, opting instead to play multiple sports. He sprained his ankle in a summer league basketball game the day before he was scheduled to attend a camp at Oregon.

He showed incredible athletic ability on his game film, leaping over defenders and showing off adequate arm strength, but sometimes necessary improvisation masked the mechanics quarterback coaches seek in an evaluation. Sometimes, his tape didn't lend itself toward making him look like the most polished drop-back passer.

"The entire Pac-12 missed on him," said Alex Brink, a former quarterback at Washington State who spent time in the NFL and CFL and now trains quarterbacks and assists with Elite 11 events.

Brink and Elvis Akpla, an assistant coach at Dungey's high school during the quarterback's time there, were two of his biggest mentors prior to his arrival at Syracuse.

Akpla showed Dungey a packet picked up at a Philadelphia Eagles training camp that outlined numerous defensive fronts and coverages used at the highest levels of football. Brink worked hard with Dungey to identify pre- and post-snap reads.

Their mission was to construct a quarterback who understood the nuances of the position to match exceptional athletic gifts that enable him to leap over an NFL-ready safety and a work ethic partly driven by his older brother serving in the military overseas.

In high school, Dungey ran gassers with his receivers at the end of practice, even though their drops that led to the extra sprints weren't his fault.

And, nobody remembers him missing a game.

'That was pretty brutal'

Eric Dungey gets attention after suffering a big hit against Central Michigan on Saturday September 19th 2015 at the Carrier Dome. Coach Shafer checks on his injured quarterback. (Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com)

The hit that first disrupted Dungey's development was the worst of his life, and no amount of game experience or recognition of when to live to fight another down could prevent the force by which Central Michigan defensive lineman Mitch Stanitzek delivered on Dungey.

"That," said Eric's father, Tim, "was pretty brutal."

Dungey spent more than 24 hours with his mom in a hotel room at the Genesee Grande after leaving the Central Michigan game. He followed doctors' advice and cut back use of his phone, television and computer to aid in recovery.

"Your mind just wanders," Dungey said. "I hated it. I always have to be doing something, so doing nothing was just weird. Never in my life have I not done anything for 24 hours."

The hit left Dungey with more than a concussion, though his father declined to elaborate.

Six games later at Louisville, Dungey took the shot to the head that ended his season.

Dungey and his parents had no issue with him remaining in that game trailing by 31 points late in the fourth quarter.

"You can't make decisions on trying to develop a player on fear and develop them only when he's not going to get hurt," Lester said. "There's no such thing once you step across that line."

What bothered the Dungeys were inaccurate comments about Dungey's playing status in the event of another concussion. Syracuse University has no rule disqualifying a player after three concussions. It has a policy saying it's possible.

There were subtle moments of growth last season that show Dungey tried to limit his exposure to big hits. Lester saw Dungey's foot plant into the ground at Florida State, preparing to launch himself into the air to re-create the sensational play at Virginia. In a split second, his muscle memory diverted to a harmless slide.

And, understand we're talking about a 20-year-old adrenaline junkie who records a video of him doing a back-flip off a cliff before splashing into the water down in Ithaca a week before fall camp starts.

A thrill seeker who desperately wants to do anything to help his team win, Dungey wasn't afraid to test boundaries last season.

"He's trying to figure himself out as a freshman in the ACC against athletes he never understood," Akpla said. "I think there was experimenting to see what he could and couldn't get away with and understand you can't run over these guys."

Dungey acknowledges he was too small to take some of the chances he did last season. He has since added more than 15 pounds of muscle, which should help absorb some the game-to-game bumps and bruises that inflict any player.

Why he decided to bulk up had little to do with last season, though. Remember, the plan last year was to sit behind Terrel Hunt and the spend the first year filling out his 6-foot-4 frame.

He's only now approaching his optimal size for his frame.

'The best is yet to come'

Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey is watched by quarterbacks coach Sean Lewis during preseason practice. (Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com)

The question was lost on Eric during a recent trip back home to Oregon.

"What are your plans for Christmas?" his father asked him.

"Dad, I'm hoping we're going to be in a bowl game."

Dungey will almost certainly be a significant piece to that quest.

Brink believes Dungey will get the ball out quicker in Babers' offense and find completions instead of having to rely on his mobility in scrambling situations.

But there will likely be times when Dungey finds himself alone in the open field. Being judicious about when to try to pick up the extra yardage comes with maturity, Brink said.

"There's more growth in him as a quarterback," Brink said. "He has more in him."

Said Akpla: "I think the best is yet to come. He was really raw and is starting to understand how to play the game at a really high level."

He is now in an offense with a track record for putting up the kinds of numbers he put up in high school. It's too soon to compare the sophomore with some of the other NFL quarterback talent Babers has been around.

Mastering the offense, which Babers says takes time, is a prerequisite to drawing such lofty comparisons.

Dungey, though, could care less about that.

"He is not thinking about measuring up to other quarterbacks," Eric's father said.

"He wants to win, and to win it's not the quarterback. It's you have to have 85 guys and they have to be synchronized. He's not a me guy.

"He wants to prove Syracuse has its football program back and shouldn't be chosen bottom of the pack but toward the top of the pack."