Syracuse, N.Y. -- Eric Dungey, as he does after every home game, greeted fans near a back exit of the Carrier Dome, posing for pictures and signing autographs with other teammates while parents and friends waited until the last ones were accommodated.

He often stays so late he misses the bus back to Manley Field House, and on this October afternoon, when Syracuse football's senior starting quarterback was benched in the final minutes of a double-overtime victory against North Carolina, when even he didn't know what the next week would bring, he stayed, signed and smiled.

Then, he and his mother walked to her car.

***

Cindy Dungey views her postgame role to be like any mom's, making sure her son has enough toothpaste, maybe a shirt needs ironing. The post-mortem football talk is reserved for Dungey's father.

She searched for the right words during the car ride to Manley. But what does a mother tell her son in that moment?

"He takes things in," she said. "He absorbs things. If anything, he might have been a little more pensive than normal. As a mom, I didn't really know what to say because, frankly, I thought he played a decent game."

More than anything, Dungey was happy Syracuse won. It was the fifth victory in this breakthrough season that has given the Lake Oswego, Ore., native just about everything he has wanted in his final season. In that moment he didn't know what would come next, but he did know the week ahead provided an opportunity to fight through the lowest point in his season, to feel better, to keep winning football games, to maybe put Syracuse in the national rankings and, now, as the No. 13 Orange (7-2, 4-2 ACC) prepares to host Louisville on Senior Day, walk out of the Carrier Dome for a final time knowing he was an integral piece to a group that got people excited about Syracuse football again.

When he got out of his mother's car, a family with two little girls dressed in Orange cheerleader outfits spied him in the parking lot and yelled out.

"Eric! Eric! Can we get a picture?"

He stopped, turned around, knelt and smiled. He chatted up another young man with special needs before climbing into his car and driving home.

That night, Dungey went out to dinner with his mother, grandparents and step-aunt. Most of his days in season, he is bombarded with football talk. It follows him around campus and often with casual acquaintances, making it a rare topic of conversation around family and in his apartment with his roommates, who prefer to watch movies, do homework and shoot the bull over whatever grabs their attention.

Since the end of the North Carolina game, media and fan chatter drilled at a singular topic: Who would start at quarterback?

The next night, Dungey and his sister FaceTimed like they do every Sunday.

"Just lock in this week," Emma told her brother, "and go to work."

***

Cindy found her seat in the corner of the lower bowl a week later, right in front of where her son briefly knelt and prayed in a quiet moment before the North Carolina State game.

She sat in Section 128 not knowing who would start at quarterback, wondering, of all things, if her son would be booed by the home fans if he started over Tommy DeVito.

After accounting for nearly 450 yards of offense and four touchdowns, Dungey greeted fans near a back exit of the Carrier Dome, posing for pictures and signing autographs.

Then, he and his mother walked to her car.

She dropped him off at Manley. He celebrated the victory with friends as she drove back to her hotel.

The next day, she fired off a 186-word text message capped with a unicorn and heart emoji.

"I wanted to tell you how very proud I am of you. And it's not about how you played, that you won, that you broke more records, that you sealed bowl eligibility, or that that win got the team ranked for the first time in a gabillion years.

"I am most proud of how you handled yourself from the minute you got pulled and until this very minute. You are humble and gracious and respectful and kind -- even during what must have been a very difficult time for you. God knows it was for me. But only because I, as your mom, feel things that affect you and your brother and sister in a way you will only understand when you have kids.

"Your poise and grace under pressure was truly inspired. Your praise of DeVito and your acknowledgement of your responsibility was mature and showed the type of grace and goodness that you have always, always possessed. I love you and believe you are capable of anything you put your heart and mind to. Keep being who you are ... and doing what you do."

"People who text me after I have a good game, I really don't care for everybody," Dungey said in a quiet moment earlier this week.

"The only people who text me after a bad game are my family, my close friends, and that means more than anything because people are always going to be with you when you're up, but the real ones are with you when you're down."

As has too often been the case for Dungey over his four years here, it's never easy. He has battled through injuries and coaching upheaval. He found himself in the middle of a senior season in which he would set more school records having to prove to his head coach he should keep his starting job - a coach who this week said Dungey was one of the reasons he came to Syracuse three years ago.

When Dungey FaceTimed with Emma on Sunday ahead of his final home game, she brought up the looming matchup with Notre Dame.

"I'm not even thinking about that," he told her, a precursor for what he told reporters two days later. "Louisville is a good team, and everybody is saying that they're not."

He knows what's at stake Friday night against the Cardinals, how a victory to preserve an unblemished home record this season sets the stage for a massive showdown against the Irish with major bowl implications.

But he also knows, win or lose, he'll have the entire Dungey clan, some who will travel from Portland, from Denver, from Bozeman and Missoula, Mont., waiting for him after the game near a back exit of the Carrier Dome.

And then, more than likely, he and his mother will walk to her car.

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