As we sit less than two weeks from the Syracuse Football opener against Central Connecticut State, it’s time to preview the Orange football season. Let’s start with the quarterback.

Quarterback hinges on Eric Dungey’s health. If Eric Dungey is healthy, and plays all 12 games, then a bowl game is certainly within reach. We saw as much last year when the Orange sat at 4-4, with an upset with over Virginia Tech, before Dungey missed the last four games of the year. It’s not exactly a stretch to say that Syracuse likely would have made a bowl game last year had Dungey been healthy enough to play (*cough* NC State *cough*).

Dungey has said a number of times during camp that he felt most comfortable in the last full game he played, a 28-20 win at BC. Dungey completed 84% of his passes, threw for over 430 yards, 3 touchdowns and was the team’s leading rusher. OK, maybe that last part isn’t so good. Just as important about that game, and Dungey has pointed this out, four receivers caught more than five balls and all four went for more than 75 yards.

If Dungey can build off that performance, with another offseason in this Dino Babers system, the offense will fly at a much faster pace than last year.

Now, we cannot write about the SU quarterbacks without remembering something very important: Eric Dungey has not finished a season healthy, and Syracuse has not had one quarterback take every meaningful snap since Ryan Nassib in 2012. Since Nassib graduated we’ve seen a parade of quarterbacks along the Carrier Dome turf. Drew Allen, Terrell Hunt, Austin Wilson, Mitch Kimble, Eric Dungey, Zach Mahoney, AJ Long. All of them have thrown 19 passes or more since the start of the 2013 season.

Mahoney in particular has become important since transferring to SU two years ago, quickly moving past Austin Wilson on the depth chart and jumping to the #2 QB. Sure, Mahoney led the Orange in close games in the Dome against LSU and Clemson, and played incredibly well in that shootout at Pitt last year, But it would be foolish to point to three games and say there isn’t a drop off between Eric Dungey and Zach Mahoney. There is. And it is a pretty stark drop off.

The shiny object in the background in Tommy DeVito. Will he play? How early would Dungey have to get hurt for it to make sense to burn DeVito’s redshirt and allow him to play out the season? I’d guess it would have to be somewhere in the first two or three games. But nobody really knows.

This year is Eric Dungey’s year. He has garnered national attention this offseason in his inclusion on the Maxwell Award, Davey O’Brien Award, and Manning Award watch lists, as well as his receiving votes for the Preseason ACC Player of the Year. If healthy, the Orange should be in position to go to a bowl game, or at least make it close, and Dungey would put himself in position for more national attention and NFL draft hype heading into his senior year.