One injury and 41 rushing attempts into his freshman season, quarterback Eric Dungey needs to throw the ball away more, head coach Scott Shafer said on his Tuesday teleconference.

“He needs to learn how to throw the ball away and do a good job of getting the yards he needs and getting down,” Shafer said.

Despite running the option, Shafer said not all of Dungey’s rushes are planned. Some come from broken passing plays where the freshman could unload the ball out of bounds instead of taking more of a beating. Shafer said Dungey reminds the head coach of himself when he was a young quarterback.

Dungey was already injured on a head-to-head hit by Central Michigan’s Mitch Stanitzek in his second start of the season.

The freshman quarterback has rushed for 137 yards, second most on the team, despite missing nearly two whole games. Jordan Fredericks, who is 99 yards in front of Dungey, and George Morris, who leads the quarterback by 21 yards, both have played in every game thus far.

Devante McFarlane, who was listed on the depth chart as the No. 1 running back until this week, has 20 less carries and 67 less yards than Dungey. McFarlane didn’t touch the ball against South Florida.

“I kind of felt bad for Devante, it just didn’t match up right,” Shafer said.

While Dungey may need to run the ball less, it looks like Fredericks will run it more. The freshman running back was bumped up to No. 1 on the depth chart this week. Fredericks has scored two rushing touchdowns and tacked on a receiving touchdown against USF.

“We try to make decisions on each player and his production and guys he’s competing with,” Shafer said, “and Jordan’s been the most productive running back. It’s really as simple as that.”

Published on October 13, 2015 at 12:45 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati