With Terrel Hunt’s return this season up in the air, Syracuse will have two more games to examine its young quarterbacks.

Hunt’s fractured fibula led to sophomore Austin Wilson starting. A combination of an upper-body injury and AJ Long playing well led to the true freshman starting before Long’s nerve issue led to Wilson’s return and meaningful snaps for sophomore Mitch Kimble against Duke last week. The Orange’s (3-7, 1-5 Atlantic Coast) season has been derailed by injuries, and that has been as evident at quarterback as it is has in SU’s other banged-up position groups.

“Trying to look at the silver lining, we learn a lot about kids when they get on the field,” SU head coach Scott Shafer said during the ACC coaches’ teleconference Wednesday morning. “We’ve had the opportunity to see what (the quarterbacks) can do and how they react to the pressure playing a college football game at a young age and also doing it with an extremely banged-up offensive line has really given us a chance to measure where they are.

“I’ve been pleased with all three of the kids and the way they’ve taken on the opportunity to get on the field.”

All three young quarterbacks have freshman eligibility, Shafer pointed out, and throwing them into the fire has been a learning process for both the coaching staff and the signal-callers themselves.

Kimble was running Syracuse’s scout team just two weeks prior to seeing plenty of snaps in SU’s 27-10 loss to then-No. 22 Duke on Saturday, Shafer said. The sophomore did “some nice things” in the 27-10 loss, the head coach said.

Shafer pointed to SU’s pre-Pittsburgh injury report when asked about injuries Wednesday morning. Long missed the Duke game due to his injury, Wilson was seen holding his midsection during the game and Kimble was receiving treatment during the postgame press conferences after the Blue Devils game.

But now, the bye week gives the Orange extra time to develop its quarterbacks and hone in on sharpening their identification of coverages and defensive fronts, and getting the offense out of bad plays.

Although injuries have taken their toll on Syracuse’s season, Shafer looked at it through the positive scope at the quarterback spot.

“We found out a lot about some kids that we maybe wouldn’t have known, game experience and composure in those situations,” Shafer said. “We probably wouldn’t have known as much without having them in those situations. So that’s the silver lining side of it.”

Published on November 12, 2014 at 1:51 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb