Winners
Andre Cisco
Sure, a lot of it is right place right time, but the dude is one of just two players in the entire country with three interceptions right now. Not too shabby for your first two college games. Obviously, the interception trend is not sustainable. However, Cisco does feel like a star in-the-making who will be a focal point of the SU secondary for a long time.
A reporter asks Babers about Andre Cisco (3 INT in first 2 college games) with the freshman standing in the room.
It was as funny as you’d expect. pic.twitter.com/HS8evMnitt
— Orange Fizz (@OrangeFizz) September 8, 2018
Eric Dungey
I guess we all kinda knew this, but Dungey is a bonafide stud. Like seriously, he has taken it up another notch this year. It feels like he is taking more time in the pocket and letting the play develop more versus resorting to his feet and improvising a lot like the past couple years. Overall, he just looks like a senior and has more swagger than he did in years past. I mean he’s setting SU records left and right and even getting some Heisman love.¬†
Eric Dungey Heisman update: after throwing for 5 TDs against Wagner, he actually dropped down to 1 vote on the ESPN Heisman Watch and is off of @betmybookie’s odds sheet. That doesn’t exactly make sense, but there you have it. pic.twitter.com/RDbx6kaeUM
— Stephen Bailey (@Stephen_Bailey1) September 11, 2018
Jamal Custis
If there was any doubt as to who the number one receiver would be this year, Custis answered that emphatically in week one. It’s still only been two weeks against non-conference opponents with weak secondaries, so he still has plenty to prove. The next step is to as Dino Babes loves to say be “consistently good and not just occasionally great.”
Andre Szmyt’s Mom
In all seriousness, there might be nothing more stressful than being the mom of a kicker. Not only did Szmyt get some limelight when Dino Babers shouted her out in the post Wagner presser, but her son also gave her plenty to be proud of with a picture perfect first two college games.
Babers says he thought about sending Szmyt out for a 54-yarder last week, but he didn’t want to risk his perfect debut.
The coach met Szmyt’s mom after the 2-2 last week at Western Michigan, “and she was so excited.”
“I was like, ‘ma’am, I have to get on the bus.’”
— Orange Fizz (@OrangeFizz) September 8, 2018
Losers
Scoop Bradshaw
One of SU’s starting cornerbacks was picked on almost all night against Western Michigan. Tasked mainly with guarding the speedy Dwayne Eskridge, Bradshaw couldn’t keep up. Eskridge finished the night with a whopping 240 receiving yards on eight grabs. Then, the 5’11 corner even struggled at times against Wagner and got an ear-full from the coaches on the sidelines a couple times. Obviously, Bradshaw is just one of many problems in the suspect Syracuse secondary right now, but you would like to see one of your starting defensive backs have a better start to the season.
Tommy DeVito
I want to clarify before I go into this: I am not worried at all about Tommy DeVito’s long-term future. He has been taking snaps with mostly the second string unit and against Wagner especially, the back-up center wasn’t doing him any favors with all those high snaps he was getting. You have to factor that in. Not to mention, he hadn’t played a competitive snap in almost two years and he is shaking off the redshirt rust a little bit. All that being said, he didn’t look like a four-star QB savior based on his play in the first two games.
SU’s Pass Rush
I feel like this one has gone under-the-radar a bit. While all the talk defensively has been about the secondary, and rightfully so, the pass-rush has kinda been non-existent in the first two games, which is perhaps even more surprising. After all, this unit, on paper, was supposed to be solid. With guys like Chris Slayton and Kendall Coleman coming back, I thought there would be vast improvements in this area compared to last year. Instead, Coleman was the only one to get to the quarterback against Western Michigan. Then SU managed only two more sacks and hardly any pressures against lowly Wagner. Three total sacks in two games is less-than-stellar.
The Syracuse Push-Up Guy
The poor guy who does a push-up for every point after each of SU’s scoring plays got one heck of a workout on Saturday. By my count he had to do 314 push-ups  for the Dino Babers era high 62 points the Orange put up. Disclaimer: that math is probably wrong and I apologize to my eighth grade algebra teacher if so.
