Drew Allen will once again be the starting quarterback for Syracuse on Saturday against Wagner. But, once again, he won’t remain in the lineup for the entire 60 minutes.

Quarterbacks coach Tim Lester said on Tuesday that Terrel Hunt will get some snaps under center when the Orange plays its first game in the Carrier Dome at 4 p.m.

“I know Drew is going to be our starter,” Lester said. “He has the most reps, he’s running the offense well. But Hunt’s going to play. We’ve committed to giving him a shot.”

Allen has started each of SU’s first two games, but has thrown six interceptions to just one touchdown. Hunt, meanwhile, played Syracuse’s final series against then-No. 19 Northwestern on Saturday, rushing for his first career touchdown.

Hunt was visibly excited on Tuesday, and said that coaches have been giving him a bit of extra attention during practice. He’s once again getting snaps with the first team and felt comfortable during his first appearance of the season.

“Drew is kind of down, you know,” Hunt said. “And I just want to get a shot.”

He believes he did enough in his one drive to warrant more playing time, and now he’s getting that.

Aside from the turnovers, Allen did improve from the Penn State game on Saturday.

He completed 27-of-41 passes and threw his first career touchdown. He spoke on Tuesday before it was revealed that Hunt would play, but he knows the reason that he will be benched for part of Saturday.

“I know I can play a lot better than I did,” Allen said. “I have full confidence in my ability and full confidence in the offense to do better. Take away those plays and I feel like as a whole we did a great job.”

But right now, those mistakes are too glaring. He’s not making up for the turnovers in enough other ways that Syracuse can leave him as the unquestioned starter. He’ll have a chance to fix that, but Hunt’s coming up fast.

“Drew’s just got to fix that one major mistake,” Lester said, “that, for us, is the No. 1 thing that we try to avoid.”

Published on September 10, 2013 at 10:50 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2