The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

True freshman quarterback JaCobian Morgan spun out of the pocket to his left and looked to gain a few yards with his feet. With two Boston College defenders approaching and nowhere to run as he neared the boundary, Morgan flipped his head back upfield. He saw Anthony Queeley breaking open and floated the ball over a defender and into his hands for a 31 yard gain. 

An Orange offense that has been stagnant for most of seven straight games had come to life. An offense that desperately needed a playmaker to produce outside of the game script had arrived. Like almost every other position on the roster, injuries had forced the Orange to start inexperienced players. 

Even after head coach Dino Babers talked down Morgan’s 7-for-7 with a touchdown passing performance in mop-up duty at the end of last week’s game against Wake Forest, the plan from inside the program was to go with Morgan once quarterback Rex Culpepper was injured, Babers said. He turned to Morgan to try and spark his flailing offense.

While the true freshman quarterback produced some offense early in the game and the Orange moved the ball throughout a promising first half, SU’s talent deficiencies across the field proved too difficult to overcome. Hope and optimism soon gave way to the same languishing offense the Orange have continued to bring all season. Boston College (5-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) only needed 16 points to beat Syracuse (1-7, 1-6), 16-13, in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Syracuse has now lost five consecutive games as the program plunders toward one of its worst seasons in history. 

“It didn’t look like he was too rattled,” Babers said of Morgan. “I thought he made some plays, escaped some things, and he took a shot. So, check the box. He’s got another box checked, and I thought it was decent.”

Babers said after the game that Morgan showed enough that “he deserves to go out there first” when the Orange play again at Louisville on Nov. 20 following next week’s bye. 

About 90 minutes before kickoff, when the Orange came out for pregame warm-ups, Culpepper wasn’t on the field. He stood on the sidelines and watched as Morgan led the Orange’s offense through drills. When the players returned in pads, Culpepper wasn’t wearing them. Morgan led the first team offense during all of warm-ups and led them out of the tunnel with Babers. 

On the game’s opening drive, Morgan evaded a pass rush, scrambled right and completed to Taj Harris for a first down on 3rd-and-9. The Orange rank near the bottom of the FBS in third down conversion rate. The Orange’s offense ran up to get ready for the next play, but the referees stopped them — freshman Sean Tucker was called for a hold. 

“Any time you’re playing somebody that young, you’ve got to find a way to win with your veteran guys,” Babers said. “There were some penalties out there from some veteran guys that I’m not happy with. I’m not happy with any penalties.”

Facing a 4th-and-2 at the opponent’s 17-yard line in the second quarter, Babers opted to kick a field goal, which Andre Szmyt’s right boot launched through the uprights. Instead of going for seven, Babers took the safe three to tie the game. At that moment, it seemed the Orange’s offense was rolling. 

“I thought we gave our team a chance to win,” Babers said of his fourth down decisions. “We got to the fourth quarter, we lost by three points. I’m going to make those decisions, you guys get a chance to second-guess them.”

The pace that had been missing all season was there. BC had to burn a timeout, as they were unprepared for a snap after a long, sustained drive. Harris broke tackles on the perimeter, and Tucker broke them through the middle.  Morgan made good decisions, evaded pressure and showed that he could compete at this level. A score of 3-3 at the half didn’t appear to be a bad result for the Orange.

Then, quarterback Phil Jurkovec completed two long passes, the second for a touchdown to star receiver Zay Flowers to give BC a 10-3 lead before half. 

“Even through his high school career, he’s always been a calm kid,” said Calvin Bolton, Morgan’s high school coach at Canton High School in Mississippi. “Never gets caught up in emotions. The moments just don’t get too big. He’s just kind of stays poised and calm the whole time.” 

In the first half, SU averaged 5.6 yards per play. But that success didn’t continue after the opening drive of the second half. Babers again chose to kick a field goal down seven on 4th-and-4 from the red zone. They didn’t cross midfield again with a one-score deficit. 

Boston College slowly adjusted to Morgan, containing him in the pocket instead allowing him to use his legs to extend plays. The Eagles sacked Morgan four times.

The Orange’s defense kept giving Morgan opportunities in the second half to lead a drive downfield — one that could have tied the game, or maybe won it. When the Orange had the ball at their own 25 to start the fourth quarter, Morgan took a sack, and they went three-and-out.

After Syracuse’s defense forced another stop on a 3rd-and-inches, a Nykeim Johnson punt return set up the Orange near midfield. Still, another three-and-out followed. Even with Morgan at quarterback, the first half spark had dissipated. He lofted up an ill-advised pass into coverage that was tipped and intercepted. The Orange’s defense — much maligned in recent weeks for its inability to stop the run and prevent big plays — made the stop to give SU one last chance.

“It’s one of those defenses that’s not supposed to be attacked in the area he was attacking,” Babers said. “But there was Taj (Harris), and he was open. So he tried to make the throw, and the ball got away from him a bit, and the DB caught it.”

Morgan’s third possession of the fourth quarter started with a handoff to Sean Tucker, who was immediately stuffed. As the BC defenders stood up Tucker, one ripped the ball out of his hands. SU’s offense gave the ball to Boston College inside the Orange’s own 20. The defense then held them to three. 

The Orange finally found the end zone until the game’s final drive, trailing by 10 with two minutes to play. A series of dump-offs to backup running back Cooper Lutz put the Orange in the red zone, and a long Morgan scramble led to an eventual touchdown pass to Aaron Hackett with 0:21 left. 

The Syracuse touchdown horn sounded, and the Orange’s fight song played. But much like Syracuse’s offense this season, it was too little, too late. The Orange’s onside kick didn’t go 10 yards, and BC ran out the clock. Morgan had provided the spark, which by game’s end, had dwindled.

Danny Emerman is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at dremerma@syr.edu or on Twitter @DannyEmerman.

Published on November 7, 2020 at 5:29 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo