Syracuse stuck with No. 2 Southern California for three quarters, but quarterback Matt Barkley finished with six touchdowns as SU allowed 42 points for the second straight week. The Orange will take on Football Championship Subdivision opponent Stony Brook in the Carrier Dome at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The SU defense will be tasked with stopping the No. 1 offense in the FCS, powered by running backs Miguel Maysonet and Iowa transfer Marcus Coker. Stony Brook defeated Central Connecticut 49-17 in its opener and routed Division-II Pace 77-7 last week. The Daily Orange spoke with Greg Logan, who covers Stony Brook for Newsday, to look at this weekend’s matchup.

The Daily Orange: Looking at Stony Brook and scoring 77 points last week with their rushing attack, what kind of challenge can Syracuse expect on Saturday?

Greg Logan: They definitely can expect to see one of the best running attacks from the Football Championship Subdivision, the FCS level. In fact, last year they led the nation in rushing at that level and had the only pair of 1,000-yard rushers in the country at any level on one team. It’s just the nature of the attack that they have a very prolific running game. It’s an interesting setup where it’s like an option attack, but the quarterback doesn’t run very much. There are no real quarterback keepers, but they’re handing it off all the time, and yet because they emphasize the run to such an extent then they are also capable of using play-action passes to go deep downfield.

The D.O.: How important is Kyle Essington, and how has he played so far? You mentioned him being the all-conference preseason quarterback — what’s he bring to the offense, even though it is so heavily based on the running?

GL: He’s really played well. He’s an efficient type of quarterback. He has a good arm, he can get it downfield. He makes good decisions and he’s tall and rangy in the pocket, so he can see over the line. He’s not the type of guy that’s necessarily going to carry you, but he can make the big play when it’s there.

The D.O.: Syracuse’s passing offense has been pretty impressive in its first two games. How does Stony Brook match up defensively?

GL: Well, I think that’s the big question. The Stony Brook defense, they’re not used to playing the caliber of athlete that Syracuse has at wide receiver. And the fact that Marcus Sales is back — I remember him from the Pinstripe Bowl, and he had three touchdowns there against K-State — he obviously makes a tremendous difference for the passing attack. Just having him as an extra, big target. Alec Lemon, I know he’s been hurt and he was kind of in more of a limited role last week against USC, but then I’m very impressed with Jarrod West and how big he is. And the fact that you’ve got three very talented and a couple of them really tall — West and Sales are very tall receivers — those are going to pose matchup problems for Stony Brook. And in their big games in the past couple of years, when they had problems, it usually was in the secondary giving up big pass plays.

The D.O.: Stony Brook’s coming off its first postseason appearance last year and is ranked 16th in the FCS. With the fast start they’re on, what are their expectations in their conference and in the FCS for this season?

GL: Well, they won the preseason media poll as the Big South favorite and most everybody expects that it will come down to a battle between them and Liberty, as it has each of the past three years.Liberty is a very good team. They lost to Wake Forest at Wake Forest in the opening week by three points, 20-17, so that gives you an idea that they’re not playing — at least at the top level of the conference — they’re playing decent teams. And so Stony Brook, after playing so tough against (then-No. 1) Sam Houston State (in the FCS playoffs) last year, they’re all talking in terms of trying to win the national championship this year. That’s clearly the goal, and even the coach has said they’re trying to do bigger and better things this year.

Published on September 13, 2012 at 1:55 am

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu