As Syracuse and Wake Forest find themselves sitting near the bottom of the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference, they do so with true freshman quarterbacks currently leading their offenses.

SU (2-4, 0-2 ACC) head coach Scott Shafer confirmed during the ACC coaches’ teleconference Wednesday morning that AJ Long will be his starting quarterback at Wake Forest (2-4, 0-2) on Saturday as sophomore Austin Wilson is recovering from an upper-body injury and Terrel Hunt is sidelined with a fractured fibula.

“Pleased with his first output and looking forward to seeing how he can go against a very good Wake Forest defense,” Shafer said of Long. “When he’s on the move, he has good vision down the field and he can also still give us the designed quarterback run plays that cause defenses headaches.”

In Long’s collegiate debut in Saturday’s loss to the reigning national champions, he impressed not only his coaches and teammates, but also his next opponent.

Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson said during the ACC coaches’ teleconference that Long has benefited from being surrounded by a veteran offensive line and added that WFU’s defense will have to key in on bringing Long down and not allowing him to extend plays with his feet.

“They’re plugging this guy in with a bunch of guys who have played a lot of football,” Clawson said.

The Demon Deacons, coming off a bye week, start John Wolford, another true freshman signal-caller. To this point in the season, the Jacksonville, Florida native has completed 59.3 percent of his passes, averaging 177.2 yards per game and throwing six touchdowns to 11 interceptions.

Clawson complimented Wolford’s poise and maturity, the stats indicate that he’s struggled to get Wake Forest’s offense — worst in the country in yards per game — off the ground.

“I don’t think there’s a coach in the country who goes into a season and says, ‘Man, I hope we play a true freshman quarterback this year,’” Clawson said. “If you’re playing a true freshman quarterback, it’s because something went wrong.”

Clawson said that against the Seminoles on Oct. 4, the Demon Deacons didn’t drop Wolford back to pass as much to avoid him taking unnecessary hits in what ended up being a 40-3 loss.

“You’re not going to have the same playbook you’re going to have with a third-year sophomore or junior or fourth- or fifth-year senior,” Clawson said. “Every quarterback has a breaking point in terms of overload, giving them too much. And that breaking point with a freshman happens a lot quicker than it does with a veteran quarterback.

“You have to be careful with what you put on those guys’ plates.”

Published on October 15, 2014 at 1:39 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb