AJ Long has packed a lot of firsts into a two-week stretch and his next one could be the most important of them all.

His first college appearance yielded his first touchdown pass in a loss to then-No. 1 Florida State on Oct. 11. His first start brought his first touchdown run and collegiate win in Syracuse’s 30-7 blowout of Wake Forest last weekend.

Each injects a little more life into a team clawing out of early-season irrelevancy. And now Long has a chance to transform the guarded optimism that accompanies a true freshman into a more solidified spot.

SU (3-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) travels to No. 21 Clemson (5-2, 4-1) on Saturday, which will be Long’s first real test as a starter and first opportunity to make a marquee victory his own.  A win against the Tigers looks a bit more attainable after their narrow 17-13 win over Boston College last week, and would push Long from Syracuse’s freshman quarterback to Syracuse’s quarterback.

“It’s a dream that I’ve accomplished,” Long said before the Wake Forest game. “At the same time, I know it’s not my team. I wouldn’t be in this situation had Terrel (Hunt) not got hurt.

“So now it’s play as well as you possibly can and, hopefully, when this is over, it’s a competition and it’s not just you sit back on the end of the bench.”

Long’s unflappable confidence as a quarterback makes him an enigmatic mix of mature and immature.

In the Orange’s 18-point loss to the Seminoles two weeks ago, Long threw two touchdown passes to fellow freshman Steve Ishmael. The first ended a touchdown drought of more than 100 minutes for the Syracuse offense and together, the two scores were the most any Orange quarterback had thrown for in a single game all year.

He also threw two interceptions in the game, then stood in front of reporters and proclaimed that “Syracuse football is back” and that the Orange would go to an ACC championship in the next four years.

“Why should we ever take it as a negative if he’s doing what he’s supposed to and he knows what he’s supposed to do?” said Ace Long, AJ’s father, of his son’s confidence.

It’s derived from an underdog mentality, which has Long turning his 6-foot frame into a strength and anyone doubting that into a positive influence. It surfaces in the way he escapes broken pockets to throw into tight spaces and when he smiles at doubts about his stature or play.

When he was a 5-foot-3 seventh-grader, he didn’t know if Division I football was a feasible goal. But his friends and teammates called him “the Joker” because he let out a high-pitched cackle whenever he made a good play.

As he grew into his frame in high school, there were more chances to laugh and more reasons to believe he’d end up leading a big-conference offense.

After choosing SU he started rallying together the Class of 2014 — one of the program’s best in recent years — and said he was “gunning to be the starter” when he arrived on campus last January.

That didn’t sit well with Hunt, the incumbent starter. But as Hunt sits with a broken fibula, Long’s opportunity grows every week.

“Right now, he’s our quarterback. He was really sharp with where he was going with the ball,” offensive coordinator Tim Lester said after the Wake Forest win. “It’s only the second game, but we’re in a situation where if he’s the guy that’s out there, I expect him to play to our level.”

The fact that Long’s a stopgap replacement will hang over him until he proves to be more.

The win at Wake Forest didn’t push him any closer or further away from doing so, but performing against Vic Beasley and Clemson’s heralded defensive front could have a lasting effect.

If any SU quarterback is going to march into Death Valley and give the Orange a chance to win, it’s the one with 38 career completions and no reason to believe he’ll fail.

“I really hope that after this season that I’ll be able to push in a competition with Hunt,” Long said. ” … Everywhere you go, your job is to be the guy. There’s nowhere that you want to go and sit behind somebody, so that’s all I’m trying to do.”

He can’t put himself in that position with one or two games, but a big game in Death Valley could go a long way.

Published on October 22, 2014 at 12:26 am