WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Squinting in the late-afternoon North Carolina sun, Tim Lester put his hand to his mouth and gnawed at his fingernails as he tried to come up with something that AJ Long did better in his second game.

The offensive coordinator had already pointed out some of the mistakes the true freshman quarterback made and what he had done adequately.

“He did well early,” Lester said earlier in the postgame interview. “Second half, he struggled — mentally.”

Now, 15 pensive seconds, a “that’s a good question” and two “I don’t know’s” passed before he responded to the question — giving efficiency on third-and-long situations as his answer.

But Lester’s pause said it all about Long’s first collegiate start. The potential that the Syracuse quarterback’s 4-yard touchdown run exhibited was balanced out by the inescapable fact that it was the offense’s only touchdown in SU’s (3-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) 30-7 victory over Wake Forest (2-5, 0-3) on Saturday afternoon at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Lester’s confidence in Long indicated the rookie, who completed 22-of-32 passes for 171 yards Saturday, will still be Syracuse’s starter going forward — while Terrel Hunt’s fractured fibula heals — regardless of sophomore Austin Wilson’s recovery from an upper-body injury.

“Physically, he did a good job. He threw the ball where it needed to be,” Lester said of Long. “He just needs to continue to make better decisions for a whole game.”

Five days after Long revealed his nickname among teammates to be “AJ Freestyle,” he showed why.

The quarterback brought his offense from its own 8-yard line to inside the Demon Deacons’ 5. Long dropped back on a second-and-goal and was looking for tight ends Kendall Moore and Josh Parris to get open when the pocket began to collapse.

Long scrambled out to the right, kept his distance behind the line of scrimmage and cut a sharp turn for the pylon and punched it in with a lunge before a pair of WFU defenders could get to him.

“Thankfully, I got there,” Long said.

By halftime, Long — working with junior center Jason Emerich in place of the injured John Miller — had economically completed 12 of his 18 passes and led an offense that converted 6-of-9 third downs. It was a vast improvement from SU’s 33 percent conversion rate coming into the game, and some of the completions came at lengthy distances.

But as the Orange kept the ball on the ground in the second half and Long had to make decisions earlier in the play, he had his faults, Lester said.

“I just have to clean those up and make sure I put the offense in the best possible situation to be successful,” Long said.

Twice, Long was on the wrong side of the field, Lester said. There were zone-reads he should’ve handed off that he held onto. He missed other progressions from the pocket and threw one fourth-quarter pass into double coverage that bounced off a Wake Forest cornerback’s hands.

Still, Lester said, Long knew his mistakes when he came off the field and has the ability to make up for them with his feet.

“He’d like to get some plays back on some reads,” SU head coach Scott Shafer said. “He was in high school last year. We’re going to keep working with him.”

By game’s end, the Orange was in position to send sophomore Mitch Kimble, the No. 2 quarterback now, out on the field to make his college debut and deliver six handoffs.

Just before talking with reporters after the game, Lester spoke to his new starting quarterback.

Lester acknowledged Long’s youth and was comforted by Syracuse’s win, but still expects more from his starting quarterback.

“I know he’s a true freshman,” Lester said, “but I kept telling him, ‘You need to put 60 minutes together of good decision-making.’”

Published on October 18, 2014 at 6:27 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb