Syracuse, N.Y. — Dan Villari grew up downstate on Long Island watching Eric Dungey, hoping to one day suit up for the Orange and follow in his footsteps.
Syracuse’s new quarterback, enrolling later this month after spending two seasons at Michigan, already sounds a lot like the player he admired.
“Just a big, tough athletic dude who when I’m confident and feeling loose, I feel I can make any throw on the field and make extra stuff happen with my legs,” Villari told ESPN radio Syracuse on Wednesday afternoon.
“You’re getting a guy who’s going to try to hurdle, lower the shoulder, do crazy stuff, just a unique player.”
Villari, the first quarterback to be recruited under the Orange’s new offensive brain trust of offensive coordinator Robert Anae and quarterbacks coach Jason Beck, will join the program ahead of spring practice.
He’ll enter a quarterback room that returns starter Garrett Shrader, the Mississippi State transfer who enrolled this time last year and would go on to start the team’s final nine games.
Villari, who has four seasons of eligibility remaining, said head coach Dino Babers offered him a scholarship shortly after he submitted his name into the NCAA’s transfer portal last week.
“I almost knew right away when he offered me I was going there,” Villari said.
A Massapequa, New York native, Villari eyed Syracuse coming out of high school, but the Orange didn’t offer him a scholarship in the 2020 recruiting cycle.
Michigan jumped in late after missing out on CJ Stroud, the Heisman Trophy finalist at Ohio State. After two years in Ann Arbor, Villari decided to move on with Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy emerging as the top players on the Wolverines’ quarterback depth chart.
“I figured it was just time to leave, time for a better opportunity, time to just go play,” Villari said. “I believe in myself. Syracuse has always been one of my dream schools.”
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