The legacy weighs across his shoulders. It's a mantle. It's a burden.

He is a Dantley.

This surname resonates around suburban Washington, where his wide-bodied father was among the original stars in the scholastic constellation at DeMatha Catholic. The name reverberates around college basketball America: The two-time All-American with the prodigious rump, the around-the-basket demon on the Notre Dame team that ended UCLA's 88-game winning streak and an Olympic gold-medal winner. The name bounces off the walls of NBA history: A six-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year and ninth all-time scorer by the end of his 15-year career.

Now the son rises in a different game. With the name across a burly family back further embellished by shoulder pads. As a hard-charging athlete carrying a separate, yet still singular, focus.

"It takes a little pressure off me, knowing my dad played basketball a long time," the senior Syracuse starting quarterback said earlier this week, preparing for a Big East game tomorrow against West Virginia at Mountaineer Field. "While I am happy to still be in my dad's shadow, I'm happy to try to make a name for myself. And I'm trying to make a name for myself in football."

Meet Cam Dantley. Born Cameron McGhee Dantley little more than 22 years ago, he spent a lifetime in a wide, square shadow within the same stomping grounds, on the same floor as his celebrated father. Adrian wanted him to play basketball, but, as the son put it, football allowed him to see for himself rather than through his father's eyes. Syracuse ultimately offered him a road out, albeit a rocky one.

"In high school, everything is great and everybody is behind you," the younger Dantley said of all-boys St. Albans in D.C., where he passed for 7,400 yards and 72 touchdowns. "But when things aren't going so well, people slip off the radar. A lot of people didn't want to offer me [a scholarship]. They wanted that quarterback to be 6-4, 6-3, and I was only 6-1. My dad played a big role in that, telling me to 'Keep on doing what you're doing, your day will come. Eventually, the time will pay off.' It was just me being patient. Working as hard as I could."

From St. Albans to Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., he kept toiling until Syracuse called. The invite came from head coach Paul Pasqualoni. "Just so happened, he got fired -- the day before I came up here and made my official visit," he recalled.

Greg Robinson and staff brought in the younger Dantley as a walk-on. He sat out 2005 and '06. He won a scholarship in '07 and played in eight games, going 15 for 27 for 189 yards and two touchdowns off the bench in a 20-17 loss at Pitt. After the Orange's season-opening loss at Northwestern, Andrew Robinson was yanked as the starter. It made for a wild Sept. 5-6 weekend.

"That was a long day," the younger Dantley said of the Friday last month when he made the 450-mile round trip from campus to Springfield, Mass., where he saw a much-awaited Hall of Fame ceremony that involved such basketball luminaries as Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Pat Riley, Dick Vitale plus a Denver Nuggets assistant and a 23,177-point NBA scorer who had been a finalist six times before. "Coach Robinson let me go see it. I got to drive down there, see my dad inducted, see my family, then drive back late at night to the hotel ... and play Akron the next day. It was a long day, but it was all worth it for me."

The son -- Adrian and Diutri Dantley also have two daughters -- completed 13 of 20 passes for 135 yards and a career-high three touchdowns the next day, in a 42-28 loss to Akron. He then started in a blowout loss to Penn State, a lone victory against Division I-AA Northeastern and that come-from-ahead loss to Pitt. The throwing arm is so strong, he once put a teammate out for the season with a broken thumb; that same receiver, Donte Davis, leads the Orange in catches nowadays. The poise is so mature, coaches credit a youth around a pro-sports dad.

"I don't think he's the athlete that Adrian was," Greg Robinson said. "But he's really dedicated himself; he's another guy I talk about. I saw a real transformation."

"We both had issues about being in shape and performing at our top physical level," said Orange place-kicker Patrick Shadle of Morgantown, a fellow senior who shed 40 pounds. "He's won a job he deserves."

Concluded the younger Dantley: "Even though it didn't work out for me at first, I'm glad I came up here. I'm glad it worked out the way it did. All that hard work paid off."

As for his Syracuse jersey, he changed from No. 2 last season to No. 4, his father's old one. He cannot wear his father's collegiate number, though. After the legacy of Jim Brown, Floyd Little and Ernie Davis, whose story "The Express" opens in theaters today, No. 44 has been retired at Syracuse. Now that's a burden.