Syracuse Preview
October 19, 2004 04:18 PM | General
October 19, 2004
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| Pasqualoni | Ferri | Reyes | Smith | Tarullo |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Syracuse comes into Thursday night’s game at No. 15 West Virginia feeling more confident about its team after its performance 10 days ago against No. 5-rated Florida State.
Syracuse led the Seminoles for a good portion of the game before falling 17-13 when FSU running back Leon Washington broke free for a 45-yard touchdown run with 3:41 remaining in the game.
“To me they played harder than Florida State,” said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “Florida State’s offensive line is as big as anybody in the country and they didn’t move them. They were stalemated from (Syracuse’s) front four.”
The Orange (3-3, 1-0) took a 10-3 lead with 1:04 remaining in the first quarter when Perry Patterson (6-4, 242, So.) hooked up with Jared Jones (6-0, 205, So.) for a 44-yard touchdown pass. Right before the end of the half Syracuse could have taken a 17-3 lead but Walter Reyes (5-10, 213, So.) fumbled just outside Florida State’s goal line.
The Seminoles had great difficulty moving the football against the Syracuse defense, managing just 169 passing yards and committing three turnovers. If not for Washington’s two TD runs Syracuse would have pulled off a big upset.
“Syracuse did not blitz much,” Rodriguez said. “I thought I’d see Syracuse taking chances and blitzing a lot and that’s how they would stop them in the running game but it wasn’t. They were playing a base defense and they didn’t do a whole lot of stuff coverage wise. They were just solid and sound and made no mistakes.”
Further validation for Syracuse’s effort came a week later when Florida State completely dominated No. 6-rated Virginia, 36-3 in Tallahassee.
Syracuse also shows losses to No. 12 Purdue in the season opener and to No. 15 Virginia on the road on Sept. 25. Since then, Syracuse has settled on Patterson as its starting quarterback in favor of freshman Joe Fields (6-1, 219, Fr.) who started the first three games of the season.
Patterson completed 19 of 28 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown against Florida State and comes into Morgantown having thrown for 750 yards and three touchdowns in all -- 603 yards since taking over the QB reins in the second half of the Cincinnati victory.
“He’s been playing pretty well,” says Rodriguez. “He’s a big athlete about 6-3, 6-4 and weighs about 220 pounds. We tried to recruit him out of high school but he committed early to them.”
Syracuse’s top pass-catching target Jones, a Hillsborough, N.J., resident, who has caught 19 passes for 249 yards and a touchdown so far this year after grabbing 37 passes for 355 yards in 2003.
Syracuse is hopeful of getting back junior wide receiver Steve Gregory (5-11, 188, Jr.), who has not played in the last four games due to injury. Gregory has caught six passes for 68 yards so far this year.
SU’s main offensive weapon remains Reyes. He burned Rutgers for a season-high 237 yards two weeks ago in a 41-31 victory. Reyes has also gone over the 200-yard mark one other time against Central Florida in 2003 (241 yards) and he ranks second to Joe Morris on the school’s all-time rushing list with 3,177 yards.
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| West Virginia linebacker Scott Gyorko wraps up Syracuse running back Walter Reyes for a short gain in last year's game at the Carrier Dome.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Reyes has topped 100 yards or more in a game 12 times for his career including twice this season. However, Reyes has managed 354 of his 556 yards so far this season against Rutgers and Cincinnati. In his other four games against Purdue, Buffalo, Virginia and Florida State he has carried 68 times for 202 yards and an average of 3.0 yards per carry. In three career games against West Virginia Reyes has carried 31 times for 122 yards and has caught three passes for 80 yards and a touchdown.
“Last year he hurt us with a screen pass for a long touchdown,” said Rodriguez of Reyes. “At some point in the game he got hurt and went out and came back in the game and caught the touchdown pass. He’s pretty dangerous.”
Right behind Reyes is one of the best backup running backs in the country in junior Damien Rhodes (6-0, 217, Jr.), who shows 301 yards this year and 992 for his career.
Blocking up front for Reyes is an offensive line Rodriguez says is one of the biggest West Virginia will face this year. Seniors Matt Tarullo (6-6, 326, Sr.) and Adam Terry (6-9, 324, Sr.) are both Outland Trophy candidates. Tarullo moved from guard to center last spring and has started 30 straight games including all six at center this season. Terry has started 29 straight games at tackle and was a second team all-Big East pick last year.
Tarullo and Terry are both 300-pounders and join junior guards Jason Greene (6-6, 300, Jr.) and Steve Franklin (6-5, 321, Jr.) and junior tackle Quinn Ojinnaka (6-5, 297, Jr.), the smallest of the group.
“They seem bigger,” said Rodriguez. “I don’t know if it’s some of the new guys but they look bigger and taller. They’ve always seem like they’ve had big lines on both sides of the ball but this year they’re really big and tall. I’m talking about 6-5, 6-6 guys.”
Fullback Greg Hanoian (6-2, 255, Sr.) and tight end Joe Kowalewski (6-4, 262, Jr.) are big and are both predominantly used as blockers, though Kowalewski shows eight catches for 95 yards.
The Syracuse defense came alive in its last game against Florida State, holding the powerful Seminoles to just two touchdowns and a field goal. Senior strong safety Diamond Ferri (5-10, 215, Sr.) earned Big East defensive player of the week honors for his play against FSU, picking off a pass, forcing a fumble and recovering it, and getting in on six tackles.
Ferri is approaching the school career top 10 in tackles for defensive backs with 170, three shy of 10th spot. Ferri’s most productive game came against Rutgers where he was in on 14 tackles, including a career-high 11 solo stops.
Junior free safety Anthony Smith (6-1, 187, Jr.) is also a sure tackler in the secondary with 182 career stops.
Sophomore middle linebacker Jerry Mackey (6-1, 241, So.) leads Syracuse with 52 total tackles to go along with five tackles for losses and a sack. Junior left defensive end James Wyche (6-6, 267, Jr.) is tops on the team with 2.5 sacks and shows six for his career.
Freshman Tony Jenkins (6-3, 293, Fr.) and junior Kader Drame (6-5, 284, Jr.) give Syracuse good size up front on the defensive line and have combined to make 34 stops.
For the season Syracuse is allowing and average of 406.5 yards and 25.7 points per game, though a good portion of that came in the season opener at Purdue when the Orange lost 51-0.
“They’re a little bit different on defense,” said Rodriguez. “Coach Dunlap has added some of his own wrinkles but it is very similar to what they have done the last couple of years.”
Special teams are an area where Syracuse has been able to make a difference this season. In six games so far Syracuse has blocked five kicks including four punts. Also, Ferri is ranked 11th in the nation in kickoff returns with an average of 29.4 yards per return with a long of 65 yards against Buffalo.
Syracuse kickers have thrived in the Dome, too. Sophomore punter Brendan Carney (6-5, 202, So.) had a career-long 65-yard punt against Florida State and is averaging 43.5 yards per punt this season. Senior Collin Barber (6-2, 211, Sr.) moved into seventh place on the SU career scoring list with 211 points and has made nine of 13 field goal attempts this season and 37 of 55 for his career. His long kick is 50 yards.
Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni owns a 3-3 record against West Virginia in Morgantown with his last victory coming in 2000, a 31-27 last-second victory. Pasqualoni is 8-5 in 13 career meetings against West Virginia.
Thursday night’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN with Mike Tirico, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Jill Arrington on hand for the call. United Bank is sponsoring a fireworks presentation at halftime.
Plenty of good tickets still remain and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or logging onto WVUGAME.com.
Fast Facts: The winner of Thursday’s game will receive the Schwartzwalder Trophy in honor of Syracuse coaching legend Floyd “Ben” Schwartzwalder, who is a graduate of West Virginia University where he was inducted into the school’s hall of fame earlier this year … of Syracuse’s 18 scoring drives this season 11 have been five plays or less … only one four of SU’s scoring drives have lasted 10 plays or longer … Syracuse has won its last five and six out of its last seven games following a contest against a Top 10-ranked team … the last time the Orange lost to a Top 10-team and then followed it up with another loss came in 1999 when they fell to No. 2 Virginia Tech and then lost 24-23 at home to unranked Boston College … three true freshman played for Syracuse in the season opener against Purdue in quarterback Joe Fields, wide receiver Quinton Brown and cornerback Dowayne Davis; all three are currently backups …Reyes is tied with former WVU running back Avon Cobourne for second on the Big East career rushing TD list with 42 …last year wide receiver Jared Jones was one of Syracuse’s top options on third down, making 14 catches of which 12 went for first-down yardage … Jones has three catches for first-down yardage so far this season …Syracuse has had nine special teams touchdowns since 2000, including a 56-yard punt return for a score by Marcus Clayton in last year’s game against West Virginia …Syracuse has converted just 21 of 80 third-down attempts this year for a conversion percentage of just 26 percent … Syracuse is even in turnover margin this year, committing 15 turnovers and forcing 15.
