Sept. 28, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes

Head Coach Tom Amstutz:

(On Walter Reyes)

"He's a patient running back. He has great balance, picks his hole and goes. My compliments go out to him. He outplayed us today."

(On Reyes' long run)

"We tried to blitz and sent a bunch of guys up the field to try and make a big play. He slipped past a guy and we were overcommitted to stop the run. He made a nice move and found a seam and outran us."

(On trying to establish the run)

"We wanted to mix the run in there. That was part of our gameplan but Syracuse's defense stepped up and played very well. They're on a roll right now and looked good tonight."

(On the crowd noise affecting the team offensively)

"The Carrier Dome is a great homefield advantage. It's definitely a factor, but we have to be able to overcome that. I don't want to use that as an excuse but it's definitely a factor and gives Syracuse a lot of momentum."

(On the effect of not having Patrick Body in the lineup and Brock Dodrill getting hurt in first half)

"Both of those guys will be back for Eastern. They just have minor injuries but that's not an excuse for us. We were outplayed tonight."

(On how the team bounces back)

"We just do it. We bounce back from bad quarters, bad halves and bad games. Our team has a lot of guts and a lot of character. It starts with our senior leadership and they will rise back up again. Our coaches aren't moping around. We just got beat by a good football team."

Junior WR Lance Moore

"We wanted to come out and run and pass the ball effectively but we didn't do either. They stopped us and forced into three-and-outs and that's not what we strive to do."

"We wanted to win the football game and obviously we didn't do that tonight. You have to give credit to Syracuse. They played well all night. We just have to regroup and come back and play the way we always play.'

Senior DE Frank Ofili

"They didn't do anything we weren't ready for. We were well-prepared for this game. They just outplayed us."

(On Reyes)

"Once he gets in the groove, he can be a phenomenal back. He's patient. He waits for the holes to open up. You can't let a guy like that get going."

"We did a poor job of tackling tonight. That's something we'll have to improve on."

Sophomore QB Bruce Gradkowski

"It's a team effort either way, win or lose. We don't point fingers. There were lots of mistakes out there."

"It's tough to have to come from behind. You get away from your gameplan and once that happens it's hard to come back against a good team."