Orange Gives Thanks Amid Preparations for Rutgers
11/21/2006 1:57:19 PM | Football
Read the Game Notes
Read Head Coach Greg Robinson's Press Conference Transcript
The Orange football team kicked off the week of preparation for #15/16 Rutgers with a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night. On Monday, team captains Brendan Carney, Jerry Mackey, Perry Patterson and Kelvin Smith were at the Central New York Food Bank to unload 100 turkeys to be distributed locally as part of the "Touchdowns for Turkeys" program with P&C Foods. Today the focus shifted to football as the Orange get ready to close the regular season on Saturday in Piscataway (12:00 p.m., ESPNU). On Thanksgiving day the team will put in a days work before settling in for Thanksgiving dinner. Friday the Orange will travel to New Jersey for the game.
“We will have some family, some staff and part of the team will be over to our house that night. We do work that day. It is a good time," said head coach Greg Robinson. "(Associate athletics director for football operations) Reggie Terry made a good point. Thanksgiving Day is not the only day that we should be thankful for a lot of the things we have. He made that point to our team Sunday night. We had a Thanksgiving dinner together as a team. Our families were all with the teams. That started our Thanksgiving process on Sunday night. It was very nice. We will do more than that here. I look at this team as part of our family too. I really do. My wife (Laura) looks at it that way too. That is the extended family. Being around them this week and sharing with them with different things that we are thankful for is important.”
Syracuse's senior class will make its final appearance for the Orange. The group led Syracuse to a 20-14 victory against Connecticut in their final game in the Carrier Dome.
“We have our 24-hour rule, good or bad. We won that football game and it was great for our football team for 24 hours to really revel it in and feel good about it. You now move on and the focus is no longer on last Saturday. The focus is on preparing for this Saturday. That is really where the mindset is right now. If someone in the game who did things well gained confidence, true confidence, from it, then that is a good thing. That is hard to judge. Our game from last Saturday is done. This is Tuesday and a very important day in the preparation.”
Syracuse has a 28-7-1 advantage in the series, which began in 1914. Rutgers is tied for first place in the BIG EAST Conference standings with a 4-1 league record.
“It would be nice to win. At the same time, I have no problems being a spoiler," Robinson said of his team's opportunity this week. "I mentioned that last week. I don’t have a problem being a spoiler. I don’t, and our football team doesn’t have a problem with that either. The focus is on winning and going about it. If that is what motivates us – great. Whatever it takes to be motivated to play well is important.”
