Syracuse Coaches' Post-Game Quotes
December 6, 2003
Head coach Paul Pasqualoni
On Walter Reyes:
“Walter had a great game. Obviously he’s a very talented guy. I think he probably showed as much of a complete game today as you’ve probably seen. He’s very explosive – he’s got great vision. The timing of his 71-yard touchdown run showed that – he allowed the blocks to occur. He saw what was happening in front of him, and then just outran everybody to the endzone. He did a great job catching the ball well. He’s really working on his blocking, and of course he’s a great ball carrier.”
On the game:
“We really probably played our most complete game of the year today. It took us 12 whacks to really put the whole thing together, but you have to be really proud of is the persistence and the character of these kids. Too many times in life people give in. These kids were not going to give in – they didn’t give in. We saw tremendous disappointment last week. For this group to come back out of New Brunswick, considering what happened to them there, and play the kind of game they played today – that was a great football game. You want to talk about execution? You want to talk about kids who played? Big time. You have to love them.”
On playing in front of a huge Dome crowd and a national television audience:
“I think that it shows those people who were here and people who sat down to watch it – I think they get an idea of the kind of players that we have and the kind of football that we’d like to play here. I think it gives outstanding exposure to Syracuse and the program, and to the kids. Notre Dame was on a roll. Notre Dame won three games big-time. They were playing great football coming here today. The play of guys like Christian Ferrara – I hope everybody enjoyed watching Christian Ferrara and Louis Gachelin play because those guys are players – and Richie Scanlon. I hope you appreciate what you saw – what they’ve done this year – because they’re great kids and they play football. That’s the definition of football players, those kids.”
On talking to Athletic Director Jake Crouthamel about the future of the program:
“We’re here to talk about a great win and a great group of seniors who led this program and led the way the whole year; an offense that really put it together today; a secondary that Notre Dame from the very first play of the game went after – if anybody has seen a team throw more deep balls in one game, please tell me who it is, because I don’t ever remember anybody throwing the ball deep as many times. The kids in the secondary rose to the occasion and played a heck of a game. Christian (Ferrara) and Louis (Gachelin) and Josh (Thomas) up front, the guys rushing the passer, had a lot to do with that. It was just a great effort all the way around.”
On why the alumni came back for this game:
“You can’t have a team that’s more well-known than Notre Dame. The fact that we’re not going to a bowl game this year, and the fact that this game was on December 6, I think brought a huge number of alums and fans back to the university to see Notre Dame play. I think it was a great function. I think it was a great function.”
On saying goodbye to the seniors:
“It’s always tough. The one thing about life that’s constant is there’s always change. Every year you get to a point where – you’ve known Christian, Louis, Richie (Scanlon), Josh, Robin (R.J. Anderson) and all the other guys for five years – we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve spent a lot of days together over the last five years. There’s been a lot of grinding, a lot of work, a lot of sweat, a lot of tears, and they’re special guys. They’re Syracuse Orangemen, and they’ll be Orangemen for life. And they’re proud of it. And like all the great Syracuse teams in the great tradition of this program, for a long time – when I was a kid rooting for Syracuse and Floyd Little – the one thing I knew about Syracuse was they were tough people. This place has always represented, physically and emotionally, mentally tough people. These seniors fit right into the tradition. They can be proud of what they accomplished here.”
On his fact that he had a smile on his face:
“I feel great. I really do. I feel good. I have tremendous confidence in what we do here and the kids and the people we have. We have solid kids. There’s one thing about this group of kids – and I told them this the other day: The season for us always starts on January 17 – the start of the spring semester. There hasn’t been one issue with these kids in a year. You ask them to go to class, they go to class. You ask them to get up and go to breakfast, they go to breakfast. You ask them to participate in community service events… These kids I have enjoyed as much as I ever have, coming to work every single day with this group of kids. That’s how good they’ve been. They’ve been great. I just wish we could have won a couple more games. We all know – coulda, shoulda, woulda – that’s the problem with this game. You look back – I’m not going to go there. But these kids deserve to win a few more games. Unfortunately, we didn’t. But fortunately, we had this game on December 6 here, and it’s a great way to send them off.”
Defensive Coordinator Chris Rippon
On the defense’s seniors (Josh Thomas, Louis Gachelin, Christian Ferrara, Rich Scanlon):
“I think they’ve dominated every team that we’ve played this year. I don’t know of anybody who’s blocked them other than our offensive line at times in spring practice. They’re guys with a tremendous amount of pride. We sat down Thursday night, and they said we’re going to win the game on defense – whatever it takes, we’re going to do it. They’ve done that all year. You don’t hear about them. They’re inside guys, but they’re not blocked. That quarterback – I don’t know if he had any sacks, but he got smacked a few times. He was on the ground and rolling. The thing about it is, the character of those four guys in particular, those seniors (Ferrara, Gachelin, Scanlon and Thomas), to meet the adversity they’ve had and the distractions, and to not let that affect them, and to take this defense, which our initial goal was, in the beginning of the season, for Syracuse’s defense to be one to reckon with again, and have pride and respect from our opponents – I think they put the nail in the coffin today. I think people, going into next season – going into the end of this season – say we’re a pretty darn good defense, and going into next year, Syracuse defense is back.”
On the game:
“You’re not distracted because you have a responsibility. Nobody takes a loss or a tough situation harder than the coach, but you can only do that for a night – Saturday night – then Sunday you have to get the kids ready and they read off you. You guys (the media) have been around Paul for as long as I have. There’s not a bigger-league guy than that. This was our bowl game. We’re playing Notre Dame, in the Carrier Dome, and there’s going to be more people watching on TV than were going to be watching a bowl game, so the focus was 100 percent there, and they just followed the lead.”
Defensive Line Coach Jerry Azzinaro
On SU’s defense:
“They controlled the run game from the first snap on. We kind of figured if we could make them one-dimensional, then we would have a chance, because they certainly threw the ball deep. Our secondary kids really came through. Our job was to stop the run. Once you do that, you control the game. You have to give Christian (Ferrara), Louis (Gachelin) and Josh (Thomas) credit – those three guys combined (held Julius Jones to 54 yards rushing).”
On seniors Ferrara, Gachelin and Thomas:
“Nothing occurs overnight. What you saw today was the culmination of five years of work. To their credit, those guys have never blinked through five years.”
On Notre Dame’s run game:
“Notre Dame can run the football on anybody, and they’ve run the football on everybody. That was our challenge – that was our mission.”
