Spend too long wavering over the decision and you could go crazy: Take out Syracuse football’s homegrown star and your offense is void of one of its top threats. Let him grind out the season on his badly sprained left ankle and have him risk further injury.

It’s a decision that could prompt a uniform change for running back Damien Rhodes.

Perhaps, the ‘Rhodes’ on the back of his jersey would be more suitably replaced with ‘Catch.’ And his narrow ‘1’ to be changed to a ’22.’

The unenviable task lies in the hands of SU football head coach Paul Pasqualoni. After Saturday’s 30-20 loss to Louisville, Pasqualoni said he would try to get Rhodes to work through the pain, the logic being that a slightly injured Rhodes is better than no Rhodes at all.

‘We have to evaluate what’s best for him,’ offensive coordinator George DeLeone said, ‘whether it’s rest versus to work through it. We don’t see the burst we saw last year. I’m not a trainer, but decisions need to be made there.’

Rhodes has been suffering from a badly sprained ankle since preseason. The injury is tricky to heal unless the ankle is rested. With 10 weeks of games coming up and practice almost every day, that’s a tough feat. Rhodes dressed for practice Monday but didn’t take part in the workouts. This season, Rhodes has rushed for 91 yards on 16 carries. He caught a touchdown pass in SU’s 49-47 win at North Carolina.

‘Damien’s still not 100 percent,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘We want to do the right thing for Damien and the team.’

Right now, for Rhodes, that means playing through the pain.

‘I’ve never played through (pain) like that.’ Rhodes said. ‘But at this kind of level, you have to do it. I’ve got to suck it up and just play.’

It’s not that easy. Coaches rack their brains over these types of scenarios. If Rhodes does play on the ankle, the injury could get worse. If Syracuse makes it to a bowl, his season could be jeopardized. But if he’s taken out, Syracuse loses major offensive production. Rhodes and junior Walter Reyes make up one of the county’s best running back tandems. Reyes has rushed for 288 yards and four touchdowns this year.

Third on the depth chart behind Rhodes and Reyes is redshirt freshman Tim Washington, who has yet to play a down for Syracuse in his career. Pasqualoni said that could change next week against Central Florida.

‘I’ve been waiting patiently,’ Washington said. ‘I’ve been ready since week one. I’m ready mentally and physically. I know what I’m capable of, but everyone else doesn’t.’

Washington, who is 5-foot-9 and 199 pounds, said he sees a lot of Walter Reyes in himself, specifically during the play Saturday when Reyes zigzagged the field for a touchdown. Though he doesn’t have the breakaway speed of Rhodes or Reyes, Washington is quick and a tough target to bring down.

Washington says that if given the chance, he, Rhodes and Reyes could form a triple threat of sorts. For that to happen, Rhodes’s ankle will have to heal.

‘(Rhodes) looks like he really wants to get back in there,’ Washington said. ‘But it looks like he’s not himself right now. That’s pretty hard for him. It’s because of the injury, but maybe a little bit mentally, too. Because he hasn’t produced as much, it’s maybe getting on him mentally.

‘If I was the coach I would probably have him rest. It seems he can’t do too much on it. I don’t see why he would keep on running on it if it’s hurting him more.’

Rhodes sees the situation differently. To him, he needs to be on the field even if it means playing through pain.

‘The future is now,’ Rhodes said. ‘There’s no point in waiting.

‘You want to be able to do whatever you can do to help the team win. But at the same time, if me trying to suck it up hurts the team, I don’t want to do anything that hurts the team. Hurt or not hurt, I’d rather be out there playing because it’s the game I love.’

Published on September 16, 2003 at 12:00 pm