The Syracuse football team’s head coach Paul Pasqualoni confirmed Monday that senior running back Walter Reyes will miss Saturday’s game at Temple. Reyes’ mother, Marylou Tinsley, originally told The Daily Orange on Sunday that Reyes would likely miss the game with a torn right shoulder muscle.

Pasqualoni said he’s ‘cautiously optimistic’ that Reyes will be able to play on Nov. 27 at Boston College. The Orange has a bye week between the Temple and BC games.

Reyes injured the shoulder in the third quarter of SU’s 38-31, double-overtime victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday. He hurt the shoulder the play before he left the game, but wanted to try one more play.

‘A helmet of a defender got underneath his shoulder,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘We want him to be 100 percent.’

Pasqualoni said there’s no way Reyes could have stayed in the game. He rushed for 123 yards before the injury.

Against Temple, Damien Rhodes will start and carry a majority of the load. The junior tailback rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown against the Panthers, his second 100-yard effort of the season.

Redshirt freshmen Jeremy Sellers and Breyone Evans, sophomore Stephen McDonald and senior Greg Hanoian could all help to shoulder the load, Pasqualoni said. Of that group, though, only Sellers is a halfback, and he’s a converted wide receiver.

Pasqualoni said safety Diamond Ferri could be used in an emergency situation, but it’s unlikely because of his role on defense and special teams. Ferri enrolled at SU as a running back before switching to defense last season.

‘Jeremy Sellers is going to do a great job as a secondary guy,’ center Matt Tarullo said. ‘Damien’s going to take the brunt. As a guy that’s coming up right now, I’m happy Damien’s where he is.’

In other injury news, Pasqualoni said the rest of the team is healed and should play. O’Neil Scott, Kelvin Smith and Ferri all left the Pittsburgh game with injuries, but Ferri and Smith both returned.

Backup Syracuse linebacker Tommy Harris made one of the biggest tackles of his life in Saturday’s victory over Pittsburgh. His fourth-down stop of Panther’s running back Raymond Kirkley ended the game.

On Saturday in Philadelphia, Harris will get a shot at one of his old high school buddies – Temple quarterback Walter Washington.

The two grew up together in Daytona Beach, Fla. Harris attended Atlantic High School, while Washington went to school down the street at Mainland High School. There’s also a family connection. At one point, Harris’ dad dated Washington’s aunt.

Harris said he’ll be looking to avenge several defeats he suffered to Washington in high school. He also wouldn’t mind getting a shot on his old buddy.

‘Oh, yes,’ Harris said of getting a hit on Washington. ‘When you’re a backup, you’re excited anytime you can get a hit on anybody.’

For the second straight week, true freshman quarterback Joe Fields entered the game for one play. Only this time, the play call worked.

Fields heaved a second-quarter, 60-yard touchdown pass to Jared Jones, which put the Orange up, 21-6.

Last week, against UConn, Fields entered the game and ran a busted option. Against the Panthers this week, with Pitt likely guessing the option, Fields faked the option and found Jones.

‘It worked exactly the way we planned,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘Joe is obviously capable of running the entire offense. Maybe soon we’ll see him two plays in a row.’

Published on November 8, 2004 at 12:00 pm