When the Syracuse football team played Notre Dame last year in the Carrier Dome, it was a game most players had looked forward to all year.

Sophomore running back Damien Rhodes was especially excited to see the Irish on the schedule. The only problem was Rhodes was in a blue Syracuse warm-up suit when the Orangemen played the Irish on Dec. 6.

‘I hate Notre Dame so I would have loved to play against them,’ Rhodes said. ‘But it’s one of those things you only get one in a lifetime to play against them, and to miss it – it stinks.’

A nagging ankle injury forced Rhodes to miss the last seven games of the year. He originally injured his left ankle in preseason but played through the pain. Rhodes injured the same ankle again, though, against Virginia Tech on Oct. 11, his first game back after missing SU’s third game of the year. Though the one suffered against the Hokies was a different injury to the same ankle, he was finally forced to sit out the remainder of the season. In total, he missed eight of SU’s 12 games last season.

‘The hardest part was just watching my team go out there and play games,’ Rhodes said. ‘I was wishing I was out there and I believed I could help us win some games.’

After rushing for only 143 yards on 35 carries last fall, Rhodes worked on rehabbing his ankle. Instead of risking another injury or playing through the pain even more, the decision was made for Rhodes to sit and be completely healthy for the start of spring practice.

‘It was frustrating,’ said Paul Muench, Rhodes’ high school football coach at Fayetteville-Manlius. ‘He was happy when the team played well at the end, but he was unbelievably frustrated he couldn’t help out when things didn’t go the team’s way. He tried to run through it but after he had the other injury against Virginia Tech, he had to hang up the season. He’s never had to do that before.’

Rhodes was so determined to stay in shape and rehab his leg over winter break he returned to Fayetteville-Manlius and used the school’s weight room. Muench said it was encouraging to his own players to see a player of Rhodes’ caliber striving to get better.

‘They see him in there lifting, they know he’s on a mission,’ Muench said. ‘He has a purpose. He’s not just doing it and putting in the time, but he’s trying to be the best player he can be.’

In January while lifting, Rhodes finally didn’t feel any pain besides the normal sores from weight training. He felt good knowing the injury was behind him.

With spring practice officially underway, Rhodes has declared himself 100 percent. He realized once agility drills started and he didn’t feel any pain, he had fully recovered.

Now, it’s a matter of regaining his role on a team in which he played such a prominent part.

In Rhodes’ freshman year, he shared a backfield with Walter Reyes. He set an SU freshman record with 1,268 all-purpose yards and scored eight touchdowns. Rhodes and Reyes were expected to share a lot of the workload last fall, but with Rhodes on the bench, Reyes established himself as the clear-cut back.

Still, Reyes knows how important it is to have a legitimate tail back behind him who can come in the game and wear down the defense.

‘When you have to worry about one back and then another fresh back comes in with a tired defense, you’re in a world of trouble,’ Reyes said. ‘It can only help us. We just have to get back to our dynamic combination from two years ago.’

Reyes thought Rhodes was a little bit tentative at the start of practice. But Reyes feels that Rhodes is starting to return to his old form and is running harder and faster than he did two years ago.

He displayed his speed in Syracuse’s first scrimmage on Saturday and impressed head coach Paul Pasqualoni.

‘Damien is looking very, very fast,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘He’s bigger, faster and stronger.’

When Rhodes was asked how much he currently weighs, he only said ‘two something,’ to imply he’s somewhere in the 200 range. Rhodes, who weighed 210 pounds last year, seems to have bulked up.

‘He feels great, he looks great and he’s huge,’ said Muench, who had lunch with Rhodes a few weeks ago and observed his new form. ‘He still has his speed and actually is better.’

Muench sees Rhodes being used in many ways to bolster the offense. Whether it’s coming out of the backfield as a wide receiver, blocking, or just providing a big run while Reyes is resting, he knows Rhodes is capable of it.

‘I see him as a being a big part of that offense,’ Muench said. ‘In my mind, the two of them are just going to drive people crazy.

Published on April 7, 2004 at 12:00 pm