O’Neill Scott is sick of being secretary for Troy Swittenburg, his teammate and roommate.

‘From his third cousin to his brother, everyone calls the house,’ Scott said. ‘He’s pretty close with his family. He talks to them all the time. I just get them mixed up.’

Sure, answering the phone is a thorn in his roommate’s side. But being close to his family was why Swittenburg, a junior cornerback on the Syracuse football team, chose SU in the first place.

Three years later, Swittenburg is making a name for himself in Syracuse’s secondary. After making big plays in each of Syracuse’s first two wins (a forced fumble against UNC and an interception against UCF), Swittenburg pushed his way into the starting lineup against Boston College and he’s remained there since.

Ironically, though, Swittenburg signed with Syracuse to play on the other side of the ball, as a running back alongside fellow recruits Walter Reyes and Diamond Ferri.

‘(I saw myself) being in a great line of backs,’ Swittenburg said. ‘Following up James Mungro and Floyd Little and Larry Czonka and Jim Brown and following in their footsteps. But times changed and I had to change with them.’

After Swittenburg was stuck on the bench his freshman year, head coach Paul Pasqualoni approached him about a change of position.

‘Coach P came to me one day and asked how I felt about playing defense,’ Swittenburg said. ‘I really didn’t mind because I had played defensive backfield in high school. He said, ‘Let’s just try. If you don’t like it, you can go back to running back.’ ‘

Instead of complaining, Swittenburg embraced the idea of moving to a position where he could possibly work his way into game rotation.

No, it wasn’t running back – his first love – but Swittenburg says he never considered any other options once realizing carrying the ball wasn’t in his future.

‘(Transferring) really didn’t cross my mind,’ he said. ‘I might think about Auburn and the weather they’ve got down there, but I really don’t think about other schools.’

Instead, Swittenburg focused his thoughts on defense.

‘It was a real easy transition,’ Swittenburg said. ‘But having a year off and not playing it in a game, you kind of get rusty and your skills go down.’

Yet, with help from Scott, a safety, and the rest of SU’s defensive backfield, it didn’t take Swittenburg long to regain the defensive skills for which some schools had tried to recruit him out of high school.

In his sophomore season, Swittenburg again rode the bench for much of the year. Despite the need for depth and fresh legs, he was still the lowest stump on the defensive backfield totem pole.

But with each practice, Swittenburg’s improvement became harder for his coaches and teammates to ignore. After a year of reacquainting himself with defense, Syracuse coaches decided he was ready to finally get in the game.

‘He’s a good athlete, so it was easy for him to pick it up,’ Scott said. ‘He’s going to keep on getting better, you can tell. Every day he gets better and he works real hard, so, of course, he’s going to get better and better.’

And with 27 tackles, two interceptions and a forced fumble in just his first full year of playing college defense, that’s music to the ears Syracuse coaches, who rewarded him by naming him starting cornerback opposite sophomore Steve Gregory four games ago.

‘Some people, when they start starting, they slack off a little bit,’ Scott said. ‘But when (Troy) started starting he was like, ‘This is not it. This is just a step toward where I need to be.’ ‘

Whether or not he ever gets that point remains to be seen. Either way, though, he’s glad to just have the chance.

‘Right now, I’m just happy to be playing,’ Swittenburg said. ‘Wherever I can play, the main thing is I just want to get in there and make some plays that can help the team win. Now this is my home, and I like it. I like playing defense.’

Published on November 19, 2003 at 12:00 pm