Jameel Dumas and Damien Rhodes will not play in the Syracuse football team’s season finale Saturday against Notre Dame, SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni said.

Dumas, a fifth-year senior and outside linebacker, has been out since the fourth quarter of SU’s season opener at North Carolina with a left knee injury. Pasqualoni will seek a sixth year of eligibility for Dumas.

‘We’re going to research everything we can through the NCAA,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘We’re going to try hard to explore as much as we can and build a case. It seems to me if the NCAA is interested in the welfare of the student-athlete, they would give Jameel another chance.’

Pasqualoni is hopeful because Dumas missed virtually the entire season. Redshirt freshman Kelvin Smith took his place to start SU’s final 11 games.

‘Kelvin did an excellent job,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘He gained a wealth of experience.’

Rhodes will miss his seventh game in a row. After fighting a preseason injury to his left ankle that forced him out of one game and parts of others, Rhodes sustained a different injury to the same ankle at Virginia Tech. Rhodes was cleared to begin exercising on the ankle for next Monday, which Pasqualoni called ironic.

Playing nearly the whole season without Rhodes, who finished with only 123 rushing yards in four games, and Dumas, SU’s leading returning tackler, damaged the Orangemen. Running back Walter Reyes was forced to carry a strenuous workload. After leading the nation in rushing briefly early this season, he hasn’t rushed for more than 100 yards since Big East play began and now averages 105 yards.

‘It hurt a great deal,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘Jameel had a lot of experience. There’s no question losing a fifth-year senior hurt. When you lose a highly skilled offensive player like Damien, who not only made big plays running but also catching passes, it hurts.’

Last hurrah

For five years, Joe Donnelly has trudged out to practice, dreading hours of drills and torturous ribbing from coaches.

This week, though, Donnelly’s last as an Orangeman, the senior tight end will skip to practice, eager to soak in the delight of working hard.

‘It really hit me Monday at practice,’ Donnelly said. ‘Rather than think, ‘Oh, we have to go hit the bags with Coach (George) DeLeone,’ rather than being annoyed at certain things, this is my last opportunity to line up and get screamed at by this decrepit old man. It’s one of those things you hated for years, but a lot of us are going to miss that.’

Saturday will mark the final collegiate game for 16 Syracuse seniors, who in the past four years have compiled a 26-23 record.

‘We really want to send Coach P off as seniors,’ Donnelly said. ‘He’s done so much for us. We really want to get a win for him.’

Who’s next?

With all the veterans receiving a Senior Day exit, its time to speculate on who next year’s leaders will be.

With R.J. Anderson departing and Perry Patterson, who’ll be only a sophomore, taking over at quarterback, the burden to lead the offense will fall on Reyes, receiver Jared Jones and guard Matt Tarullo, all seniors-to-be. The three are already vocal leaders, leaving the offense in good hands.

Defensively, things aren’t as settled. Safety Diamond Ferri will be SU’s only senior starter next season. Outside linebackers Kellen Pruitt, a sophomore, and Smith will be looked to for leadership on a front seven that loses four seniors.

The biggest hole may be at middle linebacker, a spot that will be vacated by captain and leading tackler Rich Scanlon. Filling it could be Jameel McClain, a 6-foot-1, 248-pound freshman who redshirted this season.

‘I look at Jameel McClain, he’s already playing like he could be a starter next year,’ Donnelly said. ‘That’s physical ability. Can he step in and do the leadership things? It’s going to be real tough to see who can step and play that middle linebacker spot.’

Whoever does step in will play behind a revamped defensive line. The loss of stalwarts Josh Thomas, Louis Gachelin and Christian Ferrara will force Shadeed Harris, Kader Drame and Ryan LaCasse to play larger roles alongside James Wyche, currently a sophomore starter.

Wyche, a 6-foot-5, 264-pound defensive end with a 4.3-second time in the 40-yard dash, could be the leader of SU’s defense next year.

‘He should have a breakout season,’ Donnelly said. ‘He should be the next Dwight Freeney. With his physical abilities, he should be unstoppable. He really needs to take it to the next level.’

Coaching climate

Pasqualoni declined to speak about his job security yesterday, saying he was focused only on Notre Dame. But when asked about what the firing of Nebraska head coach Frank Solich shows about college football coaching, Pasqualoni had this to say:

‘That’s the reality of I-A football. One real thing counts. It doesn’t matter how many kids graduate. It doesn’t matter what kind of kids you produce. All that matters is wins. That’s what the people at Nebraska are saying.’

Published on December 3, 2003 at 12:00 pm