Josh Thomas leaned back and considered the question.

He sensed something was different around Manley Field House yesterday, and for a moment, his brow perplexedly furrowed as he struggled to figure out what. Then his eyes widened in enlightenment.

“We don’t get asked the same questions,” Thomas said with a grin. “It’s kind of fun to have a smile on your face. It’s nice to feel respect.”

The Syracuse football defense garnered such respect, albeit against hapless Rutgers, by holding the Scarlet Knights to 193 yards of offense in a 45-14 win. Much of that can be attributed to the SU defense playing with nearly its full complement of starters for the first time all season.

Thomas started at defensive end, feeling completely recovered from a left foot injury suffered in the season opener against Brigham Young. He has dropped 10 pounds since then to take stress off the foot.

“I feel good,” Thomas said. “This is the best I’ve felt all season.”

It showed. Thomas recorded three tackles, two sacks and recovered a fumble. Overall, the defense totaled eight sacks and allowed just 16 rushing yards.

“I felt a lot of confidence out there,” said defensive tackle Christian Ferrara, who missed three games this season with a knee injury. “You could tell because there were fewer mistakes.”

Same could be said for the secondary, which boasted a senior foursome for the first time this year.

Maurice McClain, who started in his first game back from a devastating left leg injury incurred during an April practice, stepped in for struggling free safety O’Neil Scott.

Graduate student Will Hunter and senior Latroy Oliver bookended the corner slots, and senior Keeon Walker assumed the strong-safety position.

The group held Rutgers’ quarterbacks Ryan Cubit, Ted Trump and Ryan Hart to 177 passing yards.

The only expected starter to miss the game was linebacker Jameel Dumas, who continues to recover from a sprained left ankle he suffered last week against West Virginia.

Second-stringer Kellen Pruitt started in his place and looked comfortable, totaling six tackles and two passes defended.

“(Dumas) dressed, and we tried to warm him up,” Pasqualoni said. “He was limping a little bit. We decided we’d go with a full-speed Kellen Pruitt over a hobbled Jameel Dumas.”

***

Take three

Damien Rhodes shrugged off his two-fumble, 10-yard performance last week.

“I didn’t get too down after West Virginia,” Rhodes said. “It was a learning experience. I knew it was stuff I could correct.”

Apparently, he did.

Rhodes scored three touchdowns three different ways Saturday, becoming the first player in Syracuse history to do so in a single game.

He scored in traditional running-back fashion: a 5-yard run and 5-yard reception. And in a more unorthodox way: a 3-yard return of a blocked Rutgers punt.

“The ball just bounced our way,” Rhodes said. “I just happened to be there to pick it up.”

***

This and that

Kicker Collin Barber made 1 of 3 field goals Saturday, dropping him to 5 for 11 this season. He had an 18-yard try blocked and missed a 40-yarder. His 33-yard, third-quarter attempt was good. … Syracuse actually leads the nation in a positive category. The Orangemen have the country’s best punt-return-yards-allowed average: 1.9 per return. Against Rutgers, Syracuse allowed 4 yards on two returns. … When Quinn Ojinnaka started Saturday for the injured Adam Terry, Ojinnaka became the first true freshman offensive lineman to start a game since Blake Bednarz in 1986. … Ferrara’s thoughts when Rutgers blocked Barber’s first-quarter field-goal try and returned it for a touchdown: “I was like, ‘This isn’t happening.’ ”

Published on October 28, 2002 at 12:00 pm