Last week, following his 241-yard, four-touchdown performance, Walter Reyes flashed a wide smile and, for a brief moment, a Heisman pose.

Saturday, after Syracuse’s 34-7 victory over Toledo, his campaign picked up speed.

Reyes proved he’s still the most dominant Orangeman after rushing for 162 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s 34-7 victory over Toledo. Reyes is still the leading rusher and scorer in the nation, averaging 170.3 yards and 15.5 points, respectively.

‘The (offensive line) makes holes about this big,’ Reyes said extending his arms the size of his wingspan. ‘At first, I’m expecting to get hit and then it’s like, ‘Oh, here we go.”’

Reyes’s day was almost cut short. With his legs tied together by a Toledo defender, Reyes helplessly struggled as UT defensive lineman Frank Ofili engulfed the junior, drove his torso back and bent him in half.

It was a hard, clean hit. But as the pile of blue and white jerseys began clambering their way up, one jersey was missing. No. 39 spread motionless on the ground as trainers sprinted to his aid.

After a few minutes, Reyes lifted himself up and trotted off the field. Nothing more than a slightly overextended left quadriceps. He would return on the next drive.

Nearly 36,000 fans gave a standing ovation, not merely for the health of SU’s running back but for the salvation of its start, of which Reyes is the main – if not sole – reason.

‘On top of being really patient, he’s really explosive,’ Ofili said. ‘Walter Reyes is an excellent running back. He doesn’t force anything. He waits for the hole to open up and takes it as opposed to some running backs who just force it.’

Reyes opened the game ordinarily, gaining 31 yards between six rushes and two receptions in SU’s 11-play opening drive, which culminated with a field goal.

On SU’s next possession, though, Reyes wasted no time. On a third-and-one, Reyes snuck through the defensive line and broke 61 yards for a touchdown, outrunning cornerback Brandon Hefflin to put SU up, 10-0.

After the SU defense forced a Toledo turnover on downs, Reyes again dominated. When Syracuse faced a fourth-and-one on the Toledo 43-yard line, SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni decided to feed Reyes the ball. A failed fourth down could’ve reset the game’s momentum.

Instead, Reyes rumbled 43 yards for another touchdown, putting SU up, 17-0.

‘We tried to run blitz on those short yardage plays and make a big play,’ Toledo head coach Tom Amstutz said. ‘He made some moves, found a hole and just took off.’

Just 56 seconds into the second quarter, Reyes had rushed for 134 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

‘I wasn’t expecting those plays to go for 70 yards,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘But if they don’t tackle him, he’s got so much speed he can outrun the backside defenders on the cutoff angle. Fortunately, he ended up with the ball on two of those, and outran the defense to the end zone.

‘As a coach, every once in a while you hope he can kind of pop out of there. And he didn’t really pop out of there, he ran through there. There was a hole that he ran through, and he just kept running. He has a great feel for it.’

Even after overextending his quad and with Syracuse in no danger of losing, coaches continued to feed Reyes the ball rather than stick with backup Damien Rhodes, who ran for 36 yards on 14 carries. He had three rushes for 13 yards after initially going down.

Still, Reyes had no complaints.

‘The most important thing is the win,’ Reyes said. ‘I want to help my team win and they played great tonight.’

Published on September 28, 2003 at 12:00 pm