For Walter Reyes, this is not an act.

The cameras, the photographers, the lenses, the reporters – they’re all surrounding Walter Reyes, the real Walter Reyes, not some facade produced to win the public’s love.

This isn’t a front, some veil to hide behind because he doesn’t want to come off as selfish or egotistical or bigheaded or arrogant.

That’s the real Walter Reyes speaking about how this is a team effort and the Heisman Trophy doesn’t matter and how he just wants to win. That is really him. And when it kills you, that’s when Reyes will stop with his achingly painful humility. Maybe.

But even if he won’t admit it – and, he never will – this is Reyes’ year. Just focus on the senior running back for once. He is a Heisman Trophy contender, he’s threatening to break Syracuse’s all-time rushing record and all-time touchdowns record. He gives Syracuse a chance to succeed, reach a bowl game, climb over the .500 mark. He’s Syracuse’s only hope of achieving, well, anything.

‘This is a dream come true,’ Reyes says of his publicity. ‘But I’m going to put the team before me. I want to help the team.’

He talks about ‘the team’ as if there is a team. What he fails to understand is that he is the team. His unrelenting modesty blinds him of even that. He fails, the team fails. If he succeeds, the team…well, it’s at least got a chance.

Reyes is the man who has resurrected excitement for football season, who started playing football only as a high school freshman, who waved off millions of dollars to earn a degree, who lost one of his closest childhood friends two years ago but persevered. Now, he has made himself the focal point. Now, Reyes is the spokesman.

‘I get chills in my body,’ Reyes says about starting the season. ‘We want to show the world what SU football is all about.’

Right now, it’s about Reyes. Because with that comment at Syracuse Media Day on Aug. 12, someone whisks Reyes away for another photo shoot (his fourth of the day), and it appears this has become Reyes’ world – an eternal photo shoot, continuous hype and unending questions about the Heisman Trophy. Oh, and football.

‘Get him in the Heisman stance,’ center Matt Tarullo says, partly to the photographer and partly to Reyes himself.

‘No,’ Reyes replies, and he resorts to a poor-man’s Heisman pose, ball tucked away and right knee kicked, but no stiff-arm.

That this 5-foot-10, 210-pound senior is even on the list is shocking, considering two years ago Reyes appeared destined for backup duty. And that eight years ago, Reyes’ mother had forbidden him from even playing football.

Back then, he was Walter Reyes the track star, pleading with his mother, Marylou Tinsley, to play football.

‘Football has injuries and broken bones,’ Tinsley said. ‘Stick to track.’

‘But pleeeease,’ Reyes said.

Tinsley eventually relented.

After an 0-10 freshman season in high school, Reyes led Struthers High School to an 8-2 record his sophomore year. The offers started pouring in.

‘He was so much faster than everyone else,’ former Struthers coach Gary Zetts says. ‘But he was raw. You could see the strength and speed he had to beat everyone but without any football discipline. We’d time all our kids in the 40-yard dash, and, for Walter, we were getting reads that said 4.2. Four-point-two. That’s impossible. Who can run a 4.2?’

‘Walter was a stud,’ high school teammate Bob Stouffer says. ‘You give him the ball, you were guaranteed to see him break at least two for touchdowns. Guaranteed.’

By junior year, Reyes was winning Player of the Game more than half the time. (The prize for winning the award was a $10 gift certificate at a local sports bar. He ate a healthy amount of his meals for free.)

Now, Reyes keeps close ties with his high school. Two weeks before starting classes at Syracuse, Reyes was back in Struthers, lecturing the high school team on the importance of studying and staying out of trouble.

Reyes tutors Justin Penson, a running back at Struthers who is likely destined for Division I football. Reyes approached Penson last year, and the two talk frequently.

‘He asked me if I was keeping my head straight,’ Penson says of Reyes’ visit last month. ‘He wants to make sure I have good grades, that I’m not drinking or getting in trouble. And he tells me about recruiting, telling me not to accept anything and not to commit to anything.’

It’s harder for Reyes than you think. Hard when you get a call in the summer between your freshman and sophomore year and hear your girlfriend on the other end say, ‘It’s about Freddy.’

How do you respond when you hear someone murdered your best friend in a drug-related incident? You could lash out. Many recluse. Some turn to drugs or alcohol.

In Syracuse for summer workouts, Reyes was essentially isolated at the time. His friend, who he knew for nearly a decade, was shot and killed. Most SU coaches were recruiting at the time. Only George DeLeone remained.

Reyes approached DeLeone, who acted as Reyes’ crutch.

‘Obviously he was devastated,’ DeLeone said. ‘We talked a lot about going home and being strong with the young man’s family and help the people there who were devastated by the loss. He had to go there and be the strength. The other thing we talked about was, I said, ‘You obviously had a close relationship with this guy. You have to conduct yourself in a way that makes that relationship a proud one. Be proud of that relationship.’ ‘

Reyes buried his childhood friend back in Ohio.

‘I just lost it,’ Reyes says pausing, giving the feeling he’s thinking of Freddy. ‘I didn’t know how to handle it.’

Two weeks later he returned to Syracuse and the routine he then needed – to steal his mind.

‘Every time I’d get tired, I’d think of him,’ Reyes says. ‘It just gave me energy. It still does.’

He’s stronger now. Both as a person and a rusher.

Last season proved that.

Reyes ran for 1,347 yards, 112 per game, and scored 20 touchdowns. But whispers of a Heisman Trophy quickly flattened as Syracuse stumbled to a 6-6 record.

This year, even Reyes can’t deny the Heisman hype. There is no way Reyes can talk his way out of it, or remove himself from the limelight.

This is it. No more talking about the team or supporting cast or just winning. This is his year to win the Heisman Trophy, to become one of the premier backs in the nation.

Do you think you’re one of the best running backs in the country?

‘Yeah, I do,’ Reyes replies.

Number One?

‘Well, I’m a humble person,’ he says, ‘but I’d say top three. With Cadillac (Williams) at Auburn and Cedric Benson at Texas.’

Most of the nation agrees.

‘Walter Reyes is an extremely talented back,’ Temple defensive tackle Antwon Burton said. ‘To be completely honest, he’s the best back I’ve ever played against. That’s including (current Detroit Lion) Kevin Jones.’

Said Boston College coach Tom O’Brien: ‘Our focus going into the game is always to stop Reyes. He’s a tough guy to bring down. He has a lot of the attributes of great running backs. He can run over you. He can run around you. He can run past you. If you know Syracuse and how they like to run their tailback, when you play them, you find the tailback and don’t let him rush.’

Because of talk like that, Reyes considered his options in the NFL Draft – for about a day.

‘You know what?’ he said to his mom during midseason, ‘I think I might declare for the NFL.’

Tinsley never heard another word about it.

He returned for his senior year. Why? So that he joins the ranks of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Larry Csonka, Floyd Little and Joe Morris. So that he secures his legacy.

So that he wins SU’s first Heisman Trophy since Ernie Davis in 1961.

‘It’s a great honor just to be mentioned in that category,’ Reyes says. ‘But we just have to win. If we win, everything will fall into place. If we’re not winning, all that talk is going to go away. So the first thing we gotta do is win.’

He still doesn’t get it. He is the one that needs to win. Not the team. He needs to succeed. Because Walter Reyes is the team. Period.

Published on September 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm