PROVO, Utah — Will Hunter doesn’t want to complain, but he does wish somebody would listen.

At halftime of Syracuse’s 42-21 loss at Brigham Young, the sixth-year cornerback told the coaching staff he thought he should blitz more in the second half. After all, when Hunter blitzed in the first 30 minutes, it yielded a sack and a rushed throw from BYU quarterback Bret Engemann that resulted in a Syracuse interception.

“So I went in there at halftime and figured, ‘Why not? We should blitz more,’ ” Hunter said. “I guess the coaches saw something, but I didn’t see it. I thought the blitz was working. I told them we should do it more.”

Instead, SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni and his staff decided to blitz less in the second half. The Orangemen opted to sit back on defense, rush three or four defensive linemen and leave Engemann with a world of time.

Apparently, that strategy worked just fine for Engemann, who completed 32-of-49 passing attempts for 388 yards and three touchdowns.

“We knew Engemann was a very good player, and we tried a little bit with the blitz early,” Pasqualoni said. “They picked it up a little bit, which is a risk you take. So we moved away from it in the second half.”

“It’s easy to be great when your not under pressure,” Hunter said about Engemann’s success. “We made it a pretty good game for him that way. When I was blitzing, they were just letting me come through, and we had some big plays. They weren’t going to stop me, but we stopped using it.”

No Problems

Walk-on long snapper Dave DeAmato looked almost flawless in his first collegiate action.

DeAmato seemed to slide in effortlessly early, feeding two perfect snaps to punter Mike Shafer on Syracuse’s first two possessions.

On the first of those two punts, BYU returner Reno Mahe was tackled for a loss. On the second, Hunter forced a fumble, and Syracuse recovered deep in Cougar territory.

“Dave stepped in and did a real nice job,” SU special teams coach Chris White said. “He didn’t have any real big problems, and he got the snap back there quickly. In terms of his blocking, they didn’t really come at us, so we didn’t get to see where he is with that yet.”

DeAmato’s lone miscue came late in the first quarter when Shafer had to jump to grab a snap. Still, the punter managed a 30-yard kick that pinned BYU inside the 20.

“I was pretty happy with how the punting team did,” White said. “Our gunners got down there fast after the punt and were able to make big plays. We were pretty successful there.”

This and that

Think Brigham Young really is in a different world? According to the local yellow pages, Provo, population 70,000, boasts zero liquor stores. … Starting defensive tackle Christian Ferrara left the game at halftime with a left knee sprain and did not play in the second half. Pasqualoni said he isn’t sure whether Ferrara will play next week against North Carolina. … In absence of SU students, a group of 50 elderly Syracuse residents repeatedly chanted for the Orangemen. Those 50 fans, the loudest Syracuse contingent, arrived in Provo yesterday after an 11-day odyssey that took them through Las Vegas, Wyoming and much of the Midwest. … BYU classes don’t start until Tuesday, but a raucous student section made its presence felt. … BYU kicker Matt Payne played like the Shafer of 2000. Payne missed his first two field goals and converted 3 of 6 extra points, prompting fans to boo loudly when he ran on the field to attempt a 31-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter. Payne silenced the home crowd by booting it through. … The crowd of 65,612 was the largest at an SU season opener since 1980.

Published on August 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm