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The Daily OrangeJoe Paterno relives Syracuse rivalry
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Posted: 9/11/08, 10:28 PM EST Section: Sports
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During his weekly teleconference with reporters, legendary Penn State head coach Joe Paterno dished on the Penn State-Syracuse rivalry, the current state of the Orange and more. Here are a few of the 81-year-old Paterno's best SU-related responses:
On Ernie Davis and the premiere of "The Express:" "I was just telling these guys here Ernie Davis went to junior high in Uniontown (Pa.). I think he was on the same junior high team as Sandy Stephens and (same school as) the Muncie kids (Chuck Muncie). Oh, he was a great football player.
"We've had some great football games with Syracuse through the years. And they've always had some great backs going back to Jimmy Brown. So he (Davis) was a class kid. I didn't know him well. But, you know certainly he was someone that college football and Syracuse can be proud of. I think it's great they made a movie of him."
On Syracuse's struggles: "Well, I only looked at one tape over the summer of Syracuse just to get a feel of what they were doing. I didn't look at personnel. I couldn't even tell you the game I looked at. I had a whole mess of tapes down at the shore with me.
"But, I don't know. It's really tough to say. They looked good against Northwestern. They kind of let things get out of hand, and Northwestern is a pretty good football team.
"And against Akron, Akron jumped on them, 14-0. They came back; they changed quarterbacks. They went with (Cameron) Dantley against Akron, so they look like they're in the process of just trying to come up with the right combination.
"But they can run. They've got a couple of good running backs. They've got the kid from Philadelphia, (Curtis) Brinkley, number 22, who was a heck of a high school player and played well against Akron. So I really couldn't tell you.
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