Spring Break
The Daily OrangeFB | When Pittsburgh visits the Carrier Dome, it will be led by these 3 players
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Posted: 9/25/08, 11:15 PM EST Section: Sports
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As much as the Orange would love to focus on Pittsburgh's running game, players like Kinder will keep the team on its toes. Quarterback Bill Stull has struggled at times this season, throwing three interceptions and one touchdown. But he has talented receivers around him, a unit guided by Kinder, a senior who leads the team with 11 catches for 105 yards. He caught Stull's lone touchdown.
"We've still got to be disciplined to know that they've got a good enough throwing offense that they can create and make plays," said Syracuse co-defensive coordinator Derrick Jackson. "So we can't sit there and just say, 'We're going to be 100 percent committed to the run,' and allow them opportunities to expose us in other areas."
Kinder is part of that. He was a stud in 2006, with 57 catches for 847 yards and six touchdowns. But he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in training camp last year. And now, against Syracuse's finally healthy secondary, he has a chance to re-assert himself in Big East play.
LeSean McCoy
There's no reason to avoid the issue. The focus will be on McCoy this weekend. The Panthers build its offense around the 5-foot-11, 210-pound sophomore running back. And the Orange knows it has to stop him to win.
"They have some real good blocking schemes that are obviously based around him, and trying to get him to break out in the open field," said SU middle linebacker Jake Flaherty. "In the open field, he's a very fluid athlete and very fast and explosive and has some very nice moves."
McCoy set a Big East freshman rushing record last season, racking up 1,328 yards - 140 of those tallied in a win against the Orange. He's gotten off to a slower start this season - 256 yards in three games - but Syracuse still understands the need to shut him down.
"Obviously, we have to factor him in," Flaherty said.
Scott McKillop
Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt has always been a defensive specialist - but players like McKillop make that easy. The 6-foot-2, 240-pound middle linebacker is Pitt's rock, the cornerstone of its defense. Last year, his first as a starter, McKillop led the nation in tackles, accumulating 151 total.
Syracuse running back Curtis Brinkley played with McKillop five years ago, when both played for Pennsylvania's squad in the annual Big 33 Classic against Ohio. Brinkley was the star that day, gaining 226 total yards and scoring twice. But he remembered McKillop, who had to wait two years behind star linebacker H.B. Blades.
"I'm familiar with him," Brinkley said. "He's a great linebacker. Like I said, they got great people around him as well."
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Marc LeVine
posted 9/26/08 @ 12:41 PM EST
What difference does it make, who our Big Time opponent is this week? The results will be the same. Going into the Pitt game we are 16 point underdogs!!! We barely beat a 1-AA cream puff last weekend. (Continued…)
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