Joe Paterno relives Syracuse rivalry

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Posted: 9/12/08

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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.

"I think that they're great. But they played a good team. Akron's a pretty good football team. Akron gave Wisconsin a good football game out at Madison, and Wisconsin's a heck of a football team.

"Syracuse had to play Northwestern at Northwestern, so, you know, it's early. We'll see what happens."

On whether there is particular game in the Syracuse series that stands out: "Well, we beat them up there (15-14) one year (1969) which was a big win for us. But I think probably the one that would stand out the most - you kind of caught me in a way with that one - would have been, I think it was '55 when they had Jimmy Brown and we had Lenny Moore. Beat them 21-20, I think. And Lenny ran for 145 yards, and Brown ran for about 150.

And in those days they were only carrying about 12, 14 times, and still two of the best football players to have played the game. He (Lenny) may be one of the best players to ever play at Penn State.

That one, and we were undefeated when they won the national championship. That would have been 1959. We went for two and didn't make it or we would have beaten them (SU won, 20-18). They were a heck of a football team.

On where the Penn State-Syracuse relationship is now: "Well, I don't know. We have a home and home with them. But that's the only two games we're playing right now. I wish it were more. I came to Penn State back in 1950. It was a big rivalry for us, Syracuse and Penn State. Had some great games then.

"I think we played every year until we, you know, what we talked about earlier. When we had a shot at the Big Ten because we couldn't get the other one going in it. There are some great people both at Syracuse and at Penn State.

"You know, in the old days it was nice, too. Because we used to go by bus, and we used to stay downtown at the Onondaga Hotel. The Syracuse people would have a party, a social hour. The assistant coaches, we'd all go over there after we tucked the kids in bed. Hang around with some of the guys like Ted Dailey, who was a line coach. Ben Schwartzwalder was a West Virginia graduate. He coached at Muhlenberg before he went to Syracuse.

"Schwartzwalder said one time, 'I wish we didn't play this game. All I want to do is get that (Rip) Engle out there in the middle of the field, and I'll knock the heck out of him.' They supposedly hated each other."