MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A week spent practicing slant routes. A day spent flying here. A morning spent taping ankles and preparing to play.

But for 23 minutes of football, it seemed six Syracuse receivers had traveled 400 miles to run practice patterns and cheerlead. During that first-half stretch, they made about as much of an impact as you did sitting on the couch and watching the game.

‘Any time you have a group like we have, you want more responsibility,’ receiver Jared Jones said. ‘You want more opportunities, but that’s up to the coaches, and that’s why they have those jobs.

‘The receivers as a whole, we want the ball more. So it can be a little frustrating.’

A Syracuse receiver made significant contact with the football twice in the first quarter and a half of SU’s 34-7 loss at West Virginia on Saturday. Neither time was a reception.

Midway through the first quarter, David Tyree felt the pigskin when he acrobatically swung backwards to get a hand on quarterback R.J. Anderson’s attempted pass. Somehow, Tyree stretched out his finger and tipped it — right into the hands of West Virginia safety Jahmile Addae, who gave his offense the ball 37 yards from the endzone.

‘That pass was completely out of my range,’ Tyree said.

Next, on a third-and-13 one drive later, Johnnie Morant saw some action. He hauled in Syracuse’s first catch when he chased an errant Anderson pass two yards out of bounds to make an impressive, yet meaningless, snag.

‘I didn’t really have a chance on that one,’ Morant said.

Not many Syracuse receivers had a chance in the first half. Anderson started the game with a bullet pass that sailed over Tyree’s head. He never did much better — finishing 6 of 17 with an interception — before leaving the game with a slight shoulder injury early in the second half.

Perhaps Anderson’s lowest moment — and the greatest moment of frustration for his receivers — came on a fourth-and-3 four minutes before halftime.

On West Virginia’s 36-yard line, Anderson whirled a rocket pass to Morant. The ball skipped a few yards behind Morant’s feet, prompting the receiver to shake his head in Anderson’s direction.

‘The guy covering me slipped, and the rest of the field was open,’ Morant said. ‘But the pass was behind me. I didn’t have to say anything to (Anderson). He knew what had happened. He knew I was upset. But everything can’t be perfect.’

‘All I can do is worry about myself,’ Anderson said. ‘I’ve got to play as hard as I can to help this team. Right now, it’s not working.’

After Anderson exited , Syracuse receivers saw a little more action. Backup quarterback Troy Nunes completed 10 of 17 passes, spreading the ball around in desperate hope of a comeback.

By game’s end, the receivers had 15 catches for 165 yards — maybe enough to merit the trip here, not enough to quell concerns.

‘I love R.J., and I love everybody,’ Tyree said. ‘But what it comes down to is making plays in crucial situations, that’s not happening right now. We need to find a way to get us working better together.’

Published on October 20, 2002 at 12:00 pm