SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -Syracuse center Jim McKenzie had stewed too long. Now, at least that botched hike is really behind him.
McKenzie began the Doug Marrone era at Syracuse in a most improbable way on Saturday. His first hike of the game sailed high over the head of quarterback Greg Paulus and ended in the hands of the Golden Gophers, who needed just 19 seconds to score the game’s first touchdown.
That Syracuse rallied to take the lead before losing in overtime made the turnover that much more difficult to accept.
“It was completely my fault,” McKenzie said Wednesday. “I held the ball too long and it just got away from me. If you get a little too much of it (the ball), it can really fly on you. I’ve been in situations like that before. It was just a mistake. I guess that’s all I can chalk it up to. I take full responsibility and am just going to move past it.”
tion that the play clock had already reached zero.
Still, that won’t change the final score, a 23-20 Minnesota win.
“That’s part of the reason we lost,” McKenzie said.
Instead of collapsing, Syracuse rallied to take a 20-14 halftime lead, and McKenzie had no other issues the remainder of the game.
“You just really go to the next play,” he said. “You’d be surprised at how easily (that happens). As soon as you get that next snap back, it’s like second nature to you. You make a mistake, you just get back on the horse.
“Everything just kind of fell into place. It’s something I’m expected to do. We fixed it, and it’s going to be fixed for the remainder (of the season).”
Paulus shouldered part of the blame for what went wrong on the first play of his college football career. He even saw a positive in the miscue.
“We got into the play a little bit late and I rushed it a little bit,” said the former Duke point guard, who received an NCAA waiver to play football with his final year of athletic eligibility. “The communication on my part wasn’t very good. I will take the blame for that. After that, we settled down, so maybe that was a blessing. It was good to get the first mistake out of the way and get the ball rolling. I like the way we responded.”
formation where he hikes the ball directly to a running back.
“The angle of the snap sometimes will get affected by the way I’m stepping,” McKenzie said. “It’s not just a simple, ‘I get the ball back, my job’s done.”’
McKenzie’s job figures to be very challenging on Saturday. The Orange visit No. 7 Penn State (1-0) in sold-out Beaver Stadium.
“With that much noise, every call I make, every type of idea for protection and run calls need to be repeated,” McKenzie said. “I need to be able to hear Greg Paulus if I can. If I can’t, we’re on a silent count, some type of thing where we’ll be able to get the ball back in a timely fashion.”
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