The 2002 Syracuse football season gave Will Hunter, the Orangemen’s most outspoken player, plenty of reasons to speak out.

En route to a 4-8 record — SU’s first losing season since 1986 — the Orangemen switched quarterbacks in midseason, fielded one of the worst defenses in the nation and played poorly enough to put Paul Pasqualoni’s job in discernible jeopardy. (In October, Director of Athletics Jake Crouthamel held a press conference specifically to reaffirm his commitment to the head coach.)

Hunter, a graduate student and cornerback, played his own role in the drama. Following SU’s 34-7 loss at West Virginia on Oct. 19, Hunter said some of his teammates were “playing with no heart.” Now, just weeks from leaving Syracuse, Hunter candidly reflected on his season and his career.

“It was trying,” Hunter said. “It was one of those years where you have to play your hardest, but it’s difficult at times.

“We played with a lot of underclassmen. We might have had just four seniors on defense. A lot of our team was sophomores and redshirt freshmen. They were pretty much learning the game, adjusting to the speed. Those guys are obviously going to make their mistakes, but as seniors, we made a lot of mistakes, too.”

Despite the presence of seniors Keeon Walker and Latroy Oliver in the secondary, SU’s pass defense surrendered 303.8 yards passing per game, or 90 worse than any other team in the Big East.

Hunter said the problems arose from inconsistency in the secondary, specifically among its coaches. In 2001, Brian Stewart coached the secondary. Last season, Tim Walton. Next year, Todd Littlejohn. Get the picture? Syracuse is now working on its sixth defensive backs coach in as many seasons.

“That’s tough on everybody,” Hunter said. “It’s tough to adjust to each coach, because they all have different styles and they all have different techniques. It’s kind of like you’re going back and forth on what you’re being taught, so it’s tough to make progress. Until they get some stability back there, Syracuse will never have another All-American in the secondary.

“Brian Stewart was a motivator. He could pick up anybody, regardless of whether they were struggling, and make them feel like a great player. He did a great job of explaining technique. We always knew where the other players would be on the field.

“This year, the coaching wasn’t as good. Tim Walton was a good coach. He knew a lot about football. But he broke us down. If a guy made a mistake, that person knew he wouldn’t see the field again. You’d get taken out. To have that thought in the back of your mind, that makes it very tough. You’re tentative. You can’t react. In 2001, they allowed mistakes. Then they’d allow you to stay out there and correct those mistakes.”

Like a tempest, mistakes flooded the 2002 season. Not all of them were on the field, either. Hunter is complimentary of Pasqualoni and defensive coordinator Chris Rippon, but he also said several seniors set a bad example.

“Coach Rippon, he always believed we could turn things around,” Hunter said. “He encouraged us to come in and watch more film (in optional sessions). After a while, guys stopped showing. It was like follow-the-leader. First, some of the seniors would skip the film sessions, then the underclassmen would follow. I’m not going to name names, but it started with the seniors. We weren’t giving the other guys a good example.”

Hunter said he never skipped a film session, but observing the complacency of his teammates, in part, sparked the comments that followed the West Virginia loss.

Against the Mountaineers — a game that would mark quarterback R.J. Anderson’s final start of the season — Syracuse fumbled four times and allowed 279 rushing yards.

“To lose that badly at West Virginia, that was embarrassing,” Hunter said. “We weren’t putting in 100 percent. I could see it in the facial expressions, in the attitudes, in a lack of hustle going to the ball. I wasn’t directing that comment at anybody, but if someone took it personally, that must have meant that person wasn’t doing his job.

“Nobody came to me afterward and said anything about it. But I said it so people would take it as a challenge. Maybe that’s what we needed at the time. As a senior, I didn’t want to single guys out, but I did want people to know that the effort had to improve.”

The Orangemen would win their next three games, including a triple-overtime victory against No. 8 Virginia Tech. The streak corresponded with senior Troy Nunes’ reinsertion as the starting quarterback.

With Nunes, Syracuse’s offense improved markedly, but Hunter said that SU should further emphasize the passing game to be successful this season.

“This team can still be successful if they open up the offense,” Hunter said. “You have a guy who’s 6-foot-4, 220 pounds in Johnnie Morant who can out-jump anyone in the country. You have Jamel Riddle, who’s liable to make a play every time he touches the ball. They have to get those guys, the wide receivers, more involved. Don’t run every first down, because then it’s second and long. Throw the ball downfield to Johnnie. Don’t just pound the ball.

“Any time you have inconsistency on a team, that’s going to lead to trouble. Whoever played quarterback, we were going to fight for them. We were going to be behind them. The media is going do what they’re going to do. They’ll second-guess decisions, but as players, we never really did.

“Nobody on the team felt R.J. couldn’t do the job. Personally, I think he just got complacent with all the attention he got in the media. But I still think, if he plays like he did two years ago, he can have a great senior season.”

Hunter, in fact, believes the whole team isn’t that far away from returning to a bowl game. As for motivation, the 5-foot-11 nickelback thinks it might come from the feelings — misery, most specifically — that many players experienced this past season.

“I missed classes for about two weeks straight during the season,” Hunter recalled. “It was a little bit of depression, a little bit of anger. I couldn’t go to class, because it would have only made things worse. I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate anyway. Everyone I talked to, they were all trying to pick me up. They all said things would get better. At the time, I didn’t want to hear any of it — it would go in one ear and out the other — but I know now that I was able to take something from that.”

During the season, Hunter believed that he was playing “horribly.” Yet since the final game, he’s watched every play from every game at least twice. Now he feels better about his performance, specifically from the first half of the season, when he’d often be on the field for 110 plays each game.

Now he’s trying to latch on with an NFL team, though his best chances may come as a free-agent pick-up. On Friday, he traveled to Atlanta and interviewed with the Falcons. Should he get invited to a pro camp, Hunter said a team will see “they’re getting more than they bargained for.”

Meanwhile, the Syracuse grad will pay attention to his former teammates and the recovering 4-8 squad he was once a part of.

“Our team is right on the cusp of being great,” Hunter said. “They can do it, but it’s up to them. They have the talent, they have the playmakers. It’s just a matter of how much they want it. If you’re coming off a 4-8 season, you have to be hungry. If you’re not, you shouldn’t be around here.”

Published on April 13, 2003 at 12:00 pm