COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Morris was standing beside the Capitol One Field at Byrd Stadium bleachers after the game when Syracuse’s resident living legend took a chance to speak with the young running back.

Floyd Little, the NFL Hall of Famer and special assistant to the athletics director, stepped out of Hunt’s postgame press conference and into the chilly College Park night where Morris was preparing for an interview.

“That’s just what we talked about,” he stopped and said to Morris as he walked by.

Morris ran the ball seven times for 50 yards and at one point logged three straight carries for 42. With Gulley knocked out of the game after just one carry with an ankle sprain, Morris became the Orange’s No. 2 option in the running game during the 20-3 win.

Morris said that Gulley wasn’t banged up at all during the week, so he wasn’t expecting to be SU’s second running-back option until Gulley was knocked out of the game.

“I got a feeling,” Morris said. “I just got a hunch that when my number was called that I just had to go out there and had to do what I had to do and do it to the best of my abilities.”

On a third-and-2 early in the second quarter, Syracuse finally went to someone aside from Smith. Morris took a carry 7 yards to the right side to pick up a first down. On the very next play, he broke free for a 23-yard gain before adding another 12 on his next carry.

A play later, the Orange went back to Smith, who fumbled.

Morris got the ball four other times throughout the day, but the most significant chunk of his yardage came in that three-play stretch.

“I thought George Morris looked pretty doggone good out there a few times, didn’t he?” Shafer said. “There’ll be a day when he just breaks a couple and everybody says, ‘Ooh, where’d that kid come from?’ He’s been sitting behind two pretty good ones.”

Published on November 9, 2013 at 9:51 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2