Chris D’Appolonia didn’t exactly dress like a man who had just been through a 60-minute street fight. He was stretched out on his back after Syracuse’s 30-27 upset of No. 19 SMU, phone in hand, black tracksuit on, black hat pulled low.
The message on the front of that hat said plenty: “Make Football Violent Again.”
For D’Appolonia, it wasn’t a random postgame flex. It tied directly to defensive coordinator Vince Kehres, whose mindset has followed him from Toledo to Syracuse. D’Appolonia said the phrase has been part of Kehres’ message for years.
“It’s been his motto that we’re gonna play fast, physical, a violent brand of football,” D’Appolonia said postgame. “So, (it’s) something that I’ve worn the past couple years. (We want to) keep it going.”
That brand showed up all afternoon at the JMA Wireless Dome. Syracuse’s defense delivered four sacks, six tackles for loss and two fumbles in a win that had the Halloween-clad crowd spilling onto the field when it was over.
Fran Brown made it clear afterward that he liked what he saw from the man running the defense.
“I’m really proud of him,” Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said of Kehres. “He kept pushing, and he gives them (the defensive line) the opportunity to just go get the ball. So it’s working for us.”
SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings came into the game as a major problem, and he played like one. Brown called him “one of the more dynamic players I got to play against as a coach since I’ve been in college.” Jennings finished with 351 yards on 29-for-36 passing and two touchdowns, but Syracuse kept hitting him, chasing him and dragging the game into its kind of fight.
The Orange had a warning sign for Jennings before kickoff. Brown asked fifth-year lineman Tunmise Adeleye if he had ever truly “taken over a game” with Syracuse. Adeleye had done it before at UNLV, where he was an All-Mountain West Honorable Mention last season, but Brown wanted to see it in orange.
“I said, ‘Well, do it now,’” Brown recalled telling Adeleye. “Let me see you do it.”
Adeleye answered when it mattered most. With less than five minutes left and SMU ahead 27-23, he blew up a second-and-10 play by powering through Drew Evers and reaching in front of Jennings to drag him down for a six-yard loss. Two snaps later, the Mustangs were punting, and Syracuse was setting up the drive that would decide the game.
“I’m really proud of him,” Brown said of Adeleye.
D’Appolonia said Adeleye’s impact has been there all season, even when it hasn’t always been loud.
“He’s been playing great for us,” D’Appolonia added of Adeleye. “He’s been playing football at a very high level for us, kind of going under the radar in some games.
But it doesn’t go unnoticed on the team. And he gets put in positions to be able to make plays like that when we really need him.
He did it last week. He’s done it this week, and can’t wait to see him continue to grow and continue to ball out the rest of the season as well.
D’Appolonia also set the tone early. On a second-and-goal from the Syracuse 1-yard line, Jennings tried to escape, but D’Appolonia stayed in position and finished the play with a tackle at the 6. On the next snap, Jennings was swallowed again, this time by Adeleye and Keyshawn Johnson, and SMU was shoved all the way back to the 23 before settling for an early field goal.
“That’s violent football.”
The Mustangs answered with an 88-yard touchdown drive on their next possession, but Syracuse’s defense kept coming. On the third play of the following series, Jennings threw to Yannick Smith on the left side. As Smith turned upfield, Demetres Samuel Jr. punched the ball loose from behind, and Davien Kerr recovered it near the SMU end zone.
“I just broke to my man,” Samuel said, saying the SU coaches had stressed forcing turnovers. “Once I punched out the ball, I just held them down so somebody else could come pick out the ball because I knew my brothers were coming to run to the ball.”
Syracuse’s offense went quiet in the second half, going scoreless on four straight drives. That left the defense to keep the game alive, and it did.
Johnson had 2.5 sacks, including a third-quarter hit that erased an SMU first-and-10 with a 12-yard loss on Jennings. The Mustangs punted three plays later.
“Just got off the ball as fast as I can, and just go get him,” the UT Martin transfer said postgame. “That’s what I was looking for.”
Adeleye delivered again in the fourth quarter, and Chase Geter finished the day by falling on a loose pitch on the final play for Syracuse’s second fumble recovery.
“Our entire D-line has been just dominant,” D’Appolonia said. “We need them to…make plays and get after the quarterback when we’re pass rushing.
Just playing behind them has been great. Keyshawn’s done a great job.
It’s just been phenomenal. I love playing behind those guys.”
By the end, D’Appolonia was back where he started - lying down, this time after eight tackles and a team-high six solo stops. But most of the punishment had gone the other way. Jennings spent much of the afternoon getting knocked off balance, dragged down and forced into hurried answers by Syracuse’s front.
“All those guys that go in, they all tough,” Brown said of the defensive line’s collective performance. “They work really hard.
They got a knack for the ball, so they go get the football. They try to get the quarterback.
They do a good job. Proud of all those guys.”
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