AKRON, Ohio - The Zips' football travels to upstate N.Y. for the second time in as many weeks to take on the Syracuse Orangemen this Saturday. Kick off in the Carrier Dome is set for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Akron at Syracuse
Saturday, October 24 at 3:30 p.m.
Carrier Dome
TV: Time Warner Cable in the Syracuse viewing area.
Radio: Akron/ISP Sports Network (1350 AM, 106.9 FM)

Coach J.D. Brookhart's Weekly Press Conference

Opening statement...
Obviously it was a very disappointing loss. We thought the kids played extremely hard and they rallied. The young freshman, Patrick Nicely, for a freshman played well, for a veteran, he played okay. We had two turnovers inside the five-yard line against a team that we're fairly similar to and didn't get the victory. On the last drive, I thought we had it and our defense needed one more stop, which we didn't get. The last drive we threw a ball in front and had two balls tipped and it's very disappointing. We've got to make some more plays, we've got to be more consistent. I think the defensive is playing pretty good football right now.

We did lose two other players to season-ending injuries, Deryn Bowser with a broken fibula and Aaron Williams with a broken arm. Williams, is an amazing story. He came out in the second quarter, hurt his arm and played 50-some snaps after that. We found out it had multiple breaks. He's tough, we didn't know until Sunday. He's having surgery today but I can't imagine that it felt good. I think it says a lot about him and about our team, I think that's a lot of what we're doing right now, we're fighting.

On Andre Jones...
He's helping out where he can help out. He's fantastic, a smart kid and he came in and did a heck of a job. Position-wise, he's a reserve at corner and nickel, he's moved to receiver fulltime, he's returning, he's on coverage units so he's doing a little bit of everything. He's also our wildcat package, should we need to go to it.

On Aaron Williams...
We had our staff meeting yesterday at three o' clock and Bill Droddy  our trainer goes over the injuries. We went over the offense, we went over the defense list and Aaron is at the very bottom of the list and he told us about him. It's really amazing that a kid could do that. We're talking multiple breaks, which explains some things later in the game as you watched it.

On the Wide Receivers...
It would be a rare case to see Bowser back for the last game of the season. Right now, I think there are three young kids that could play but I don't think that's fair to them. Burning Patrick's redshirt was a real necessity. I think Andre (Jones) is in very good shape for one, he's also a talented player and he we have to use him both ways we will. Randy Greenwood, Dee Frieson and Jerrod Dillard are the three receivers that could help but I don't think we're there right now.

On Syracuse...
They are a very, very improved football team. I think that these guys play really hard defensively and it's a very confusing package defensively. They bring a four-man line, three-man line, four defensive backs, five defensive backs or six defensive backs. It's going to be a difficult game mentally. They are playing hard, their nose guard we'll play against is a lot like the guy from Penn State. Offensively, their running back is playing really well, they've got a stud-type NFL receiver that they get it to so it's a good, tough combination to deal with. They've got their run game, the play action and then the big play with the receiver, Mike Williams who was All-Big East two years ago as a sophomore. They play a very difficult schedule and they are a much better team than their record is right now and Coach Marrone has got them playing really hard right now.