Keon Lyn is taking Friday’s game personally.

The Syracuse cornerback will be lining up against one wide receiver, Ivan McCartney, who played with him when they were seniors at Miramar (Fla.) High School. He’ll be facing two other Miramar products — quarterback Geno Smith and receiver Stedman Bailey — who, although they never played with Lyn, are familiar to the Orange sophomore.

Lyn said he and McCartney have been talking about going up against each other since the summer.

‘Every day. We’ve been talking about it every day since before the season started,’ Lyn said. ‘We were working out together back at home, so it’s going to be a great game on Friday. I can’t wait for the world to see it.’

Smith and Bailey graduated from Miramar a year before Lyn and didn’t play with him, but Lyn said he’s familiar with their games and tendencies. And the Orange may need Lyn’s familiarity to help him make a play against a Mountaineers team that ranks fourth in the nation in passing yards per game.

The Daily Orange talked to Lyn this week about West Virginia’s biggest playmakers and what Syracuse will need to do on defense to limit the Mountaineers’ success through the air.

The Daily Orange: How much do you know the tendencies of these players from Miramar and what makes each of them so talented?

Keon Lyn: I know everybody, they’re all bringing something different to the table. So it’s about adjusting to their elements. Geno’s a great quarterback, the great receivers, they’re all great. They got all their own attributes in different ways, so it’s going to be fun on Friday, and I just got to bring something different to the table.

Coming off the bye week, you guys had some time to correct some things on defense. Now you’re going up against a high-powered passing offense. What’d you guys do to get ready for this type of offense?

You just got to look at the elements, and you just got to look at how they make their plays and the great offensive coordinator. They have great playmakers all around the ball, so you just got to attack it straight up, hands up, to be able to make plays on the ball and make turnovers.

Did you kind of use that bye week to get back to better health, too?

Yeah, we evaluated the hand, it got smaller, we are still evaluating it, anything can happen, it could come off tomorrow, anything can happen. We’re just going to keep evaluating the hand, and it was a good bye week to get some extra film on West Virginia, extra game plan on West Virginia, so I think it will be a better outcome.

With Geno Smith, what are his biggest strengths and weaknesses?

A lot of quarterbacks, they can’t make plays once their main target’s not open. A lot of quarterbacks fold. He’s able to still create something else if where he’s going is not open. He’s able to move out of the pocket, move around the pocket, throw down the field, throw short. Great accuracy, he’s been like that for a long time. So I told my team what we’re going against, and they know we got a great quarterback with great receivers coming into our house.

You played with WVU receiver Ivan McCartney, and Stedman Bailey went to Miramar the year before you. What do they do that makes them great?

They’ve been doing it since high school. Their hands are great. (Ivan’s) great down the field. Sted, if the ball is thrown anywhere to him he’s going to catch it, he’s got good body control. They’re good off the line, all of them bring something different to the table and all of them are good in their own way, so it should be good this week.

mcooperj@syr.edu

 

Published on October 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr