Syracuse freshman offensive lineman Macky MacPherson would have been the one to snap the ball to clinch Syracuse’s bowl eligibility. After all, he is the grandson of former SU head coach Dick MacPherson. The grandson did so last week with just more than a minute left in SU’s 13-10 win over Rutgers Saturday, as fellow freshman Ross Krautman converted a 24-yard kick. This week, The Daily Orange caught up with MacPherson days after to relive the moment and what it means to SU and his family:

The Daily Orange: Take me through — as you are kind of the center of it all — what’s going through your head. You know the game could rest on this snap, bowl hopes could rest on all of this. As a freshman, what goes through your mind?

MacPherson: Somewhere around five minutes left in the fourth quarter, I was like, ‘OK, this could come down to a field goal.’ And during that drive right there, I was just taking snaps. I was very confident in both Rob and Ross. It was, ‘Put the ball near the spot, and Rob would take care of it, and Ross would put it through the uprights.’

How worried were you about the Rutgers field-goal rush? Rob Long said Saturday he adjusted with what he was doing with more quick release line-drive kicks. For you, is there any element of an adjustment, as well?

As a snapper, you can’t really change anything you are going to do. You can’t think like, ‘I am going to snap this ball faster.’ It’s not going to work. You are going to end up putting it way over his head or outside, and you have just got to shake off whatever it is and have faith in Rob or Ross that they will hold it down and get the kick off. And that’s what they did.

There was a photo that ran on the back page of The D.O. Monday that was an image of the final kick. Yet it was a moment between your snap and the kick going through the uprights. In the photo, the football appears to be mere feet from your hands, and it appears that you are looking directly at the football. Here is the photo. Can you describe to me what is going through your head here at this exact moment?

I put the ball right at Rob’s knee. So where his knee is, is where the ball hit the ground. And he had a great hold, and he snapped it up, and he put it right on the spot. And Ross came through real quick, which helped a lot because they really came with the heat. In my mind, I was just hoping to hear the kick of the ball because Ross puts it so high I would have been shocked if anyone blocked it. And that guy (pointing to the Rutgers defender directly next to MacPherson in the photo), I was just hoping to push him as far sideways as I could. I remember snapping and looking up, and there was a guy, and I was just trying to push him out of the way.

Your grandfather, former SU head coach Dick MacPherson, was there. How soon after the game did he get to you? And what did he say, and what was the emotion like for grandfather and grandson, having just snapped SU to a bowl?

It was cool. I actually didn’t get to see him. He didn’t come to the locker room, but I did see him on the plane. I couldn’t stop because there were about 30 guys behind me who were trying to get to their seats. There was his thumbs up, and he winked. He was happy I went to see him after we landed. He was thrilled, he was happy that we finally got to the team-goal seven wins, going to a bowl game now.

Lastly, have you ever thought about how ironic it is that, here you are literally the center of it all, snapping the ball as you guys clinch a bowl bid. At any point do you or Coach Marrone ever think ‘this might be meant to be’ or ‘this is crazy, here is another MacPherson on this last play,’ seeing that there is so much lineage in this program?

Coach Marrone has been preaching all year that it’s kind of a team of destiny. We have played better, we have executed better, and really everyone has bought into what Coach Marrone has been telling us. It does seem kind of funny. Coach Marrone has been telling us that in 1985 — I think he said — when he went to a bowl game, his first bowl game, when my grandfather was the coach, their seventh win came in Rutgers Stadium, and it was kind of ironic and seemed like it was destiny that our seventh win came in Rutgers Stadium, just like it was for him.

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on November 18, 2010 at 12:00 pm