What can I do to 'hint' the optimizer??

Here is what is essentially my code... theres a bunch missing but this is the critical path:

in module A:

assign reset_out = 1'b0;

in module B:

assign c_reset = reset_out

always @(posedge clock or negedge reset_n)

if (!reset_n)

c_state <= IDLE;

else if (c_reset)

c_state <= RESET;

else

c_state <= n_state;

from there, we do a d_state (delayed state) of c_state and do:

assign phy_reset = (c_state == RESET) && (d_state != RESET);

then fan out phy_reset to a bunch of FFs for synchronous clears. The problem comes where I would hope the state machine optimizer would reduce the states and ignore the RESET state. If I go into timequest, I can run a timing report through phy_reset and come up with valid paths