Consider this football season’s comedy skit over. At least for a day.

Last week, Virginia Tech stopped laughing. And Syracuse stopped getting laughed at.

Pittsburgh wiped the smiles off the Hokies’ faces with an upset victory, and Syracuse issued a temporary gag order to critics by outgunning Central Florida.

The result: Tomorrow afternoon’s Syracuse-Virginia Tech game — which two weeks ago looked like a laugher — at 3:30 in the Carrier Dome suddenly has a much more serious tone.

“I would love to let (the Hokies) share our pain and humiliation,” SU center Nick Romeo said. “It’d be great to share that with the rest of the conference.”

Syracuse (3-6, 1-3 Big East) will have to do just that if it hopes to salvage a .500 season from one that’s been the butt of many a conference joke. If the Orangemen manage to knock off Tech, Boston College and Miami, perhaps they’ll have the last laugh.

Especially over the Hokies (8-1, 3-1), who were all but eliminated from national-championship contention with last week’s 28-21 loss to the Panthers. Another loss would extinguish Tech’s conference-title hopes as well.

“It’s always good to see a team like Virginia Tech lose to a good team like Pitt,” Romeo said. “It gives us some confidence, thinking they’re not so unbeatable.”

But, of course, the Orangemen probably guessed that already. After all, SU shocked the Hokies by downing them, 22-14, last year in Blacksburg, Va. A season earlier at the Dome, the Orangemen scared the Michael Vick-led Hokies, who escaped with a 22-14 victory.

If Syracuse needs more proof of Virginia Tech’s mortality, running back Kevin Jones is out with a left hamstring injury.

“They always seem to have guys hanging around, though,” SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. “I don’t know who that guy is.”

According to the depth chart, it’s true freshman Mike Imoh. But Tech coach Frank Beamer said he’ll “probably hang in there with (Suggs).”

That would make sense, considering Suggs has rushed for 106 yards per game and 14 touchdowns. Imoh, meanwhile, has carried 10 times for 38 yards.

Either way, Virginia Tech will surely show its traditionally pro-style offense — a polar opposite from what Syracuse saw last week against Central Florida.

Unlike the Golden Knights, who used a variety of formations, including four wide receivers, the Hokies mostly stick to a two-back, two-receiver formation.

That comes as a relief to SU cornerback Latroy Oliver, who’s become accustomed to trying to decipher complicated offenses like Brigham Young, North Carolina and Central Florida this season.

“It’ll be extremely easy because we know what (the Hokies) are going to do,” Oliver said. “It’ll just be a matter of lining up and getting the job done. There won’t be any of that confusion.”

Chaos has been the story for most of the season. Despite two straight wins, Syracuse still ranks last in the Big East in total defense, allowing 453 yards per game.

The difference has been increased offensive production under quarterback Troy Nunes, who’ll likely start again this week despite suffering a right hip pointer against Central Florida. In the last two weeks, Syracuse has scored 83 points behind Nunes’ 316 passing yards and four touchdowns.

Nunes has the Orangemen cracking jokes instead of bearing the brunt of them.

“We never totally lost our confidence,” Oliver said. “Probably in the back of our minds, we had a little doubt. But now since we won a couple of games and got a couple of breaks, we’re very confident.”

Published on November 7, 2002 at 12:00 pm