Collin Barber told Syracuse football coaches he needed to sit for the rest of the day. He didn’t feel hurt. He didn’t feel pain. He just heard a pop and knew he needed to sit.

As it turns out, Barber is still sitting. Barber sat out practice Friday after hearing the pop. The junior kicker missed Syracuse’s 39-14 win over Boston College with a quadriceps injury. He sat out practice Monday. He sat yesterday. He plans to practice today but is, in his own words, questionable for Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh. If the injury continues to plague Barber, SU team will start freshman Brendan Carney, who hit 3 of 4 extra points last weekend.

Carney said junior kicker Justin Sujansky is ‘pretty much done for the year,’ meaning that, without Barber, SU’s kicking game is in disarray.

‘That’s something I don’t want to do,’ Barber said of taking chances with an injury. ‘I’ll kick and see how it feels. I’m sure it’ll be sore (Saturday), but I’ll stretch a little extra. My leg’s feeling a lot better. I just hope I can make it back.’

Barber hurt himself in a non-contact kicking drill at practice Friday. The drill works like this:

The punter strikes the ball from the goal line toward midfield, and wherever the ball ends up, the kickers begin their drill. Usually the drill starts inside the 5-yard line because the ball bounces to the opposite side of the field. Kickers start short – usually at extra-point distance – and increase the yardage with successive kicks.

Friday, though, the boot hit just beyond the 50-yard line and stuck, forcing Barber to boot a 50-yard kick first – which he pounded through the uprights – and then decrease the distance.

‘Unfortunately we had to start with a 50-yarder,’ Barber said. ‘I really hit the first one well through and I was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m doing great.’ Then, two kicks later, I hurt myself.’

Barber wasn’t in much pain at the time. But Saturday, when he woke up, he could barely move. That forced coaches to start freshman Ricky Krautman, who missed his first two kicks – an extra point and a 37-yard field goal – against BC.

Krautman can boot the ball a mile, but the freshman kicker rushed his kicks, throwing off his mechanics.

Barber took the freshman aside in the game and calmed him down.

‘He was going so fast that he was getting there before the ball was down,’ Barber said. ‘I just told him to relax and slow down. Rick’s a great kicker, but he’s young. He’s got a lot of kicks left in his career.

‘I was really upset that he had to go in and do that because I felt like I made him do that. But Brendan just clicks his toes and goes in there and gets the job done for us.’

After Krautman missed his field goal attempt, coaches took Carney, who also kicks off, aside at halftime and told him he’d replace Krautman. While kicking, which Carney practices once a week, he adjusted his leg angle to sweep through the ball at an angle. When punting, Carney kicks straight up and through the ball.

If Barber’s healthy, of course, coaches will delegate Carney back to punting and kickoffs only. Questions arise, though, because Barber said his injury occurred in the same fashion as Sujansky’s – a freak accident in the upper thigh – and now Sujansky is probably sidelined for the year.

‘Mine’s not in as bad of an area,’ Barber said. ‘It won’t affect my technique, really. I was talking to some of the trainers and they said, ‘You know, it’s only three seconds of pain.’ So I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.’

Barber can’t do much of anything else. Trainers told Barber stimulation therapy is useless because it shocks the muscle, causing bleeding.

‘Before Collin went down, I thought our kicking game was going very well,’ Carney said. ‘You just thank God that Collin’s injury isn’t serious because I think some people might get scared then, especially with Justin (unable to play).’

Published on October 21, 2003 at 12:00 pm