There was once a time when the mention of Curtis Brinkley elicited the understanding that he was the best running back, better than Steve Slaton.

It was a time when it was Slaton chasing Brinkley for the awards and the records.

It was a time when Brinkley, Syracuse’s starting running back, was the star of the conference and Slaton, West Virginia’s running back, was fighting for second.

This was during high school in the Philadelphia Catholic League’s Blue Division. Brinkley graduated from Philadelphia’s West Catholic in 2004 with the city’s rushing record and the division’s MVP. Slaton, who graduated from Conwell-Egan, just outside of Philadelphia, won the MVP the following year but didn’t scratch Brinkley’s record and didn’t leave the legacy Brinkley did.

Three years later, it’s different. Slaton is now a star – perhaps the biggest in the Big East and among the most celebrated in the country. Brinkley is wallowing in Syracuse’s standstill offense to the point that a reporter asked head coach Greg Robinson if the No. 1 running back job is still firmly in Brinkley’s possession.

The answer was yes, and reasonably so, considering Brinkley is not to blame for an offense that has struggled in four of its five games. But Brinkley is the primary runner and he’s averaging just 2.6 yards per carry.

This Saturday in the Carrier Dome, Brinkley will face his old foe Slaton on Slaton’s run toward Heisman candidacy and perhaps even the first round of the NFL Draft. And it takes the two back to a time when it appeared they were both bound for stardom.

‘It was just my situation,’ Brinkley said in the football cafeteria last week, with his eyes wide and arms spread even wider, thinking back to his high school legend. ‘I had the ball maybe 25-30 times. It was just fun.’

And now?

‘It’s all about the situation you’re in,’ Brinkley said. ‘(Slaton is) in the perfect situation. That’s not to take away the talent he’s got. He’s got the talent, he’s got the speed. But it’s just the situation we’re in. That’s basically it. His situation is different than my situation.’

In 2003 – Brinkley’s senior season and Slaton’s junior year – Brinkley amassed 2,294 yards and Slaton rushed for 1,626 yards. In Slaton’s senior season, he rushed for 1,832 yards.

The teams were different – Brinkley’s high school coach Brian Fluck admitted West Catholic was better up front. But Fluck didn’t see this as such a decisive difference.

‘You had to put nine and 10 in the box (against Brinkley),’ Fluck said. ‘You didn’t have to put nine and 10 in the box for Steve Slaton.’

To be fair, Slaton is best at running around the defense – not through. He is known for his speed. He was most effective when he could turn his shoulders and dash down the sidelines past the defense. One of the reasons he’s so effective in college is West Virginia’s ability to open space on offense.

‘I attribute a lot of the success I have to the system I’m in,’ Slaton said Tuesday night. ‘I chose to be in a system that shows my speed, my decision making.’

Brinkley saw that speed the first time he ever watched Slaton. It was in film room during Brinkley’s sophomore year, and he saw the freshman Slaton turn the corner.

‘This was the first time I knew he was good,’ Brinkley said. ‘He hit the sideline and put on the wheels and took off.’

Brinkley is a self-described ‘slasher.’ He’s at his best when he’s utilizing his vision and finding holes in the line, but he won’t be able to run around the tackle and turn the corner the way Slaton does.

In Syracuse’s offense, though, the holes haven’t been there for Brinkley, and Brinkley has had little success improvising.

Brinkley rushed for 223 rushing yards in the first five games this season. He has yet to reach the endzone. His longest run was 20 yards.

Slaton’s rushed for 556 yards in five games. He has reached the endzone nine times on rushes and once on a reception. His longest run is 58 yards.

‘I guess that’s the luck of the draw,’ Slaton said. ‘I had the better decision picking a school that fit my running style.’

Yet Brinkley insists he has no regrets about what has gone on at Syracuse. Brinkley was frustrated – as many players seem to be about a poor start – but he’s still as confident as he was when his name generated more hype than Slaton’s.

‘I really understand that first of all, everything happens for a reason,’ Brinkley said. ‘Second of all, if you’re talking about Curtis Brinkley and Steve Slaton, we got a lot of respect for each other. Whether I’m doing good, or he’s doing good, or if he’s winning the Heisman, I’m gonna respect that and say he’s a good football player. It’s like if you say Brinkley to Slaton, he’d say he’s a good football player.’

To that point, Brinkley was right. Slaton was full of praise for Brinkley.

‘It was a good matchup, that’s what it was,’ Slaton said of the high school games. ‘He was their feature back. We had some good games. … I played less than he did. He took full advantage of the opportunities he had.’

Their paths changed soon after they left Philadelphia. Brinkley spent a post-graduate year at Hargrave Military Academy, his freshman year at SU primarily as a kick returner and split time with Delone Carter last season.

Slaton arrived at West Virginia without even the distinction of the Mountaineers’ top running back recruit. (That was Long Island-native Jason Gwaltney, who has since left WVU.) He didn’t play a prominent role at West Virginia until five games into his freshman season, when he rushed for 90 yards against Virginia Tech. Since then, he’s eclipsed 100 yards in a game 19 times and has become one of the primary catalysts in sealing West Virginia as a national power.

For Brinkley, high school was the time when everything clicked.

‘I miss it, I ain’t gonna lie,’ Brinkley said, reflecting on his high school days.

For Slaton, that was where he was before everything clicked.

‘That was a long time ago,’ Slaton said.

It leaves them here, three days shy of their third meeting since those games in high school. Slaton will be adding to a national profile; Brinkley is still trying to create one.

‘I can’t even be compared right now, as far as number-wise,’ Brinkley said. ‘But at the same time, he knows. And I know.’

Brinkley meant Slaton knows of what Brinkley once did – and what Brinkley feels he can still do. If nothing else, Brinkley is honest. He remembers what once was and he is aware of what now is. His optimism clings to the hope that the days when Curtis Brinkley was the star will come again.

Zach Berman is the sports columnist at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Wednesday and other select days throughout the semester. He can be reached at zberman@syr.edu.

Published on October 2, 2007 at 12:00 pm