Delone Carter had no idea what to think. When he walked into the locker room earlier this week, mousetraps were dangling from the ceiling. A strange, somewhat scary sight to Syracuse’s starting running back.

‘I was like, ‘Do we have a flying mouse? What’s going on?” Carter recalled. ‘Nobody knew what was going on.’

No, SU’s locker room wasn’t raided by a mutant rodent. This was just head coach Doug Marrone’s way of telling his team not to overlook Syracuse’s next opponent. The mousetraps were a clever, albeit bizarre, metaphor for the cliché ‘trap game.’ With South Florida on tap next week, Marrone doesn’t want his team overlooking Maine, a Division I-AA opponent. The Orange (1-2) hosts the Black Bears (2-1) Saturday at the Carrier Dome (7 p.m., TW26).

After admitting to looking past teams in the past, players have vowed to focus on Maine – and Maine only – this time. Those mousetraps have been the friendly reminder.

‘They’re hanging from the ceiling letting us know, ‘Don’t get trapped,” Carter said. ‘We got the one win, but we can’t take this game easy. They’re going to be just as hungry as we are.’

Carter knows the grim consequences of taking an opponent lightly. Last year, the Orange was stunned by Mid-American conference opponent Akron, 42-28, in one of ugliest losses of Greg Robinson’s tenure as head coach. In the week of practice leading up to that game, intensity was lacking.

Players expected to coast. They were wrong.

‘You could sense the team was lax,’ Carter said. ‘Guys weren’t taking it serious, saying it was just Akron. You can’t do that.’

This was a recurring theme, SU cornerback Nico Scott pointed out. Too often, players mentally leapfrogged opponents on the schedule.

‘We did a lot of that in the past, taking opponents lightly,’ Scott said. ‘You get a Maine or a Vermont or something like that, and you think it’s a cupcake walk. …We had some real crappy practices. But now the attitude and mentality around this place has changed.’

So, the honeymoon from last week’s pulsating win against Northwestern didn’t last long. The Black Bears of the Colonial Athletic Association will likely be hungry coming off a bitter loss. Last week, Maine hemorrhaged 17 fourth-quarter points and lost to Albany, 20-16. A run-first team, Maine leans on running back Derek Session. In three games, Session has rushed for 314 yards and three touchdowns.

‘They’re always big, they’re always physical, they’re always well-coached and they’re always disciplined,’ Marrone said. ‘This is a very good football team we’re playing.’

Marrone didn’t milk his first win by any means. By 4:30 the next morning he started preparing for Maine. The players transitioned immediately also.

Every morning of every week, Scott watches film on SU’s next opponent from 8:30 to 10 a.m. As a graduate student, he has the extra time to do so. He zeroes in on individual wide receivers for any clues. Any slight signal at the line could hint at what route he’ll run. Scott becomes a detective. Be it Penn State or Maine.

Such weekly focus is spreading at a much higher rate this season, Scott said. And it’s rooted in a speech Marrone gave the team way back in February.

‘He said, ‘Forget all that B.S. that you’re used to. We’re going to win a lot of games,” Scott said. ‘I believe everybody has bought into the concept of winning and being hardnosed, tough guys.’

SU’s once-stagnant offense came alive last week, but the pass defense struggled. Northwestern’s quick-hitting passing attack baked the Orange for more than 400 yards. There are definitely wounds SU will look to stitch up against an inferior opponent on Saturday.

As for those mousetraps? Well, maybe those are a tad wacky.

‘The mousetrap concept, I’m not sure about that,’ Scott smiled. ‘When I first saw them, I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ I guess it’s supposed to mean something but I didn’t spend too much time looking into it.’

thdunne@syr.edu

Published on September 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm