Players high-stepped in all directions. They leaped on top of each other. They formed mosh pits of elation. They thumped their chests, and screamed their frustrations away.

For the second time in three weeks, Mardi Gras raided the Carrier Dome. Only this time, Syracuse tidal-waved the field. It was an aesthetic scene you won’t see in other Big East cities. Unless third-stringers and kneel-downs turn you on.

‘Everybody else in the conference is playing cupcake teams,’ SU senior defensive tackle Arthur Jones said last week. ‘They get their wins or whatever, but we’re Syracuse. We don’t do it like that.’

Amen, Art. While other Big East teams lollygag through Division I-AA daisies – raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Southeast Missouri State – Syracuse has sloshed through Big Ten schools for three weeks. The culmination (and validation) was Saturday’s 37-34 thrilling win over Northwestern.

This gauntlet of games could have backfired, could have severely stunted the Doug Marrone-era. Instead, it has given Syracuse a Mayweather-sized swagger heading into Big East play. That’s right. A team that was 3-9 in 2008 has a reason to be cocky, a reason to look at everybody else in the conference and laugh.

For the past four years, it has been the other way around.

It would have made perfect sense to cushion a hurting program with elementary competition – some esteem-boosting gimmies to renew hope every September. For many schools in the Big East, that’s the drill.

Welcoming punching bags to the Dome in early September would have given the team false hope, and the public, an airless campaign promise. Three Big Ten powers would bring the truth out. For better or worse. Survey says: for better.

One frustrating loss to Minnesota, one champagne-popping win over Northwestern, and one trip to the No. 5 team in the country sandwiched in between, have given Syracuse a unique crash course. The past three weeks have been stuffed with adversity.

Two weeks after literally throwing a game away, Greg Paulus shut up his remaining doubters with a 346-yard, three-touchdown masterpiece Saturday. One week after an embarrassing drop in the end zone against Penn State, SU wide receiver Mike Williams embarrassed the Northwestern cornerbacks for 209 yards on 11 catches.

During Saturday’s game – for whatever reason – center Jim McKenzie was bowling shotgun snaps to Paulus. Headset removed, Marrone blistered McKenzie on the center’s trot of shame to the sideline. McKenzie did some practice snaps, received a reassuring pat on the hat from Paulus, and escaped his funk.

None of these challenges arise against C-rate opponents.

‘We found out we can come back and work through adversity,’ SU receiver Donte Davis said. ‘Everybody played with confidence. We had a swagger out there today.’

So the snarl in Syracuse’s lip becomes more defined. Confidence grows.

Remnants of the Greg Robinson epoch still linger: Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka got Kobe-hot Saturday night. With somebody open virtually every play, Kafka (35-of-42) gave Syracuse’s secondary a flogging all game. Or 59 minutes to be exact.

This is where the attitude of the team has changed. With the red-hot Kafka two first downs from a game-winning field goal, Syracuse insisted it wasn’t weighed down by the here-we-go-again self-pity.

”It was ok. We’re going to hold ’em here, get the punt return and drive down,” Davis said. ‘That was everybody’s attitude.’

Kafka gift-wrapped a pick to Max Suter. Syracuse cruised into field-goal range. True freshman Ryan Lichtenstein etched his name in Orange lore. And the Dome came alive after a half-decade of dormancy.

Not so dramatic elsewhere.

To the east, Rutgers squeaked out a 23-15 win over Florida Atlantic one week after beating the oh-so-pesky Howard Bison. To the west, Pittsburgh glided to a 3-0 start after topping Navy, Buffalo and Youngstown State. To the south, South Florida completed a three-game murderer’s row of Wofford, Western Kentucky and Charleston Southern – basically schools that recruit within the confines of their own zip codes.

Oh, some of these Big East teams sprinkle into their schedule a Florida State here, or an Auburn there, but they’d never stack three Big Ten games together. That’s petrifying. That’s a risk to bowl hopes. The Orange – with really nothing to lose – did exactly that. They played three Big Ten teams instead of ‘prep schools,’ as cornerback Kevyn Scott aptly put last week.

Marrone couldn’t change the players. But he could change the attitude. He’d have to with this schedule. When Lichtenstein’s kick split the uprights, all those gassers on the still-frozen practice grass last spring were validated.

To the backdrop of a foreign boom filling the Dome, players slowly herded back into the tunnel. Davis made a U-turn back to midfield along the sideline. He extended both arms and pointed to his parents in the stands. They’ve been to all his games, he said. All the numbing beatdowns.

At that moment, the bowl game hopes became real. The program finally is turning the corner. And it’s turning so quickly, so sharply because Syracuse clashed with three Big Ten powers immediately.

Tyler Dunne is a staff writer for The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at thdunne@syr.edu.

Published on September 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm