Dyshawn Davis isn’t buying it, and neither am I. That the difference in attendance between Saturday’s sparse Carrier Dome landscape and the fairly-full season-opening win against Wake Forest was only 1,717 fans seems preposterous.

Against Toledo, the portion of the student section adjacent to the band saw fewer than five full rows of students. The upper deck had a smattering of spectators. Hell, the lower level wasn’t even close to full.

‘I was looking up at the stands, and I was like, ‘We had more fans than this for Wake Forest,” Davis said. ‘And I saw that it said 39,000, and Wake Forest was almost 41,000.’

Sure, there might have been 39,116 tickets sold to Saturday’s 33-30 overtime win against Toledo, but the amount of people that actually showed up to watch was far fewer.

Embarrassing, pathetic, shameful — whatever word you want to use is fine with me. Monster Jam — yes, that Monster Jam featuring monster trucks — drew a crowd of more than 35,000 people into the Dome.

It just seems silly that a football program on the rise, coming off a bowl victory and with a winning record in 2011, struggles to be more attractive than Grave Digger.

‘As long as we keep winning, hopefully more fans will come in,’ Davis said.

Good luck, Dyshawn. I’m not sure what else you and your teammates can do.

Start the season with a win at home: check. Prove it isn’t a fluke by winning your second game: check. Continue winning at home and open the year 3-0 in the Carrier Dome for the first time since 2001: check.

Ah, but maybe the games weren’t exciting enough for fans. Maybe Syracuse was ho-humming its way to 12-3 victories dominated by placekickers with little offensive flair or sex appeal.

Nope, wrong. In three games at the Dome this season, the Orange has come back from 10- and 15-point deficits to win in overtime and avoided an upset bid by intercepting a Hail Mary attempt in the fourth quarter.

As a sports fan — regardless of whether you are loyal to the Orange, Demon Deacons, Rams, Rockets or the game of football in general — how can you ask for more?

‘It was almost too exciting,’ SU wide receiver Dorian Graham said following the win over Toledo.

Maybe Graham is onto something. Perhaps high-scoring overtime thrillers with dazzling plays by Van Chew, Chris Givens, Eric Page and Ryan Nassib aren’t enough to make the Syracuse community interested in coming out to watch a game.

Or perhaps Syracuse fans are tempted, but somewhere between putting on their shoes and inserting the key into the ignition, they realize they’ve forgotten to complete their most important daily ritual. And by the time they’ve drawn the big red ‘X’ on their calendars to indicate that basketball season is one day closer, they’ve lost interest.

‘That’s all I’m looking forward to, getting this Syracuse fan base back together and bringing this program back together,’ Davis said.

Davis’ goal is certainly a good one, but I still want to make myself clear. My goal isn’t to vivify people in the Syracuse area regarding New York’s college team specifically.

What I’m saying is that if East Carolina — a team that entered the weekend winless and has applied to join the Big East — can bring in 50,023 fans for its game Saturday against Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), there’s something seriously wrong with SU’s poor attendance.

Any fan of college football should be excited to go to the Carrier Dome — a venue that has the potential to be an incredibly hostile environment — and watch a 3-1 college football team open Big East play next weekend against Rutgers.

‘I appreciate the fans, they helped us win this game at the end,’ SU head coach Doug Marrone said following the season opener against Wake Forest. ‘And if you wound up leaving, you missed a great game.’

There, that’s all the proof you need. Marrone didn’t explicitly say a true Orange fan stays until the end. He didn’t clobber the Syracuse faithful for leaving with their team down by 15 in the fourth quarter to the Demon Deacons.

He made it simple: You missed a great game.

I can only hope Davis is right and that fans of college football realize what they aren’t seeing. The first three home games have been nothing short of scintillating, especially given last year’s 17- and 31-point lopsided losses to Connecticut and Pittsburgh.

Saturday, Antwon Bailey said close games in the Carrier Dome are ‘amazing.’

It’s just too bad not many care to see them.

Michael Cohen is the sports editor for The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at mjcohe02@syr.edu or on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

Published on September 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13