CINCINNATI — Finally, the attention was focused on the Syracuse offensive line. It had to be, after an Adam Harris fumble left the ball alone in the end zone. And in a year in which the crux of Syracuse’s recent pocket-provided Big East success has been the improved play of the offensive line, everyone had to recognize Ryan Bartholomew.

Big Bart lay on the football in the Orange end zone, clutching to six more SU points. In a year in which he and his fellow linemen have matured much faster than expected into a group that is the invisible facilitator for every Syracuse point, Bartholomew and the line were finally the ones who actually scored. They didn’t score in the two preceding road games when winning the trench battles against two of the best defensive lines in the Big East.

But against one of the conference’s worst defenses, nearly invisible at the bottom of the end zone dog pile, Bartholomew was in the scorer’s spotlight. He had scored the first touchdown of his career, and the offensive line was, for once, in the scorebook.

It was the fitting result on a play that gave SU a 14-0 lead over Cincinnati with 10:05 remaining in the second quarter. The game from there was too far out of the Bearcats’ reach for them to recover. Just another day of work for the line.

And it proved the best metaphor for the unit. As quickly as it happened, Bartholomew said he didn’t recognize the score as his own. It wasn’t even the O-line’s own. No, no mention or thought of that.

The center thought of it as a touchdown for the overarching ‘we.’ It was Syracuse’s six points.

‘I didn’t even think about me scoring,’ Bartholomew said. ‘It was just like, ‘We scored.’ Celebrate, get back to the sideline. I really didn’t think about it after the game.’

The senior center, the soft-spoken captain who at game’s end actually took time out to commend the Orange defense (and rightfully so, as the defense put a muzzle to Cincy’s offensive weapons) was, well, the center of attention. On television screens across the country, piped in by ESPNU, and on the big screen towering over the second oldest stadium in college football, fans saw that Bartholomew was the one who came up big.

Falling on the football in the end zone, the best player on the SU offensive line was the hero. But Bartholomew didn’t see it that way. For a lineman, scoring was just as valuable to him as providing Ryan Nassib enough time to hit Van Chew in that same end zone.

Since the start of Big East play, Bartholomew and what was an inexperienced, struggling offensive line have swallowed whole the athletes of South Florida and West Virginia. Against Cincinnati, it was more about providing Nassib with time to do whatever he pleased versus one of the worst pass defenses in the country. The quarterback was given opportunity after opportunity on third down to find receivers sitting in seams in the Bearcat defense.

It felt the same way every time Nassib strolled up to the line during the course of his seven completions to start the game. Five times before Nassib found Chew for the first touchdown of the game, the line gave Nassib enough time to find the first down.

From there, the O-line provided the foundation for the win. It was more of the same until Bartholomew fell on the ball in the end zone. And it was just a continuation of a year in which the unit has been the main warriors behind SU’s Big East success on the road.

Eight games into the season, the offensive line went from question mark to reliable. Its members have become the ‘landmarks’ SU follows.

They have been the main reason SU has succeeded in a year in which open season is the theme in the Big East. They have provided the opening for everything that has transpired.

And despite the glory in the touchdown, Bartholomew is content with just creating those openings for guys like senior running back Delone Carter.

Said Carter: ‘The O-line did a tremendous job, and we just trusted our landmarks and it opened.’

 

Tony Olivero is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at aolivero@syr.edu.

Published on October 30, 2010 at 12:00 pm