Rutgers was about to kick off to start the second half against Syracuse on Saturday. But John Laidlaw didn’t know that. The man who was born a Brendan Carney punt away from Manley Field House and graduated from SU in 1966 left the game at halftime.

Laidlaw was back at his Ford Explorer in the Orange Grove, sipping a beer and unloading sandwiches, chips and veggies.

‘I’ve been to at least 100 SU football games,’ Laidlaw said. ‘This is the worst.’

His thoughts were echoed by thousands of repulsed fans who swarmed the parking lots around the Quad starting at halftime, drinking away SU’s ineptitude. I couldn’t find anybody who had left a game that early in their lives. That SU only trailed, 17-0, was a measure of everyone’s complete lack of confidence in their team. Even before Rutgers polished off the 31-9 assault, the consensus on the Quad was the Syracuse program had hit rock bottom.

True that.

Director of Athletics Daryl Gross and head coach Greg Robinson wouldn’t dare suggest the program is at its worst stage in the modern football era. They couldn’t anyway. Gross and Robinson have called Syracuse home for less than a year. But when fan after fan that’s followed the Orange for decades tells me Oct. 15, 2005, marked the nadir of SU football in half a century, I believe it.

The numbers back them up. The Orange is 1-5 overall and 0-3 in the Big East. SU lost its last two games to Connecticut – only a Division I-A program since 2000 – and Rutgers, a conference laughingstock with one bowl appearance in school history, by a combined 58-15 score.

Since the 1-8 squad of 1948, the three worst teams in SU history are the 1973, 1974 and 1982 teams that finished 2-9. But however the 2005 edition stacks up, nothing in recent memory is worse than Saturday: SU went scoreless for 40 minutes, suffered five sacks and fumbled nine times – five for turnovers – in losing by 22 points to defensively deficient, eternally hapless Rutgers. At home.

The Adelphi Club, a men’s social group that attends all home games, erects its tailgating tent next to Bowne Hall. The tent overflowed at the start of the third quarter. Joe Baumler, a club member and season ticket holder for more than 20 years, said the decision to leave the game at halftime wasn’t difficult.

‘I just didn’t want to be tortured anymore,’ Baumler said. ‘This doesn’t compare to anything I’ve seen. We went to the UConn game and this was even more miserable. We want to give Robinson a chance, but I didn’t realize it would be this bad. This is one of the worst offensive teams I’ve ever seen.’

What’s odd on the surface is Orange fans entered the season allowing Robinson at least two years to rebuild the program with his own recruits. Since SU reeked in compiling a 1-4 record coming into the game, there was nothing to suggest improved play was imminent. The first five games demonstrated SU doesn’t have the quarterback or receivers to run the West Coast Offense, and that’s not Robinson’s fault.

So, if fans readily acknowledged before the Rutgers game that SU is several years away, why were they so shocked and disgusted Saturday, eager to split after 30 minutes?

Hype.

The scores of commercials leading up to the season – ‘see Greg Robinson’s new wide-open offense’ – hypnotized fans into believing new coach equaled instant savior. Robinson wisely refused to project his team’s record before the season, but the damage was done. While part of the blame lies on fans for believing the propaganda, the athletic department set itself up for this extreme disappointment – the lowest point of SU football in 50 years for Orange fans.

Laidlaw, who has attended SU games since the mid-1950s, was one of many fans who bought season tickets this season after several years off. He waited for SU to fire former head coach Paul Pasqualoni, who directed the Orange to a 16-20 record from 2002 to 2004.

‘The administration got our expectations too high,’ Laidlaw said. ‘I just felt we were misled.’

Laidlaw’s unsure whether he’ll renew them next season.

‘I’m a hockey fan, too,’ he said, ‘and I can enjoy (Syracuse Crunch) games at War Memorial instead of putting up with this. I think the program has totally bottomed out.’

But most season-ticket holders said they would remain so, and the fans all said they would continue to support SU. Everyone expressed confidence that given enough time, Robinson will return the Orange to perennial conference contention, especially in the feeble Big Least.

Jon Brenizer, Laidlaw’s longtime friend who graduated from SU’s College of Law in 1971 and has attended at least 100 SU games himself, said he would always trek to the Dome.

‘I enjoy the whole experience – the tailgating, hanging out with friends,’ Brenizer said. ‘I’ll never stop coming even if we’re headed for a 1-10 or 2-9 season.’

Incredibly, tailgaters were actually dissolving during the middle of the fourth quarter, the time when partying usually heats up around the Quad. I wandered to the Carrier Dome to grab stragglers as they left for one last opinion.

Turns out I just had to listen.

A mother, followed by her two young sons, all three shrouded in SU regalia, emerged from Gate P. One of the boys stopped and spread his arms when he hit the wind tunnel, grinning from ear to ear as he flew forward.

His mother smiled. Unprovoked, she turned to me.

‘It’s pretty sad when a gush of wind is more exciting than the game,’ she said.

Amen.

Ethan Ramsey is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear every Tuesday. E-mail him at egramsey@gmail.com.

Published on October 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm