Jim McKenzie and the rest of the Syracuse football team had last weekend off from practice, the bye a welcome respite after the grind of training camp and five straight games. But McKenzie, the starting sophomore center, grew up outside Philadelphia, and he follows the Eagles. So even if he didn’t have practice Sunday, he still had suffering, watching his Birds, now 2-3, flop to fourth place in the NFC East division.

Frustration from the NFL or not, that’s part of what the bye week is for: a chance to relax, but still prepare for the upcoming opponent. Syracuse (1-4) hits the road for the first time in more than a month Saturday, traveling to Morgantown to face West Virginia (3-2), in front of the hostile fans that pack Milan Puskar Stadium.

Syracuse head coach Greg Robinson’s team ran a regular schedule of practice last week, only without the game at the end. ‘They didn’t have a week off, but they didn’t play,’ Robinson said. ‘I felt good about our bye week.’

The bye week comes at an opportune time for the Orange. West Virginia, with its warp-speed spread offense and multi-dimensional quarterback Pat White, has pummeled Syracuse the past two seasons by a combined score of 96-31. So even in a down year for West Virginia – a bit flummoxed without former head coach Rich Rodriguez at the helm, the Mountaineers stumbled to losses early against East Carolina and Colorado – the extra time to prepare always helps.

That’s something veterans like senior defensive lineman Vincenzo Giruzzi understand.

‘Whenever you could get an opportunity to get a jump on an opponent, you have to use it to your advantage,’ Giruzzi said. ‘So over the past week, we’ve been preparing against these guys, watching a lot of film, getting to know this team as well as we can.’

Syracuse had a chance. With redshirt freshman wide receiver Chaz Cervino mirroring White at quarterback, the Orange tried to get a sense of what it will face this Saturday. And with no games the weekend before, some were able to go home and see family.

Sophomore defensive tackle Anthony Perkins did that, heading back to Washington, D.C., for the weekend, hoping to relax. Except he jumped awake early Saturday morning – a gameday ritual that dies hard. Then he annoyed his family while they watched football, breaking down the games, pointing out double teams to his uninterested fellow viewers. Film habits die hard, too.

Even if they didn’t get to go home, the players still can take advantage of the time off. Kevyn Scott, the redshirt freshman safety from Florida, spent most of the time in his apartment on South Campus. ‘During the bye week, actually, I just relaxed,’ Scott said. ‘Watched some of the games, basically, some of the opponents that we’re going to face. I watched the West Virginia-Rutgers game.’

The Mountaineers beat the Scarlet Knights, 24-17, one game that all the Orange players were sure to have watched this week during film study, a return to the grind. Then again, they watched film last week too.

‘I mean, we do the same thing week in and week out,’ McKenzie said. ‘A bye week is almost just a week without a game at the end of it.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on October 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm