As much as the Syracuse football team would like to forget about its past and move forward, it cannot bury its footsteps.

You can try to block out the past two seasons in which the Orange won a total of 10 games and was closer to the Big East cellar than to a bowl bid, but the effects are everywhere.

Just look at the recent dip in season ticket sales, the lack of blue chip prospects over the last two years and how the Orange failed to receive a single vote in the Associated Press preseason poll, ranking Syracuse at 56th in the nation at best.

It’s all there, and it’s all stacked against the Orange.

‘There is a lack of respect, absolutely,’ head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. ‘We’ve had two years that haven’t been great years. So, I think that’s only natural, isn’t it?

‘(The lack of respect) shows by our preseason ranking, but that’s OK,’ senior captain Walter Reyes said. ‘That’s why we play football. That’s why there’s a whole other season. You can’t worry about the past two seasons. You can go back and talk about it, but you can’t go back and play the games. You have to play these games and worry about this year.’

The Orange has plenty to worry about this season because not only is it trying to build its first winning season since 2001, when SU went 10-3 and won the Insight.com Bowl, it’s also trying to restore what used to be considered an elite program.

Remember the program that went to 11 bowl games between 1987 and 1999? The one that only lost two of the postseason contests and ran up a record of 111-41-4 in that 13-year span?

Since the new millennium, that shining Orange program has gone 26-22. Attendance has dropped nearly 12 percent from an average of 46,741 a game in 1999 to 41,177 in 2003.

It could get worse, too. Carrier Dome Managing Director Pat Campbell said season ticket sales are down this year. Though he would not elaborate on how much sales have decreased, he said the budget is balanced.

Still, the recent drop in attendance and lack of fan support draws a heavy sigh from Campbell when asked about the community’s loyalty.

‘SU fans… we have a very loyal fan base,’ Campbell said. ‘Our loyal fans will stick with us no matter what. But Syracuse has been a town that traditionally supports a winner and doesn’t stick with a team that isn’t winning. That’s the way it’s always been. I know, too. I was born and raised here.’

Campbell said he doesn’t believe there’s a direct correlation between attendance and SU’s record because it depends on how many home games the Orange host or who’s on the schedule.

But SU recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Chris White believes it shouldn’t matter who is on the schedule because the name Syracuse – not the opposing team – should put fans in the seats.

‘The thing that’s a little disappointing is that sometimes the fans should come to see us play,’ White said. ‘They are coming to see the big named schools like Florida State and then it’s not as crowded in a lesser known game. But I don’t blame them. If we’re winning the way we should be winning, then the Dome will be packed.’

The empty seats in the Dome aren’t the only things White has noticed since SU fell into its recent funk. High school recruits are also getting turned off by SU’s losing seasons.

‘Kids don’t want to go to a team that’s not on TV and not winning; that’s an issue,’ White said. ‘I can’t point out one (instance), but some of the higher profile kids that you’d like to recruit, you need to really work to get involved with those guys and sometimes those guys aren’t showing you the interest you think Syracuse should get. We’ve got to win. If we start winning again, it’s going to be easier to recruit those kids.’

Right now the top recruits need to have a sense of faith in the Syracuse program, like freshman quarterback Joe Fields showed when he left the football hotbed of Texas to join a struggling Syracuse squad.

‘Every school has drops,’ Fields said. ‘I felt like with this drop the future looks bright. I have a chance to be part of a turnaround. The way Coach P runs this program, he runs it top notch. Everything the schools down (in the South) have, we have up here. Syracuse doesn’t take a backseat to nobody. We just have to win, then our school will come to the forefront.’

But there is a sense of urgency to prove the losing seasons are merely a drop and not a permanent fall. That’s why senior captain Matt Tarullo considers 2004 to be a pivotal year in changing the program’s recent image.

‘For me as a senior, it really would be an indictment to not have a good season – an indictment against myself and against the team we’d like to build,’ Tarullo said. ‘Overall, I want to come out and have a great year, win 10 games, make this coaching staff really show the people in the county who doubt our coaching staff that the coaches we have are great and not mediocre.

The Orange is optimistic about the coming season, but there’s a different feeling to this year. Last year, the Orange could call a 6-6 record an improvement from going 4-8 in 2002.

This year the Orange is seeking much more than improvement. Respect is on the line. Tickets sales, recruits – they all hang in the balance as the Orange hopes to find the winning touch that has seemingly faded.

‘This is a make or break year for our program,’ White said. ‘This program needs to win again. I think we have the players to do that. We just have to do it on the field. But we can’t take a step backwards, there’s no way. There’s not one person (on this team) who doesn’t understand that.’

Published on September 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm