There are certain occurrences in life that just don’t happen. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t lose to Rutgers.

Saturday, the Orangemen did, 24-7. That’s Rutgers we’re talking about, as in, 7-38-in-the-last-four-years Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are so bad that Sports Illustrated devoted 2,500 words in its Aug. 25 issue to ‘Why Can’t Rutgers Win.’ Now SI may have to print a retraction, because in losing to traditionally one of the worst teams in college football, Syracuse proved that it can be done.

Here’s a little background on Rutgers. Before this season, it hadn’t beaten a Big East team since 1999. The last team it did beat? You guessed it, the Orangemen. Last year, the Scarlet Knights were 1-11, including losses to hapless Buffalo and Division I-AA Villanova.

Yet, Saturday, the Orangemen were manhandled.

Last year’s 17-16 loss to 4-8 Temple was bad, but Saturday’s loss to Rutgers was worse, and it’s not just because the Orangemen were blown out. It doesn’t matter how many wins the Scarlet Knights have this year. At 5-7, they’re overachieving. But they’ve beaten Temple, Buffalo, Army, Navy and Syracuse. All bad teams. Division I-AA teams lose to Rutgers, not teams with Syracuse’s storied history.

The latest loss puts SU at 2-5 in the conference, tied with the Scarlet Knights. The Orangemen are tied for sixth place, one spot ahead of 1-11 Temple.

Coming into Saturday’s game, Syracuse had one goal: beat Rutgers. If that happened, it would get Notre Dame in the Dome for a chance to go to a bowl. Surely, the wind played a factor. Syracuse’s season depended on winning that one game. With so much at stake, it’s unbelievable that they could be so outplayed.

At least last year we knew Syracuse had minimal talent. Straight out of the gate, we knew where the Orangemen stood. Heck, the players knew where they stood. Losses to North Carolina and Brigham Young displayed SU’s pass defense deficiency, while the embarrassing defeat to Temple and conference losses to Boston College and West Virginia solidified its spot as a Big East bottom-feeder.

‘This year was much more disappointing than last year,’ SU long snapper Dave DeAmato said. ‘Last year, we started one way and we ended the same way.’

This year was more inconsistent. After starting 3-1, DeAmato said, the Orangemen were confident. At 5-3, they were almost assured a bowl spot. At 5-6 – and on the verge of missing a bowl game for the second straight year – they’re left to theorize on a season that had so much promise.

‘The weeks, the days, the games, it all flies by so fast,’ DeAmato said. ‘On the sidelines last week, we all just sat there and scratched our heads.’

Don’t think the Notre Dame game matters, either. If you’re an Orangeman, you’re playing for pride. If you’re a fan, there’s little reason to show up, unless of course, you were one of the thousands of fans that got conned into buying a season ticket solely for this game. The contest once had immense potential. If SU had beaten Rutgers, a win Saturday would have almost guaranteed a bowl bid. Now, the game’s only bowl significance involves determining the No. 2 spot in the Bowl Championship Series for teams who play thousands of miles away from the Carrier Dome.

The Orangemen will say they need more fan support. They’ll say they worked hard and that they’re better prepared for next season because of this debacle. What they need to do is to stop making excuses and stop losing to Pee Wee football teams.

Michael Becker is an assistant sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear regularly. E-mail him at mibecker@syr.edu.

Published on December 1, 2003 at 12:00 pm