The dry-erase board in the cafeteria of the Iocolano-Petty Football Complex was filled with Syracuse’s normal schedule on Wednesday. After media interviews, the offensive and defensive units would meet at 2:15 p.m. until 3:30. Then, the special teams would assemble for a half an hour.

Maybe this week they should’ve taken a bit longer.

When Syracuse plays Connecticut tonight at 8 p.m. at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., it will try to repair a special teams unit that fumbled three times last week at Florida State.

In SU’s four-turnover performance, the Orange lost the ball twice on kick returns. The two turnovers gave the Seminoles an average drive starting point at SU’s 17-yard line. One of the fumbles – Kareem Jones’ on a first quarter kickoff – was converted to an FSU touchdown.

The poor play of the special teams was on head coach Greg Robinson’s mind earlier this week. On Tuesday, he said he was working new players into kick-return duties. In particular, cornerback Steve Gregory and running back Tim Washington were taking kickoffs and running back Curtis Brinkley was taking punts.

‘I want to see a sense of urgency from everybody,’ Robinson said. ‘I want them to show me how bad they want in. We as coaches keep working to make sure that we don’t have the mishaps that we had the other day.’

Robinson took responsibility for a fourth-quarter Brinkley kickoff fumble. Brinkley received the ball in the back of SU’s end zone and made two Seminoles miss before he coughed the ball up at the Orange 22-yard line.

‘I think coaches have a tendency to (blame fumbles on the players),’ Robinson said. ‘I don’t know that. How many times did I get Kareem (Jones) to get in the end zone and tell Curtis (Brinkley) not to bring it out? Haven’t done it. Haven’t done it with Curtis enough.’

Brinkley was not available to the media this week.

SU wide receiver J.J. Bedle muffed a punt late in the third quarter that was recovered by the Orange. The kick sailed over Bedle’s head and after hustling to get back, he lost it on the SU 14-yard line.

Though Bedle doesn’t return kickoffs, he said there is an understood rule when to take punts and when to let them go.

‘It’s just a judgment call,’ he said. ‘On a punt return, if I’m lined up on the 10 and it goes over my head, I let it go. Punts look the same but it’s completely different (from kickoffs).’

UConn placekicker Matt Nuzie was knocked out of last week’s Army game. After kicking off in the second quarter, he was blindsided away from the play and injured his right hip.

Whoever kicks against SU, Bedle said, you can’t second guess yourself.

‘There’s no looking back,’ he said. ‘The ball was on the ground and I couldn’t be thinking, ‘I shouldn’t have taken this punt.’ Once you start getting timid, somebody else is gonna be back there taking your spot.’

Published on October 7, 2005 at 12:00 pm