Buffalo native Mike Williams chatted with a couple of his friends on the Buffalo football team earlier this week. And the Syracuse wide receiver wasn’t afraid to trade some jabs with his buddies at his hometown college.

Williams went back and forth exchanging some friendly trash talk with the Bulls’ Naaman Roosevelt and Domonic Cook about the upcoming contest between the two Central New York foes.

‘(I) tell them they’re going to get beat,’ Williams said.

But Williams admitted as soon as he hangs up the phone, he returns to a mentality that would have seemed unheard of years ago – the thought that Buffalo provides a legitimate challenge to the Orange.

‘We’re trying to go into this game and play them hard,’ Williams said. ‘We know they’re a better team (than in the past). They have a better record than us. We look at them like they’re better than us.’

Buffalo, a perennial weakling since entering Division I-A in 1999, might have its best shot of beating Syracuse since the previous time the Bulls pulled off a win against the Orange – in 1899. The Bulls come to the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon.

Granted, the teams have only played each other seven times. However, in the last meeting between the squads in 2005, the Orange thrashed Buffalo, 31-0 – Syracuse’s only win of the season.

Now Buffalo holds a 3-4 record, including a 3-1 mark in the Mid-American Conference. UB head coach Turner Gill has improved on the Bulls’ doormat status in just two seasons as head coach.

SU senior safety Joe Fields, who participated in the previous Buffalo-Syracuse matchup, said he feels the Bulls definitely have an upgraded team, especially on offense. He can understand why Buffalo might have a bit of a swagger when the team arrives this weekend.

‘That’s the hole we dug for ourselves,’ Fields said. ‘They feel like they can come in and get a win. We got to be ready to show them they can’t. They got every right to feel that way.’

The Bulls’ most dynamic player on offense, running back James Starks, has the ability to exploit one of the Orange’s biggest weaknesses – run defense. Starks ran for 231 yards last week against Toledo. He’s the first Buffalo running back to sprint past the 200-yard mark since the Bulls moved to the top tier of college football.

With Syracuse in the midst of a woeful season and Buffalo finally turning into a competitive force, SU head coach Greg Robinson knows he’ll have a difficult time pulling out a win when Syracuse faces the team it beat to earn Robinson his first-ever head coaching victory.

‘We’re playing Buffalo and we’re focused on Buffalo,’ Robinson said at his Tuesday press conference. ‘We know we must do everything in our power to beat Buffalo. There isn’t a whole lot that needs to be said other than that.’

(BOLD)Blockbuster

The Syracuse running game might be on a roll after two successful games, yet starting halfback Curtis Brinkley disclosed he needs to improve in other areas, namely blocking.

Brinkley said the running backs have neglected their duties when trying to protect quarterback Andrew Robinson when he drops back to pass.

‘We’re all accountable with what’s going on with Andrew, and we just have to fix it,’ Brinkley said.

Despite pass protection troubles by the running backs and offensive line, Brinkley praised how well the two units have worked together to open up the running game in the past two weeks. The junior running back praised his line and fullback Tony Fiammetta for opening up holes in the West Virginia and Rutgers games. Brinkley totaled 50 yards against the Mountaineers and fell two yards short of breaking the 100-yard mark for the first time this season against Rutgers last week.

Still, the running game’s improvements have not seemed to correlate with increased pass protection. Robinson was sacked five times last week. Center Jim McKenzie said the team has been flat-out missing assignments in the past weeks.

‘We definitely have to protect him better than last week,’ McKenzie said. ‘That’s for sure. That’s something we’re going to work on this week.’

Published on October 16, 2007 at 12:00 pm