John Barker stopped dead in his tracks as he ran onto the field and turned around for further instruction from the sidelines. Something was brewing.

Then, when Barker, the backup punter and holder, lined up as the placekicker on a field goal attempt in the first quarter, and the normal kicker, Pat Shadle went to hold the ball, everyone knew what was happening.

Everyone, including West Virginia.

Barker heard the Mountaineers’ sidelines calling out, alerting the defense of the switch Syracuse made in anticipation of a likely fake. When Shadle got the snap, he flipped it over his head to Barker, who ran a sweep right.

He didn’t have much of a chance to get the eight yards needed for an Orange first down.

‘Their defense, they were pretty aware,’ Barker said. ‘I got outside, and usually they’re real lazy with the guys who play contain, they just drop right back. But I got outside the tackle, and there were two guys already outside and two more back inside, so….’

Barker said he had asked SU head coach Greg Robinson what to do if West Virginia spotted the fake formation and altered its defense. Robinson told him to run the play regardless. Down 14-7 in the first quarter, Robinson wanted touchdowns, not field goals.

‘From what we had studied, I thought there was an opportunity for (the fake),’ Robinson said after the game. ‘I wanted to try to get seven points. I felt like touchdowns were a way to get it going early in the ballgame. It didn’t work.’

So the 5-foot-8, 155-pound Barker was left with nothing else to do but take on four West Virginia defenders. He managed to move the ball three yards, well shy of the chains.

‘It was pretty much, ‘Which guy?” Barker said. ‘I had to break a tackle. I knew we needed about seven yards from the line of scrimmage, and I figured I’d lower my head and maybe make a move and break a tackle and get the first down. But there was no way I was getting to the edge, so there was nothing I could do.’

Run progress?

During his Sunday press conference, Greg Robinson noted he saw definitive improvement in Syracuse’s rushing offense.

Starting tailback Curtis Brinkley scored his first touchdown of the season on the Orange’s second drive. He rushed seven times on that drive for 32 yards and finished with 50 yards rushing.

‘I do think we did establish something,’ Robinson said. ‘I really do. I felt like if we gained one thing on the offensive side of the ball, that’s where it was.’

Freshman Doug Hogue allowed Brinkley to rest, and Hogue rushed for 34 yards on eight carries. Paul Chiara was used as a third-down back.

‘I think we really put a lot of work into it in the last week,’ Robinson said. ‘To get our offense in balance, we have to take a hard-nosed approach to getting this thing right.’

Takin’ it Holmes

Mike Holmes knew the day would come. Finally, a team kicked the ball away from Max Suter, statistically the Big East’s third best kick returner.

After three returns by Holmes, West Virginia was kicking it away from him, too.

‘I had the opportunity to show what I could do,’ Holmes said. ‘I got the ball and just did what I do. Max has been doing a great job this year returning the ball and giving the offense good field position, so I guess they just figured they’ll kick it to me.’

Holmes fielded three kickoffs and averaged 39.3 yards per return. His second return went 41 yards to the West Virginia 45-yard line and set up a 10-play Syracuse scoring drive to tie the game at seven.

On his third return, Holmes took it deeper into Mountaineers’ territory, to the 25-yard line. It was a 64-yard return, but Holmes thought he could have had more. He didn’t get a chance for another return, as West Virginia kicked line drives away from Holmes.

‘I know one of them, I came pretty close (to a touchdown),’ Holmes said. ‘I probably could’ve cut back across the back field. But yeah, pretty close.’

But even with the outstanding field position, Syracuse couldn’t put any points on the board after three plays and attempted the Barker fake field goal on fourth down, which was stopped.

Published on October 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm