Vincenzo Giruzzi is tired of hearing Syracuse has no reason to stay motivated the rest of the season. True, all five Division I programs that fired their head coaches midseason lost their first games after announcing the change. But this week is different.

Just look at the opponent. That’s all the motivation the Orange needs.

‘If this doesn’t motivate you, playing Notre Dame … you’re probably in the wrong sport,’ said Giruzzi, SU’s senior defensive end.

That’s one of the messages SU head coach Greg Robinson has preached this week. The Orange (2-8 overall, 1-5 Big East) is traveling to South Bend, Ind., to take on the Fighting Irish Saturday (2:30 p.m., NBC). Notre Dame Stadium is one of the most hallowed grounds in college football, a place young players dream about playing at their entire lives.

More people will see this game than any other Syracuse game since 2005 – the last time the Orange played the Fighting Irish (6-4). It will be shown for a national television audience on NBC. ‘Anyone in America with a TV set will get the chance to see Syracuse University,’ SU co-defensive coordinator Derrick Jackson said.

At a team meeting earlier this week, Robinson emphasized the game will be broadcast in 70 countries. More than 80,000 fans will likely pack Notre Dame Stadium, marking the largest crowd most of Syracuse’s players have played in front of in their entire lives. So far this year, the largest crowd for any SU game has been 58,133, for the Orange’s Oct. 11 contest at West Virginia.

With all that in mind, Syracuse sees Saturday’s game as an opportunity. A matchup against Notre Dame is the closest the Orange will come to the postseason this year.

‘We look at this as our bowl game,’ SU offensive guard Ryan Durand said.

For quarterback Cameron Dantley, playing Notre Dame is especially meaningful. His father, Adrian, was a basketball star for the Fighting Irish from 1973-76 and is second on the school’s all-time scoring list with 2,223 career points. Adrian Dantley went on to have a 15-year NBA career and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September.

Robinson has not announced if Cameron Dantley will start Saturday. Either way, just being on Notre Dame’s campus has special significance to the entire Dantley family.

‘He still talks about Notre Dame to this day,’ Dantley said of his father. ‘He still watches Notre Dame. He still loves the place, and it was a big part of his life.’

Several of Syracuse’s seniors remember playing in South Bend in 2005. Giruzzi, safeties A.J. Brown, Paul Chiara and Bruce Williams, tailback Curtis Brinkley, tight end Ben Maljovec, fullback Tony Fiammetta and linebacker Jake Flaherty all saw limited action against the Fighting Irish in that game. For Flaherty, it was the first time he took reps at linebacker in his collegiate career.

But even for that list of veterans, the second go-around is considerably more important. Many in the group will start Saturday. All eight will likely play. Right now, their only memory of Notre Dame is a 34-10 loss.

‘Playing at Notre Dame, we’re going to remember this game for the rest of our lives,’ Giruzzi said. ‘So it’s good to go out there and play as hard as you can because you don’t want to have any regrets after the season, like ‘Oh, I wish I did this against Notre Dame.”

Age aside, playing against the Fighting Irish will remain a memorable experience for all the Orange’s players. Jackson said it is important the entire team realizes the history and significance of Notre Dame’s program and will not be surprised if players are awed by the sheer magnitude of the environment when they first take the field.

Quite frankly, it would be hard to blame them.

‘It’s always been a dream of mine to play somewhere like Notre Dame,’ SU center Jim McKenzie said. ‘… Just to play on the field. I think a lot of college football players have watched ‘Rudy’ and just want to have that same sort of feel, to run out on the field.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on November 21, 2008 at 12:00 pm