Please excuse Greg Robinson for having a selective memory.

‘Did we lose our first three openers?’ Robinson quipped at his press conference Sunday. ‘I really wasn’t thinking back on that.’

Whether or not Syracuse’s head football coach chooses to remember it, the fact remains SU has lost four consecutive season openers, the last three with Robinson at the helm.

It has become a theme of the Robinson era: lose the first game, thereby setting the tone for the rest of the year. The Orange will try to break the streak Saturday when it travels to Evanston, Ill., to take on Northwestern (noon, ESPN2), to kick off the 2008 season, and the importance of game one is not lost on Robinson or his players.

As Robinson addressed the media last weekend, it suddenly all came back to him. The 15-7 loss to West Virginia in his coaching debut. The tough 20-10 defeat in 2006 to Wake Forest, a team which later climbed the national polls. And last year’s 42-12 meltdown on national television against Washington.

Even if Robinson wanted to block the games from his mind, some things a football coach never forgets.

‘The first opener, we could have won that game like that,’ Robinson said. ‘The second one, I told you, it was a real good football team in Wake Forest. With a minute and 20 seconds, it was still 15-10 to the Orange Bowl team. Last year, I didn’t think we played very well against the Huskies.’

Last year’s opening day is a perfect example of how one game can resonate throughout an entire season. Expectations were high that Friday night, and the 40,329 fans that filed into the Carrier Dome proved it. The ESPN camera crew validated the excitement even further.

The game was an embarrassment, with Washington taking a 14-6 lead at halftime and eventually going up 35-6 to break it open in the third quarter. Syracuse’s best home crowd the rest of the season was 38,039 against South Florida on Parent’s Weekend. The Orange went on to have its lowest average attendance since 1986 (35,009).

With Syracuse coming off a 2-10 season, attendance is expected to be low again. Even the most loyal and ardent SU supporter is finding it tough to invest money in a program that has gone 7-28 the last three years.

Unless, of course, the Orange surprises the experts and wins some games.

‘We want our fans at the games,’ said senior offensive lineman Ryan Durand. ‘And you can’t blame them (for not coming) right now, they don’t have a reason other than the diehard fans who are there regardless. We have to get those fans back. In order to that, we have to win.

‘This is a great way to start the season off and get some more fans in those seats.’

Though teams often try to downplay the importance of opening day, relegating the hype to a media-created myth, Syracuse realizes Saturday’s effort against Northwestern could spark some interest back home. One win could boost attendance when the Orange plays its home opener next weekend against Akron.

‘I think this team is doing a great job as far as the mental part with the seasons we had. But I do think we need this game,’ said senior tailback Curtis Brinkley. ‘I really believe we need to win this game, to start off the season the right way. So the people who don’t feel good about the team can.

‘I think a quick start is very important this year, just to avoid the negativity in everybody.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on August 29, 2008 at 12:00 pm