For Anthony Perkins, one victory celebration flowed into another.

Three days after Perkins and the rest of the Syracuse football team celebrated its upset win over Louisville, the sophomore defensive lineman found himself in the midst of the campus celebration following Sen. Barack Obama’s victory in the presidential election Tuesday night.

Perkins cast a vote, his first-ever, for Obama early Tuesday morning at Drumlins Country Club’s polling place. He attended a viewing party at the Schine Student Center that night with his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi. Then Obama was declared the winner, and things got wild. Students streamed onto the Quad and out by Schine, with cheering and chanting filling the night air.

‘The atmosphere there was like the atmosphere in the locker room after Louisville,’ Perkins said. ‘It was crazy. Everybody was ecstatic. For once, there were no people doing something stupid. It was just everybody coming together, celebrating.’

The danger of all the excitement of the past week, of course, is hangover. The Orange cooled head coach Greg Robinson’s hot seat last Saturday. But the team still hangs on the precipice of its fourth straight losing season, all under Robinson’s watch.

Syracuse (2-6, 1-3 Big East) squares off against Rutgers (3-5, 2-2 Big East) Saturday in Piscataway, N.J., a battle between two teams clinging to bowl-eligibility hopes. Rutgers rocked Pitt two weeks ago, as quarterback Mike Teel threw for 361 yards and six touchdowns in a 54-34 win. The Orange, meanwhile, is looking for its first two-game winning streak since September 2006.

‘The way we get refocused is think about how we felt against West Virginia, South Florida, Pittsburgh,’ Perkins said. ‘All those games were we coulda, shoulda, woulda.’

That is motivation. Plus, the specter of last season looms.

Last year, Syracuse upset Louisville. The Orange bottomed out afterward, losing seven of its last eight (its lone win a 20-12 decision over Buffalo).

This isn’t last year, Robinson hopes.

‘We’re talking about Rutgers right now, we’re off of Louisville and I think that is the key,’ Robinson said at his Tuesday press conference. ‘This football team has been a team that maintains a focus and they have from the get-go. What is happening now is they are improving their play and what they’re excited about is the opportunity to go back out and see if they can get better.’Robinson added, ‘I have never ever had an issue with their focus.’

The focus was clear last Saturday, as the Orange held on at the Carrier Dome. Curtis Brinkley gashed the Cardinals for 166 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Cameron Dantley tossed two touchdowns.

The key is repeating the formula for success.

‘We have to understand that we can’t get complacent and understand this is a new week,’ Dantley said. ‘Just like when we lose, we leave it behind after 24 hours, we have to do that with a win too and just start getting focused on Rutgers.’

But the cards, of course, are stacked against the Orange again Saturday. The secondary is banged up. The team hasn’t gone on a winning streak in two years. As wide receiver Lavar Lobdell said last week, Syracuse is always the underdog. Rutgers – which has only one more win than Syracuse – is a 17.5 point favorite.

So maybe that hangover won’t stick around long.

‘We want that feeling,’ Perkins said. ‘We want that same feeling after Louisville. And we know that, with the games we have left on our schedule, we know that it’s a possibility – we’re still bowl eligible. We’re trying to bring prominence back to this university, to the fans, to the coaches, everybody.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on November 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm