The route that takes the University of Maine football team from Orono to Syracuse this week may or may not include a ride through Albany. Regardless, the Black Bears are ready to put New York state’s capital in the rear-view mirror.

“There are losses and then there are painful losses,” Maine coach Jack Cosgrove said, recalling Maine’s 20-16 upset loss at Albany last Saturday. “That was a painful loss, and it’s still tough to swallow.”

Maine, which squandered a 16-0 halftime lead and was knocked out of the FCS Top 25 poll, returns to upstate New York Saturday at 7 p.m., to Syracuse (1-2) for its annual excursion into Division I FBS football.

The game marks the sixth consecutive season Maine has played an FBS opponent. The Black Bears haven’t won since defeating Mississippi State in 2004.  

Playing its third game without All-American fullback Jared Turcotte, who had abdominal surgery this week and will remain out indefinitely, the Black Bears struggled to close out last Saturday’s game on the offensive end, a growing concern for Cosgrove.

“I still think we’ve been trying to seek an identity as a
team,” Cosgrove said. “We’ve been up and down through the first three
games in certain parts of the game. Probably the one area I feel we’re
improving is on defense. We’ve settled down and I think we’ve played
particularly good pass defense the last couple of weeks, which is good
to see because we’re going to see our biggest challenge this week in
the throwing game.” 

The Syracuse passing game is directed by a name familiar to college basketball fans — senior quarterback Greg Paulus. Paulus started at point guard for Duke for three years then transferred to Syracuse after being granted an NCAA waiver to use his fifth year of eligibility to play quarterback for the Orange.

Paulus had his best game last week, throwing for 346 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-34 win over Northwestern. 

“There’s been a marked improvement in the three videotapes that we’ve seen of him,” Cosgrove said. “It gets better each and every game and I think his best football is still in front of him.” 

Maine will try to pressure Paulus with a pass rush led by Jordan Stevens of Temple, who had two of Maine’s four sacks, including a safety, and was in on
six tackles against Albany. Levi Ervin of Lisbon Falls had five tackles (two solo) in
relief of Ryan McCrossan, who started in place of senior tri-captain
Mark Masterson (ankle) but was knocked out of the game.

Ervin, a special teams stalwart for the Bears, filled in well
despite playing out of his normal position on the defense, outside
linebacker, Cosgrove said.

“Credit to him, he knows what he’s doing. Mentally, he’s very
sharp,” he said. “I think that was good for us to see. Hopefully, we
can get him back to where he’s better (outside). He’s not a big kid
(6-foot-4, 215 pounds) for the inside spot, so hopefully we can get the
other two guys back and he can get back to where he was and play that
kind of football for us there.”

Masterson returned to practice Wednesday and Cosgrove said he was hopeful McCrossan would be able to play Saturday.

Cosgrove continued the two-headed quarterback offense last week, with Mike Brusko (4-for-6, 29 yards, TD) and Warren Smith (8-for-16, 67 yards, INT) splitting time for the second straight game. In addition to becoming more consistent this Saturday, the Black Bears will have to battle the crowd noise inside the renowned Carrier Dome. Cosgrove hoped to help his team prepare for the din he expects to greet his offense whenever it lines up.

“I know that we can’t really recreate anything here that comes close to that, but we’re going to do the best we can in trying to practice and prepare for the challenge of Syracuse in every way, shape and form,” he said. 

“We have ways within our system to handle it, but whether or not we’re able to do it during the game, that’s the challenge,” he added. “You have to be comprehensive in your preparation. You can’t leave any stone unturned.”