After South Florida’s Andre Hall scored his third and final touchdown with 4:22 left in the game against Syracuse on Saturday, SU head coach Greg Robinson stood with his hands on his hips, blankly staring at the Carrier Dome turf for a good 15 seconds.

It looked as if Robinson was waiting for the artificial blades of grass to give him an answer, to tell him why his team is mired in a hellish, season-long tailspin.

Writing the latest chapter in a season of nonexistent offense and leaky defense, Syracuse lost to South Florida, 27-0, in SU’s final home game of the year in front of 40,144.

The emotion of Senior Day and halftime retirement ceremony of No. 44 couldn’t inspire the Orange, which lost for the seventh time in a row – its longest losing streak in 22 years and the second longest in SU history.

‘I wanted (a win) for our team,’ Robinson said. ‘I wanted our team to be able to display and go out and win with those people watching them, so that they could walk away and really have something to hang their hats on. …Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.’

USF fed the Orange a steady diet of their star running back Hall, who rushed for 222 yards and scored three touchdowns on the weary SU defense.

Syracuse’s offense wasn’t up to the task, mustering just 182 total yards and 12 first downs. In a season of innumerable notorious distinctions, the game marked the first time SU (1-8, 0-6 Big East) had been shut out at home since Nov. 8, 2000.

Nowhere was the contrast between the Bulls’ and Orange’s offenses more evident than in the running game, where SU’s Damien Rhodes responded to Hall’s performance with just 91 yards and no scores.

‘Towards the end of the game, it was kind of frustrating, kind of disappointing,’ Rhodes said. ‘You never want your last game to be like that, your last game home.’

While the offense laid an egg, the defense succumbed to the USF stampede. The Bulls (5-3, 3-1) only completed five passes, but Hall averaged 9.3 yards on 24 carries, demoralizing an SU defense that has sunken in unison with the offense.

The Bulls started early, with Hall bouncing off two Orange linemen before scatting outside for a 38-yard run on the game’s first play from scrimmage. SU held USF to a field goal on the drive, but on their next possession Hall plunged in from four yards to give the Bulls a touchdown on a drive that spanned 52 yards on three plays in just 40 seconds.

Hall’s mastery continued in the third quarter, when he found himself one-on-one down the right sideline against SU free safety Anthony Smith at the SU 20-yard line. Hall, a good friend of Smith’s, juked hard inside and then bounced back out, freezing Smith dead in his tracks.

‘The angle I was taking wasn’t the right angle,’ Smith said. ‘He stutter-stepped me basically.’

Hall then added the final USF score in the fourth quarter, capping a maddeningly frustrating game for the Orange.

Starter Joe Fields and backup Perry Patterson split time again, each ineffectively – the two combined for 65 yards on 8-of-25 completions and two interceptions. Even wide receiver Quinton Brown got in on the passing mediocrity party, tossing a badly overthrown interception on a trick end-around option play in the first quarter.

The frustration flared early, when USF quarterback Pat Julmiste appeared to fumble with five minutes left in the first quarter. The play was reviewed and Julmiste was ruled down by contact, sending Robinson, the SU sideline and the crowd into a furor. In what’s becoming a weekly tradition, Robinson threw a fistful of papers to the field and removed his headset to yell at any official he could find.

The fact that the greatest number in Syracuse history was retired at halftime and 12 senior starters were playing their last home games only compounded the aggravation.

‘I just felt bad because I wanted to help the seniors out,’ sophomore safety Dowayne Davis said. ‘It was their last game in the Dome. I was playing for them.’

Fans slowly began leaving throughout the third quarter, taking with them the sour taste of a 1-5 home record this year.

On the final play of the game, Patterson threw an interception in the end zone as SU tried desperately to avoid the shutout. It was a fitting end to a game whose intention was to give Syracuse’s seniors any kind of a high note on which to end their home careers.

Instead, the Orange class of 2005 must live with the fact that it tied for the second-worst home record in Syracuse history since 1900 on their day.

‘I’m gonna black it out,’ Smith said, ‘try and get a win next week or at Louisville (to end the season), go out with a win or something like that.’

Published on November 11, 2005 at 12:00 pm