Patrick Shadle deserves some props.

He deserves the love and adoration that, quite frankly, he’s been denied. The kid has a story, the kid has a shadow to crawl out from and the kid’s quietly having one heck of a season.

You’ll probably see a bunch of stories on Shadle everywhere this week, for the sole reason that he’s from Morgantown, W.Va., where Syracuse travels to play West Virginia on Saturday. But that’s the easy story to write, the kind of feature they tell you makes for great human interest in freshman Newhouse classes.

I think it’s a nice angle, but I could care less if he has a few more fans in the crowd or old high school buddies to catch up with after the game. What I find interesting is how Shadle has emerged from the kicker-by-committee abyss to become a special teams ace.

We’ve had the wrong guy all along. Everyone has pumped up punt returner Max Meisel this season, all because he’s a 5-foot-4 walk-on. But Shadle, unlike Fair Catch Max, has delivered tremendously on SU special teams.

He’s come through to the tune of nine field goals on 10 tries this year, with a perfect 14-for-14 on extra points to boot.

‘I try not to look at those stats, I just try to focus on the game at hand,’ Shadle said in front of a media throng Tuesday. ‘But we’ve been having a lot of success so far this year and hopefully we can build on that.’

What I find very interesting, though, is how Shadle has to operate in the shadows of SU’s arguably most popular player, yet another special teams guy: Brendan Carney.

Ah, Carney. The tall, slender special-teams hero with the dreamy hair and platinum foot. The first Orange punter named a team captain since 1964. The man with a four-year cult following, a golden-boy image and even a full centerfold spread in this very publication’s season preview.

I’ve seen girls at the bar giggle when Carney struts in with his Ray Guy Award candidate smile.

I remember the running joke against last year’s 1-10 team being, ‘Hey, Syracuse’s best player is the punter.’

Carney gets all the pub and it’s against this backdrop that Shadle has started to flourish, playing gritty Chicago to Carney’s neon New York City.

‘I still say I’m second tier to Brendan Carney,’ Shadle said. ‘He’s the big show around here.’

Well, where’s the love for Shadle? At least his kicks score points.

The SU kicking game has drunkenly stumbled over the last couple seasons, marred by inconsistency, botched extra points and little long-distance range.

Orange kickers combined to convert on only 16-of-28 field goal attempts of 30-plus yards the last two seasons. This year, Shadle is already 8-for-9 on such kicks, including season highs of 46, 44 and 43 yards.

Remember Ricky Krautman, the now-transferred, former Orange kicker who had ‘RTK’ tattooed on his arm for ‘Rick the Kick’? He lost what looked to be his starting job to walk-on freshman John Barker last season, causing the kicking committee idea between the two of them and Shadle. That led me to wonder if he regretted not getting an ‘I Love Mom’ tat instead.

Or how about Collin Barber, who went 14-for-22 on field goals and missed three extra points the season before last?

Shadle’s helping everybody forget them. Nobody has mentioned the SU kicking game this year, which is a marked improvement over the constant and deserved derision doled out the last couple seasons.

But as the year plows on and Syracuse battles for a winning record, tight games against Big East opponents will surely start creeping up.

And knowing it has a special teams stud besides Carney, a special teams guy that can make a much more tangible difference in tight games down the stretch, will be a very reassuring feeling for the Orange.

So where’s Shadle’s nickname? Where’s his centerfold?

Let’s get this man some love, because he shouldn’t have to go all the way to his hometown to have a crowd appreciate what he’s doing this season.