How about Syracuse’s 37-34, last-second field goal-thriller over Northwestern? How about the 40,251 who packed the Carrier Dome and then stayed for that time-expiring 41-yard kick from Ryan Lichtenstein?

We’ve talked before about how first-year coach Doug Marrone has cultivated fans and how he believes their continued engagement is absolutely vital. After Syracuse put together a tough showing in the opener against Minnesota and a genuinely decent outing at Penn State, I asked Marrone this past week if he’d done enough to get a repeat of Week One’s crowd support, if he’d done enough to sell fans on this six-game stretch the Orange have at home.  

“I don’t know,” he said. ”The fans here have been so good, they’ve been so supportive. They understand the direction that we’re heading.”

But then, almost as if he knew that might be a little optimistic, he sighed and said, ”I think we have to win games to keep people coming back. That’s not a question in my mind of what we need to do to keep them coming back.”

Well, the Orange did it. For only the 10th time in that last 50 games. The fans certainly helped and now, it seems the Syracuse community has more than faithful loyalty pulling it to the Carrier Dome. It seems Syracuse has some players who might be worth the price of admission alone.

Greg Paulus and Mike Williams both earned helmet stickers from Rece Davis on last night’s College Gameday Final. Williams hauled in 11 balls for 209 yards and two TDs and he’s one of four nominees for AT&T’s All-America Player of the Week. (The winner will be a fan vote and Sue Edson up at Syracuse very conveniently passed along how to vote for Mike: text ** VOTE to 345345 on your cell phone.) It was the first time a Syracuse receiver has hit 200 yards since David Tyree did it in 2002 against Virginia Tech and the first time a receiver caught 11 balls since Kevin Johnson did in 1998 against West Virginia.

Paulus, meanwhile, showed why exactly the Green Bay Packers thought there was enough potential to warrant a plane trip to Duke last spring. The Packers worked him out, Paulus suddenly found out he could get a fifth year of eligibility playing another sport at another school and this past week, I wondered if Paulus was done being a headline-grabbing anomaly and officially a Big East quarterback. Marrone very frankly responded, “I know that he is our quarterback and that he’s getting better for us every week.” Make that way better.

Paulus was 24 of 35 for 346 yards and two TDs. He rushed in another one (Syracuse hasn’t had a QB do that in three years) and over at the Syracuse Post-Standard, Bud Poliquin sounds like a believer: “… there was Greg Paulus, the kid out of Manlius who was fairly marvelous.” 

Something just might be brewing up at Syracuse. And all that talk from Marrone about Syracuse being New York’s team, not Rutgers… the league’s certainly getting more interesting.