NEW YORK — Sometimes, the frustration of watching the Syracuse offense gets to Nathaniel Hackett.

Hackett, SU’s offensive playcaller and quarterbacks coach, explained the frustration through plays like the Orange’s first from scrimmage against Connecticut on Nov. 20. On that play, quarterback Ryan Nassib missed a wide-open Van Chew streaking down the right sideline for what could have been an 80-yard touchdown to open the game.

Remembering the play Tuesday, Hackett could only shake his head.

‘You look at it,’ Hackett said, ‘and you say, ‘What more can we do?”

Plays like that one have typified the Orange’s offensive season. And even after a full regular season, Hackett admits he is still running a unit that is still looking to ‘find our identity.’ But that is the reality Hackett faces as the Orange (7-5, 4-3 Big East) prepares to take on Kansas State (7-5, 3-5 Big 12) in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Thursday in Yankee Stadium (3:20 p.m., ESPN).

From little mistakes halting drives to wild inconsistency throughout games, Hackett admits the reality is that the offense has no identity. And both he and SU head coach Doug Marrone know that needs to change Thursday.

‘Our identity is really execution,’ Marrone said. ‘… It’s being able to take the plays we’re able to do in practice and convert them in games. And whatever you do in games becomes your identity.’

Reflected in its overall statistics, that lack of identity places Syracuse near the bottom of Division I in nearly every offensive category. From the low total of 747 plays — which keeps SU’s fifth-ranked defense on the field — to the 4.9 yards per play. From just 29 total touchdowns to, finally, 308.3 total yards per game, where the Orange is 106th in the nation out of 120 teams.

In the last three games of the team’s season, those numbers became even more anemic. The Orange were held under 300 yards twice. And it culminated in a 238-yard performance against Boston College in which SU had only 13 first downs. After that game, Hackett came close to snapping, saying the offense’s dismal performance was the ‘story of our season.’

Hackett said Tuesday that the offense’s struggles were due in part to injuries and worn down bodies among his offense, in addition to a bit of complacency in those last three games.

‘There was so much pressure we put on ourselves to accomplish our goals,’ Hackett said. ‘There was a standpoint of saying, ‘We got our goals so early,’ I think there was that kind of complacency that we got them. And at the same time, they were a little beat down.’

And Hackett pointed out the identity crisis. A run-heavy team at the start of the season that couldn’t find the same success there as the year wore on.

Marrone said before the season began that the mark of a successful offense is more than 70 plays. Syracuse averaged 62 per game. Against BC, the Orange had only 51. And that led to more than 37 minutes of possession for the Eagles. The Orange has not won the time-of-possession battle since a 31-7 blowout victory at Cincinnati, after which it sat pretty at 6-2 near the top of the Big East.

Senior center Ryan Bartholomew said it all starts in the trenches. And to get back to that running identity, Bartholomew and the rest of SU’s offensive line took the team’s month off to review its strengths and weaknesses throughout the season.

The unit watched film of each of the Orange’s 12 games, a luxury it didn’t have during the week-to-week grind of the regular season. Bartholomew even noticed some slip-ups of his own in the second half of the season.

‘We saw ourselves, how our techniques changed and how things changed over time,’ Bartholomew said. ‘And we went out and we worked on those things. We’ve improved a lot over the last couple of weeks. Hopefully it shows on the field Thursday.’

Thursday is when Hackett hopes the Syracuse offense fixes the problems. When it resolves the inconsistencies and gets back to basics running the ball and, in turn, opening up the field.

When it solves its identity crisis — and Hackett’s own frustration.

‘We just have to focus on getting things better,’ Hackett said. ‘Because that’s the identity we want to be.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on December 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm