Pretty good FCS football squad.

This is the Saturday where the Syracuse University football team shows why new head coach Scott Shafer has kept the faith.

Or else.

If the Orange doesn’t look very, very good against the Wagner Seahawks in the Carrier Dome, fans around these parts will give up on the season. A mark of 0-3 and it’s over, baby, no matter that the first ACC game ever is still a Tulane tilt and open weekend down the road, Oct. 4 against league frontrunner Clemson.

If you haven’t heard, Wagner is a small liberal arts college based in Staten Island. About 2,400 students go to the New York City college that sits atop Grymes Hill. The football team plays in the Football Championship Subdivision’s Northeast Conference. The Seahawks were good last season, 7-1 in the NEC and with a better record overall at 9-4 than Syracuse’s 8-5. They beat Colgate in the first round of the FCS playoffs before losing to Eastern Washington. And Wagner has a win this season, opening with a 28-21 victory over Georgetown before falling 42-41 to Merrimack.

But, still.

Jerome Smith and Prince-Tyson Gulley must gain many yards. Drew Allen must throw more touchdown passes than interceptions. It would be nice if Syracuse gets to put in No. 2 QB Terrel Hunt because it’s so far ahead, not because it’s too far behind.

The collective Orange football psyche needs a solid win. It needs 1-2. It need not have to go through the horror that would be 0-3.

Now, the losses to Penn State and Northwestern were somewhat expected. The Big Ten teams are good. Northwestern looked deserving of its Top 20 ranking last week.

But the victory over Wagner is definitely expected.

Did you see that Greg Robinson got hired as defensive coordinator at Texas this midweek, after the Longhorns defense was torn apart by BYU? Did it take you back to those four miserable seasons with Robinson at the helm of the Orange, ugly football that Doug Marrone had to clean up with a big broom and totally revamp before heading off to lead the Buffalo Bills?

A loss to Wagner would bring back too much of those memories.