BIG EAST Orangemen in must-win mode

A bowl game hangs in the balance for Saturday's contest at Temple.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Syracuse linebacker Tommy Harris can still hear it, and it still brings a frown to his face.
"I really can't remember too much of what happened in that game. I just remember that ball hitting the goalpost and that doink sound it made," Harris said. "We all know about it. Nobody talks about it. I try to forget about it."
So does Syracuse place-kicker Collin Barber, whose missed extra point in the final minute at Temple two years ago made that doink sound when it hit the left goalpost and never made it through, giving the Owls a shocking 17-16 victory over the Orange.
It remains one of the most enduring defeats in Paul Pasqualoni's 14 years as coach. Temple, which is being evicted from the Big East Conference after this season, has won just 13 of 81 league games since 1993.
The Orange (5-4, 3-1 Big East) make their final trip here on Saturday to play the Owls (1-6, 0-4). Syracuse needs one more win to become eligible for a bowl game and is coming off victories against Connecticut and Pittsburgh.
Missed kick is haunting
For Barber, returning to Philadelphia is cathartic and eerie. He returns to the city of his most bitter disappointment and a memory that has haunted him every day for two years.
"It's been quite a motivating factor," Barber said. "When I get down, it's one of those things that drives me every day. I've been waiting for it for a while. It's a game I felt I let my team down."
Barber, whose three missed field goals and botched extra point against West Virginia cost him the starting job, won it back last week against Pittsburgh and was named Big East special teams player of the week. The senior from Lexington, Ky., kicked a game-tying field goal in the final seconds and an extra point at the end of the first overtime in Syracuse's 38-31 double-overtime win.
The Orange have only one game after Saturday, and that's also on the road, at Boston College. A victory over Temple would assure them of a winning record, thus meeting bowl qualification. However, there are no guarantees Syracuse will earn one of the bowl slots with Big East ties, even if it sweeps its final two games.
Syracuse can guarantee itself a spot in a Big East bowl game if it beats Temple and Boston College and West Virginia sweeps the rest of its conference games and represents the Big East in the Bowl Championship Series. In that scenario, Syracuse would most likely end up in the Insight.com Bowl in Phoenix because the Orange would end up second in the Big East with a two-game lead over every other conference team.
"We started off real slow," Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson said. "In the beginning of the year nobody thought we had any kind of chance, but coach P kept pushing us."