ESPN College Football

Give a starving man a cracker, and it'll probably taste like the best food he ever had. That was kind of the feeling in the Syracuse locker room last Saturday when the Orange beat Northeastern.

"Man, that was a big relief," running back Curtis Brinkley said. "We hadn't won in 11 months. Now we've tasted what it feels like to win, and we want to do it some more."

Brinkley knows what it feels like to wait for satisfaction. He came to Syracuse as a highly-touted prospect, but his career has featured a series of stops and starts. Yes, he led the Orange in rushing last season, but he only gained 371 yards. And in the eighth game against Buffalo -- which was Syracuse's last win before Saturday -- Brinkley suffered a broken leg. He had already come into the season with aching knees that required surgery.

"A lot of people were doubting me and thinking I wasn't going to come back," he said. "That kind of pushed me."

But after all the rehab, Brinkley says he's in the best shape of his life and that now "is payoff time." Against Northeastern, he had a career-best 145 yards on 24 carries, plus a touchdown. He's ranked third in the Big East in rushing yards per game.

The Syracuse offense is based around the running game, and it produced 271 yards on the ground against Northeastern, the second time this season it has eclipsed 200 yards. That's no surprise with new offensive coordinator Mitch Browning. He engineered some high-powered rushing attacks at Minnesota, where he tutored the record-setting backfield duo of Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber.

"It's the best offense for me that we've had since I've been here," Brinkley said.

Few people are doing cartwheels over the Northeastern game, since the Orange beat a winless FCS team by a mere nine points. Coach Greg Robinson appears headed for the chopping block any moment, with athletic director Daryl Gross telling ESPN.com this week that Robinson wasn't getting the job done.

But Syracuse usually hangs tough with Pittsburgh, its opponent Saturday in the Carrier Dome in the Big East opener for both teams. Last year, the Orange lost just 20-17 at Heinz Field.

Brinkley said Robinson told the players before last week's game that they were starting a new season with Northeastern and then the conference schedule.

"So in our eyes, I mean, we're 1-0 right now," Brinkley said. "We're hanging in there and just trying to put something together for Pittsburgh."