OK, folks, time to bring up the B-word:

Bowl.

You know you’re thinking about it, too.

Syracuse is 2-2 with Wyoming next and a four unimposing conference games to follow-Pitt and UConn at home and Cincinnati and South Florida on the road.

All it takes is 6-6. This can actually happen-even with sensation Taj Smith likely to miss the rest of the season with a fractured collarbone.

But I’m not going to make a prediction. I won’t sink to the low of pretending to know the future.

I’m here to make a different point: Syracuse should make a bowl game. If the Orange doesn’t qualify for postseason play, the season will be a disappointment.

Yes, Syracuse was just about the worst team in the nation last year at 1-10. But the Greg Robinson honeymoon is over.

Even though its opponents the last two weeks were stuck in the same abysmal rut, Syracuse fielded a competent, normal offense, defense and special teams in beating Illinois, 31-21, and Miami (Ohio), 34-14.

Slowly increasing the win total by three each year doesn’t cut it. As former Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins head coach George Allen often said, ‘The future is now.’

I don’t think I’m alone at all here. Finding coaches and players to agree is another matter.

Of course, Robinson won’t touch the question. I pondered on my way down from the press box to the press room how exactly to broach the topic. I knew he wouldn’t answer, but I had to give him a shot.

‘Is this a bowl-caliber team?’ was the best I could come up with.

Brief silence.

‘We’re a 2-2 football team trying to get to 3-2,’ Robinson said, looking over at me with an ever-so-slight smirk. ‘You can make the decision on where you think I’m at. I’m just worried about getting ready for Wyoming-getting prepared and getting right.’

Big surprise there. But hey, you never know until you ask.

On to some players.

Center Justin Outten wouldn’t bite.

‘That’s our goal,’ he said of the B-word. ‘The (Bowl Championship Series) is always in the back of our minds. But we’re not putting anything on the backburner, we’re just going to play one game at a time. Let’s get bowl eligible first and then see what happens. You have to get one win at a time. If you look ahead and overlook somebody, you’re not going to see progress.’

Hmm, they say catchers make the best baseball managers. Sounds like centers may make the best football coaches.

Linebacker Luke Cain found a fantastic way out of the question. Props to him.

‘I mean, of course, you think about bowl games … why else would you play the game?’ he said. ‘You play the game to win. I know that’s clich and a lot of people have said that already, but you play the games to win.’

But still, alright, that’s progress. We’ve got one player who acknowledged the postseason is on his radar. There’s nothing wrong with that, Luke. Your defense has now scored two weeks in a row-this team is on track.

Time for one more: quarterback Perry Patterson.

He studied ‘How to deal with the media’ by up-and-coming author Greg Robinson in the off season, but the senior let down his guard on this one-he told the truth. For that, I dig him.

‘Yeah, definitely, it’s not that far-fetched that we can’t be a 4-0 team right now,’ he said. ‘We let a couple of games slip away from us, but as long as keep getting better at the things we need to get better at and believing in the coaches and things like that, we’re going to be a good team, we’re going to be a bowl team.’

Well, the quarterback is often the leader of a football team. Since Patterson’s a senior, that’s likely the case on this team, too. And if he thinks Syracuse should be a bowl team, then most of the players probably do as well.

While the records of those five easier opponents-Wyoming, Pitt, UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida-are a combined 10-9, none were expected to be above-average and none have performed that way. Syracuse, meanwhile, qualifies as an average football team that can definitely take four of those five even without its best player in years, Smith.

Therefore, though I don’t claim to know how the Orange will finish, I do know you should consider anything less than the B-word unacceptable. It’s time for Syracuse to take the next step.