SYRACUSE - Where's the beef on the Syracuse offensive line? There's still a lot of it, only not quite as much as last fall with the Orange focused on correcting a glaring weakness.

“We have a new offensive coordinator and a new intensity,” said Ryan Durand, who weighed 310 pounds last season and started 11 games at right guard as a junior.

When Mitch Browning replaced Brian White in December as offensive coordinator, the first thing on his agenda was to make sure the returning linemen - who helped allow a staggering 54 sacks in 2007 - lost some weight. No more 330-pounders struggling to get out of their own way. Of the 119 teams that play at the top level of college football, only Notre Dame allowed more sacks with 58.

Browning set about 300 pounds as the target weight for his linemen - give or take a few pounds. That has meant some serious dieting for the likes of left tackle Tucker Baumbach and right tackle Jonathan Meldrum, who each ballooned to nearly 340 last season, and right guard Adam Rosner, who tipped the scales at around 330 at season's end.

Lots of smaller meals and plenty of time in the sauna helped Rosner get under 310 when he returned for classes in January. Meldrum and Baumbach also have lost considerable poundage.

“We've got a ways to go with a couple,” Browning said at midweek. “I want guys who are mobile and can strike, play extremely hard for 60 minutes.”

The importance of Browning's effect on the line cannot be overestimated, and he knows it.

“Everything starts up front, and it has nothing to do with talent. It's all attitude and being in great shape,” Browning said. “If we can cut it (the sack total) in half, that would be great. We'll do whatever we have to to stay out of lost plays, and I think we can do that. We've got good, quality kids who are getting better every day. If we can improve fundamentally, we can secure the line of scrimmage and be a drastically improved football team. Games are won or lost on the line. We have got to develop a line that can line up and not be beaten.”

Durand said there was no reason the line can't exceed expectations.

“Half as many sacks is a good goal, but we'd like to get it down even more,” Durand said. “There's no reason to stop at that. I think we'll be able to do that.”

That will be welcome news for junior quarterback Andrew Robinson, who was battered and bruised by all the hits he absorbed last season - he missed a game and a half with a cracked rib - even when he wasn't sacked.

And to help achieve that goal, head coach Greg Robinson and Browning have simplified the playbook.

“It's been a very natural transition, very smooth,” Durand said. “Everyone's pretty much on the same page.”

“We're learning a new offense, but they're coming along pretty well,” added Andrew Robinson, who, along with backup Cameron Dantley, has been practicing shorter dropbacks in spring ball.

Whether Greg Robinson gets to keep his job likely depends on how the team responds after going 2-10 in 2007, dropping his three-year record at Syracuse to 7-28. So he's intent on maximizing the talent he has and has been rotating players at different positions.

“We just want to see different people competing and get the right fit,” Greg Robinson said.

“We're constantly looking for talent we can exploit, identifying what certain people can do. What we've seen is very good. We're just kind of getting into the groove of the offense. There's a lot of spunk to this group. You want the little things done, and that takes time.

“This group really wants to turn it around badly. They want to be looked at as winners. I think they are pretty intent about that.”