Steve Gregory has been waiting all winter, spring and summer for Sunday afternoon, so forgive the senior cornerback for getting a little tired of waiting any longer.’It’s going really slow,’ Gregory said. ‘I wish it’d just speed up so we could get out and play.’Gregory’s teammates and Syracuse football fans couldn’t agree more. After waiting 238 days since Greg Robinson’s hiring as head coach on Jan. 11, Syracuse hosts West Virginia Sunday at 1:30 p.m. on ABC in the Carrier Dome to begin a much-hyped 2005 season.’Aside from my first game ever playing in college, this is a very big day,’ Gregory said. ‘This is the most hype. New coaching staff, new schemes, new defense, new offense. Everything’s new.’Syracuse needed a fresh start after last year’s finish, a demoralizing 51-14 loss to Georgia Tech in the Champs Sports Bowl on Dec. 21, which prompted the firing of former coach Paul Pasqualoni and Robinson’s hiring less than a month later.Since then, Syracuse has undergone numerous changes.Along with an almost entirely new coaching staff, Robinson instilled a more aggressive defense that players said give them more freedom to attack. Offensive coordinator Brian Pariani installed a West Coast-styled offense based on his time in the NFL under Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan. The athletic department also replaced Syracuse’s uniforms and playing surface in the Carrier Dome.Syracuse is hoping that all the new changes will give way to a new team even though most of the players remain the same.’You can feel that there’s a lot of enthusiasm and there’s a lot that’s been generated and I think that everybody’s feeding off of it,’ Robinson said. ‘I think the team is. I think the coaches are. It’s a great thing.’Many players also expressed excitement about starting the season on national television for the second straight year. SU opened 2004 on a Sunday afternoon ABC time slot against a formidable opponent just like this year.Syracuse hoped to impress a national television audience, but instead Purdue embarrassed Syracuse, 51-0, and the game left fans disgusted rather than eager.’We don’t even think about that anymore,’ Gregory said about last year’s opener. ‘That’s in the past. Back then we wished that could have gone a little better. That wasn’t how we wanted it to go. This time it’s going to be a different story.’Gregory said playing at home with all the changes and possibly more fan support leads to a better setup for the Orange. The opener also serves as the beginning of conference play, so it’s doubly important.Starting quarterback Perry Patterson agreed with Gregory that there’s a different feel with this year’s opener than past ones. He said it’s important to get off to a good start and feed off the energy associated with the program, but also to keep emotions in check.’Everyone has high expectations for us and we have high expectations for ourselves,’ Patterson said. ‘But like Coach (Robinson) is always saying, we have to prepare hard and can’t make up for it with emotion.’Gregory said that Syracuse would like to get Robinson his first win, but the game is more about the team than just one coach. Robinson agreed, noting that he didn’t think his players felt any increased pressure.’We’ve got something to prove to the country,’ Gregory said. ‘We’ve been saying it for a few years. It’s time. We have the right situation in front of us to really show what we can do.’Everyone will find out just what that is Sunday.