According to Greggers - this team still has bowl plans…gonna need to win em all to even be eligible. Time to look into this weekends “make or break” game for Syracuse to stay alive in the International Bowl hunt!

When: Saturday November 1st, 2008 - 7:00 PM Eastern

Where: Syracuse, New York at the Carrier Dome

Capacity: 50,000

Television: ESPNU

The Spread: The line opened at Louisville -13 but has crept up to Louisville -14.5 and the O/U sits around 55. Thus far approximately 58% of the spread action is on Louisville with 68% of the moneyline on Syracuse. 

Rivalry info: Syracuse leads the all-time series against Louisville with a 4-3 edge. Syracuse is 1-2 against Louisville in Big East play but 3-0 against the spread in those same games.

Did you know? Syracuse and Louisville played a regular season game in Tokyo, Japan in 1989 in what was then called the Coca Cola Classic. Syracuse won that game 24-13.

Head Coaches: Louisville - Steve Kragthorpe -2nd season at Louisville (11-8 overall) Syracuse- Greg Robinson - 4th season at Syracuse (8-34 overall.)

Last time they played: Syracuse - who were 37 point underdogs -  beat Louisville 38-35 making it the biggest upset in Big East history.

Syracuse Offense vs Louisville Defense:

What on earth would we do without Brinkley? If Grob has anyone to thank for his extended stay in Syracuse - its Curtis “Boonah” Brinkley. Brinkley has basically single handedly produced all offensive production this season and is the lone excitement for Syracuse football as a whole. In his last four games - Brinkley has averaged 130 yards a game on the ground - that’s nearly 40% of the Oranges total offense. If we had another Boonah…we could very well pull off another Louisville upset this weekend. Unfortunately we only have one.

Louisville enters the second half of the season ranked 5th nationally against the run allowing only 75 yards a game. Only once has Louisville allowed a rusher to gain over 100 on the ground - Donald Brown of UConn was able to rack up 192 but has done so against every and anyone.

Once again - although we face a stiff opponent it’d be wrong not to feed Brinkley - but it seems that Dantley might have a bit of wiggle room in the air.

I expect Browning to try and open things up this weekend as a last hoorah towards the teams goal of making a bowl game. We might be able to catch Louisville off-guard a few times in the first half but eventually we’ll revert back to what we do best - going nowhere fast (See USF second half.)

Louisville Offense vs Syracuse Defense: Speaking of stud Running Backs - Louisville seems to of found one themselves in Freshman (RS) RB Vic Anderson. Anderson has amassed 727 yards on the ground in his first season and is sure to be the keystone to Louisville’s climb back (if they’re not already there) to respectability and BE contention. Anderson should be able to top his career high of 183 yards seeing as the Orange have yet to really put a stop on anyone yet this season.

Hunter Cantwell hasn’t necessarily panned out how all the talking heads predicted he might - but if he is going to make a push towards the NFL then this is the game to start. Cantwell might have great pro-potential but he has proved to be turnover prone. Cantwell has thrown and interception in all but two games this season and has totalled 9 on the year. If the Orange can find a way to rattle Cantwell and pick a few off they might be able to keep this one close.

Why Syracuse will win: The Orange play like its 2007 and everything clicks against the Cards. Brinkley and the Orange come out determined to make a bowl game and leave everything on the field. Dantley is able to find a few holes in the Card secondary and hooks up with Sales for a few long passes. Brinkley proves large in the redzone and continues his hot streak.

Why Louisville will win: Vic Anderson and the Cardinal run D are for real. Brinkley isnt able to get anything going and as a result the entire Orange offense falters. A few early 3-and-outs turn into Cardinal TD’s and the game is over before the half.

Syracuse player to watch: RB Curtis Brinkley - 733 yards rushing - 4 rushing TD’s - 10 receptions for 67 yards

Louisville player to watch: RB Victor Anderson, a Louisville native with very similar stats to Boonah - 727 yards rushing - 6 rushing TD’s - 7 receptions for 54 yards 1 receiving TD

Five things I don’t want to see Saturday:

1. Syracuse wrong dimensional.  With Louisville ranked 5th overall in rushing, we cannot just turn into a pass happy squad, even though their pass defense is actually ranked worse than ours.  Balance is still the key to winning.  We are not going to quick strike Louisville like we did last season.
2. A clueless Cam Dantley.  If he looks lost out there, let’s please make a move to get Andrew Robinson in the game.  But that also leads me to….
   
3. No quick hooks either.  GRob has a penchant for not coaching smart.  Don’t compound that by coaching scared.  If Cam is pulled in the first quarter, that tells me the full panic is in effect.
   
4. Getting out tricked.  Louisville pulled a direct snap last week to Victor Anderson against USF.  We need to pull out all the stops to win this week.  We hit them early last year, we have to do more of the same this year if Greg is going to prolong his head coaching career.
5. My Neighbors.  If they go out of their way to look for me they better be wearing flak jackets or carrying a reconcilliatory beer.  ‘Nuff Said.

Lvilleorange Prediction: Louisville 23 Syracuse 16

Reyes39 Prediction: Louisville 41 Syracuse 20 - let the heckling begin for Lvilleorange

-Stats thanks to collegefootballdatabase and ncaa.org

-Stat blocks thanks to covers.com (click links to visit site)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 4:40 am by Sean N. . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.