Syracuse @ South Florida preview
Raymond James Stadium
Last Meeting ( Oct 3, 2009 ) South Florida 34, Syracuse 20
Syracuse is off to a pretty good start by its recent standards, but, if recent history holds, the Orange are about to see their winning ways come to a complete stop.
Off to its best start in seven years, Syracuse (3-1) travels to Tampa to take on South Florida on Saturday in the Big East Conference opener for both teams.
The last time Syracuse was 3-1 was 2003. If the Orange are to improve to 4-1 for the first time since 1999, they will need to beat the Bulls for the first time in program history.
The series history is brief and it is one-sided. South Florida (3-1) has won all five meetings with Syracuse and outscored the Orange 174-53 in the process.
“Everyone understands that since South Florida has joined the Big East you can argue that they’ve dominated us,” Syracuse coach Doug Marrone said. “They have a new coach in (Skip) Holtz who is coming off back-to-back Conference USA championships. He knows how to win and how to get the team ready to go.”
Whether Syracuse is ready to go remains to be seen. The Orange are riding a modest two-game winning streak, but it is even more modest when you consider the wins are over FCS schools Maine and Colgate.
Syracuse won its season opener at Akron but was handled pretty easily 41-20 at Washington a week later. Now whether the Orange can build off the wins and finally knock off the Bulls likely rides on the arm of junior quarterback Ryan Nassib.
Nassib leads the Big East and ranks 25th nationally in pass efficiency at 151.37. He set a school record with five touchdown passes against Maine and has thrown at least one touchdown pass in each game this season.
Helping keep defenses honest and from keying solely on Nassib is running back Delone Carter, who has rushed for 419 yards this season and is averaging 5.7 yards per carry.
South Florida is also off to a good start and, like Syracuse, is a hard team to figure at this point in the season.
The Bulls have wins over FCS foe Stony Brook, Western Kentucky (0-4) and Florida Atlantic (1-3). They committed five turnovers in a 38-14 loss at Florida in their second game of the year.
South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels will need to step things up against an Orange defense that has acquitted itself nicely through four games.
Daniels has thrown five interceptions this season to only four touchdown passes. In his biggest game of the season to date, Daniels was 5-of-20 for 84 yards with four interceptions and a touchdown against Florida.
Syracuse comes into the game ranked 25th nationally in total defense (301 yards) and 23rd in scoring defense (16.2).