Syracuse fans know what it's like to lose unexpectedly to a team from one of those New England states no one's ever been to. The pain of the Vermont basketball loss is etched into our memory and Tom Brennan still has yet to tithe SU for providing him with a lucrative, post-coaching career.
So you can understand if Doug Marrone doesn't want to take a-AA Maine lightly as the Orange set to face the Black Bears on Saturday. Given the circumstances and the emotional high the team is riding, it's prime upset territory.
"We haven't won a lot of football games here," said Marrone. "This is a very, very good football team we're playing. To think we'd take them any other way ... I don't see any reason why we'd even be in that discussion. We have our work cut out for us this week.
The Orange may have to battle on without Not-So-Iron Brandon Sharpe on Saturday. Sharpe had to be helped off the field after a kickoff against Northwestern as he's part of the wedge-busting unit. No specifics but the word is he might have suffered a concussion of some kind.