Beef. The Final Frontier.
Okay, the First Frontier. Honestly, Syracuse football will take Any Frontier at this point. It's been eons since our last bowl game (or at least feels like it) and we're just about fed up with four win seasons.
Considering the Rutgers-esque schedule ahead of us this year, this is our best chance in years to go bowling. And by God, at least one unbiased source thinks its doable.
After listening to preview site after preview site list us in the 100's or 90's, we finally found someone crazy enough to say Syracuse is the 80th best team in the nation and might just be spending its December playing football for a change.
I give you Paul Myerberg at Pre-Snap Read:
Call me crazy: I think this team is a definite bowl contender. That I have the Orange battling for a bowl berth — though I think they’ll fall short — is a testament to the job Marrone has done rapidly rebuilding the program. Now, I think Syracuse is a year away: the team is still short of the 85 scholarships allotted to each F.B.S. program, though Marrone, despite some attrition, will have a far deeper roster in 2010 than in his debut season. What would Syracuse need to occur in order to reach six wins? Sweep Akron, Maine, Colgate and Louisville, as noted above; get steady quarterback play from Nassib, who should be able to perform without looking over his shoulder; have Delone Carter be reinstated to the team by September; and have unproven players step up along the offensive line and at receiver.
It's a crazy leap of faith...but I like it. And I agree with the logic. The Orange have to come out of September 3-1 for this to work and then they're going to have to hope the Big East is still mired in parity as I think it will be. The need to win 7 games makes it tougher, but having such a soft first month will only help SU later on when the big boys come calling.
It's actually a pretty well-laid out and in-depth preview so I suggest you check it out in whole. (And don't think for a second his delightful comments about TNIAAM aren't going on the praise wall...)