The Syracuse Orange are 5-6. The Pittsburgh Panthers are 5-6. These two teams will play each other on Saturday at Noon. ESPN2 will televise the event.
One team will lose and their disappointing season will be over.
One team will win and spend their December planning for a trip to the Beef O'Brady Bowl or the New Orleans Bowl or some other bowl you're vaguely familiar with.
Such is the circle of life.
Once 5-2 and on the easy road back to a bowl game, the Orange have dropped four-straight and Doug Marrone is practically on suicide watch.
Last weekend, the Cincinnati Bearcats wore down the SU defense with big plays while the Orange offense sputtered all day. Speaking of that offense, coordinator Nate Hackett spent the day on the sidelines, trying to get closer to the players during the game. It didn't make much of a difference and Hackett seemed to come to the conclusion that it has less to do with where he is and more to do with what he's putting Ryan Nassib through:
"I think I’ve got to take a lot off of Ryan. I think I’m making him think too much. I’m putting almost too much pressure on him," he said. "I sometimes forget that there’s a lot of guys coming to try and take his head off."
Syracuse has seen it's share of injuries all season and last week's game was no different. Fullback Adam Harris and cornerback Ri’Shard Anderson both suffered the dreaded upper body injury, Mikhail Marinovich spent the second half on the sideline with a sore back and Jeremiah Kobena left the game with a lower body injury. No word on their availabilities for Pitt.