Pinstripe Bowl: New York's College Team In New York Doing New York Things

The Syracuse Orange arrived in New York City Tuesday night in preparation for December 29th's Pinstripe Bowl match-up with the West Virginia Mountaineers. Wednesday, they hit the town in sailor suits, singing showtunes and dancing in the streets. I'm assuming.

Actually their day consisted of a 7:30 a.m. tour of the Empire State Building followed by practice at Columbia University and then media day interviews.

Thursday, Ryan Nassib will take on WVU coach Dana Holgerson in a one-on-one showdown to see who can ring the New York Stock Exchange bell better. I just hope someone checks to make sure Holgerson doesn't blind Nassib with some foriegn substance when no one is looking. They're going to be a little too close for comfort. Following that, the team will practice and then visit the 9/11 memorial.

Friday, the coaches and players will meet with local youths at Yankee Stadium for a "chalk talk," which I imagine entails Doug Marrone sitting on a bench and hiking his shorts up before launching into a speech about "smokin' doobies." After that, the players will have a walk-through for the game Saturday.

Some news and notes...

West Virginia center Joe Madsen will not play after being deemed academically-ineligible. You may remember Madsen as the guy who said of Syracuse, "we beat them so many times," despite not beating Syracuse half the time. He'll end his four-year career as a starter with only one personal win over Syracuse.

The Empire State Building stop might have been a bad move considering we shot the nerves of some of our best players.

"No, I haven’t (visited) – in all of my years in New York City. It’s amazing," Bromley said. "I’m a little scared of heights, but I’m trying to just calm that down because it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

"I can’t even really see people (below), so it’s just crazy. I’m just really glad that we’ve got these gates, man," he said of the metal fencing that encircled the outdoor portion of the 1,050-foot-high observation deck.

Apparently practice got a little sexy today when one of the assistant coaches took off his pants during the proceedings. From here, looks like it might have been Tyrone Wheatley. Anyone?

How's this for a reversal of general logic. Keon Lyn doesn't consider WVU a rival but is pretty sure they consider us one:

"We don’t really consider it a rivalry. They probably do because we beat them in the last two years, so it’s probably important for them to get the win. It’s important for us to keep winning against them."

Practice was a chilly one at Columbia. Such is the tradeoff when you're playing a bowl game near home.

It's looking like Saturday will once again feature precipitation in the Pinstripe Bowl. Rain and snow are being predicted. But who does that favor?

When asked about how he feels about the Schwartzwalder Trophy not being up for grabs, Zach Chibane said nothing and plenty at the same time.

"No comment there," Chibane said, laughing. "I don't want to comment on that."

You can check out some photos and video from all of Wednesday's events over at SU Athletics.