Syracuse football bowl watch: Things aren’t looking great for Orange

Last week, we talked about how the Syracuse Orange were making their quest difficult. You can still win on difficult mode! But swapping quarterbacks, battling refs, and teams that are willing to be aggressive on offense is a heckuva hard mode to try and defeat. And the Orange are finding this out.

Look, we’re going along the Oregon Trail (or El Paso Trail if you prefer), and things aren’t off to a great start. Can you still make it after failing to ford three rivers and you’ve lost a few members of your party? Sure! It just won’t be easy.

Sun Bowl, December 31, El Paso, Tex.

CBS Sports vs. USC Trojans

Independence Bowl, December 26, Shreveport, La.

Action Network vs UAB Dragons

Gasparilla Bowl, December 23, Tampa Bay, Fla.

Sports Illustrated vs FAU Owls

Things have changed dramatically for the Orange, as they are now projected by more to miss a bowl game than the other way around. And of those projecting ‘Cuse to go bowling? Man, they’re something else.

Backing into six wins and completing the Quest for Tony versus John’s USC Trojans seems like a death sentence. USC may be the second-best team in the Pac-12 (we’ll find out these next few weeks) and would force this site to douse all of the Dino Babers to USC talk that would take place as Clay Helton’s seat stays perpetually warm.

The Independence and Gasparilla Bowls would be more in line with what I think would happen, as the Orange get matched up with a G5 team that could most definitely defeat them or get run out by ‘Cuse’s superior athletic talent. Both are possible, it just depends on which team shows up for Dino. I’d rather the Gasparilla Bowl because I want to re-make my Quest for Gasparilla Graphic and Syracuse fans would travel better to Tampa than Shreveport.

Dropped the Orange out of Bowl Projections: ESPN, College Football News, 247 Sports, Stadium Banner Society, Sporting News.