I was at all of those locations but quite a few years ago.

I'm not feeling to comfortable about this one. Most of our starting offense from last year is now in the Big Ten or Big Twelve. I won't say that we have no shot but I think the line will be right about 2 touchdowns. Syracuse could easily have one of its better teams of the last decade.

No doubt the Bobcats will be big underdogs to Syracuse and Kentucky. Ohio should also be a slight underdog to South Alabama. The Jaguars drilled Eastern Michigan in a bowl game and beat a ranked Oklahoma St team by more than three TDs. They will return more starters than Ohio.

Syracuse hired Fran Brown this offseason after going 6-7 and getting spanked by South Florida in the Boca Raton Bowl with mostly backups playing.

They've since put together one of their best recruiting classes of the past 25 years and have their fanbase feeling excited about the future.

I'm an Ohio alumnus and former Syracuse season ticket holder so I'm definitely looking forward to this game and will be the dome. I'm hoping Ohio can stay competitive but don't like their chances in this one. I think the Orange might be sneaky decent this year.

No, as FormerMember stated they went 6-7 last year. 1-10 was back in 2020. Their best team of the last decade is undoubtably 2018 when they went 10-3. The next best was probably 2022 when they went 7-6. Other than those three seasons Syracuse's last decade is basically a collection on 4 and 5 win seasons. So saying this could be one of their better teams just means that they look to have a good chance to finish the regular season above .500 which I think has only happened twice in the 10 prior seasons. Their win total is 7.5 and that's agianst a much, much tougher schedule than our 6.5. They would be a pretty big surprise to win the ACC. They are around 40:1. But they are at home and the gap between the ACC and MAC has always been big and has only gotten bigger in the recent NIL years and we are only 9:1 or so for the MAC. We are going to be a pretty big underdog in the game but not such a huge underdog that it would be absolutely shocking. Barring something surprising happening between now and then it should open around 14 or 15 which would probably make us around 7:1 to win outright.

The last time we played in 2021 we were probably looking a little better on paper than this year but with the sudden coaching question and Syracuse clearly worse than how they look right now and we were and home. We went off as a small favorite and got beaten pretty badly. My co-worker was a Virginia Tech grad and was embarrassed about how many upsets the ACC had suffered in September and was asking about if the ACC had pulled of even one upset of their own. I, of course, was embarrassed about how unprepared we looked early in 2021 after the coaching change right before the season and we not only weren't going to come close to expectations but after September looked like we might be the worst team in the FBS. In that context it didn't even occur to me to think of our loss as an upset to consider. I told him that was an interesting question and I'd look it up. I had to come back with a reply in that he could take solace that there was one and only upset the ACC could take pride in pulling off so far. He couldn't help but laugh.

Who knows what we'll see this year. Might be as big a mystery as going into 2021. But we did find out in hindsight that Ohio 2021 was a terrible team that found their footing a bit later in the year, as I'm sure did the coaching staff. embarrassing offensive performance against cuse, loss to Duquesne (duquesne!!!!) horrible blowout to La.

Then the big jump in 2022. I expect even with all the question marks, we will be much better than the 2021 team, and it won't be even close. How good is Syracuse? Still don't know. but we're their first game with a new coach. I would say -- as I said in 2021, granted -- this upset is ripe for the picking.

to return to the topic at hand, This is definitely a game I'd love to travel to, if it's possible, but with two seniors in HS marching band, Friday travel is not easy in the Fall.

Well, like I said earlier, after the line jumped back and forth as to who the favorite was in 2021 as the game approached we went off at -1 and Syracuse picked US off so I guess Ohio was ripe indeed. Just about everyone gave us a pretty good chance to win but we fell on our face pretty hard. I don't think this is the same at all Syracuse was coming off a 1-11 season and we were at home.

I'm not a betting man but I love to look at the odds because it has to be inline with consensus expert opinion or the book will lose money. I usually look here to see what the books say:

https://www.vegasinsider.com/college-football/odds/las-vegas /

As you see the only lines that are listed from any major book are in week zero. But now I see from the same site that somebody must have opened on Week 1 because our schedule shows the line at Ohio +15 which is right where I would have guessed.

https://www.vegasinsider.com/college-football/teams/ohio /

Throw in a LB to the ACC, a DB to the Big Ten and a DL to the Big 12. I could be forgetting others who have left.

69 Dude!

Feel free to post over at www.Syracusefan.com

We'd love to hear more about Ohio in August.

This game opened at Ohio +14. Now +16 at Caesars. Have seen +16.5 at Hollywood Columbus recently.

McCord has a pass catching TE who could be an AA (Gadsen) and a few mid level ACC WRs. I saw the spring game on TV and the guy throws frozen ropes. If he has time he'll do just fine.

He's a nice QB. Syracuse isn't OSU, but the kid is good. Without all the pressure and the memes I bet he settles in nicely.