The Syracuse Orange are coming off a potentially season-saving win, but that hasn’t changed their position much in the eyes of the oddsmakers. The Orange have, once again, opened as big underdogs at home, this time to a ranked SMU Mustangs team. Syracuse opened as a +9.5 point underdog to the No. 19 team in the country, according to FanDuel’s opening odds.
Syracuse enters the game after snapping an 11-game ACC losing streak dating back to last season. The Orange mounted a comeback at Chapel Hill and
defeated North Carolina 31-30 in overtime. The former five-star recruit Calvin Russell III caught the game winning touchdown and two-point conversion to seal the win for Syracuse.
Steve Angeli played and started his first game since the Pitt game on September 17. He was benched for the Orange’s game at UConn in favor of Amari Odom. Angeli missed the following two games after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection for retrocalcaneal bursitis. The injury was near the Achilles that he had surgically repaired last year. The Orange are currently without two quarterbacks as Amari Odom is out for the season due to shoulder surgery and Malachi Nelson is still out for a few weeks due to surgery for a high ankle sprain.
After trailing to Cal at halftime, SMU turned on the afterburners in the second half. The Mustangs outscored the Golden Bears 42-0 in the second half, en route to a 59-20 victory.
Syracuse and SMU have only met twice in program history. The Mustangs have won both games, with the first meeting coming back in 1932 in Syracuse. SMU won that game 16-6. The Mustangs hosted the Orange in Dallas last year for the first conference game between the teams. SMU led by 28 points at one point en route to a 31-18 win over Syracuse.
Kickoff between Syracuse and SMU at the JMA Wireless Dome is on Saturday, October 31, at 12:00 pm ET. The game will be aired on ESPN2. This will be the second straight year that Syracuse plays on Halloween at the Dome. The Orange hosted UNC last season on Halloween, losing 27-10.
