Teams: Syracuse Orange (3-4, 1-4) vs No. 19/16 SMU Mustangs (6-1, 4-1)
Day & Time: Saturday, October 31, 12:00 pm
Location: JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY
Line: Syracuse continues to be an underdog this season. The Orange are +10.5 point underdogs according to Fanduel’s odds.
TV/Streaming: ESPN2, WatchESPN
Radio: Cuse.com, TK 99/105, WAER 88.3, SiriusXM 258
Rivalry: 2-0, SMU
Current Streak: 2, SMU
First Meeting: The first game between the two teams came back in 1932 in Syracuse. SMU won 16-6.
Last Meeting:
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.
Head Coaches: Syracuse: Fran Brown (third year, 16-16) | SMU: Rhett Lashlee (44-17)
Coach Bio: Lashlee is an Arkansas native. He played quarterback in high school for Gus Malzahn. Lashlee stayed in-state to play for Arkansas in college. Since his playing days, Lashlee coached every season except one under Malzahn until 2017. He followed him from his high school to Arkansas, Auburn, Arkansas State and back to Auburn. Lashlee left Malzahn to take offensive coordinator jobs at UConn, SMU and Miami. He earned his first head coaching job with SMU in 2022 after Sonny Dykes left for the TCU job.
Last Year: SMU couldn’t quite recreate the same success it had in its first year in the ACC. Non-conference losses to Baylor and TCU and unranked ACC losses to Wake Forest and Cal left the Mustangs with an 8-4 record. SMU did end the season on a nice note with a 24-19 win over No. 17 Arizona in the Holiday Bowl.
Last Game: 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.
“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: QB Kevin Jennings continues to lead the Mustangs. His second of three touchdown passes against Cal was his 73rd of his SMU career, breaking the program record.
If Syracuse Wins: Consider this a preview for lacrosse season.
If Syracuse Loses: If you’re gonna also take the Ivy League transfer lacrosse players, at least let us have one of them.
Fun Fact: Finally, Syracuse will feature Otto on its helmet for the first time in program history this weekend.
