What coast is this anyway?
Teams: Syracuse Orange (3-2, 1-1) vs SMU Mustangs (2-2, 0-0)
Day & Time: Saturday, October 4, 3:30 pm
Location: Gerald J. Ford Stadium, Dallas, TX
Line: The line has continued to favor Syracuse less with the Orange as +17.5 point underdogs according to Fanduel’s odds.
TV/Streaming: ACCN, WatchESPN
Radio: Cuse.com, TK 99/105, WAER 88.3, SiriusXM 383
Rivalry: 1-0, SMU
Current Streak: 1, SMU
First/Last Meeting: The only game between the two teams came back in 1932 in Syracuse. SMU won 16-6.
Head Coaches: Syracuse: Fran Brown (second year, 13-5) | SMU: Rhett Lashlee (fourth year, 31-14)
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: Lashlee led SMU to a successful first year in the ACC. The only regular season loss the team suffered was to BYU. The Mustangs lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship game but still made the first expanded 12-team College Football Playoff as the 11 seed. SMU lost to Penn State in Happy Valley during the first round.
Last Game: SMU is coming off a bye week. The previous week, TCU quarterback Josh Hoover threw for a career-high five touchdowns as the Horned Frogs won the Iron Skillet Battle over SMU 35-24.
“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: TJ Harden is one of two SMU running backs averaging over five yards a carry. He already has five touchdowns and averages 77.25 yards per game.
If Syracuse Wins: Imperialism rules means we claim Texas.
If Syracuse Loses: Syracuse opens as an underdog to Bye Week U.
Fun Fact: Dan Villari only needs one more catch to become the sixth tight end in Syracuse history to record 50 career catches.
Category: General Sports
