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Old conference foes clash Thursday night when Syracuse takes on USF in the Boca Raton Bowl. The game is a battle of 6-6 teams that willed their way to the postseason with victories in their respective final regular-season opportunities.
Syracuse comes in under the direction of interim coach Nunzio Campanile, who took over after Dino Babers was fired before the conclusion of the season. He was the acting head coach for Orange’s win against Wake Forest, which secured back-to-back bowl appearances for Syracuse for the first time since 2012-13. Syracuse has already announced its next head coach with former Georgia assistant Fran Brown taking over, but for the players and remaining staff from the 2023 campaign this is a chance to finish a challenging year on a positive note.
USF is in a different situation from the coaching perspective as coach Alex Golesh has arguably exceeded expectations getting the Bulls into a bowl game for the first time since 2018 in his first year on the job. This is a program that had just four wins combined in the previous three seasons, and the five-win turnaround from 2022 to 2023 ranks as the second-best turnaround in FBS this year and the best year-over-year improvement in USF football history. USF, like Syracuse, had to win its final game of the regular season to reach 6-6 and now hopes to use the 15 bowl practices and Thursday night’s game as a chance to build upon the foundation that is Year 1 of the Golesh era.
Syracuse and USF played 10 times previously, with the Orange holding an 8-2 advantage in the all-time series and eight of those matchups coming between 2005-12 when both schools were football members of the Big East. The last meeting between these two, a 45-20 USF win at Syracuse, was in 2016 after the…
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Author : Chip Patterson
Publish date : 2023-12-21 01:30:46
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