SYRACUSE FOOTBALL welcomes a RANKED Georgia Tech team to the DOME

11:46: Takeaways from SU's 38-22 win against OHIO [Music] the orange Zone sponsored by Billy Whitaker cars and trucks what's up what's up everybody welcome into the orange Zone podcast the award-winning orange Zone podcast a reminder you can find every episode on Spotify Apple podcast we're on YouTube We're on pretty much every social media platform you can find besides Reddit but maybe we'll make one of those uh that's Ashley wowski I'm Sam the cross in we got Jam mro back for another season really exciting stuff and Rachel Culver is back on the producer Mike James I mean how how are you how have things been I'm doing pretty good uh it's been a long summer uh got an empty nest now me and the wife so we're trying to adjust to that uh trying to adjust by having a new football coach as well but uh everything's going pretty well there a lot of adjustments a lot of adjustment right now I understand that Ashley what's up how how we feeling this week haven't seen you in a few days I'm good I know we haven't seen each other we have to like Yap and catch up outside of this but I'm good how how are you how was Mexico first of all yes yes I was I was in Mexico that's why we're doing the episode on Wednesday it's okay to just admit that um not a secret not a secret um I I it was it was great I don't know if any of our listeners have ever been to Mexico I was in Cabo it was a bachelorette party really cool stuff they were in like a um like a private Villa with like this really cool scenery and whatnot my lips are particularly sunburnt really never had that experience to this degree before so I'm you know trying to overcome that um but beyond that really really fun stuff I have to say so thanks for holding it down to the entire crew while I was gone but I'm back now I am ready to talk about the takeaways from week one which was a 38-22 win over Ohio I mean I'll just open the floor up to you you know what did you see on the field uh yeah I would say uh pretty much every fan probably agrees with me right that first drive on the field I was looking around it was me and Jesse from spectrum and Maddie from nine we were looking at each other like oh boy like this is not good it's it's pretty hard to almost throw two interceptions in the same drive but that's what happened but you know what we moved on we moved past it the minute he hit AE for that touchdown I was like all right here we go we're going to be okay so mongra were you at the game were you watching what unfortunately I wasn't at the game uh I had to to it but uh I was able to watch the game and be able to dissect everything was going on and uh yeah in the very beginning was sloppy football um little concerning uh and I just said to myself it's early on it's early on they'll get the get it together and they did eventually um but it was tough in the very beginning it was tough um when you only had the ball a minute and something in the first quarter that's not good at all in any game any capacity at all so you know they eventually got things turned around by the second quarter but there's a lot of mistakes out there but you know I I think uh coach Fran will be able to change those around yeah they looked like a team I said this after the game when Rachel and I did our instant recap they looked like a team that was playing their first game of football together as a cohesive group with a new coaching staff with new players with all that so I don't think they ever really got the breathing room in that game that we wanted though even when they pulled ahead kind of in the second third quarter it was like all right you kept hoping that they'd be able to take McCord out at some point kind of sub in some some second string guys and that just didn't happen but you know what if they looked like a team that was playing together for the first time in my opinion that's okay because they were a team that was playing together for the first time and to both of your points at some point at least offensively they did turn it around this was a passing game that looked pretty explosive mccy completing 27 of 39 passes for 354 yards and four touchdowns after the game Coach Brown saying I should send Ryan Day a bottle of champagne for allowing us to get him it's pretty cool that got a lot of social media attaction even from the Ohio State fans as well um and not to mention even today um I'm seeing that he's making multiple you know analyst lists for their their version of player of the week um including K KB Street which I you know that's that's a pretty notable name so offense ly you know what what did you guys think yeah I mean we knew mcord was going to be great right I don't think he's going to have a problem with any team in the ACC maybe Miami at the end of the year but he looked fantastic I mean we talked about it all off season that wealth of kind of weapons that he has in the receiver room that Syracuse just didn't have last year I think his connection with paa surprised me surprised a lot of fans but I kind of saw it a little bit in Fall Camp um I think to see Peña have three touchdowns was was a pleasant surprise for fans but I think it's just his versatility right he hit paa a couple times a Ronde I think he completed passes to eight different receivers laquint with the one-handed catch even and an impressive catch from Jackson Meek so I think mcord is going to be able to spread the ball around I I I agree with you with saying that uh he did spread the ball around I don't know when the last time we had uh 27 for 39 with 354 yards passing and it looked consistent I mean it wasn't like just bad ball thrown and it was wide receiver you know making spectacular catch um yeah mord is is uh he's going to be able to do his thing now it's know it's up to the offensive line to block for him and get the running game started because that was you know in the very beginning uh throughout the game I thought the running was not good at all um but by him throwing the ball that will open up the running game um but yeah mccordi I mean he really wasn't this focused on one receiver he spread the ball around got some uh some freshman in there catching the ball too as well that's always a good thing um so I I mean we have a very very bright future ahead of us yeah and I think that's especially important right everybody knows aand is kind of the star guy on this team he's got like the big flashing Target on him but when you don't have to go to a Ronda all the time and you are confident in two or three other guys to catch the ball that that helps you for sure there's not one doubt about it on the other side of things you have an orange team that had a tough time stopping the Run yes which is something that we were discussing even off the air before we came on to shoot this um Ohio running back Anthony tus II just shredded this orange defense for 203 yards on 16 rushes the Bobcats finishing the afternoon with 255 yards on the ground compared to Syracuse's 126 So when you say a tough time stopping the run the stats reflect it and I think even without seeing the stats like someone like you mugra who's just watching on TV has a lot of football knowledge that that's what stuck out to a lot of fans it did I mean the the tackle was uh was terrible let's just make it like that uh you know and I I I made an excuse for him I said you know they haven't really tackled much in you know preseason um during Camp you know keeping everybody healthy you don't want to tackle at all but uh now is the time when you have to tackle the shoulder is not going to get it done in this league the running back was a prettyy big big guy um and he ran the ball very hard but you know there was lots of times where guys had in the back field and had an arm on him and he broke through the arm tackle and ran through guys and stuff like that so the tackle and they definitely have to shape up on that yeah I think especially important now right with the loss of Marlo wax obviously a huge uh huge injury there um we saw him go down in the third quarter didn't look pretty right away I mean I was standing right there and I honestly when we heard the news from coach Fran on Monday he said it'll be about six weeks puts him back kind of for the second half of the season I think it'd be around the pit game that he would maybe come back if that holds true I was relieved to hear that because I think it looked a lot worse on the field especially when he came back with the crutches and the boot you could kind of tell he couldn't put any weight on it so to me six weeks was almost a win in terms of um what we witnessed I feel like they they haven't confirmed what it is they just said lower body but probably like a high ankle sprain or something like that but at the end of the day the defense I mean Marlo is the heartbeat of that defense he also wears like the inh helmet communic unation um to allow them to communicate Justin Baron said he doesn't know who's going to be wearing that in his absence so Marlo's a very sizable loss it totally is but this is what someone has to step up you know and and Fran has been building his um his death CHP and everything like that so the next person up and let let's see what they have I mean and this what you know with a new team new coaching around a new philosophy um you know it's a lot of positive stuff can happen and even though Milo's down next man up and that's what we expect you know from Syracuse yeah we got a chance to talked to James herd Jr yesterday who went slotted into Marlo's place when he got hurt in that fourth quarter he's actually a red shirt freshman he caught the interception uh in the fourth quarter and he said that was a surreal moment he was like that was my first game of football since high school and I was out there catching an interception in front of 30,000 people in the dome so that is too cool hopefully he can slot in there a little bit of onar sparrow I think Fran Brown's kind of keeping his cards close to his chest in terms of who's going to be that guy but I think it'll be a combination you know and I think we learned from last year putting all your eggs in one basket I mean that's what we did last year with the quarterback situation and look where it got us so I think FR has a different approach than uh coach babers and uh I'm really excited to see what they offer but I mean as a team though they have to tackle I mean they have to put two hands around the guy and tackle the guy tackle the ball carrier because just um I mean there was a lot of extra yards that that that running back got I mean you know it had over 100 yards the first half uh Titus uh and he's a good running back he'll probably play in the league um I would imagine the way he ran um or it tells us how bad our defense question for you on that though like technically speaking I'm just curious you said the tackling wasn't good how do you how do you fix that tackle more and practice but you can't really do that that's the tough part I mean you have to really just think that the players um you know you got just rate to the players like listen you can't hit up high these guys are strong this ain't this ain't high school you know um you have to tackle guys legs uh to stop them um and you know I think after a while they'll catch on I mean with the guys you know kicking off 15 you know 20 yard runs you know breaking tackles I mean you're you're already getting dirty you might as well just do it the right way that's a one liner might be the oneliner of the week rage what stuck out to you um yeah there was a lot that stuck out to me obviously you guys have hit on quite a bit so far already um couple things that stuck out to me is it wasn't just the running back that I feel like really made an impact on the ground and kind of shreded this defense like the quarterback was scrambling quite a bit this game and I don't know what the philos was was with a blitz on that but I didn't we didn't see anything to late if we saw anything at all um so there was definitely a lot of holes in that run defense but one thing that I will say was very very optimistic in my perspective was that two-minute drill going into half time and it wasn't a two-minute drill that was a Ashley and I talked about this a 49 Second drill just seeing that kind of come to life and have that play out exactly the way you wanted to in eight plays that was reassuring and I think a breath of fresh air for a lot of Syracuse fans definitely I would definitely agree with that especially um you know after they go down and I think they scored the kick of the field goal I couldn't remember exactly but the other team scored first the other team scored and then like you said we had 49 seconds and you know normally a coach would you know thinking about for last year you know babers would have sat on that one to the halftime been happy and satisfied you know Fran wanted to score again and um you know we got a great point we got a what it Pino in ñ um in the end zone at the very sorry sorry I got I got to roast you a little cuz he went from the Pino and then he's like but pen I mean something like that but you know number two I just saw number two out there and he caught that that great catch in the end zone um and you know it just got the momentum back to us going into halftime yeah whether you want to credit that to mcord right Fran Brown making the choice to do that Jeff Nixon whoever that's something that Syracuse doesn't do last year like I had a moment on the sidelines I had to switched Sidelines I saw 49 seconds left I was like uh like do I run down there and I was glad I did because scored so um we saw them with the two-minute drill a lot in Camp so I wasn't surprised to see them be able to pull that off did you guys hear that it was a crash was it a ghost just kidding we we we film all this in our news stations so sometimes people just go through and you hear a weird noise back on track anyway so that was week one but now we're looking ahead 25:50: Previewing 23rd-ranked GEORGIA TECH to week two a much tougher opponent someone who or an opponent really who I think came out of the works in a way that people were not expecting it's Georgia Tech um they beat Florida State and now they're ranked on the one hand that's positive because it means that it's an opportunity for Syracuse to have that first signature win under Fran Brown on the negative side it's going to be really tough to beat them it it's going to be tough it's going to be tough uh they just beat Florida State um you know there there or maybe Florida State sucks I don't know Florida Florida state does look good at all ACC wide open they said there's not very much sun shining in the Sunshine State a that's the one I stole that off ESPN that's I mean thanks for take credit for it just crit I saw that today but but no uh Georgia Tech is going to be good they're going to give us um a handful and um you know we'll be ready uh we definitely have to tackle we definitely have to keep that quarterback retained I feel like that quarterback's not a runner he's more of a thrower so I I think that plays an our advantage um but our DBS have to be on it you know our DBS have to be on it in our front line um where definitely have have the work cut out for him yeah it's Syracuse's earliest ranked game in the dome in since 2016 uh Georgia Tech coming in number 23 in the country off that big Florida State win um I honestly like it I said this before I like that they switch the schedule up so you used to have those like four or five weeks of just gimme games uh I like that they switched it up because it gives you a better idea now of knowing really what this team is made of and where this team could be going earlier on in the season so I have to say something though when you say give me games I don't know where you've been for the past couple Seasons we didn't have no gimme games we had to earn all of our games with Coach B we had and then then five and know and then the Syracuse beat anyone you know me we were in a struggle and we struggle with the easy teams I know I know I know but you know what I mean those like undefeated starts that weren't really undefeated yeah it was just for I don't know for recordkeeping yeah yeah here's the here's the one Counterpoint though that I that I wanted to make with that I'm just curious what you guys think there's a part of me that also feels like you know them playing Georgia Tech in the second game yes it will give you a better understanding of where they stand but if they play Georgia Tech in the second game versus playing them in the ninth game the outcome of that game would be different I think so I think so I don't know in a way though listen if they can have tougher games earlier why not do that I also don't think anyone necessarily knew it was going to be as tough as it was until you're watching that Florida State game and now you're like all right this is this is going to be a different kind of matchup than maybe we all want thought um Rachel does have a quote here from David hail from ESPN Rachel can you read like even a part of that like I really liked what he said I think it's like a good talking point for us sure absolutely I will just read until I feel like I should no longer um it might not be the most stylish way to win games but Georgia Tech is a perfect mirror of its coach former oon BR Brent k key this team has 16 former linemen on its staff and physically is the foundation of everything key wants to do on both sides of the ball so far it has worked in upsetting weight in upsetting Florida State in week zero the jackets dominated the line of scrimmage and a win Over Georgia State on Saturday night Tech ran for 225 yards and three scores it's exactly the recipe key thinks can carry the program to the next level listen when you talk about physicality like you mentioned the whole Syracuse has to tackle like that's the kind of thing that I feel like coming out of this game Fran Brown was discussing when they were asking hey what kind of needs to happen with the defense here he was like it's not a matter of big changes it's a matter of us needing to be more physical going up against a team that is built around physicality you do wonder how that's going to play out and how that's going to be a factor and I thought it was interesting in his postgame press conference after Ohio he called out the dline he said like the dline needs to hit harder that's not how they practice we need to practice how we play so make no mistake whether or not whatever happens in this game Fran Brown and Elijah Robinson are out there all week with this team knowing they have to stop the run it's not a secret they're prepping for it we'll just see if they can do it and you know one thing I saw with the D line as well is on both sides the ball I mean give referees credit they didn't call the holding penalties on neither teams but there was a lot of holding a lot of a lot of holding right in front of the referee I mean you saw it very very easy on TV and it's like are you are you kidding me yeah but again the referees were very consistent they didn't caught on neither teams but I really don't care about the other team I care about our team we have to use our hands to get the guys off us and and that's you know the the D line and offensive lineman that are getting hold and the D Line's getting hold by the offense um we got to get the guys hands off of you and that's just you know uh I think they call it two Gap you know you hit the guy you're looking both ways at him and you're just fighting the guy with your hands and I think that's what a Syracuse has to learn how to do uh and then be able to make those tackles when they need to yeah Rachel and I touched on it after the Ohio game I think six penalties from Syracuse was a little surprising because I don't foresee Fran Brown standing for that all year long but at the same time like we've been saying it's a team that's never played together before um I do think like Justin Baron I think had two or three penalties that were his own that's surprising from an older guy like him a senior so they'll clean that stuff up I think as the year moves along there's no doubt about it the other thing is you know there's this whole list of of stats here um as far as Georgia Tech playing against Georgia State and they're all pertinent we'll get into a few of them but something that you just mentioned it reminded me of something that you always used to say last year which is that you need to control what you can control and that's I think what you mean when you say Syracuse needs to focus on them yes you mention it it's not a secret what needs to happen here the game plan I think with Fran Brown and Company is set has been set he knew right after the first game what needs to happen it's a matter now of actually putting things into play and executing but I think that Coach Brown compared to maybe a coach babers like does a really good job at focusing in on that he doesn't talk trash or or say anything negative about any opponent ever if you've been listening to all the things he says in in the the press conference even against Ohio it's nothing but respect for all these opponents and actually he has a relationship with Brent key going into this game did you hear about that at the at the press conference yeah he talked about that on Monday um going into this game so Brent key was actually on the staff I believe he was the tight end's coach um at Western Carolina when Fran Brown was a player at Western Carolina back in like 2004 2005 um so they do have a relationship there's some other guys on this staff that also have a relationship with Bren key just through the ACC through the coaching world um but people asked Fran if he was gonna talk to Brent key this week before this game and he said he had a one line he Fran's great with the on liners he goes no I'm gonna I'm gonna see him on Saturday so he said we're not gonna talk on the phone We're not gonna do all that but these two do know each other whether that comes into play whether that's a factor um I'm not sure but I I think Brent key has definitely been an influence on Bren Brown to some extent yeah know that's the love about coaching you know you going to play different coaches and Co coach is a big Carousel and um you know you have respect for each other and that's the way it should be you you know no matter what you always have respect you want to be the leader out there to show your team how to respect other people and um you know FR and I I would agree with babers as well always did that you they gave credit to other coaches and stuff like that but let's talk about FR not babers no more but hon no honestly to your point I know you're right like honestly I remember coach babers doing the same thing we did like check in with you obviously last season and kind of heading into this season but this is the first time that we're really on the set with you now that we're actually in the 2024 season what do you think about about Coach Brown just from what you've seen since the last time we spoke to you I I think you know the the way coaches uh is coaching the kids up there and the whole coaching staff I think that's very big um I think the communication with the coaches and the players is very big now in 2024 and you know it's not you know what you did previously it's what you're doing now and I think coach could relate to the players a lot of being a younger coach and uh being around the game a lot and being around seeing different things in different areas um but I'm saying if areas I'm saying like down south in Georgia of seeing those players and how the players uh um respect their coaches and how they respect the program as well and I think that's what coach babers uh coach babers coach uh Brown is bringing to Syracuse I think he's trying to cultivate much more of a like not to say just Southern but that BigTime program atmosphere right we saw the quadw walk before week one Justin Baron talked about yesterday when we got to talk to him about how some alumni Garrett Williams Mikel Jones those guys who are in the NFL now we're texting in their group chat being like that's so awesome that Syracuse is doing that now because the Ohio States of the world the LSUS of the world do that so to see that at Syracuse is great so it's it's a culture thing it's and the fans like it too as well you know I mean you see you know up in person the guy you know walking by you and now they're about to play in a game and you know you don't know how they're going to play and they might do something really cool and you get to wave at them so I mean the whole Fan Experience that's that's perfect that's what Syracuse needed honestly I don't mind admitting this like the last few seconds of that video had me feeling really quite emotional like I loved watching did you guys see I don't know if you saw you you have a Twitter probably not right yeah no I I I I wouldn't bet on it for about it but but there was this video of him doing the quad walk and you know someone from the Syracuse athletic staff is walking behind him yes I did love seeing him you know with all the fans but he also like is always very big on like how his wife and his kids have contributed so much to his success and just the way he went over to him the love that he publicly showed I think even that is is a really good influence on all of these players like he's very big into family and and into setting a good example and I I like that about him I really respect that about him and all the players were able to as they were walking by kind of hugging their parents if they saw them in the crowd hugging family that's that's that's that's what it's about I mean it's not just always just out there just hitting and banging each other there's a lot more involved in the game of winning and losing and you know seeing your parents and like you I tell you what I was impressed with when I saw on TV uh the guys walking in the dome walking down the stairs steps onto the field and the first person they saw was Coach Brown right there greeting all the players uh that's that's nice he shook all the guys' hands like you know and that's I mean you could have been scholarship you could be making money an nil deal or you could be a walk-on and he your hand still got shook by a coach because everybody it's a fair ground when you're on on the playing field yeah this is a team I don't doubt that Fran Brown really and honestly knows each and every one of these guys you know like on a personal level to some extent and yeah and with with saying that too when I was at practice a few times uh I saw a coach talking to players and stuff you know injured players players that are out there and always coaching and that was something different than uh I never really seen from other coaches here at the staff here at Syracuse which also can't be easy considering how large a football team in general is to make everyone feel valued important at home but how many times have we seen him attempt to do that when they all you Pro you you may know about this but like at the beginning or during Camp how they all stayed in the dorms together he made them all stay in the dorms that to me is what you're talking about Level Playing Field they were all wearing I don't know if it was matching suits but they sure all looked similar like there was custom there was a uniformity element to that and and I mean that positively yeah we did a actually somebody hear from the station did a story on it but it was uh a suit shop downtown uh made custom suits like similar all the Navy with the orange accents but on the insides of the jacket each player was uh able to customize them with some sayings or you know some important family members things so I thought that was really cute I'll have to check that out on CNY central.com CNY central.com we have to do an episode down there may yeah no absolutely suits or something any anyone suit honestly I wait a matching set me and asley are going to show up on Game Day matching from now on we are going to have custom outfits um um anyone else have anything that that stuck out to them before we move on to some predictions here well I I just think think that we need to clean up the penalties a little bit no tackl on uh both both offense and defense line need to uh step their game up you know and get that running game started um the passing was good you know continue to do that and I think we'll be fine if we could if we could tackle better than we did last week we'll be all right yeah they need to pressure the quarterback I feel like I don't know how you felt watching but I felt like that kid last week had all the Time in the World to throw the ball he he did there was a lot of gaps open and and and and on top of that too as well watch that you know the first couple uh run plays the quarterback did the quarterback didn't had the right read like if you would have foued the full the running back going through the hole instead of like freelance and went to the right he would have scored you know he would have had a lot more yards at times way too much time but yeah again there was too many gaps I mean you got to tighten up tighten up the the defensive line and uh you know give them only one way not two ways to run I do wonder myself like in terms of the Run game moton's obviously uh Mong girl obviously brought that up a couple call me we're not we're we're just terrible with names right now now I'm M no way we're just going to pass over that wait mug girl back baby Rachel's heart is always in basketball season goodness it really is I'm doing my best to like sound like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to football here um but when it comes to the Run game I do kind of have like a curiosity um of like how much it plays into the fact that like maybe Fran didn't want a lot on film going into like some of these next games I don't don't know if that might be kind of a philosophy of like kind of easing back on all that they have in the tank just to kind of keep I think if they could have they would have you think yes okay all right well there that's my opinion well we want your opinion I'm run him back that's that's an opinion we want and we he a running back not a basketball player um okay let's let's it's prediction time let's talk about it 32:45: Week two score predictions before you got here so we will you know have you write up a list and then week we'll tell everybody what you said or throw it in the comments so look for mro season predictions we didn't do the scores last week but we said who we thought was going to win or lose for every game throughout the season today just for the purposes of of some good TV here we'll just go Georgia Tech with the scores um and if we think they're going to win or lose of course mro never likes to go first for this CU he cuz he always copies me so all right but we discussed this so we already put out what we thought for each game so we got to stick to that like what's the no cu remember our Rule and we'll just say it again so viewers can hear and mro can hear I think we got to go one Mo again I was thinking about this two seems like too many you're going to switch up the rules on us now I feel like well I always pick the rules up by the way so when I say something I'm going to get so much heat from you want to talk about somebody who makes up their own R that's my type of guy um well wait I was thinking two Mulligans is right because I said nine and three so if all of a sudden I have two Mulligans I get to take two of those losses back that seems unfair I feel like it should be one Mullan fine one we'll go with one and I feel like my prediction goes off if they tackle or not yeah so that's true no but that you're you're allowed to have that so yeah the the Mulligan idea is essentially when you write down you know for the rest of the season who you think's going to win or lose yes when it actually comes time for us to predict you can say hey actually I'm going to switch what I said they are going to win instead of losing one time you I think one time makes it better though because that means you really got to pck and you probably got to save it yep and we already did it so so anyway we'll tell you what we already picked for this week which is what you said um I said they were going to lose Rachel said they were going to lose no you didn't no you said when you both said when I believe see this is this so hard they're going to L can you say like they're going to get upseted we will upseted I know so here's the thing here's the so I said lose to Georgia Tech I said that last week um what I saw from them I think in week one didn't really change my opinion right they're going to have to stop the run if they can't stop the run they're going to lose I don't know if they can stop the run so I'm not going to use my m I'm still going to say lose however we all know obviously I'm a Syracuse fan I would like them to win make no mistake about that I think that this is Fran Brown and this coaching staff's first chance to have a real signature win obviously it's a ranked opponent coming into the Dome week two but this is the first chance for brown I think to really show the fans hey this is a new era and we're doing some things differently because if you remember Dino babers got fired last year after that loss to Georgia Tech in Atlanta that was one of the Pinnacle I know know it was away so it wasn't right here in central New York so we didn't maybe feel it as hard but that was one of the losses of last season that really felt like rock bottom for this program so I think this week is a fantastic opportunity for Fran Brown to show times have changed up here and so your score is I didn't think about the score yet come back to we'll come back to you she was cooking and then immediately she Wasing you're on it though you're I'm like okay confidence let's hear it I but serious like legitimately if Rachel said win I I need we can maybe cut it or something but I don't remember if I said win or loss if no one else remembers either I'm going to have to look back you said win you said we disagreed did yes okay all right then then I feel like it is too I feel like it's just too early for me to use my my Mulligan I don't want to do that yet I I'd rather save that for crunch time and I like the idea of betting on them because we still don't I feel know what they really have to offer you know to me week one yeah there were certain things that concerned me do I think that the the score could have been um a little bit further sure but I also think it was the first game and I I never I never really like consider everything about a team in the first game alone so I'll I'll stick with wi I I definitely think it's going to be close I think it's going to come down to the wire I think probably relatively high scoring and I haven't even checked the spread and I normally like to do that so I'm just I am just going off off the cuff here but I'm just going to say it's going to be something in the realm of um I think I think Syracuse will win 272 24 okay Georgia Tech by the way I think is very slightly favored in the spread I don't know the exact number but it's very close I think it's 2.5 I was going to say two and a half yeah that's what I that's what I thought as well I think I saw it three two two and a half or three I thought I saw somewhere in that realm so then so then I'm good but the Direction so I'm not but I'm I'm going Syracuse 272 24 okay and I um see I I like that score I like I like I like I like the score I like the score I think Syracuse will win this game for a couple different reasons Dwight f is gonna be back in town yeah is we forgot about that yeah we didn't touch I didn't forget about it though that's that's my man that's my man Dwight Fry he's back in town and they're going to be re um uh retiring his jersey y yep that dome's going to be rocking yeah that Dome was going to be rocking ranked team in the house yeah Fran's first you know game uh lot of former players will be back um are you unfortunately unfortunately I had a a death in my family so I have to uh um part in that uh on Saturday um but um in spirit I'll be here in Syracuse and um you know I got give Dwight a call and tell him I was just with Dwight um at his Hall of Fame in Canton when he got inducted NFL Hall of Fame so I just saw Dwight and uh hung out with him on a great great evening with coaches and stuff but um I think the Dome was going to be rocking just because of that you know with his presence there and the former players presence there I think uh it can make the game a lot closer um and so I'm going to go with I'm going to go with Syracuse beting Georgia Tech and your score is going to be oh I didn't go that far yet but I think the score is going to be um I can't say your score cuz you're going say I'm going to go with 27 24 much yeah no you can you can if you bwag on me then we both win well win's a win I mean bandwagon or not um true you can go with whatever you want I'll go with the same score I'll go with the same score I think it's going to be a very close game and um like I said I think the Dome is going to be rocking and uh it's going to be a great great atmosphere I'm going to go about the same margin trust me this is one that I kind of want to use my Mulligan on and thought about it but it's too early in the year so I can't do it you can't um I think it's a shootout because I think McCord's going to be able to pass like he was last week at I think Georgia Tech is going to run the ball down Syracuse's throat so I'm going to go I think it's a high-scoring game I'm going to go 3531 Georgia Tech okay okay rage I'm gonna go um 3125 Syracuse okay bang done and 34:37: Final thoughts dusted anyone final thoughts on anything before we wrap things up and see you all next week I just think that uh I think Syracuse is on the right path that's what I think think and I think uh you know by having a new coach here Coach Brown Coach Brown is going to change the culture and get the the culture back of Syracuse football the way he needs to be back to I think win or loss this week like I said before they're going to show us what they're made of in terms of this game I I foresee it being a close game in either direction so they're going to have to show us what they're made of maybe in the third fourth quarter the fight that's in them and I I think it'll be interesting to see hopefully a pack Dome like you said I been watching those those seating numbers looks like good ticket sales it really does it really 40,000 man yeah absolutely and listen you know right now we talked about the spread it looks like it's going to be a closed game but in sports anything can happen anything can happen and that's why you play the game that's my new oneliner by the way um but I think win or lose we need to see the fight we need to see the fight from Syracuse football and we need to see it the whole way through the game yes what I don't want to see is a blowout I want to see something close I well I wouldn't mind see it blow up long as we're on the the top end of it right that's true if it's a loss and they're in it down to the wire though to your point that's such a different feeling they 100% 100% I I totally agree too so I mean reality is if the gates keep it keep it close I mean people's going to be very very happy you know the fans will be happy with that uh where the W the see even better yet y keep those fans in those seats through the second half because I noticed last week Syracuse fans have a little uh H habit of of evacuating in the third fourth quarter they didn't do that last week deal with that traffic coming down off the hell all right goodbye Rachel stay in your seat and goodbye to everyone we will see you next week on the R zone podcast thanks for watching