Orange Conclude Road Swing at Virginia Tech

Syracuse will head to its third-straight hostile environment on Thursday, when the Orange return from the bye at Virginia Tech. The game concludes one of the nation's longest stretches without a home game, which spans the entire month of October.

"Excited to have an opportunity to go down and play Coach Pry's very, very good football team," 'Cuse head coach Dino Babers said. "2-1 record in conference for Virginia Tech. It's one of the atmospheres that people in people in college football all hear about and know about. It's going to be an exciting deal. I think we had some outstanding practices. We're ready to go. We're looking forward to the opportunity to go down there."

Both teams are well-rested coming off their bye weeks.

"The young men right now are fresher than they have ever been since July," Babers said. "Once camp starts, you start to get worn down and you start the season and you're not going to feel fresh. You're going to have ies and bumps and bruises. You're not going to feel fresh until the bye. And that doesn't get you back to 100 (percent), but it should get you back healthier than you've ever been. Now, unfortunately, Virginia Tech is coming off a bye as well, so what you're going to see is two healthy teams again going back at each other."

Babers has won three of his last-six games with an additional week of preparation, including a win against then-No. 15 NC State following the Orange's bye last season. Since 2009, Syracuse is 12-9 in games when it has an additional week to prepare.

Thursday's game will be the 20th all-time meeting between Syracuse and Virginia Tech. The Orange hold an 11-8 advantage in the series, which has featured some exciting finishes. Notably, Donovan McNabb's touchdown pass to Stephen Brominski as time expired to give Syracuse a 28-26 victory in 1998. Two years ago in Blacksburg, quarterback Garrett Shrader connected with Damien Alford on a 45-yard pass with 19 seconds on the clock to give the Orange a 41-36.

The 2021 meeting marked Syracuse's first trip to Lane Stadium since 2003. It gave the Orange a taste of the much talked about pregame atmosphere in Lane Stadium. Babers expects more electricity in the air Thursday night.

"You can't do it," Babers said when asked if the environment could be replicated in practice this week. "We'll turn on the speakers and we'll do all those things, but that place is different. I had the opportunity to play there for the first time one or two years ago. That atmosphere was exciting and that will be nothing like what we're going to face Thursday night. It's really going to be electric. There's no doubt about it."

Syracuse will look to get back to the form that helped it start the season with four-straight wins. Last season's team endured a five-game, but rebounded to defeat Boston College in the regular-season finale. Babers and the Orange are ready to write a different story this season.

"I think the biggest thing is that you can't compare two teams," Babers said. "There's no doubt that we understand what happened last year. This is an opportunity to make sure it doesn't happen again. I thought the captains really controlled practices during the bye week. I think they did a really nice job. It'll be fun to see what happens but we're taking this week as 1-0, as we did before. The bye is kind of the closing of the first chapter and we're going to open up the second chapter."

Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Damien Alford

Garrett Shrader

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