Orange Prepare for Road Test at Purdue

After starting the season with a pair of home games, Syracuse goes on the road for the first time to face Purdue on Saturday, September 16 at 7:30 p.m. in West Lafayette, Indiana. It will be the Orange's only road contest of the month and a rematch of one of last year's most exciting games of the season.

"It'll be a good experience," head coach Dino Babers said on the team's opportunity to play at Purdue. "We'll get our first travel away from Syracuse and get our traveling team together. Ross-Ade Stadium is no joke, I've worked there. It's a big game, natural turf. It might be one of the best natural turf (fields) there is. We should be excited to go play in that building."

The atmosphere will be a rare one in West Lafayette. Ross-Ade stadium didn't install permanent lights until prior to the 2017 season, after occasionally bringing in temporary lighting. Purdue has hosted less than 20 night games in program history.

Babers' mind wasn't just on football when he addressed the media on Monday for his weekly press conference. He began his comments with a reflection on the events of September 11, 2001 and how his team honors those who lost their lives that day.

"I'd like to start off, with it being 9/11, to just recognize that tragedy in American history and how we worked to overcome all the things that happened since then together for the country," Babers said. "One of the things that we've done in this program – for a long time we have not alerted anyone else to but I'm going to alert you to now – is our football team, not everyone, our football team newcomers, every year for 9/11, we have what we call our annual 9/11 play push. We actually play push 3,000 yards as a team, one yard for every life, 2,977 lives lost in that tragedy. It's something that we do to bring out pride and honor and for the most part, everyone on our football team has done it, including some of the coaches."

On the field, Babers has seen the 'Cuse wide receiving corps step up in the first two games of the season. Ten different players caught a pass in the season opener against Colgate, which was the highest number for Syracuse since 10 players had a catch at UConn last season. Six different players caught a touchdown pass against the Raiders, which is the highest single-game total in program history. Ten players also caught passes in the win against Western Michigan.

"I think that whole group has been doing a nice job," Babers said. "Coach Johnson is in charge of them. There's a lot of guys stepping up in that group. There's a lot of pride in that group that they all want each other to do well."

While the offense has clicked through the first two games, the defense has allowed just seven points and ranks sixth in the FBS in total defense, allowing 212.0 yards per game. The group will face a Boilermaker offense that put up 427 yards of total offense in a 24-17 win at Virginia Tech last Saturday. Quarterback Hudson Card, who is in his first year at Purdue after transferring from Texas, was 23-for-34 for 248 yards against the Hokies. His 2-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter broke a 17-17 tie and gave Purdue the victory.

"I can tell you right now, Card is good," Babers said. "The guy is good. There's no doubt about it. He will be the best quarterback we have faced so far."

Saturday's game is a rematch of last year's dramatic 32-29 come-from-behind victory for the Orange in the JMA Wireless Dome. While some of the personnel may be the same, there are several changes 'Cuse will have to prepare for. Not only does Purdue have a new quarterback, but the Boilermakers have a new coach as well. Ryan Walters was named the 37th head coach in Purdue history in December 2022 after spending the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Illinois.

"Any time you have a change in the staff it's critical to watch a lot of tape from a lot of places," Babers said. "You have to go back and watch the personnel from the game last year and try to get a feel for them. Then, understand that they're being coached by somebody totally different, and they want different things than they wanted before. It doesn't really make it fair to watch the old tape with the old coaches. So, it makes for a lot of homework on our part. But it's going to be a brand new deal for us. We can't base it off last year."

The Orange's win over Purdue last season was the third of six-straight wins for Syracuse to start the 2022 season. Syracuse is 2-0 for the second-straight year and third time since 2018 and looking to repeat last year's early season success.

Syracuse University Athletics

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