Orange, Pitt Clash For 80th Time Thursday Night

The second half of the season kicks off under the bright lights of Thursday Night Football on ESPN when Syracuse visits Pittsburgh. The Orange have faced the Panthers more than any opponent in program history as this week's matchup will be the 80th between the two schools.

"I'm extremely happy about having the opportunity to go up and play Pitt," Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said. "They're one of the better teams in the country right now, ranked pretty highly. Coach Narduzzi has done a good job. I think this team plays really, really hard. We got an opportunity to go out and play against one of the better quarterbacks in the conference right now. They're a real good football team, their ranked really high. It'll be a good thing Thursday night, 7:30, we'll be the only college football team playing at that time, hopefully, so everybody in the country will get the chance to watch us and see us go out and compete against a good football program."

Both teams are coming off bye weeks. The Orange enter the contest having won three-straight games, while the Panthers are one of 10 unbeaten teams remaining in the FBS and are ranked No. 19 in this week's Associated Press poll and No. 20 in the coaches top 25.

Thursday's game marks the third weeknight game for the Orange this season. It's also the second Thursday night contest in as many years. Syracuse is 18-12 in its last 30 weeknight games. Playing under the bright lights on national television is an opportunity that Brown and his players appreciate.

"It's just regular, we have to be ready to play, and gotta treat it like practice," Brown said. "But it's something that you work for. So, if you get the opportunity to be the only game on television, you definitely better make sure you're ready for it. You got to prepare for it – it's all about preparation though. So if you prepare, you put yourself in the right situation then it works itself out. But if you prepare the right way, you do everything the right way, then you have opportunity. This doesn't mean like 'hey, you got it guaranteed to go win.' But it gives us a better opportunity of us preparing.

"We're definitely happy to be playing on Thursday night, we were happy to play Friday night a few weeks ago, we're happy to play Saturday," Brown continued. "It's an honor and we're thankful and happy that the ACC, one of the, if not probably the best conference in the country to have the opportunity of having us play on Thursday night."

The series between Syracuse and Pittsburgh dates back to 1916. Both teams have posted 11-game winning streaks in the series and the Panthers hold a 43-33-3 lead in the all-time series. A 'Cuse victory would make the Orange bowl eligible for the third-straight year for the first time since Syracuse played in five-consecutive bowls from 1995-99.

Thursday's game is the third of three-straight road games for Syracuse. The Orange won the first two of the stretch by a combined 10 points.

"We're just relentless," Brown said. "A lot of people use resilient, we use relentless. It's just who we are. We're on a mission. So, there are some things that we have to get done not just as football players, but as men, as young men and they start to be able to approach it differently. They're becoming more and more of young men daily. I think the faster we become men, the easier football becomes. Those guys are pushing to do that."

Syracuse University Athletics

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