SCORING MACHINES: A pair of high-powered offenses, led by Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib (left) and West Virginia QB Geno Smith (right), will take over Yankee Stadium today for the third Pinstripe Bowl. (The Post-Standard /Landov (left); AP (right))
It might be a relatively new bowl game, but it is certainly not a new rivalry.
Syracuse and West Virginia will face off today at Yankee Stadium for the third playing of the Pinstripe Bowl, one more of what seems like an ever-expanding schedule of bowl games. But as the predicted snow falls, it might be easy to think of all of the games these two programs have played, dating back to 1945 when the first Ben Schwartzwalder trophy was awarded.
“It’s going to be a new game,” Syracuse tight end David Stevens told SUAthletics.com this week. “It’s going to be high scoring. It’s going to be high powered. They have a great team. It’s not going to be the same game as the previous games.”
Both teams are led by NFL-prospect quarterbacks: Geno Smith of West Virginia and Ryan Nassib of Syracuse.
Smith and the Mountaineers (7-5) are eighth in the nation in total offense at 518 yards a game. Nassib and the Orange (7-5) are 21st at 473 per contest.
West Virginia scored at least 31 points 10 times this season. Syracuse averaged 36 points a game while winning five of its last six.
Most on the minds of the players and coaches is last year’s game between the teams, at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, when the Orange pulled away in the second half to win, 49-23. They were led by Nassib, who finished with four touchdown passes and is now a graduate student in his final year of eligibility.
“They move the chains,” West Virginia defensive coordinator Keith Patterson told WVUSports.com. “They are very effective at doing that by running the football, and once they get the run going, they play-action pass off of that. They pick and choose when they do take their shots.”
Last season, Patterson was coordinating the defense for Pittsburgh, which shut down Nassib and caused six turnovers in a 33-20 Panthers win, five weeks after the Orange beat West Virginia. Patterson will be trying to replicate that performance and take one more victory for the Mountaineers, who are down in the all-time series 32-27, but have gone 8-2 in the past 10 meetings.
“They are very balanced,” Patterson said. “You look at them all the way through and they are 50-50 run–pass in almost every [personnel] grouping, so they are a very balanced football team.”
Without a powerhouse college football team close to New York, Syracuse has tried to create a buzz by associating itself with the city, thereby giving casual fans a rooting interest. Paying in its second Pinstripe Bowl in three years — the first when they beat Kansas State, 36-34, in the inaugural game in 2010 — that only helps.
“We are New York’s team,” Syracuse guard Zack Chibane said. “This is us. That’s what we believe.”
— Additional reporting by The Associated Press