Minnesota vs. Syracuse, 2013 Texas Bowl: Orange outlast Gopher comeback

New, young Syracuse fans in the Houston area. Possibly the coolest thing with which SB Nation has been associated all year. Endless kudos, Sean Keeley and the (growing) ‘Cuse fan base.

Maryland wins in 2013. Head coach Randy Edsall still catches rather justifiable flack for the 2011 season, in which he inherited the remnants of a 9-4 squad, drove off a ton of players, and went 2-10. That was, and will almost certainly be, the worst coaching performance of Edsall’s career, and it created a major question mark regarding his ability to lead a successful program.

Despite leading by two scores early in the fourth quarter, Syracuse found itself needing to rally in the closing minutes to reclaim the lead. Hunt evaded a handful of Golden Gophers to run into the end zone from 12 yards out to give the Orange a four-point lead with just 1:11 remaining on the clock.

After an up-and-down season under first-year coach Scott Shafer, it was a fitting way to end the year. The team could’ve folded after the two quick scores, and it’s a testament to Schafer, the coaching staff and the players for battling back the way they did in the final minutes.

GROWN MAN 1: Hey, did you get the tickets?

GROWN MAN 2: Yeah, did you get the Loompa suits?

Yes, this play was whistled down before the ball or anything else even hit the ground.

Syracuse running back Brisly Estime, as you can see, was nowhere near the ground. No defenders or blockers were on the ground until the ball was already out. No cheerleaders were on the ground. Otto was not on the ground. Several photographers’ knees were on the ground. But the ball-carrier was not on the ground, not even close.

On December 16, Sean Keeley of SB Nation’s Syracuse blog, Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, wrote a post asking for donations to send Houston-area kids to the Texas Bowl. They had done this twice before, sending 32 and 48 children, respectively, to Syracuse games in 2010. But this year, they wanted to raise the bar a bit higher.

Keeley and the Syracuse community nearly quadrupled the sites original goal of $12,000, raising $44,444.44 to send more than 1,400 kids to the 2013 Texas Bowl to see Syracuse take on Minnesota.

In last week’s New Mexico Bowl preview, I mentioned that Washington State vs. Colorado State would have been a big-time battle in 2002. Well ... this year’s Texas Bowl matchup would have been enormous about 40 years earlier than that. Syracuse and Minnesota combined to win the 1959-60 national titles and once reflected the Midwest’s and Northeast’s college football dominance.

Times have changed, and the best recruits now come from other portions of the country, but in 2013, both the Orange and Golden Gophers played interesting, perhaps better-than-you-think football. Their reward: a trip south in late-December.

The Texas Bowl matchup of Syracuse and Minnesota may not be the sexiest of the bowl season, but if you like a grind-it-out, rush-heavy contest, this is your game. Both teams have mobile but iffy passers at quarterback, and they probably will try to lean on their rushing attacks as much as they can.

And that could prove the deciding factor in what Vegas expects to be a close one. That might be bad news for Minnesota, which is allowing 4.5 yards per carry and 5.7 yards per play. Syracuse’s defense hasn’t been significantly better overall (5.4 yards allowed per play), but it is limiting opponents to 3.9 yards per carry.

They enter the Texas Bowl betting arena in Houston as a four-point favorite over the Syracuse Orange, according to most sportsbooks monitored by SB Nation’s lines partner OddsShark.com.

However, Minnesota hasn’t won a bowl game since the 2004 Music City Bowl, going 0-5 SU in its five postseason appearances since.

Also, our Syracuse site is trying to raise money to send 1,000 kids to the game. Pitch in!

Michigan started the season 4-0, with tight wins over suspect opponents like Akron and Connecticut balancing out a win over a ranked Notre Dame. A four-overtime loss to Penn State ruined the team’s perfect record, and Michigan would end up losing to Michigan State, Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio State. The Wolverines will hope to get more consistent play on both sides of the ball against Kansas State.

The ACC had 11 bowl-eligible teams this season, with Pitt tying for both the worst overall record (6-6, with North Carolina and Syracuse) and conference record (3-5, with Maryland) among them. The Panthers did beat three other bowl teams this season, with an early-year win over Duke and late-season victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Ralph Friedgen’s final game as Maryland’s head coach came in the 2010 Military Bowl -- the game was also the Terrapins’ last bowl game. Athletic director Kevin Anderson made the change from Friedgen to Randy Edsall, saying he wanted the program to go from “good to great,” and three years later, the Terps get to go to the same place.