South Florida at Syracuse

Syracuse has been a surprise this season, winning back-to-back games for the first time since 2006. While every win counts equally in the standings, you can hardly get excited about a win over Northwestern and a come-from-behind win at home over a non-BCS team in Maine. The Bulls got a bad break when they lost QB Matt Grothe for the year. No one gave them a chance going to Florida State with an untested QB, especially with the Seminoles coming off a game in which they hung 54 on BCS contender BYU. But South Florida manhandled the Seminoles, allowing them just seven points. All BJ Daniels did at QB for the Bulls was connect on two first-half TD passes. He was also the Bulls leading rusher with 126 yards. So, the Bulls may actually have an upgrade at QB here and are off to a 4-0 start. The last time these teams met it was 45-13 South Florida a year ago. Two years ago in Syracuse, the Bulls ran away with a 41-10 rout. Both of those games featured the Bulls favored by three TDs and here a TD advantage gets us the cover. I don't think Syracuse has bridged the gap that much. I'm going with South Florida here.