It’s fun to speculate, especially when the desired result can be broken down so logically. For example: Pittsburgh lost to Toledo, 35-31, on Sept. 20. Syracuse beat Toledo, 34-7, a week later. If anything from 10th-grade math was correct, then Syracuse will beat Pittsburgh.

But that kind of logic doesn’t apply to college football. When the Syracuse football team plays Pittsburgh at noon Saturday at Heinz field, it will take 60 minutes of football – not a mathematical formula – to determine the winner.

Sharing a common opponent means very little to the Orangemen (4-2, 1-1 Big East). It means even less to Pittsburgh, which wants to prove its loss to Toledo was a fluke.

‘Each week is different,’ SU offensive guard Matt Tarullo said. ‘Each team is going to present different problems. I used to be a wrestler and I could say, ‘I beat this guy and this guy got beat by this guy, so I should be able to beat the second person.’ It doesn’t go like that.’

That’s lucky for Pitt, which got embarrassed by Toledo in its third game of the season. Then, the game fell in a trend of Mid-American Conference dominance. Three MAC teams won that Saturday against major-conference teams.

‘Pittsburgh probably wasn’t ready for Toledo’s defense,’ punt returner and wideout Marcus Clayton said. ‘Pittsburgh probably was like, ‘We’re going to go in and beat them,’ and they got whupped.’

Actually, the Panthers lost by only four points to the Rockets, but they surrendered 461 passing yards in the process to UT quarterback Bruce Gradkowski. Syracuse dominated Toledo a week later. The SU secondary limited Gradkowski to 257 yards and picked him off once.

Syracuse perhaps played its best all-around game against the Rockets. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, played its worst. Still, as far as the Orangemen are concerned, that result has little bearing on Saturday’s game.

‘You can’t sit back and look and say, ‘Toledo beat Pittsburgh, we beat Toledo, we should win,’ ‘ tight end Joe Donnelly said. ‘That’s not how college football is. Every team shows up different every Saturday.

‘When I look at Pittsburgh, I think they are on the level of Virginia Tech. Pitt is on that level – they can beat anyone.’

Pittsburgh certainly has the talent to compete with the top-ranked teams in the country. The Panthers entered the season ranked No. 10 in the Associated Press poll on the talent of the quarterback-wideout combo of Rod Rutherford and Larry Fitzgerald. Only a sophomore, Fitzgerald is perhaps the best wide receiver in the nation. He leads the nation in receiving yards per game with 144.8, and is No. 1 in scoring offense, accumulating 13 points per game for the Panthers. SU running back Walter Reyes is second in the country with 12.3 points per game.

Last week, SU handled Boston College, 39-14. The Orangemen picked apart the BC defense for three passing touchdowns. Whereas BC plays a zone on defense, Pitt plays a more complex, man-to-man defense, similar to that of Virginia Tech. Of course, all of the Orangemen know how they fared offensively in that game – 91 yards passing, six first downs, seven points.

‘It’s very encouraging that we won after a disgusting loss at Blacksburg,’ defensive tackle Louis Gachelin said. ‘It’s always good to bounce back. It gives us a lot of confidence.’

Syracuse hopes to bounce back from last year’s disgusting loss to Pitt. Last season, the Panthers torched Syracuse, 48-24, on SU’s homecoming. Now, it’s Pitt’s turn to host the Orangemen for its homecoming game. Syracuse wants to make sure it returns the favor.

‘In the off-season, when you’re in the weight room at 6 in the morning working out, you think about that loss,’ Donnelly said. ‘You think about how they beat you physically. You work hard in the summer because you can’t wait for that date on the schedule, that Saturday when you’re going to go to Pittsburgh and see them again.’

Published on October 23, 2003 at 12:00 pm