Maybe it’s because they’re no longer in the same conference, but it seems to me WVU’s fans, and some of the players, lost sight of Syracuse this season, which made for a really interesting revelation upon learning the bowl assignment.

The Orange are actually a very good offensive football team that — uh oh — passes the ball with a talented quarterback to two accomplished receivers, but can also give it to two backs that power a running game averaging 170 or so yards per game.

The numbers, if you haven’t been paying attention to Syracuse this season, are a little alarming. And a little confusing, too, because the Orange don’t score at a rate level with the other statistics.

You’d like to say that this was the product of experience in the system, that Doug Marrone had his guys under the umbrella for long enough to have a good product and that the offensive coordinator was bound to be better in his second season.

Yet Syracuse changed its offense two weeks before the season and, given that circumstance, did remarkably well. A lot of that has to go to the quarterback, Ryan Nassib, who WVU COach Dana Holgorsen says is going to play in the NFL.