First of all, its a LOT colder outside than I expected, and I expected it to be pretty cold.

I gues that's why the Orange play in a dome, eh?

Another thing that surprised me about driving out west: i'm not an expert on radio frequencies -- I assume its because its easy for radio signals to travel over water and relatively flat land -- but I was able to pick up a Cleveland station on the Indians network to listen to last night's Sox-Tribe game in Western New Jersey, then an ESPN raio affiliate from Chicago when I was in Binghamton, N.Y. And the ESPN signal was crystal clear, unlike 1050 in New York, which you can't even get in Piscataway.

But as happy I am about baseball, we are here for a football game, and it's a game the Scarlet Knights really need to win running away to feel good about themselves after losses the past two weeks.

The Orange are coming off of a 55-14 trouncing at the hands of West Virginia last week and in the midst of one of the worst seasons in school history. That, however, could work in favor of the Orange. They're a youn team -- sophomore QB Andrew Robinson is their best offensive player -- with nothing to lose. And they might have enough confidence from their shocking upset win over Louisville to think they can beat anyone in the Big East. Or at least to think they can beat Rutgers, which looks like at best, the fourth best team in the league behind, in no particular order, West Virginia, South Florida and Cincinnati.

The Knights are the last Division I-A team (I've given up on saying "Bowl Subdivision and I'm not going to say it again until someone makes me) to play a road game, so we'll see how they respond to having a little noise when they're on offense.

We're a little more than an hour away from kickoff, and I'll check in right before game time.