When it was announced earlier this year that Yankee Stadium would host a college football bowl game in December, second-year Syracuse University coach and Bronx native Doug Marrone had another goal to reach. And as we’ve seen so far, Marrone has a pretty good track record when he sets his mind to something.

Syracuse University bills itself as “New York’s College Team,” so it’s only fitting that the Orange football team will play in the inaugural New Era Pinstripe Bowl against Kansas State Thursday, Dec. 30, at 3:30 p.m., at the new Yankee Stadium.

For the first month of the college basketball season, Syracuse University’s Jim Boeheim appeared to be the unhappiest 8-0 coach in the country. He complained about his team’s turnovers. He moaned about its shooting. And he griped about its defensive lapses.

2008 and 2009, the Syracuse University football team had a combined total of seven wins (three in ’08 and four in ’09). The three years before that were even worse, as the Orangemen managed just seven wins from 2005-2007 (one in ’05, four in ’06 and two in ’07).