Odd college football season this has been for my dear wife Karen and I.

Life kept us away from two of the Syracuse home football games.

And that meant we were pretty fired up for last Saturday’s game between the Orange and the North Carolina State Wolfpack. We hadn’t gone up the hill to the Carrier Dome from our usual spot in the lot on West Genesee Street since September. Two months without college football is a lot for a pair of avid and ardent season ticket holders.

We left plenty early for the 12:30 p.m. start, to give ourselves some time for our two-person tailgate in the car and for Karen to take her time walking up the hill, what with her fractured wrist in that cast and still plenty painful.

Quirky tailgate.

We got a kick of the much bigger tailgate party we saw on the way up. All those stuffed mascot Otto the Oranges near the drum cracked us up.

Tweet tweet

I took a selfie of Karen and I when we got to our seats and Tweeted it using #OrangeNation. Lo and behold, my Tweet made it up among those they flashed up on the huge Dome video screens. First time tried, and I succeeded.

Sworn in.

They held a swearing-in ceremony for some new soldiers and such. Karen pointed it out when they came around and stood in the end zone closest to us during the pregame festivities. Thank you, all!

Not looking Orange.

Syracuse wore its home grays. I do not like the home grays. The blues are better. The orange is way better.

The student section was virtually empty. I really do not like it when the students do not show up.

Sophomore quarterback Eric Dungey did not play. Syracuse officials are not saying why, but against Clemson, Dungey got hit up high. Last season he missed four games with at least two concussions. This is serious stuff. I do not like it when Dungey does not play, but it would be worse to put his lifelong health in jeopardy.

Syracuse showed flashes, but fell to 35-20. The record stands at 4-6.

We’ll be back Saturday for the last home game of the season. The Orange would need to beat Florida State i the Carrier Dome and then Boston College on the road to finish with the 6-6 record needed for a bowl game. Unless not enough teams reach six wins, and five-victory squads are needed …

Have you ever had your picture up on a big scoreboard, and if so, when and where? Would you walk more than a mile up the big hill with a painful fractured wrist to go to a college football game? How many stuffed Ottos is too many?