Was out walking around campus and stumbled into a pizze-by-the-slice place straight out of The Sopranos or something.

And I kid you not, the first conversation I overhead at the counter was about tomorrow night's game.

"If we win it, we've got a prayer this season,'' said an older guy, probably in his 50s, to the man making the pizzas. "Not so much, then not so much.''

That's as good a way of wrapping up what this game means to both teams as anything else.

Both are rebuilding programs looking at this as a game they have to win to do anything this season --- and if they don't win it, look out.

Consider that the two coaches are each in their third year. Tyrone Willingham has gone 2-9 and 5-7 in his two seasons, Greg Robinson 1-10 and 4-8.

And consider that each is going with a new "savior'' QB tomorrow night who will be getting his first start --- UW's Jake Locker and Syracuse's Andrew Robinson.

Nothing new, I know, to most of you who've been reading everything on here, but the man's comment in the pizza joint just reinforced to me what the theme of this game is.

A FEW OTHER NOTES. ...

--- The only player on the Syracuse two-deep who is listed as not having a chance to play tomorrow is backup MLB Mike Stenclik (concussion). Latest word today is that RB Curtis Brinkley (knee) is expected to start, if not play all the time.

--- Was able to buy the Chicago Tribune college football special section in the airport this morning. The paper ranked all 119 D-I teams and had UW at 74th, with a one-sentence assessment about how tough the schedule is. The paper rated Syracuse 88th saying "it's a sad state of the program when the kicker is the team's best weapon: Pat Shadle fills that bill.''

--- The officials for the game will be from the Big East Conference. If you recall, one of the controveries that arose out of the Oregon-Oklahoma debacle last year was that the Pac-10 is the only conference that likes to use its officials at home for non-conference games, and then let the other conference use its officials at home, instead of the other way around. It's in part a money-saving device to not have to fly officials all over the country for games, though the Pac-10 insists it also shows faith in the officials to not assume they will be biased being at home.

--- The Huskies had a walkthrough at the Carrier Dome a little while ago and it was reportedly "hot and muggy'' inside with the temperature gauge on the wall reading 75.

--- To answer one question, I don't have to pay for my travel, the Seattle Times does that. But I also don't get to fly First Class. Like most businesses, they like us to do things as, uh, economically as possible here.