The Orange's loss to South Florida did Syracuse no favors according to football computers (and probably your brain).
Syracuse's loss to South Florida wasn't exactly an effort in the Orange aiming a nuclear weapon at its face and pulling the trigger, but it did cause some massive damage to Syracuse's press for six wins (at least according to football computers). Maybe the best way to highlight the mess that Syracuse left for itself after barely avoiding getting Switzer'd in Tampa is this fact: According to the Massey Ratings and ESPN's FPI, the Orange had about a two percent chance of losing out prior to meeting the Bulls; after Syracuse's disaster against South Florida, the two rating measures give the Orange a 17 percent and 13 percent chance to lose its last seven games, respectively.