Traditional Holiday Bowl arrangement highlighted by “Battle of the Bands” with the Syracuse Marching Band (video)

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The Syracuse football team will be the center of attention on Friday night, but the Orange let their marching band take the spotlight for one night while preparing for the game.

The Syracuse marching band participated in a Battle of the Bands Thursday night against the Washington State marching band, which faced off on a disused street in the middle of San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

Downtown is teeming with bars and restaurants, and locals stop and mingle with Syracuse and Washington State fans to watch the teams’ head-to-head songs. Syracuse cheerleaders and the school’s traditional “Orange Girl” twirler also contributed.

Syracuse’s options were familiar to those who attended games at the JMA Wireless Dome and included the school’s Fight Song and Hey Baby, the song Channel and Margaret Cobb wrote in 1961.

The highlight of the marching band may have been the group mimicking the video that plays before the fourth quarter of football games in which head coach Fran Brown goes through his DART matra and asks fans if they are detailed, responsible, relentless and tough.

Washington State countered with Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats,” a version so catchy that even SU’s marching band danced along.

The action was part of the traditional pomp and circumstance of the Holiday Bowl, which included a Friday morning parade and a visit by the Syracuse football team to Sea World and the USS Midway Museum. The parade draws 100,000 spectators to San Diego and more balloons than any other parade.

The trappings of the game will culminate on Friday night with the game, an eggnog dump on the winning coach, and fireworks.