Syracuse football is back home next Saturday night for the first time in 35 days, and the Orange are bringing a troubling trend with them.
What happened in the JMA Wireless Dome the last time out is already familiar: Syracuse let an ACC game slip away in painful fashion, losing to California by three points after outgaining the Bears 437-249. Then it happened again at Virginia, where the Orange outgained the Cavaliers 430-288 and still came up short in another three-point loss.
Two one-score defeats. Two nights in which Syracuse moved the ball better than the opponent. And two games where the final result still went the wrong way.
The box scores tell the story in blunt terms. Against Cal, Syracuse left points behind when Tripp Woody missed two field goals. In Charlottesville, Shay Barker missed two of his own, and the missed chances again came back to haunt the Orange.
The third-down numbers have been just as ugly. Syracuse went 7-of-17 against the Bears and then 5-of-15 against Virginia. The penalties were fewer against UVA than they were against Cal, but the timing kept hurting the Orange when it mattered most.
There’s also the matter of how Syracuse is calling plays in the biggest spots. Against Cal, offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon dialed up a run up the gut on 3rd-and-8 that ended in a punt. Against Virginia, a 3rd-and-5 produced the same call and the same result.
That kind of pattern only gets harder to ignore when it shows up alongside Syracuse’s second-half struggles. The Orange have been outscored 72-32 in the second half of their last four games, a stretch that keeps dragging them backward no matter how competitive they are early.
Now comes Louisville, and Syracuse has another problem layered on top of the rest: quarterback uncertainty. Steve Angeli was QB1 against Cal, but Fran Brown is now down to his fourth-string quarterback after injuries hit Angeli, Amari Odom and Malachi Nelson.
It’s hard to believe Syracuse has already used four quarterbacks in five games. The Orange were already the only FBS team to have three different starting quarterbacks this season before Saturday’s game at Virginia. If Danny Lauter starts against the Cardinals, Syracuse will be the only one with four.
Brown did try to prepare for a quarterback mess like this by bringing in Odom, Nelson and Lauter through the transfer portal to give the room more experience. Still, even he could not have expected the fourth-string option to be forced into action before the middle of the season.
Since Angeli tore his Achilles at Clemson last September, the quarterback carousel has included Rickie Collins, Luke Carney, Joe Filardi, Odom, Nelson and now Lauter.
The task in front of Lauter, if that’s the route Syracuse takes, is formidable. Louisville has not scored fewer than 27 points in a game this season, while Syracuse has averaged 13.8 points per game during its current 10-game ACC losing streak.
The Orange also lead the country in missed field goals and penalties, two self-inflicted issues that keep costing them points and creating too many moments where the game slips away before the offense can finish the job. Brown and his staff have also taken heat for game management and clock issues that have only deepened the frustration around the program.
That frustration now reaches well beyond the sideline. Syracuse’s problems are landing at the doorstep of athletic director Bryan Blair, whose push to “weaponize the dome” and improve the game-day experience gets a lot harder when the fan base starts slipping into here-we-go-again mode.
And there’s another familiar Syracuse reality waiting in the background. Gerry McNamara’s men’s basketball team opens exhibition play Tuesday night against UConn, and around here that tends to be the point where fans begin looking elsewhere when football starts going sideways.
Usually that happens around Halloween. If Syracuse keeps following the same script, it might happen by Columbus Day.
In Other News...
Gavin Doty Just Framed Syracuses Mindset For A Huge Season
At the ACC Tipoff event in Charlotte, Syracuse coach Gerry McNamara joined Gavin Doty and Aiden Tobiason on the conference stage, giving the Orange a chance to talk about where the program is headed before the season gets rolling. The visit also offered a look at the new faces around the team and the tone McNamara is trying to set as Syracuse tries to build momentum in a league that rarely offers much room for error.
Doty, in an interview featured on the Juice on the Cuse Podcast, sounded eager about what this year can become, pointing to his own development while keeping the focus on the bigger picture for the group. The message was clear enough: Syracuse wants to be in the mix in the ACC and has its sights on NCAA Tournament success, but the next step will depend on how quickly that confidence turns into results once the games begin. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuses New Identity Is Clear But One Big Question Remains
Syracuse basketball opened its season with Media Day at the Carmelo Anthony Center, and the message from Gerry McNamara and his players was pretty clear: this group wants its identity to start on the defensive end. The Orange have leaned into length at most positions, and the roster construction reflects that with a blend of returning players, transfers and freshmen all expected to have a role as the season gets underway.
Luke Wilson is part of that new mix, and so are the young centers Abdramane Siby and Iker Martinez, both of whom add size to a team that appears built to be harder to score on and tougher to handle on the glass. Syracuse still has a preseason opener against UConn ahead, and while the defensive blueprint seems set, the bigger question is how quickly all those pieces can come together once the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Let Another Winnable ACC Game Slip Away
Syracuse kept searching for answers at quarterback in its fifth game of the season, rolling through three starters before a fourth ended up taking snaps because of injury, and the instability showed up in a 28-25 loss to Virginia. It was the kind of ACC game the Orange needed to find a way to finish, especially with the offense unable to sustain much momentum and the special teams still offering little help.
Instead, Syracuse let another winnable conference game slip away and stayed winless in ACC play, while the losing streak against Power-Four programs grew to 11 games. The second-half fade was especially costly, with the offense bogging down as the kicking game and special teams continued to create problems the Orange could not afford in a tight game. [Read more 🡒]