Syracuse football opens a new season Saturday, and the first snap comes with a familiar kind of pressure: end the losing streak, settle the offense, and find out who can help right away.
The Orange will meet New Hampshire at the JMA Wireless Dome in a first-time matchup, with Steve Angeli back at quarterback after a full recovery from the Achilles injury he suffered in Week 4 of 2025. That return gives Syracuse a real chance to get its offense moving again, even if the pieces around him still need sorting out. The Wildcats are the lone Football Championship Subdivision opponent on the Orange schedule, which gives Syracuse a clean early test for sorting out contributors for 2026.
“I can’t wait for the first moment to pop in place,” SU head coach Fran Brown said Monday. “That’s what you really look for as a coach. You try to create as many of those opportunities in practice, but there’s nothing like the game.”
New Hampshire comes in at 0-1, 0-1 Coastal Athletic, after dropping its opener 28-14 to UAlbany. Last season, the Wildcats went 8-4 in the regular season behind quarterback Matt Vezza, who threw 19 touchdown passes and ran for eight more scores, before getting routed 41-3 by No. 14 seed South Dakota State in the FCS Championship First Round. Vezza is now at Ohio, and New Hampshire has already had to answer some early questions in 2026.
Against UAlbany, the Wildcats got a solid outing from Wingate University transfer Brooks Bentley, who went 19-for-27 for 230 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. But the Great Danes shredded New Hampshire on the ground, piling up 374 rushing yards while completing only seven passes. That kind of collapse stood out because the Wildcats were much stingier a year ago, allowing 22.8 points per game, third-best in the CAA, and finishing tied for the conference lead with 10 interceptions.
The offensive losses are significant, too. New Hampshire lost its top three receivers from last season, a group that accounted for 1,815 yards: Caleb Burke with 764, Chase Wilson with 704 and Casey McKinney with 347.
That leaves a much thinner passing game and pushes transfers and lesser-used returners into bigger roles. Eight Wildcats caught passes against UAlbany, and 10 were targeted.
Delaware transfer Ja’Carree Kelly led the way with six catches for 123 yards and a touchdown, while Ty Carlson and Logan Perez also have to shoulder more of the load. Thomason, a running back who had nearly 1,000 total yards last year and finished with 30 catches for 233 yards, is the top returning receiver by production, though he was held to 53 yards on 10 carries in the opener.
That’s where Syracuse can try to take control. UAlbany showed exactly how to attack New Hampshire on the ground, with Joey Koch rushing for 144 yards on just seven carries and two other players adding at least 60 yards.
The Orange have that film in hand, and even with LSU transfer Ju’Juan Johnson sidelined by injury, they should still have options. Jackson State transfer Ahmad Miller is positioned for a big workload, while Tylik Hill and Matt Outten - who Brown said will play both running back and receiver - can help fill the gaps.
Angeli will be a centerpiece in his first game back in the Dome, but Syracuse does not need to ask him to do everything on his own. The matchup gives the Orange a chance to lean on the run game, settle in on offense and let a defense that struggled in ACC play last year ease into the season against a depleted receiver group.
If there’s one New Hampshire player who could still make Syracuse work, it’s Kelly. He spent three years at Delaware without breaking through, but his 2025 season was his best, with 34 catches for 327 yards.
That pushed him to 52 career receptions for 503 yards, and he already made an impression in his UNH debut with a 45-yard touchdown that cut the deficit to 21-14 early in the third quarter. No other Wildcats receiver came within 80 yards of his 123-yard performance against UAlbany.
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