The Orange are coming off of a 10-3 season and a huge upset win over the Miami Hurricanes. But the ‘25 Syracuse schedule is much tougher than the ‘24 version. Can a new ‘Cuse transfer QB and coach Fran Brown stay hot?
The Syracuse Orange finished 10-3 in Fran Brown’s first year as a head football coach. Proof that you don’t have to post a .500 record and lose to MTSU to “set things right” as a new coach. In year one for Brown the Orange won the Holiday Bowl and finished with a top-25 ranking.
The 2025 schedule for the Orange is going to be an absolute grind. This is an SEC caliber schedule with ‘Cuse facing Tennessee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, before road games against Clemson, SMU, Georgia Tech, Miami, and Notre Dame. That’s five ranked teams, four of which are on the road, and the always plucky Yellow Jackets on the road, as well.
The Orange high school recruiting class finished 10th in the ACC, which was good for 53rd overall in FBS. Syracuse signed one blue chip prospect DB Demetres Samuel Jr. out of Florida.
The Orange Preseason Overall SP+ is 56th in FBS, The ‘Cuse ST’s are 101st per SP+.
The Lean ‘Canes Business Model
Problem: Consistency in their performance. Syracuse upset Miami and beat UNLV, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Cal but lost to Stanford, Pitt and Boston College.
Solution: With a harder schedule and without Kyle McCord the defense is going to have to pick up the slack. The Orange also lost WR Trebor Pena to the portal and a few other talents to the NFL or graduation.
Unique Value Proposition: Fran Brown. I think the sky is the limit for a coach like Brown who has a healthy ego, recruiting chops and guts. Brown is the guy to take ‘Cuse to a solid level before he leaves for a gig like Pitt or UNC.
Key Metric: Points per game allowed. Brown can’t keep putting a bottom 40 defense on the field if he wants to come out on the other half off a top-15 schedule.
Competitive Advantage: ‘Cuse has managed to play up the old Carrier Dome (JMA Wireless Dome) to their advantage. They dropped one game there in ‘24 of their three losses.
The Achievers
The High Achievers in the conference are Miami, SMU and Clemson. Much like SMU, Syracuse has toned down their portal kombat this off-season in exchange for homegrown talent. They’ll probably start a couple of incoming freshmen and rely on only a half dozen transfers on their two-deep. That’s a move in the right direction for development, we’ll see if it pans out on the win-loss record.
The Low Achievers are Wake Forest, Stanford and UVA and like those squads Syracuse got poached for their star player. Trebor Pena took the NIL bag and headed south to Penn State to give the Nittany Lions a stud slot option at WR.
The Offense
The preseason SP+ for Syracuse on offense is 42nd in all of FBS. With transfer QB Kyle McCord at QB a year ago, the Orange scored 34.1 PPG in ‘24 (21st in FBS). But McCrod, Pena, Orande Gadsden II and LaQuint Allen are no longer in Syracuse, NY.
Backup RB Yasin Willis returns after scoring once in ‘24. Deep threat Darrell Gill Jr. returns after averaging 18.4 yards per grab last season.
QB’s Steve Angeli (Notre Dame) and Rickie Collins (LSU) are battling it out for the starting QB job. That’ll give Brown a solid starting QB and a backup for protection.
The Film: Syracuse 42 – Miami 38
Syracuse took the slight edge on money downs, turned their turnover in a touchdown on the fumble recovery scoop n’ score, and had 54 less penalty yards in flags. After starting down 21-0, you have to respect Brown for keeping his players engaged and ready to come back aginst the ‘Canes.
After starting slow, a 21 point swing in favor of the Orange in the middle quarters changed the momentum of the ball game. McCord, Pena and Jackson Meeks had career days against the Miami defensive backfield. Allen scored twice on the ground as well.
Above– Why do OC’s love Run-Pass Options (RPO’s)? Because they can make you right even if you’re wrong. It puts pressure on the QB but pressure is a privilege of the position of QB.
As you can see I’ve circled two defenders, this is why some OC’s have the QB read space now instead of a player. Is the grass open vs. an if-then off a LB or S. Defenses are too exotic now with hybrid guys, simulated blitzes, athletic DE’s.
Above– McCord sees space open up and the slot is going to sit in that space on what I called a “pop” RPO tag.
Above– QB smartly throws to the back shoulder here, as the front shoulder leads the WR into the safety that’s closing. It could be a PBU, hospital ball or an INT if it’s out front.
Above– The WR shakes the first guy and now his job is to make the nearest player miss. The WR has to block downfield. Great downfield blocking separates good O’s from great ones.
The Defense
The defensive preseason SP+ for the Orange is 76th in the country after allowing 29.2 PPG a year ago (96th in FBS). Fadil Diggs and Clarence Lewis are off to the NFL after posting big seasons. Diggs logged 14 TFL’s and 7.5 sacks while Lewis broke up 14 passes last season.
Safety Devin Grant returns to lead the Orange defense. Grant picked up eight TFL’s, two sacks, one INT, and three PBU’s last season. Deuce Chestnut also returns after picking up five PBU’s in ‘24.
DE Reese Davis transferred to Syracuse which is his third team in three years. Davis has 11 sacks over two seasons in CFB. The Orange only picked up a small number of transfers for the ‘25 season.
The Film
The Orange defense saw Cam Ward and Damien Martinez post good days of their own. Ward averaged 9.7 yards per attempt and didn’t turn the ball over, but Xavier Restrepo did. Martinez hit 8.4 yards per carry but Jordan Lyle stalled a series on 1.7 yards per rush. Jacolby George averaged over 20 yards per grab but didn’t score.
Above– With a 2-high look ‘Cuse leaves the middle of the field open for something like “6” with a snap off in space or Y-Cross.
Above- Play-action clears the underneath and freezes a safety to the trips side. Phil Longo always called that a ‘flash fake’ where it does just enough to freeze someone so it’s worth it.
Above– Restrepo’s job on the Dig route is to pull the safety to that side down and away so George can run the vertical up the goal post. If the S runs down on George the vertical-post deal should be open. If he stays put then the Dig is open.
Above– One of Cam Ward’s few throws that forced a WR to stop and come back for it. I get he didn’t want to lead him too far into the other S but this was on the dangerous side of a shoulder turn towards the trailer.
That said, you have to love Shannon Dawson dialing guys open against a DC’s tendencies. The beauty of the Air Raid (and he’s just a bastardized version of the offense) is having answers to the DC’s chess match.
2025 Prediction
Photo by Bryan Bennett/Getty Images
The Canyonero Keys to Victory for the ‘Canes this season over Syracuse is to not have another pesky engine fire against the Orange. There’s no reason Miami loses to Syracuse but they sure did, with an ACC Championship Game appearance on the line. Basically, don’t do that again. Brent Key is in Mario Cristobal’s head and let’s hope Brown isn’t hanging out with him in there.
Way too early prediction: Miami by 10. The Orange will finish 7-5 this season with a strength of schedule hitting 14th per SP+. That’s a meat grinder even for a coach like Fran Brown who seems to will the team to playing above their means.