State of the Program: Syracuse Orange

Head Coach: Fran Brown is in his first year as Syracuse’s head coach. The Orange are looking for a jolt of excitement for the program and so far this offseason Brown has brought that. Here’s a deeper dive into his profile and coach hire grade here: https://updogsportstalk.com/2024/05/14/college-football-coach-hire-grades-syracuse/

Program Outlook: Syracuse faces the challenge of being a major program that isn’t located in great recruiting territory. It often takes a creative scheme to get the Orange on a level playing field, but Fran Brown is going to challenge that as one of the best recruiters around. This offseason has been a great start, Brown has already brought more excitement and national attention to Syracuse than we’ve seen in some time.

How does the 2024 Roster look?: There’s more returning than you would normally see with a coaching change, but that’s not all. Fran Brown also hit the transfer portal hard and made some nice pickups to fill some holes on the roster. QB was the most glaring hole and they grabbed Kyle McCord from Ohio State there, McCord had some uneven performances but he’s a former 5 star and in a less pressure situation here he could end up performing better. Also taking the pressure off McCord is RB LeQuint Allen who was the Orange’s leading rusher AND receiver last year. They have some intriguing options at receiver as well. The defense will be exciting to see as well, they performed pretty well on this side of the ball last year and bring a lot of guys back, plus there’s some great portal additions. Texas A&M transfer Fadil Diggs is going to be a huge impact player at defensive end, but they will need more guys to step up next to him. There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about the linebackers and secondary in this defense.

Screenshot from fbschedules.com¹

2024 Schedule Thoughts: The most glaring thing about this schedule is who is missing from it. Syracuse used to have to deal with Clemson and Florida State, the two most dominant programs in the conference on an annual basis but now without divisions the Orange manage to avoid both of them. That is incredibly favorable. The non-conference slate is all winnable which is huge as well, although any game is losable as well if the Orange aren’t careful. Ohio is always solid, Holy Cross lost their head coach but they’ve been a problem for FBS programs lately, UConn might improve and Syracuse took on a challenge playing at UNLV, that’ll be a fun game to watch.

Vegas Projection: Syracuse’s win total is set at 7.5 with the odds geared toward the under. Despite the excitement and potentially easier schedule, Vegas only sees a one game improvement.

2024 Best Case: The Fran Brown era is ready to take off, Kyle McCord plays great in his new home and the defense suffocates opponents. The Orange ride that to a thrilling 5-0 start before a showdown with NC State. The Orange come up just short against the Wolfpack but it doesn’t deter them the rest of the way. They beat Pitt and pull off a massive home win over Virginia Tech. They finish the season strong by winning out, including ending the season beating a Miami FL team that had been living up to the hype. Syracuse makes the ACC championship but falls just short against Clemson in a tight battle. The Orange have an argument for a playoff At-Large but alas are passed up for a SEC team. Still they win their bowl game to finish with an incredible 12-2 season, the future is bright.

2024 Worst Case: It’s tough to know what to expect when someone who’s never been anything more than a position coach gets the keys to the program. Despite all the excitement off the field, things get ugly as soon as they are on it. The team is sloppy, McCord struggles and the defense can’t get to the QB. This becomes apparent right away as the Orange are upset by Ohio to start the season, then lose soundly to Georgia Tech the next week. They can’t even beat Stanford the week after, and that’s when it’s most apparent this is going to be a long year. Syracuse plummets to 1-11, and fans are left to wonder if this will work after all.