State of the Program: Syracuse Orange

Head Coach: Fran Brown is entering his 2nd season with the Orange with a 10-3 record. His electric personality immediately invigorated Syracuse’s program and fanbase. Once the team took the field, it became apparent that Brown made this team significantly better on the field as well. It was a season highlighted by an upset over the Miami Hurricanes and only the 2nd 10 win season for the program since 2002! That was just year 1! Needless to say the entire nation is excited to see what Brown does next.

Program Outlook: Syracuse was a program facing the challenge of being further from fertile recruiting territory. In general Syracuse is sort of an island just outside the New England region which generally tends to just care about pro sports, but the city of Syracuse itself is all about the Orange. Fran Brown has already broken the recruiting barriers most thought Syracuse had and as a result it’s becoming clear this program has a bigger upside as well.

How does the 2025 Roster look?: Syracuse ranks 90th in the country returning 49% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. They lost quite a bit from last year but there are reinforcements on the way with a top 50 portal class, it’s a smaller class in size but they were selective on getting impact players. Key players for the Orange include Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli. Angeli performed very well for the Irish when he had to step in and he seems ready to take over a team but Syracuse also has LSU transfer Rickie Collins who offers dual threat abilities but is less experienced the fact that they brought in Angeli tells me that Collins may not be quite ready yet. Syracuse lost receiver Trebor Pena in the spring when he pulled a much cleaner quieter version of what Nico Iamaleava did but there’s still some experience back and the hope will be that Johntay Cook proves to be a difference maker. Yasin Willis played sparingly as a true freshman but he seems primed for a breakout year. The defense will be led by a pretty promising secondary, corner Duce Chestnut is one of the leaders of this defense. The defensive line lost their leader in Fadil Diggs but they have a lot of experience back overall. Lookout for KingJoseph Edwards, not just for his awesome name but he’s able to create a lot of pressure from inside. Linebacker is less experienced but there’s confidence in what Derek McDonald and Anwar Sparrow will bring to the table. The question marks starts with most of the secondary outside of Chestnut, Brown’s pedigree suggests that the Orange will have options but it remains to be seen who steps up there. The offensive line loses 3 starters from a unit that was solid for the most part in pass protection but struggled to open up run lanes at times.

Screenshot from FBSchedules.com

2025 Schedule Thoughts: This schedule is a GAUNTLET. The non-conference features games against Tennessee and Notre Dame along with a UConn team that won 9 games last year. In-state foe Colgate struggled immensely at the FCS level last year and is breaking in a new head coach so they offer the only true break in the schedule. The ACC slate is ridiculous, Louisville is probably the only team projected to be in the top half of the conference that the Orange miss playing and they get four of the top potential contenders all on the road! The home slate isn’t easy either but it feels like an absolute must for the Orange to defend the dome, there may not be a path to bowl eligibility that doesn’t include them doing so.

Final Thoughts: Fran Brown has Syracuse with all sorts of momentum right now and it really pains me to say that I don’t see them matching last year’s 10 win season, the schedule is brutal and there’s too much roster turnover. All of that combined with the fact that it’s going to be very difficult to replicate their 7-1 record in one score games tells me they’ll take a step back. If my hunch is correct, don’t let it distract you from the fact that Fran Brown is building something special here, any setback will be temporary.