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DALLAS — James Heard whipped his head to the left. All he could see was a wide-open RJ Maryland preparing to catch the ball for a walk-in touchdown. Mere seconds earlier, Maryland ran right by Heard — whose eyes were glued to SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings in the backfield — seemingly expecting another defender to cover the zone to his side. Except nobody did. Maryland made the easiest catch of his life, as he went into the end zone untouched.

After the play, Heard convened with the three closest defenders, all of whom were almost 10 yards away from Maryland. The trio exchanged confused looks, not knowing who to blame for the blown coverage. All they could do was slouch their heads and walk back to the sideline in frustration.

Maryland’s walk-in score put SMU (3-2, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) up by three possessions in the first half. It was one of many defensive lapses for Syracuse (3-3, 1-2 ACC) in its 31-18 defeat against the Mustangs. The Orange allowed Jennings to complete nearly 83% of his passes (29-for-35), while tossing a career-high four touchdown passes and 285 yards.

It’s a worrying trend for SU’s defense, which is allowing 29.6 points and an ACC-high 464.6 yards per game. The Orange are not only one of the worst defenses in the conference, but also in the country. With a sputtering offense that went eight quarters without scoring a touchdown over the past three games, Syracuse’s defense isn’t coming up with stops when it needs to.

“There’s adversity right now that’s right there in front of us,” Fran Brown said postgame. “Other teams, so many people will be so upset, and the team will turn on each other, they won’t go to class and the coaches will just start their coach a little bit differently.”

“But that’s not happening when I’m in charge of players, and all of us are going to stand and face adversity together and watch us all grow.”

For the second straight week, Syracuse allowed at least 30 points and was gashed by elite quarterback play. Last Saturday, it was Duke’s Darian Mensah. This week, it was Jennings.

In 2024, Jennings took SMU to the College Football Playoff during his first year as a starter. But, through five weeks in 2025, Jennings hadn’t been at his best. He totaled five interceptions in four games, only trailing Pittsburgh’s Eli Holstein, who was benched this week.

Jennings found his rhythm against Syracuse. He got rid of the ball quickly on the outside, forcing Syracuse’s corners to make tackles. SU fared well to start, holding Jennings to 40 passing yards in the first quarter. Then he exploded with 136 in the second.

SMU’s drives went as follows: seven plays, 78 yards; three plays, 40 yards; six plays, 90 yards. All of them ended in a touchdown.

SU head coach Fran Brown kept it honest postgame.

“I thought we called the wrong stuff in the first half,” Brown said, “That wasn’t right. We shouldn’t have done that. We didn’t put the kids in the right position in the first half.”

Syracuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson handles play calls for the Orange. He and Brown have a close relationship that dates back to high school, but the comment does raise eyebrows.

Jennings’ red-hot second quarter thwarted any chance of Syracuse competing. A 20-yard strike to Romello Brinson set up a 15-yard touchdown pass to Yamir Knight, making it 10-0 SMU. Davien Kerr got lost in coverage, and by the time he got close to Knight, he could only make a diving tackle attempt that failed.

Maryland’s score came on SMU’s ensuing drive, which was three plays after Yasin Willis was stuffed on fourth-and-1.

“A lot of times, coaches like to call the things that look good on the board instead of the things that the players run well,” Brown said. “And when you start to call the players that they run well, you see different results.”

Syracuse’s defense is leaking, but it also isn’t receiving much help from its offense. Rickie Collins had multiple hiccups in his second career start, tossing three interceptions and completing under 50% of his passes. The Orange’s offense couldn’t put up points or consistently sustain drives across the first two quarters.

Collins was stuffed on a quarterback sneak from the one-yard line on SU’s opening drive. Willis couldn’t pick up a key first down when it trailed 10-0. Five minutes before halftime, Collins misfired to Willis in the flat, who would’ve easily scored with an accurate throw.

“It’s hard for a defense to continue to keep getting stops repeatedly,” Collins said. “We need to be giving them energy by scoring the ball. We have to start faster, but they did a good job.”

There were bright spots, like Collins’ 52-yard connection with Justus Ross-Simmons and a 38-yard strike to Johntay Cook. But those moments were few and far between. Collins stared down Dan Villari in the first quarter for an easy interception from Brandon Miyazono. He threw other dangerous balls that could’ve been picked.

When Syracuse’s defense upped its game in the second half, the offense couldn’t follow suit. Brown said the defensive calls changed in the second half, and his players “were more comfortable” with what was being called.

SMU was less aggressive considering it was nursing a three-possession lead, but Syracuse stuck around, holding the Mustangs to 139 yards across the final 30 minutes. After allowing over 200 rushing yards against Duke, the Orange kept SMU to just 76 on the ground.

Yet, Syracuse didn’t make up for it with sound pass defense. Jennings’ hot second quarter put Syracuse behind the eight-ball, and it never recovered.

Last season, Syracuse’s defense was below average. The difference is that it came up with timely turnovers and had one of the best offenses in the country to pick it up.

Steve Angeli looked like he was making up for the absence of Kyle McCord, until a torn Achilles suddenly ended his season. Now with Collins, Syracuse’s defense doesn’t have the luxury of underperforming.

With the bye week coming, all Brown can do is go back to the drawing board. If necessary tweaks aren’t made, Syracuse’s defense will continue to struggle.

Published on October 4, 2025 at 9:44 pm
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