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DALLAS — Buffaloes and cows are the animals Fran Brown used in his postgame press conference to describe the current state of Syracuse after its 31-18 road loss at SMU Saturday.

Following a game in which SU trailed by as much as 28 points, the second-year head coach walked into the locker room and asked his players which cloven-hoofed mammal they preferred to personify in the face of adversity: a menacing buffalo that overpowers those who dare to test it, or a lethargic cow that easily tips over.

The Orange are amid their worst rut of the Brown era. They’ve dropped two straight games for the first time since 2023. Their quarterback, Rickie Collins, is throwing interceptions on 5.2% of his throws, the fifth-worst rate in the nation among anyone over 50 pass attempts. Their pass rush is nonexistent. Their rushing attack with Yasin Willis often gets abandoned early. And, per Pro Football Focus, none of their offensive tackles have a pass-blocking grade over 60.0.

Syracuse needs its lead buffalo to herd the Orange’s roster back to how they were playing just two weeks ago, when they shocked Clemson in Death Valley.

But that’s the problem. SU no longer has its lead buffalo: Steve Angeli.

The Notre Dame transfer led the nation in passing yards (1,317) before tearing his Achilles on Sept. 20 in the third quarter of the Clemson game. Angeli was in the early stages of a storybook season — he tied a Syracuse program record with six total touchdowns against Colgate on Sept. 12, tossed for 416 yards a week earlier in a win over UConn and had SU’s offense playing with a similar electricity to what Kyle McCord generated throughout its 10-win 2024 campaign.

With Angeli under center, the Orange (3-3, 1-2 ACC) looked like a dark horse to win the Atlantic Coast Conference. In the two games since his injury, they’ve barely looked bowl-eligible.

We’re only halfway through the 2025 college football season, but it is clear that Angeli’s Achilles tear derailed Syracuse’s campaign from a once-promising year into an unmitigated disaster. Not having their No. 1 quarterback is simply too much for this Orange team to overcome, and it might even cause them to miss a bowl game if things don’t change after next week’s bye.

Before Syracuse’s Week 1 game in Atlanta against then-No. 24 Tennessee, I wrote that this year is a rebuilding season for Brown’s squad. Now, 2025 is becoming a lost season.

Though Brown doesn’t think so.

“We’re building a program. It’s a culture. It’s something that takes time to do,” Brown said when comparing SU’s 3-3 start this season to its historic year last season. “We had the chance to win a lot early. We’ve won some bigger games this year … You just got to judge us by who we have been, not off just what you’re seeing right now.”

But what the country’s seeing right now is a team that’s completely out of whack.

Rickie Collins communicates with his offensive line in SU’s loss to Duke on Sept. 27. Collins has thrown an interception on 5.2% of his throws, the worst rate nationally among players with over 50 pass attempts. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor

Syracuse’s 34-21 Week 4 upset victory over the Tigers saw its offense never miss a beat and its defense deliver its best performance under second-year coordinator Elijah Robinson. After Angeli was ruled out for the year, SU trailed 24-3 at halftime in each of its next two games and faced second-half deficits of at least 28 points.

With one player out of the mix, how can the difference be this drastic?

Let’s start by comparing the two quarterbacks. Angeli’s quiet confidence and swagger was palpable among his Syracuse teammates and coaches — no moment was too big for him. On Saturday, Collins was asked if he either felt comfortable or stressed out there on the field. His answer wasn’t reassuring.

“I’d say stressful, nerve-wracking, because I know we’re better than what we’re displaying,” Collins said.

Collins has thrown five interceptions in 96 pass attempts thus far with the Orange. At LSU from 2023-24, Collins threw just seven passes in game action as a backup quarterback to Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and current Tigers star Garrett Nussmeier. He doesn’t have many snaps under his belt. So clearly, this season has been a major learning curve for him.

Among Collins’ 45 pass attempts versus the Mustangs, he missed two wide-open touchdowns: one to Willis in the red zone and another on a deep shot intended for Darrell Gill Jr.

Willis, who was held to 15 carries for 41 rushing yards against SMU, said Collins goes “a little too fast” sometimes. He revealed postgame Saturday that he’s heard Syracuse’s coaches give Collins critiques about his field vision. They tell Collins he has “soft eyes,” Willis said, meaning he makes decisions too quickly.

“That’s something easy that we can adjust,” a hopeful Willis said.

Saturday’s evidence suggests Collins was not ready to start games this season. It’s a stark difference from Angeli, who had brief College Football Playoff experience and perfectly fits offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon’s West Coast, RPO-heavy scheme.

You can’t help but think back to when slot receiver Trebor Peña left Syracuse for Penn State in April, reportedly due to his lack of confidence in Collins. Maybe he was right. Collins needed another year of development. But that doesn’t take away from how every domino around him simultaneously fell after he took the reins as SU’s starter.

The offensive line hasn’t improved. The secondary was easily dissected by two straight star quarterbacks in Duke’s Darian Mensah and SMU’s Kevin Jennings. Wide receiver Justus Ross-Simmons left Saturday’s game on crutches. No one has emerged as a preeminent pass-rushing threat. Linebacker depth is sparse outside of Antoine Deslauriers. The offense went a whole eight quarters without scoring a touchdown, something Syracuse hadn’t done since 2022.

And that’s just the players. Even Brown — who rarely bashes his players or colleagues publicly — had some harsh words for his coordinators after losing to SMU. Brown said Robinson didn’t call the right plays in the first half, and he himself requested certain concepts to be involved in SU’s game plan, which he said weren’t implemented until the second half. He also suggested he’d talk to Nixon again about dialing up more runs for Willis.

“I gotta go back and handle some stuff with our staff,” Brown said.

Fran Brown shouts to his players during SU’s loss to Duke on Sept. 27. Despite Syracuse losing its last two games by 48 combined points, Brown is hopeful his team is trending in the right direction. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor

Willis also said he noticed momentum-shifting plays like failed fourth-down conversions “shift the energy with the team” more than usual. The sophomore tailback thought the Orange could have been mentally tougher against the Mustangs.

“That’s something that we need to get over. When things aren’t going our way, how are we going to respond to that?” Willis said. “And putting our heads down and getting sad about it, that’s not how we’re supposed to go about it. We need that energy like, ‘C’mon, when we get in the red zone again, we gonna go score.’”

Willis’ first year of college football was in 2024, when Syracuse completed multiple comeback victories, including making up an 18-point deficit against Virginia Tech last November.

But it’s easier to respond when you have the horses who can. This year’s group is not nearly as talented as last year’s. The Orange lost McCord, Oronde Gadsden II, LeQuint Allen Jr., Marlowe Wax, Justin Barron, Alijah Clark, Fadil Diggs and more to the NFL. They were as close as it gets to a superteam for SU football. And their bond was tight-knit.

“I feel like that’s the part that we’re missing,” Willis said. “Last year, I feel like that’s what we had. We had a great team bond. With the situation with Steve going down, and Rickie coming up, I feel like we all need to rebuild that (bond) again.”

Brown, who’s very outspoken about setting a yearly National Championship standard at Syracuse, said it’ll take time for SU’s young roster to turn into winners. He said over 12 true freshmen saw the field against SMU. Brown admitted it’s natural how the Orange took a step back this season, given their roster construction, a sentiment he feels is true whether Angeli or Collins plays quarterback.

“We’ll take some shots now, we’ll take our licks,” Brown said. “And then you guys will be smiling, we’ll all laugh at it, and eventually you’re gonna flip around, and I’m not gonna say, ‘I told you so.’ But I’ll just say that it’s a part of building the culture with a lot of young football players.”

Syracuse’s 2025 season is in grave danger. While Angeli’s void is too large for Collins or even a non-quarterback to fill, he still showed in just over three and a half games that the sky is the limit for SU with him under center.

So, even if the Orange wind up missing a bowl game this year, those in central New York can mark their calendars for August 2026 — when Syracuse’s lead buffalo, Angeli, makes his return along with what will be a deeper team around him.

When that day comes, Brown’s herd will go back to stampeding their competition.

Cooper Andrews is a Senior Staff Writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at ccandrew@syr.edu or on X @cooper_andrews.

Published on October 5, 2025 at 9:15 am
Contact Cooper: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews