R
eplay the scene in your mind. It’s Dec. 27, 2024. Kyle McCord, Oronde Gadsden and many SU stars have passed around the Holiday Bowl trophy after a 52-35 win over Washington State. Fran Brown is stoic in celebration. He avoided the yearly tradition of having a vat of eggnog poured over his head. Instead, with the help of Joey Chestnut, of all people, he launches a cooler of the milky beverage onto a crowd of his players.
The absurdity of it was something to behold. Not just the eggnog and Joey Chestnut. The fact that Syracuse — the same Syracuse that logged losing records in eight of its previous 10 seasons — was celebrating a 10-win campaign. And to make it more absurd, the man who fueled it, Brown, had been with the program for just over a year.
Now replay a different scene. This one, Nov. 22, 2025. The scoreboard at the bottom of your television screen really does say 70-7. No, it’s not a typo. It’s Syracuse’s seventh straight loss and worst defeat in over 132 years. There’s no eggnog. No Joey Chestnut. But there are numerous questions to be answered surrounding SU.
It might feel like an all-too-familiar tale — that drop-off from one season to the next. Syracuse football hasn’t enjoyed much sustained success since the 1990s and hasn’t had back-to-back winning seasons in over a decade. Sure, there have been one-off years of brilliance since, like the 10-win 2018 and 2001 seasons. Even eight-win years in 2010 and 2012 were bright spots. But the Orange couldn’t turn them into real, lasting success.
The 2024 season is threatening to be next on that list of one-offs. It ended with SU’s third 10-win season since 2000, and four players became NFL Draft picks. But the momentum Brown built came to a major halt when Syracuse went 3-9 in 2025.
Now, the Orange face another season where they’re presented two choices: win, and show you’re here to contend. Lose, and continue a slip back toward irrelevance, with no telling when — or if — sustained success will come. To prove this isn’t the same old Syracuse under new athletic director Bryan Blair, Brown and the Orange can’t let it be the latter.
“It all comes down to winning, we play this game to win,” quarterback Steve Angeli said. “I don’t think anyone wants to lose games or be known as a losing football team.”
Zoey Grimes | Design Editor
When Brown first arrived at Syracuse, the Orange had been doing that frequently. While he inherited a program that made back-to-back bowl games, the Orange posted losing records in four of their previous five seasons. Brown instantly worked his patented recruiting skills to land big-time transfers McCord and Fadil Diggs, who powered SU to its first 10-win season since 2018.
Syracuse then began 2025 3-1, including a Week 4 road upset over Clemson. But in that victory, Angeli tore his Achilles, beginning a disastrous spiral where the Orange lost eight straight games to close the year.
Sure, Angeli’s injury was uncontrollable, and, at times, felt like a major asterisk next to that ugly record. SU’s schedule was also treacherous, as it faced four 2024-25 College Football Playoff teams. But the reality is that, whether harmed by those factors or not, Syracuse lost nine games.
“I think that we both learned a lot from last season,” Brown said of him and Angeli.
It’s important to note Brown’s 2024 success was perhaps ahead of schedule. The talent on the roster was abundant, but it’s not often a first-year head coach sees that much success that early. A slight drop-off in 2025 was expected with key pieces departing, albeit probably not as harsh as what SU experienced. In Year 3 under Brown, it’s about time for another bowl appearance, or at least encouraging signs of returning to one.
There’s some sense of urgency around the Orange this season. The clock is ticking for redshirt senior Angeli, although he could return in 2027. Star defensive back Chris Peal — who’s tabbed as a first-round pick in some NFL mock drafts — could leave after this season.
And frankly, another year without postseason football could lower SU’s national status. The 10-3 2024 campaign helped Brown reel in the program’s third-ever five-star recruit Calvin Russell III. Brown’s also put together strong 2027 and 2028 hauls, indicating he can bring the Orange lasting success. But if his teams can’t turn talent into wins, eventually, the talent will stop coming.
Brown’s certainly tried to prevent that from happening. His desire to improve was evident by bringing in six new position coaches while trying to patch major gaps that spoiled 2025.
If (Brown's) teams can’t turn talent into wins, eventually, the talent will stop coming.Harris Pemberton, asst. sports editor
Brown said he learned he needed good backup quarterbacks. Now, he has four that started Division I games. The Orange’s pass defense allowed the fifth-most yards in the Atlantic Coast Conference last year, but Peal and Demetres Samuel Jr. are two of the ACC’s highest-graded returning corners, per Pro Football Focus. SU’s pass rush ranked tied for 14th in the ACC in sacks last season. Now new defensive coordinator Vince Kehres looks to mold SU into one of the conference’s best units.
“There’s new blood. There’s a lot of different energy,” Brown said. “Of course, (we’re) never gonna really flush what happened. You understand, and you realize, and you know that, because you’re a competitor, you can’t wait to get that last loss out your mouth, that taste.”
Those are all encouraging signs. But there are still a couple major questions looming.
Angeli hasn’t taken an in-game snap since his injury last September. Will he be the same passer that lit up the nation through four weeks? With Justus Ross-Simmons’ long-term status in the air, who will be SU’s lead receiver? In the ACC, is Kehres’ defense going to perform as advertised?
The schedule didn’t get much easier, either. The Orange played four ranked opponents last season and get three more teams in the preseason poll this year. No. 4 Notre Dame — which handed the Orange their worst defeat since 1893 last season — still looms in a potential bowl-game-or-bust Week 12.
It’s not that Syracuse needs another 10 wins and to finish the season ranked. Looking at the schedule — and the unknowns — it’s not realistic to expect the Orange to climb to the heights they did two years ago. But even six, seven or eight wins would show clear signs of improvement from last year’s disaster.
A head coach’s tenure will always be defined by the big moments, but it’s equally important to note how they respond to the lows. We’ve seen Brown at the highs. And now we’ve seen Brown at the lows. His roster isn’t as good as it was two seasons ago, and frankly, the schedule is harder, too. But everybody in this new SU Athletics regime wants to rid the program of the poor reputation it’s earned since the turn of the century. And to do that, there’s not much time to wait to rebuild again.
This season is Syracuse’s opportunity to show the 2025 season was really the one-off. Not 2024.
Harris Pemberton is an Assistant Sports Editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at harrispemberton@gmail.com or on X @HarrisPemb6.
Photograph by Lars Jendruschewitz | Senior Staff Photographer