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MIAMI — Rickie Collins stood completely still at Syracuse’s 15-yard line. Slumped shoulders. Hands drooped to his kneecaps. Eyes in a deadpan stare — locked in on the celebration taking place in the left corner of the end zone.

Seconds earlier, Collins threw a pick-six to Miami nickel cornerback Keionte Scott, igniting a monotone Hard Rock Stadium crowd into an all-out bonanza. SU’s offense solemnly jogged off the field. No one said a word to Collins, nor even motioned to him. The quarterback stood there alone to digest the costly mistake he’d just made.

Syracuse head coach Fran Brown then walked a few paces onto the grass and stopped Collins for a quick chat. Brown said he told Collins to shake it off and move on to the next play. Collins nodded his head, then lowered his helmet after Brown patted him on the shoulder.

It was his ninth interception of the year. But this one, in a must-win game, was tough to merely “move on” from. The brutal turnover spelled the end for the Orange’s bowl-game hopes.

“I thought I (had) seen a window opening. I took it. Obviously, it wasn’t opening,” Collins said postgame, explaining his pick-six.

Bad quarterback play doomed Syracuse (3-7, 1-6 Atlantic Coast) again Saturday as it fell on the road to No. 18 Miami (7-2, 3-2 ACC) in a 38-10 blowout. The Orange’s offense struggled to find a rhythm. The one time they gained momentum, running back Yasin Willis fumbled in the red zone. Their defense posted a stunningly excellent first-half effort, blanking quarterback Carson Beck and the Hurricanes’ offense for nearly the first 28 minutes. Yet, a 61-yard touchdown pass to Miami wideout Keelan Marion early in the third quarter all but sealed the end result for SU.

The Orange are now eliminated from bowl-game contention for the first time since 2021, and the first time under Brown.

Following Marion’s long touchdown, as caught by the ESPN broadcast feed, Brown slammed a large Gatorade bottle against the ground while he chastised SU defensive backs Davien Kerr and Devin Grant. That sums up the Orange’s day.

While Syracuse rushed for 161 yards, Collins only passed for 85 and was substituted late in the fourth for freshman backup Joe Filardi, who threw a 17-yard garbage-time touchdown to Elijah Washington-Baker. SU lost the turnover battle 3-0. It committed four more penalties than the Hurricanes. It allowed a trick-play touchdown, where Miami wideout Malachi Toney hit a wide-open Beck for a 14-yard score. And it never held a lead, or came particularly close to it.

Saturday was Syracuse’s sixth straight stinker — marking the program’s longest skid since 2020, when it dropped its final eight contests.

“I just feel like we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Brown said. “I think (Miami is) a really good football team, right? But I think if you watch the game and you look at it for (the first) 26-plus minutes, you can see how good of a football team we are.”

Rickie Collins stands under center in Syracuse’s loss to Miami Saturday. Collins recorded two interceptions and threw for just 85 yards before being replaced by walk-on Joe Filardi. Joe Zhao | Senior Staff Photographer

On Sept. 20, the Orange boarded their flight from Clemson, South Carolina, back to Syracuse, while gleefully celebrating their stunning 34-21 upset win over the Tigers. The win stamped SU’s status as a dark horse to win the ACC. Six games later, the Orange rank second-to-last in the conference and are eliminated from bowl contention.

So, how did a once-promising campaign turn into a giant step backward for Brown’s squad? Well, you can’t win without a quarterback. And Syracuse didn’t have a competent one for the majority of the season.

Redshirt junior Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli, who carried SU to a 3-1 start behind an FBS-best 1,317 passing yards at the time, tore his Achilles versus Clemson. He’s donned a boot on his left foot and used crutches ever since.

Angeli’s on-field absence left Syracuse in a bind — one it could not, and can not, recover from.

Collins, a redshirt sophomore transfer from LSU, has been one of the nation’s worst statistical starting quarterbacks after taking over in Week 5. Meanwhile, its defense can’t stop a nosebleed, particularly against the run. But that’s hardly mattered, given the Orange haven’t scored more than 20 points since that win in Clemson.

Brown’s culture has remained strong throughout a season that’s naturally tested it. Syracuse’s angst of repeated defeat, however, is palpable.

Brown said after Syracuse’s Oct. 18 loss to Pitt that he never believed Collins was ready to be a starter this year, breaking from his previous stance that Collins and Angeli were neck and neck throughout fall camp to become SU’s No. 1 quarterback. He also stated that the Orange’s roster simply wasn’t ready to compete at the level they did last year.

“I want to win, guys, I want to win by all means,” Brown said on Oct. 31 after Syracuse’s 27-10 loss to North Carolina, its fifth straight defeat at the time. “And last year, we were able to go do that. But I had 12 guys leave to go to the NFL. Naturally, there wasn’t 12 waiting to go to the league the next year.”

On Oct. 4, after Syracuse fell at SMU, Willis spoke very openly about Collins’ struggles to see the field, an honest assessment of a teammate rarely seen from a player in public. That same game, assistant coach Josh Gattis was caught screaming at Collins on the sideline. And Saturday in Miami, Brown questioned offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon’s call for a pass instead of a run when Collins threw a pick-six.

“I think there’s a few calls from the coaching staff that shouldn’t have been called,” Brown said.

Fran Brown aggressively calls a timeout in SU’s loss to Miami Saturday. After leading the Orange to a 10-3 record in 2024, Brown knows this season is a rebuilding year after Syracuse lost its sixth straight game. Joe Zhao | Senior Staff Photographer

Everything boiled over earlier this week, when Brown let go of wide receivers coach Myles White and changed the roles of three other assistants. Nunzio Campanile went from quarterbacks to tight ends coach, Gattis from quality control to wide receivers coach and Michael Johnson from tight ends to quarterbacks coach.

But Brown’s desperate move was nothing more than that. Desperate. Like a mad scientist over-correcting themselves after a failed experiment, Brown’s assistant coach ploy didn’t enhance the Orange’s chemistry — it likely drew them further apart.

Syracuse’s offense sputtered again Saturday in Miami. Even while its defense sacked Beck twice in the first quarter — the most the Hurricanes have suffered in a game this year — Collins and Co. punted twice in that span and didn’t register a play over 10 yards. When it came to Nixon’s playcalling, the scheme didn’t feel different from anything SU put on tape over the last month and a half.

That’s the concern.

Syracuse’s failure to make a bowl game should be judged from two perspectives. On one hand, it’s a lesson for Brown to ensure he always has multiple game-ready quarterbacks on his roster; an injury like Angeli’s can wreck an entire season.

On the other hand, Brown proved he can clone Kyle McCord. Angeli was playing just as good as SU’s record-breaking signal-caller did in 2024, and that’s a testament to Brown’s ability to bring talent into the building. The Orange’s 3-1 start should be judged equally to their ensuing six straight losses.

But as Brown’s alluded to before, Syracuse’s talent wasn’t ready to win this year. And that’s OK.

He’s played a ton of young guys this season, highlighted by cornerback/wide receiver Demetres Samuel Jr., left guard Byron Washington and MIKE linebacker Antoine Deslauriers — not to mention a quarterback, Collins, who only had seven pass attempts in two years with LSU. Add a sophomore back in Willis, young wideouts like Darius Johnson and Darien Williams and a youthful cornerbacks room, Syracuse has fostered a solid, youthful core.

And it’ll only improve, considering Brown has built the country’s 23rd-ranked and fifth-ranked recruiting classes in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

If there’s one thing Brown can take away from Saturday, despite being disgusted by another loss, it’s remembering what lies ahead. He came to Syracuse to bring the city a sustainable winner. To do that, he needs time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and amid a six-game losing skid, after finishing 10-3 the season before, it’s clear the Orange weren’t either.

Imagine a reality where next season, Syracuse gets an elite passer back at quarterback, a five-star wide receiver, a four-star safety and a litany of sophomore returners.

Brown doesn’t have to imagine. The cavalry — featuring Angeli, Calvin Russell, Tedarius Hughes and others to be determined via the transfer portal — is coming.

“We’re building a program; I’ve been saying that since the beginning,” Brown said after losing to Miami. “I’m starting to think people ain’t really trying to listen to me, but we’re trying to build a program.”

The Orange will be ready to win in the future. But 2025 was clearly a rebuilding year, stamped by Saturday’s uncompetitive result.

Published on November 8, 2025 at 7:03 pm
Contact Cooper: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews