Previewing Syracuse football’s season finale vs. Boston College
Syracuse will look to snap its seven-game losing streak in its final game of the season Saturday against 1-10 Boston College, sending it into the offseason on a high note. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer
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The pain is almost over, Syracuse fans. After a promising 3-1 start to Fran Brown’s second season, quarterback Steve Angeli’s season-ending injury quickly turned the Orange into the laughing stock of college football. A seven-game losing streak has drawn on from late September to late November, and its latest loss to No. 9 Notre Dame brought attention from around the country.
Why is that? Well, because Syracuse fell behind 35-0 in the first quarter and suffered one of the largest losses in the modern era, finishing with a 70-7 defeat. Even with the Orange reaching their pinnacle of embarrassment, their 2025 campaign will end Saturday, win or lose.
SU hosts Boston College, the only squad with a worse record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Eagles are yet to win an ACC game this season and haven’t won a game since Week 1 versus Fordham. A win for the Orange would break a 70-day dry spell and send them swiftly into the offseason. A loss would only further cement the year as one of the worst in SU history.
Here’s everything to know about Boston College (1-10, 0-7 Atlantic Coast) before its matchup with Syracuse (3-8, 1-6 ACC) Saturday:
All time series
Syracuse leads 34-24.
Last time they played
The Orange wore t-shirts throughout the offseason displaying “4th & 1” and “4th & 9” to display their two close losses in 2024. The “4th & 1” came from Syracuse’s loss to Boston College, where a late fourth-and-1 play action from the Eagles fooled SU’s defense and delivered a game-sealing touchdown.
BC downed Syracuse 37-31 on Nov. 9, 2024 for the Orange’s third and final loss of the year. Despite Kyle McCord’s 392 passing yards, the Eagles tallied 313 rushing yards and sacked McCord four times through ferocious edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku. Syracuse fumbled three times, losing one of them, and couldn’t recover, as Brown admitted he was outcoached by BC head coach Bill O’Brien postgame.
The Eagles report
In Boston College’s second year under O’Brien, it’s taken a step back, similar to that of Brown and the Orange. The Eagles went 7-6 in 2024 with a slim loss in the Pinstripe Bowl to Nebraska but have captured just one win in 2025. The disastrous season has boiled over even into the typically stoic O’Brien, a former NFL head coach, who lashed out at a reporter in a now-infamous clip that ended with a kind greeting to former Daily Orange sportswriter Trevor Hass.
The Eagles have flip-flopped between quarterbacks Dylan Longeran and Grayson James. Longeran, an Alabama transfer, leads the team with over 2,000 passing yards, but James also played in six games. BC’s appalling schedule looks terrible on paper. However, it is actually one of the better passing teams in the ACC and fell to then-No. 12 Notre Dame by only 15 points and then-No. 16 Georgia Tech by two.
With Kye Robichaux moving to the NFL, Turbo Richard has taken charge in the backfield with two games over 100 rushing yards. Out wide, Lewis Bond is Boston College’s leading receiver with 80 receptions, 34 more than the next-best pass catcher, Jeremiah Franklin.
Defensively, the Eagles rank second-to-last in the ACC in points allowed per game at 34.6. Only Syracuse has given up more. Still, BC possesses two of the top tacklers in the conference, with KP Price and Omar Thornton each tallying over 75 total tackles. Boston College has failed to replace Ezeiruaku’s production on the pass rush by notching only 15 total sacks. Ezeiruaku recorded 16.5 on his own last year.
How Syracuse beats Boston College
This is unequivocally Syracuse’s best chance yet at a victory. With the Eagles’ poor resume, the Orange can break their two-month skid by winning the turnover battle.
SU quarterbacks have thrown at least two interceptions in four of the last seven losses. Despite Yasin Willis being ruled out for the second-straight game, if the Orange can establish the run against BC’s faulty rushing defense, they can emerge victorious and end the season on a high note. Then again, this is a team that just lost by 63 points.
Stat to know: 178.4
Plenty of focus has rightfully fallen on Syracuse’s horrid quarterback play. But its rushing defense has quickly become one of the worst in the nation. SU ranks dead last in the ACC with 178.4 rushing yards allowed per game, and only five Power Four teams have allowed more per game this season.
The Orange had some trouble against the run last season, as displayed by their loss to BC, but recent failures have taken the national spotlight. Notre Dame ran all over SU with 329 total rushing yards and a historic 13.7 yards per carry. Of course, Heisman Trophy candidate Jeremiyah Love was at the center of attention, posting an absurd 171 yards and three touchdowns on just eight carries.
Player to watch: Lewis Bond, wide receiver, No. 11
Boston College’s horrid record this year isn’t reflected in its passing game, as BC ranks as the fourth-best passing offense in the conference with 278.7 yards per game. Bond is the key reason why. He’s brought in the second-most receptions (80) and fifth-most yards (822) in the ACC but has just one touchdown. No other player on Boston College has more than 50 receptions.
A redshirt senior from Chicago, Illinois, Bond is the Eagles’ all-time receptions leader after surpassing now-Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers. His 80 catches this year are also a program record, and Bond needs 123 receiving yards against the Orange to cruise into BC’s top-five all-time leaders.
