For better or worse, it’s been a long time since Syracuse football has been on SU fans’ weekly viewing menu. SU bowed out of the 2020 football season with a December 5th 45-21 drubbing at the hands of Notre Dame. Since then, Syracuse fans (and those of us here at the Fizz) have spent the offseason pondering how things could start looking up for Dino Babers and company. In any event, the Orange are back on the gridiron in a little over a calendar month.
However, some other online writers haven’t been quite so interested in concepts like hope or positivity. Here are some of the predictions for Syracuse from around the country.
Before we get started, you can view the Fizz’s official predictions here.
CBS SPORTS: 3-9
Chip Patterson of CBS Sports authored his prediction for Syracuse to go 3-9 and offered his prediction in the context of betting. In June, William Hill Sportsbook set its lines for over/under W-L totals for ACC teams, and Syracuse’s was 3.
Patterson says he can ‚Äúbuy the offseason storylines…the combination of young players forced into action early have combined with Super Seniors and other veterans…to make a motivated group ready to bounce back‚Äù but still can‚Äôt see the team improving.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Patterson picks the Orange to begin 3-0 in non-conference play before losing nine in a row (including a game against Liberty at the Dome) to end the season.
ATHLON SPORTS: 7th ACC Atlantic
We’ve written a couple articles about Athlon’s Syracuse work, ranging from the thrashing an anonymous coach gave SU to the accuracy of its assessment of the team. However, Athlon isn’t confident in Syracuse and picks them to finish last in the Atlantic division, below even other struggling programs such as Wake Forest and Florida State. Such is life for a 1-10 pariah.
247SPORTS: 2-10, 7th ACC Atlantic
247Sports is probably better known for its high school recruiting, so let’s hope their prediction game is off here by a few wins. The rationale for one of the more dire predictions out there is that Syracuse is unlikely to scratch out even one win against a tougher ACC slate and would be happy to split its first four non-conference games. It correctly points out that Georgia Tech РSyracuse’s lone win last year Рisn’t on the schedule this year.
After looking at these predictions, it seems like most writers from around the ACC agree Syracuse is in for a long year. Ready or not, we’re about a month away from it all started. Syracuse opens its season on September 4th at Ohio University.
