Boy, this bye week felt like an eternity. Syracuse football is back in action this Friday night against Stanford, aiming to build on its 2-0 start. It’s the first-ever matchup between these two programs, probably because they play in complete opposite parts of the country. This had me thinking, how has SU performed against teams from California in its program history?
The last time the Orange battled a team based in the Golden State dates back to 2012, where SU hosted #2 USC at the time and fell 42-29. If we’re really dating ourselves here, the two quarterbacks were Matt Barkley and Ryan Nassib, with the player of the game being Robert Woods with two touchdown grabs.
But with the new additions to the ACC in Stanford and Cal, it’s almost guaranteed that Syracuse will be making at least one trip to the West Coast each season. As bad as that may sound, there are a lot of positives that could come from tapping into a new market, especially with a coach like Fran Brown.
But to answer the major question of the article, Syracuse is just 7-7 all-time against teams from the state of California. Interestingly enough, the splits here are very strange. SU is 1-1 against the Cal Golden Bears, 0-4 against the USC Trojans, and 6-2 against the UCLA Bruins.
So where does Stanford fit in all this? Well, aside from breaking the tie, the Orange can establish themselves as a true powerhouse in the ACC this season, already being 2-0 and aiming to get to that plateau in conference play. It’s even possible that SU could find themselves ranked if they find a way to take down the Cardinal. Luckily, they’re on the benefitting end of the jet lag this time, but that won’t be the case on November 16th down in Berkeley.
