Eight weeks into the college football season, Syracuse is one of the worst teams in the ACC, according to ESPN’s FPI Rankings.
The Orange lost their third straight game since starting quarterback Steve Angeli went down with an Achilles tear, losing 30-13 to Pitt on Saturday. Rickie Collins again struggled to lead the offense, throwing three interceptions while completing only 15 of his 31 pass attempts. It was the second straight game Collins threw three interceptions, bringing his total up to 7 picks through three games since taking over for Angeli.
ESPN’s FPI measures a team’s strength and predicts how well a team will perform for the rest of the season, based on a points system that shows how above or below average a team is. The index represents how many points above or below average a team is.
The projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season by ESPN using the index, current results, and the remaining schedule.
After its loss to Pitt, the Orange are ranked as the 74th-best team in the country. With a 3-4 record, Syracuse is ranked one spot above the 6-0 Navy Midshipmen and one spot below the 4-3 Ohio Bobcats. Syracuse’s -2.2 rating pits them as a below-average team heading into its matchup against No. 7 Georgia Tech, which is the 26th-best team in the country according to FPI.
Syracuse’s win totals are also the lowest they’ve been all season, as ESPN’s model gives the Orange just an 11.9% chance to win six games and secure a bowl game appearance this season.
Syracuse is now projected to win between 4.7-7.3 games. In the conference, the Orange are only ahead of Stanford, California, Boston College and North Carolina at the very bottom.
In addition to their matchup against the Demon Deacons next week, the Orange also has tough games against No. 9 Miami and No. 12 Notre Dame, which could doom Syracuse to a losing record after winning 10 games last season.
