The Syracuse football squad is halfway through their season. Here’s what is in store for the Orange in the second half of their season and beyond.
*cues ESPN 30 for 30 music* what if I told you… the Syracuse football squad would be 4-2 after the first six games of the 2018 season? Without knowing the context of what actually happened, I’d assume most Orange fans would be elated.
But knowing the context which is always important makes this season to date a frustrating first half of the season. This is a perfect bye week for the Orange, they have a chance to reevaluate what they really want this season.
Make no mistake about it, this can still be a magical season for the Orange. It’s all within their reach. If they have the same first half result that they’ll have in the second half, the Orange will be 8-4, with a chance at nine wins.
So during this bye week we gathered our entire staff together and got their thoughts on how this season will finish up for Syracuse. Here’s the results we were able to gather together from our panel on the Orange’s future to be in 2018.
Josh Peelman n/a
"Midseason Prediction: Orange finish regular season 7-5. Make bowl game: Yes. Win Bowl game: Yes, and it won’t be close."
If you were to ask me going into the Pittsburgh game last week what record the Orange would finish with I would have said 8-4 in the regular season with a good chance at 9-3. Was I crazy? Not really.
The Orange proved at Clemson that they could play a top 10 team close. They looked good and pretty unstoppable. Pretty much everyone thought Pittsburgh was not much greater than UConn (okay, bad example because UConn was horrible, but you get the idea).
Then, shocker: the Panthers beat us. What went wrong? Well we set our expectations too high. Dreaming of top 25 consideration was too much for this Syracuse Football team. Sadly the truth is the Orange aren’t as good as we thought they were and that have brought us back down to earth where we belong.
The Orange are still a really good football team, don’t get me wrong, but road games are still gonna be a challenge, as is the rest of ACC play. That’s why I give the Orange one less victory than I thought going into Pittsburgh. Three wins in our next six regular season games is manageable. I think the teams we can beat are North Carolina at home, Louisville at home, and Boston College on the road. I think they’re all winnable games to end the year, except maybe Notre Dame which looks pretty good this year.
If Syracuse plays great ball down the stretch and keeps Eric Dungey healthy for once we can really make some noise and win tough games. However, if we play like we did at Pittsburgh, expect a split over the final six games and a bowl berth for the Orange after achieving seven wins. Just hearing both those things in a prediction is music to my ears. It’s been so long…. Now it’ll be the reality!
Neil Adler (contributor) 5-1
Okay, my friends, we’re half-way through the 2018 regular season, and our Syracuse football squad stands at a respectable, albeit somewhat frustrating, record of 4-2.
We pretty much cruised to four-straight conquests at the onset, then dropped a winnable road tilt versus highly ranked Clemson. No big deal.
However, this past weekend, SU fell in overtime at Pittsburgh, in a contest that the ‘Cuse should have taken. At least in my humble opinion. Still, 4-2 isn’t the worst mark in the world.
Now, the Orange gets a bye week before the second-half of this stanza commences. I foresee a victory inside the Carrier Dome against North Carolina on Oct. 20, which is homecoming weekend.
Next up is N.C. State on Oct. 27, also a home affair, but I expect a Syracuse setback this go-round. On Nov. 3, SU travels to Wake Forest, and I think that the ‘Cuse will squeeze by the Demon Deacons.
Nov. 9 is senior day, and Louisville heads to Central New York. Syracuse prevails, I predict. Then there is a Nov. 17 battle in the Bronx, N.Y., with Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium. Currently, the Fighting Irish is a top-five unit nationally, and ND is going to stomp us. Sorry.
Finally, SU wraps up this term at Boston College on Nov. 24, and the Eagles will unfortunately defeat the Orange.
The ‘Cuse, I project, does land in a bowl after finishing at 7-5. Given the recent struggles of our football program, if my forecast is correct (and it usually isn’t), I’d say that 2018 will ultimately prove a fairly successful campaign!
Paul A. Esden Sr. (contributor) 4-2
I entered into this season with several key areas of concern that the Orange would have to address to be successful. I will revisit some.
Coming into the season, I had major concerns with big shoes to fill at the linebacker position and changing defensive schemes to play to our strengths. Our defense has exceeded expectations in almost all areas.
The gaps that have emerged are late in games when the defense has worn down and we have not focused on stopping the run. This is a mixed bag of inexperience, defensive play calling and talent level. This will come back to haunt us if we don’t make adjustments in the second half of the season.
Replacing talent at wide receiver was another area of concern again our corps of young talent has stepped up to the plate and exceeded expectations. Jamal Custis (averaging over 17 yards a reception), Sean Riley, and Nykeim Johnson have been impressive.
The area to address during the bye week is we are not always stretching the field this tightens up the box and puts more pressure on Eric Dungey. This was never more glaring than against Pittsburgh during the first half Eric went 12 for 24 for 58 yards.
Focusing on the running game. I hate to sound like a broken record but again here we are exceeding projections. I am taking Eric Dungey (our leading rusher) out of the mix for the purpose of this discussion.
Our platoon of running backs (Moe Neal, Dontae Strickland and Jarveon Howard) are all averaging over 4.5 yards a clip with the freshman Jarveon leading the way with 6.6 yards average per carry.
Keeping this focus in the second half of the season will allow us to reduce pressure on our QB and get the ball down the field.
So now to my predictions for the remainder of the season:
- North Carolina a game we should and will win. (5-2)
- North Carolina State this will be our ‘skin’ for the year and I predict a win, bringing an end to our ‘Quest for 6’ with 4 games remaining. (6-2)
- Wake Forest is a team to be concerned with, they have cyclic performance but we have the talent to beat them. (7-2)
- Louisville is a team that is not meeting expectations and we will struggle in this one. (7-3)
- Note Dame is a team of destiny this year, their depth and speed will be too much for the orange. (7-4)
- Boston College game will be crucial to end the season on a high note leading into an Orange Bowl berth. Eric Dungey will shine in his final regular season game. The Orange will wrap up the year at 8-4.
Mat Mlodzinski (contributor) 5-1
Prediction for season: 8-4.
Cuse went 4-2 through the first 6 games and I see that same record in the last 6.
After two straight losses, the Orange get a must needed bye and should come back against UNC for an easy win to get to 5-2. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see two straight losses against NC State and Wake.
That’s when the fun starts. I see a home winner against Louisville and then an upset to give Notre Dame their first loss of the season at Yankee Stadium. Finally, the Orange win at BC, putting them into a pretty good bowl game.
I also see many records being broken. Eric Dungey needs about 800 yards to pass Marvin Graves for 2nd all time on Cuse’s list. This will definitely happen, and another 600 or so could happen for the all time record.
Dungey could also pass numerous college legends on the passing yards list, including Sam Bradford, Dan Marino, Kirk Cousins, and Tim Tebow. Pretty cool stuff.
Overall, it is already clearly one of the best seasons in recent memory, and can only get better. It will be fun to watch down the stretch.
Andrew Carey (contributor) 4-2
"Midseason Prediction: Orange finish the season with a 8-4 record."
I want to be confident in this team and this program going forward. Depending on how much healthier Eric Dungey, Ravian Pierce, Antwan Cordy, etc. can get during the bye could dictate how many games Syracuse wins in the second half of the season.
Based on the Syracuse run defense’s performance the last two weekends I think it is clear that Brian Ward and the rest of the defensive staff need to consider some platoons at linebacker in an effort to keep guys fresh. Juan Wallace was a big time recruit with SEC offers, he enrolled early, has looked good on special teams, they need to give him a few series a game. Same goes for Lakiem Williams and Shy Cullen. Both have tremendous size over 230, they have the ability to get down field, fill the gap and punish the ball carrier. That is not something that a guy like Kielan Whitner can do, a converted safety.
The way I see it Syracuse has three games that are must wins. North Carolina at home after the bye, Wake Forest on the road with their true freshman QB and inexperienced defense, Louisville at home on a Friday night. Win those three games, they are up to 7 wins.
The remaining three games, NC State at home, Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, and Boston College on the road to close out the season are all going to be tough games. All those teams have been ranked this season. I would like to see this team overachieve and steal just one of those three games. I think Babers and his staff will find a way to do so, and the Orange finish the season 8-4. With that being said, this can only happen if there is a healthy Dungey under center. He has been flat out horrible throwing the ball against Clemson and Pitt. His decision making has been bad, and couple that with whispers of a shoulder injury, he needs to get healthy over this bye week, if not the staff should heavily consider Tommy DeVito.
Adam Patrick (Co-Site Expert) 4-2
"Midseason Prediction: Orange finish the season with a 7-5 record."
So far in 2018, the Syracuse football team has already exceeded a lot of the expectations they were given prior to the start of the season.
The Orange got off to a strong start, winning each of their first four games, and then suffered two-straight tough losses to Clemson and Pitt.
In their two losses this season, there has been one common factor in Syracuse not being able to leave the field with a win. The Orange defense was not able to stop the opposing rushing attack.
Clemson racked up 293 yards on the ground against Syracuse in Week 5 and Pitt finished with 265 rushing yards in their matchup with the Orange last week. Syracuse had a chance to come out with a victory in each of those games, but their defense’s inability to stop the run ended up having a tremendous impact on the results.
The Orange only have a week off to fix some of their problems and their run defense likely isn’t going to be that much better when they return to the field on October 20 against North Carolina.
With this being said, Syracuse will suffer three more losses before the season ends at the hands of Wake Forest (Week 10), Notre Dame (Week 12), and Boston College (Week 13).
Yes, it will end up being the Orange’s first year with a winning record since 2013 and yes they will qualify for a bowl game. But it will all be a tad bittersweet given how impressive Syracuse’s start to the season was this year.
Paul A. Esden Jr. (Co-Site Expert) 4-2
"Midseason Prediction: Orange finish regular season 8-4."
What a roller coaster ride it has been thus far for the Syracuse football team. They started off the season 4-0 for the first time since 1991. Many suggested the Cinderella story would end in Death Valley against Clemson, but Syracuse pushed the Tigers to the limit.
Sadly Syracuse walked away with nothing more than a moral cookie. But that moral cookie will set Syracuse up for a magical season right? …right? Wrong.
This Pitt loss was one of the most demoralizing this team has ever had. Talk about letting the wind out of the balloon. Now this team has two weeks to sleep on it and now we’re being asked to do a midseason updated evaluation of this team six games in.
On the surface and knowing basic math, everything technically is still in front of this team. They’re two wins away from a bowl berth and they can win more games then that to still have a really good season for Syracuse.
I’m going to lean towards Dino Babers figuring it out, even though that requires a lot of belief without evidence. Babers hasn’t won a game in November and this team is playing uninspired football.
But the level of competition they’re playing is inferior and this team seems too talented to flush everything they’ve done down the toilet. Syracuse wins eight games, all is still right in the world, and the Orange salvage what could’ve been an even more spectacular season.