Top five Syracuse football seasons of the 21st century
3. 2012
Yet another successful Doug Marrone coached SU football squad, this one was yet again led by Nassib, for his season year.
At this point, Nassib was one of the top QBs in the country, eventually being picked up by the New York Giants in the fourth round. Nassib had a tremendous season, which showed off his gunslinger mentality, tossing the pigskin around for 3,749 yards and 26 touchdowns, with only 10 interceptions. Meanwhile, receivers Alec Lemon and Marcus Sales made up a pretty fierce duo, accounting for over 130 receptions just between the two.
From a season standpoint, it could have been even better. The Orange were narrowly defeated in week one by Northwestern, 42 to 41, followed up by a 42 to 29 loss to No. 2 USC. During the USC game, Syracuse had only trailed 21 to 16 to open up the fourth quarter.
After taking down Stony Brook in week three, they lost yet another nail biter to Minnesota, 17-10, and then in week six, were taken down by No. 20 Rutgers by just eight points. This put the Orange at 2-4, which including three one possession losses.
However, they never let that take control of the end goal of a bowl game, rattling off six wins in their final seven games, including a blowout against No. 9 Louisville, and another Pinstripe win, this time versus Geno Smith and West Virginia.
At 8-5, this season just left so many question marks. Sure, the Orange won a few close contests, but with three of their five losses decided by less than ten points – and the other two within two touchdowns – you can only wonder how different the season would have been if they could have taken down USC or Rutgers.
Regardless, it was still a fantastic season, and the win over 9th ranked Louisville still stands as one of the top victories of the last 20 seasons for Orange football.