Syracuse Football: Orange projected to finish sixth in Atlantic division
By Neil Adler
A national reporter is slotting Syracuse football at sixth in its ACC division.
Syracuse football, hoping to bounce back from a disappointing 5-7 record in 2019, is buoyed by a relatively easy schedule in the upcoming campaign that has some pundits thinking that the Orange could reach a bowl game.
Still, not everything is a rosy prognostication for the ‘Cuse. Brandon Marcello, a national college football reporter for 247 Sports, has put out some predictions for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The ‘Cuse doesn’t fare all that favorably. Marcello places Syracuse at No. 6 in the ACC’s Atlantic division.
Unsurprisingly, he has the defending national runner-up, Clemson, at the No. 1 position in the Atlantic division, as well as the overall ACC champion.
Within the Atlantic division, after the Tigers in the No. 1 spot, Marcello has them followed by Louisville, Florida State, Wake Forest, Boston College, the Orange, and then N.C. State.
Turning to the Coastal division, the Mack Brown-led North Carolina is No. 1, with the order behind the Tar Heels amounting to Virginia Tech, Miami, Georgia Tech, Duke, Pittsburgh, and Virginia.
Recently, Clemson unfortunately lost star wide receiver Justyn Ross for the entire 2020 campaign, but the Tigers do have stellar quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who Marcello is picking as the ACC player of the year.
Lawrence, in his two stanzas at Clemson, has guided the Tigers to a national title and a second-place finish a term ago, when Clemson fell to LSU in the championship clash. The ‘Cuse, by the way, is scheduled to travel to Clemson on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Marcello says the ACC encounter of the year is when those Tigers head to Florida State on Oct. 10, with the best non-conference battle Clemson at Notre Dame.
Syracuse football looks to get a minimum of six conquests in 2020, so the Orange may qualify for a bowl.
For Syracuse, which saw dozens of its players return to the Hill on Monday to begin voluntary training, there are certainly question marks.
Yet the Orange also has some excitement brewing, boosted by pre-season All-American safety Andre Cisco and new defensive coordinator Tony White’s 3-3-5 system.
CBS Sports ranks the ‘Cuse 2020 calendar as the easiest in the ACC, and hopefully the team can improve upon its five victories from a stanza ago.