Syracuse football has taken care of business in campaign kick-offs in recent years, but UNC will prove a massive challenge.
It’s game day for Syracuse football – yeah! The Orange is a substantial underdog to North Carolina as the two Atlantic Coast Conference teams begin their 2020 terms on Saturday at noon in Chapel Hill.
The No. 18 Tar Heels, predicted by experts to finish in the top three of the ACC, are a roughly 23-point favorite heading into this league clash, according to odds-makers.
That spread is way too large, in my humble opinion, but Syracuse football does face a huge uphill battle in attempting to stun UNC. Some interesting tidbits have come across via a cuse.com press release on this encounter that we wanted to pass along prior to the contest commencing.
When the Orange takes the field in a few hours, it will mark the squad’s 131st football stanza in the program’s history. The ‘Cuse having a road duel to open the season is occurring for the third-consecutive year.
Syracuse football is attempting to prevail in its seventh-straight stanza opener, an achievement that goes back to 2014. In those years, chronologically, the Orange bested Villanova, Rhode Island, Colgate, Central Connecticut State, Western Michigan and, most recently in 2019, Liberty.
Without question, shocking North Carolina this afternoon would prove the most-impressive feat for the Orange among all of these season-opening wins.
Syracuse football seeks to remain perfect in season-beginning meetings dating back to 2014.
This is a pretty incredible fact, as a seventh conquest in a row to start a term would amount to the longest such streak “post WWII and third longest in program history behind 25-straight season-opening victories from 1918 to 1942 and 10 from 1900 to 1909,” per cuse.com.
Dino Babers, entering his fifth year as the Syracuse football head coach, would improve to 24-26 overall on the Hill if his guys could stun the Tar Heels. A success on Saturday would also move the Orange to 4-2 all-time versus UNC and provide the ‘Cuse with its 736th victory as a program.
The ACC Network will air this conference bout, and no fans will get to watch in-person. Interestingly, Syracuse football is 2-0 in its prior visits to Chapel Hill, and the Orange is 84-42-4 overall in season-beginning games.
In the most-recent instance where these two crews competed, Syracuse football squeaked by the Tar Heels, 40-37 in double overtime, at the Carrier Dome in 2018.