Syracuse football, if it wants to secure a winning mark in 2020, absolutely has to sweep Duke and Liberty at the Dome.
Syracuse football could end up with a losing record in the fall term and still receive a post-season bowl bid, due to NCAA leaders discussing the possibility of waiving the normal requirements for bowl eligibility in the current stanza amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
While landing in a bowl is all well and good, if the Orange goes 4-7 or 3-8, that bowl invite isn’t going to appease many ‘Cuse fans. What’s more important, from my perspective, is finishing with a record above .500.
With an 11-contest schedule, and assuming no future encounters are nixed because of the pandemic, that means Syracuse football has to wrap things up at 6-5 to achieve a winning mark. Should that occur, a bowl berth is pretty much guaranteed.
Additionally, that sort of outcome would prove stellar for a team that has first-year offensive and defensive coordinators in place, a new 3-3-5 defensive system and many new faces on both sides of the ball.
Plus, the Orange saw its top-two returning running backs from 2019 opt out of the 2020 campaign, and the ‘Cuse has had to deal with numerous injuries to its offensive line, its secondary and in other departments.
All in all, as we recently discussed, the writing proved on the wall for Syracuse football to struggle in the present term. The squad couldn’t find the end zone in its first two Atlantic Coast Conference meetings, both losses to ranked foes on the road.
The march for Syracuse football to a winning record in 2020 starts with Duke and Liberty these next two weekends.
However, on Sept. 26 inside a newly renovated Carrier Dome, the Orange offense woke up, the ‘Cuse continued to force takeaways, new stars emerged at running back and elsewhere, and Syracuse football handled Georgia Tech, 37-20.
Now the Orange is set to host Duke and Liberty – two extremely winnable affairs – over the next two weekends. It’s vital that the ‘Cuse build upon what it did versus the Yellow Jackets, keep on moving in a positive direction, and scoop up back-to-back successes against the Blue Devils and the Flames.
Such a path could enable the Orange to advance to 3-2, which is vital because, after that pair of encounters, Syracuse football will travel to No. 1 Clemson on Oct. 24 and, in early December, to No. 5 Notre Dame, among the team’s other remaining ACC battles.
The time has come for the ‘Cuse to kick into high gear a conquest streak of conference and non-conference opponents.