Syracuse Football: Previewing and predicting SU’s four September battles

Hello, Orange fans and welcome to an early look at the Syracuse football schedule on our path to a bowl game in 2022. This year my plan is to do things a little differently compared to last year. Last year I did fun poetry previews but this year the Inside The Loud House readers on Twitter spoke and they wanted something different.

My plan for the 2022 season is to do an Orange review and preview post for each week during the season. This will allow for more factual details and information since game time and TV information is often only released a week or two before games and things like injuries and such can impact a game as well.

For now, I’m just going to share some details and history we do have in July just to share what we know now and get us ready for September 3rd, when Syracuse football will host Louisville to kick off the 2022 season.

So without further ado, here are the September games as scheduled right now via cuse.com and some fun information that I hope will help us all enjoy amping up for the season to start together.

Previewing and predicting the four September games for Syracuse football.

Louisville Cardinals at Syracuse Orange
Saturday, September 3rd at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
8 pm on ACC Network/TK99

Louie, Louie, we gotta kick this thing off now. With Louisville star QB Malik Cunningham returning, the Orange can’t overlook this game but at the same time they can win this game and starting off the season with a Saturday night victory at home might give the pessimistic fans hope for a new season and give the optimistic fans confidence as well. Louisville finished 6-7 last season and lost to Air Force in the First Responder Bowl, and Malik will likely go into 2022 with high expectations but so will several Orange players, including RB Sean Tucker. Louisville has the overall series advantage 13-7 going back to 1985 and included in that history is a Syracuse football 1989 Coca-Cola Bowl game victory from the Tokyo Dome in Japan led by Orange/NY Jets wide receiver/legend Rob Carpenter.

Prediction: Syracuse 34 – Louisville 31

Syracuse Orange at University of Connecticut
Saturday, September 10th at Rentschler Field in Storrs, Conn.
7 pm on CBS Sports Network/TK99

Former Big East opponent and “basketball rival” UConn is on the schedule this season after struggling last season. The Huskies only won one game last season at home against Yale but have since made changes including hiring former NFL coach Jim Mora as their next head coach. Many fans will point to this game and Wagner as the two “easy” games but if this team wants to make a statement, they can’t look past it and have to win decisively. This is only game two so if it is close, there’s no reason to lose hope because it’s possible the staff could still be working out a few adjustments and using this game to figure things out before the schedule does get harder. This game is one of four these teams will play between now and 2027, and UConn does have the overall series advantage of 6 victories to 3, but Syracuse football can go ahead by winning these four. UConn was actually Division 1-AA until 1999 so there is more basketball history than football but both teams will want this win though I expect UConn to need a couple of seasons under Mora to turn it completely around.

Prediction: Syracuse 41 – UConn 17

Purdue Boilermakers at Syracuse Orange
Saturday, September 17th at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
Noon on ESPN2/TK99

Purdue will bring back QB Aiden O’Connell for his 6th season of eligibility after a 2021 season where he’s coming off a 71.6 pass completion percentage so Williams, Duce and the secondary will face a challenge but one I think they’re worthy of handling. If you’d like a brief glimpse into this team last year, they beat UConn (who Syracuse plays in week 2) 49-0 but lost to a talented Notre Dame team (who Syracuse will play in week 8) 27-13 the following week. Purdue is a Big Ten team that finished with 9 wins last season so I expect Purdue to come into Syracuse with their experienced QB and ready to play hard. Syracuse football will also play at Purdue next season as part of a “home-and-home series.” These two teams have only faced each other once before in modern history, which was in 2004 at Purdue when they whooped the Orange 51-0 with former Chicago Bears QB Kyle Orton leading the Boilermakers to victory over a Joe Fields/Walter Reyes-led Orange offense.

Prediction: Syracuse 31 – Purdue 24

Virginia Cavaliers at Syracuse Orange
Friday, September 23rd at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
7:00 pm on ESPN/TK99

This game is prime time ESPN on a Friday night against the former team of our new offensive coordinator Robert Anae and quarterbacks coach Jason Beck after former Virginia Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall resigned. This also means Virginia will have a rookie head coach in Tony Elliot, the former offensive coordinator for Clemson. This will be the 4th game of the season for both teams so we should have a good idea of where they both stand by then, barring major changes. Syracuse football will have the advantage of playing at home, playing with coaches who are familiar with many on the Virginia roster and is 1-1 against Virginia when playing at home, though undefeated in the Dome itself (the home loss was in 1977 before the Carrier/JMA Wireless Dome was officially opened).

Prediction: Syracuse 27 – Virginia 10