Head coach Fran Brown no doubt has a few things on his mind during the Syracuse Orange football team’s bye week, at least we hope he does. Needless to say, Brown is mulling a quarterback change from Steve Angeli to Amari Odom. The other is how to keep the Orange from continuing to hurt itself with penalties.
Unfortunately, those aren’t the only problems facing Brown and the Orange. Here are three more things, one in each phase of the game, that Syracuse needs to fix coming out of the bye to turn around the 2026 season.
Bad snaps
The Syracuse offense simply isn’t functioning right now, and the bad snaps aren’t helping. Throughout the losses to Cal and Pitt, there were countless high snaps, as well as a few low ones, that made things even more difficult for Angeli. That’s not to excuse the bad decisions he made on his five interceptions, but bad snaps from center Joe Cruz are throwing the timing of plays off and getting Angeli out of rhythm.
In his defense, Cruz isn’t a natural center. But he’s still an experienced player who needs to do better. During the bye, Brown and offensive line coach Juan Castillo might need to explore their other options at center. Before the season, sophomore Kahlil Stewart and Matthew Hawn were in the mix.
If one of them can provide more consistency when it comes to snapping the ball, it might be worth inserting either into the starting lineup, allowing Cruz to play elsewhere. Regardless of who’s playing quarterback, if the bad snaps continue, the offense will continue to look out of rhythm and struggle to find consistency.
Kickoff return blocking
Most of Syracuse’s special teams struggles have revolved around missed kicks. With Shay Barker making two field goals against Pitt, he seems to have taken the job away from Tripp Woody. With any luck, that will solve the Orange’s woes when it comes to converting kicks. However, the return game has also been an issue, with the Syracuse kick return unit failing to hold its blocks long enough to get a good return.
Darien Williams had three kickoff returns against Pitt for a total of 47 yards. His longest of the game was 16 yards, which is an atrocious stat. Granted, the Panthers deserve some of the credit, as Williams had just one kickoff return against Cal, and that went for 29 yards.
But special teams coordinator Alex Bayer may need to revisit his blocking scheme and personnel. Things are hard enough for the Syracuse offense already, and if the poor kickoff returns continue, the Orange will lose the field position game and have even more trouble scoring points.
Defensive takeaways
It’s hard to nitpick the Syracuse defense too much. That side of the ball played well enough to beat Cal, and then kept the Orange in the game for a long time against Pitt. But the Syracuse defense can still do more, especially if the offense continues to sputter and the defense has to carry the load. After forcing three turnovers against New Hampshire, the Orange had just one total takeaway against Cal and Pitt. Independent of Angeli’s turnover issues, one takeaway in two games isn’t going to cut it.
To be fair, Syracuse was up against experienced quarterbacks in the Cal and Pitt games. Both quarterbacks have a solid reputation when it comes to ball security. Nevertheless, the Syracuse defense needs to put more emphasis on creating takeaways.
Again, if the offense can’t produce game-changing plays, that burden falls on the defense. If you take the penalties away, the Orange defense has been solid all around through three games, allowing it to spend the bye week taking things to the next level by taking the ball away more frequently.
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