At his weekly press conference on Monday, Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown said that he expects redshirt junior Steve Angeli to return next season to the program and be the Orange's starting quarterback.
Angeli, a transfer from Notre Dame, was leading the country in passing yards earlier this season when he suffered a season-ending injury during the 'Cuse road win at Clemson. "That’s Steve’s spot for the next year unless something crazy happens over these next three or four weeks," Brown said.
After Angeli went down, redshirt sophomore Rickie Collins, a transfer from LSU, started the next four contests at quarterback. He struggled, and the Orange went 0-4, although the team's current five-game losing streak isn't just the result of poor quarterback play.
Against North Carolina this past Friday night at the JMA Wireless Dome, freshman walk-on Joseph Filardi started for the 'Cuse. He completed just four passes for 39 yards in a 27-10 loss.
Who will start for the Orange at No. 18 Miami this Saturday afternoon in week 11 remains to be seen. The team's projected depth chart on cuse.com listed Collins or freshman Luke Carney or Filardi.
Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown dishes on the squad's quarterback room.
Brown said on Monday that the "plan was always to redshirt" Carney in 2025. He came to the Hill having passed for more than 10,000 career yards and won multiple state titles in Texas during his high school tenure in the Dallas area.
Carney has appeared in three games so far this season, and he's thrown a total of three passes. He could appear in one more contest in 2025 and still preserve his redshirt. The Orange staff has seemed hesitant to have Carney make a lot of throws during his limited time on the field this season.
"It’s going to take some time to have the full offense open to him that way. I think he’s best right now with his legs and his intelligence, and he can make all those quick throws," Brown said of Carney.
Brown says he's open to Collins returning to Syracuse football in 2026 as a backup quarterback, although one would logically assume that Collins might enter the transfer portal, given what's transpired for him in the current campaign.
To me, Collins is still the best of the quarterbacks in the Orange's QB room, but he had his shot and didn't produce. I'm wishing him nothing but the best moving forward, but if I had to venture a guess, I'd say that Collins will likely be with another program in 2026.
Hopefully, Angeli makes a full recovery. This season has been rough, but the future still looks bright in Central New York.