All eyes will be on Syracuse football's quarterback room in the upcoming campaign, given what transpired a season ago.
Steve Angeli, who will be a redshirt senior in the 2026 stanza, was leading the country in total passing yards last September when he ruptured his Achilles tendon during the Orange's win at Clemson, which pushed SU's record to 3-1.
With the 6-foot-3, 212-pound Angeli sidelined for the rest of the 2025 season, the 'Cuse mightily struggled at quarterback and would go 0-8 the rest of the way to finish a disappointing 3-9 overall.
Angeli, earlier this week, told reporters that he's good to go for the upcoming campaign. "I’m right on track where I need to be," he said, according to Syracuse.com. "If we had to play today, if we had practice today, I’d be full go. No restrictions."
Naturally, that's wonderful to hear. Assuming that Angeli is fully healthy for the 2026 season, this greatly improves the Orange's prospects to rebound from a lackluster 2025 and, hopefully, contend for a bowl game.
Furthermore, the rest of Syracuse football's quarterback room appears much stronger than a year ago.
The Orange's quarterbacks for 2026 also include transfers such as Kennesaw State redshirt sophomore Amari Odom, UTEP redshirt sophomore Malachi Nelson and Georgetown redshirt junior Danny Lauter.
SU head coach Fran Brown has spoken positively about the team's quarterbacks beyond Angeli, and Brown expects a battle ahead of the 2026 season for the starting signal-caller spot. Nelson is a former five-star prospect and the No. 1 overall player in the 2023 class, per ESPN, while Odom resided on the All-Conference USA first team last year.
Who are the best backup quarterbacks in college football this season? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/3f7ziVCVYZ
— Cody Nagel (@CodyNagel247) June 23, 2026
A few days ago, Cody Nagel of CBS Sports released a list of the top 10 backup quarterbacks for the upcoming stanza, and he included Odom. Per the CBS Sports write-up: "Odom helped the Owls to a conference championship with a 7-2 record as the starter, throwing for 2,594 yards and 19 touchdowns. If Angeli were to go down again, Syracuse should have a capable safety net in Odom to avoid going winless without him again."
The optimism surrounding SU's quarterback room for 2026 is awesome, although we'll have to see how Syracuse football fares on the field in a couple of months. National and Atlantic Coast Conference experts aren't overly high on the Orange's prospects this coming season, but as Angeli says: "A lot of people may not believe in us right now, and that’s alright because we have the right people in that building."
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