Syracuse Football: 2023 season ended on brutal note, but future is incredibly bright

Syracuse football played a horrible game on Thursday night. There’s no other way to slice it. No way to spin it.

I see no point in spending a lot of time recapping that debacle. It’s over and done with. The Orange couldn’t get anything going in all three phases of its performance, and American Athletic Conference member South Florida destroyed the ‘Cuse, 45-0, at the 2023 Boca Raton Bowl down in the Sunshine State.

As such, Syracuse football finishes its 2023 season at 6-7 overall and 2-6 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. It’s undeniably disappointing that our beloved boys in Orange registered such a dud on ESPN this past Thursday evening.

Needless to say, fans I interacted with on social media were trashing the ‘Cuse pretty good. I get it. I’m not going to make any excuses for Syracuse football, because its showing was bad, the team and the coaching staff didn’t look fully prepared, and I had hoped that the Orange would have at least competed with the Bulls (7-6, 4-4 in league play).

The bowl game was a disaster for Syracuse football, but the future is promising.

As one of my favorite sports personalities, Tony Kornheiser of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,” often says, “but … and there’s always a but.”

While the ‘Cuse was outclassed by South Florida, Syracuse football still reached the post-season in consecutive seasons for the first time since the 2012 and 2013 terms.

So, to me, that’s something important to keep in mind. What’s more, in recent contests during the recently completed stanza, senior quarterback Garrett Shrader was playing injured, and the Orange didn’t have a competent passing attack to balance out its run game.

In the Boca Raton Bowl, numerous Syracuse football players who had recently entered the transfer portal weren’t playing. Shrader and other guys who had been lost throughout 2023 to season-ending injuries were unavailable, including preseason All-American candidate Oronde Gadsden II, a junior receiver.

To reiterate, even with all of this as context, the ‘Cuse still played poorly in Florida on Thursday. But you know me – ever the optimist.

This was a trying 2023 season. Just like in 2022, the squad started out fast and then started to fade. Losing Gadsden was tough. Shrader’s injury, and how it diminished the Orange’s offense, was tough.

The frequent calling for Dino Babers to be fired by many fans and pundits was, well, frequent. And, ultimately, Babers was let go, giving way to former Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown, who officially took over on December 4, but he didn’t coach in the bowl game.

Again, a lot for this program to digest and process. I wish that the 2023 campaign had ended on a positive note. Yet the Orange still got to the post-season, for the second year in a row, and I applaud ‘Cuse players and coaches for that.

By extension, there’s no denying the palpable buzz in Central New York over the last few weeks, as Brown has built up an impressive staff and recorded huge wins on the recruiting trail, both among high school seniors and college transfers.

I want to thank Syracuse football players and coaches for their efforts in the 2023 term. It wasn’t the ending we all wanted, but this team did something that the program hadn’t done in more than a decade, and exciting things are in store for the 2024 season and beyond.