As Syracuse football prepares to head to Atlanta to face No. 7 Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon, head coach Fran Brown says that redshirt sophomore Rickie Collins remains the "best answer" for the program at quarterback.
At his weekly press conference on Monday, Brown dished on the QB spot, among other things. Some fans may not like what Brown had to say, given Collins' struggles over the last three games, but the four-star transfer from LSU remains the Orange's starting signal-caller.
The 'Cuse has lost three straight. In that trio of setbacks, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Collins has completed under 50 percent of his passes in two games, and he has thrown a combined three touchdowns with seven interceptions.
For the entire 2025 campaign, Collins is completing 53.5 percent of his pass attempts for 733 yards with five touchdowns and eight picks. He's rushed the ball 30 times for 102 yards and one score on the ground.
To be fair, the Orange's woes amid its three-game setback streak aren't entirely on Collins. The defense hasn't been overly consistent, other players have turned the ball over, and the offensive line and rushing attack aren't faring well.
Fran Brown says he's sticking with Rickie Collins as Syracuse football's starting quarterback.
In the team's home loss to Pittsburgh last Saturday, true freshman Luke Carney from the Dallas area did play a few series as Collins struggled and ultimately threw three interceptions. However, on a 3rd and nine during a series with Carney under center, Collins came back in, and he played the rest of the game.
That, frankly, was confusing to the fan base. It doesn't seem that Carney is ready, although Collins has proven a tad disappointing, too. Brown said of Collins: "He's a little ahead of those guys when it comes to his mindset and the different things that he can do because of the arm strength. It's a lot of intangibles that go with playing quarterback."
The Orange head coach says that Carney is "highly intelligent," adding that as a freshman, he needs more time "to make all the throws and the reads and different things of that nature. But Luke will have his time."
The main frustration among fans is that during preseason camp, Brown said the quarterback competition between redshirt junior quarterback Steve Angeli, a Notre Dame transfer, and Collins was extremely close. Angeli won the job, and before suffering a season-ending injury during the Orange's victory at Clemson, he was leading the country in passing yards.
Since Brown made those comments about the QB competition, fans figured there wouldn't be a big drop-off between Angeli and Collins once the LSU transfer became the starting quarterback. That hasn't been the case, unfortunately.
Brown even said after the setback to the Panthers on Homecoming that a main reason why the 'Cuse picked up Angeli during the spring transfer portal window was because Collins "wasn't ready yet."
Yet here we are, with Syracuse football enduring rough sledding in its quarterback room. And the upcoming schedule doesn't do the team any favors, with trips to Georgia Tech, No. 9 Miami and No. 12 Notre Dame still on the 2025 docket.
However, Brown is doubling down on Collins, so to speak. “I will always put the best player in the football game. ... And at the moment, Rickie's our quarterback. I just hope that he continues to get better," Brown said.
We all do, Coach. We all do.