ESPN 2025 ACC Preview

[OrangeXtreme]

ACC preview: Road to title again figures to go through Clemson

The Tigers are the favorite, but with Miami, SMU, Louisville and Bill Belichick, storylines abound.

www.espn.com

Syracuse Orange
Head coach: Fran Brown (second year, 10-3 overall)

2025 projection: 56th in SP+, 4.8 average wins (2.9 in the ACC)

Those hatin' numbers are at it again. Syracuse won 10 games last season and is now in the "just hoping for 6-6" section. What?

I'll try to explain: In 2024, the Orange played only three SP+ top-40 teams and beat them all, but they went 7-2 in one-score finishes (hard to duplicate), and two of their three losses -- by 28 to Pitt and at home to Stanford -- were absolutely dreadful. Kyle McCord piloted an efficient, pass-happy offense, but opponents made more big plays, and they were among the most fortunate teams in the league. Despite the 10 wins, they finished 46th in SP+.

Of course, 46th was Syracuse's best ranking in seven years! And Fran Brown's first dalliances in the portal produced the Orange's leading passer, leading receiver, two offensive line starters and four of their best defenders. That's a good sign.

Things will get tougher in 2025. The schedule features five projected top-20 teams, and the offense returns only two starters. McCord will likely be replaced by either Steve Angeli (Notre Dame) or Rickie Collins (LSU), and with last year's leading rusher and three leading targets gone, incoming receiver transfer Johntay Cook II (Texas) and a lot of former backups will have to step up. Up front, two starters return, but they're two of only three guys with more than 40 snaps back, and Brown brought in five line transfers.

Injuries thrust a lot of guys into the starting defense at one point or another, and of the 23 players who started at least once (!), 15 return. There isn't a ton of proven playmaking here, but safety Duce Chestnut and nickel Devin Grant are fantastic, and sophomore OLB David Omopariola's per-snap production suggests he has breakout potential. Brown didn't load up on transfers, but he did add strong playmakers in tackle Chris Thomas (Marshall) and edge rusher David Reese (Cal) and a young former blue-chip safety in Chris Peal (Georgia).

Between the massive schedule-strength upgrade, last year's inflated win total and the need for another batch of portal playmakers on offense, the odds certainly favor a setback season for the Orange. But Brown has barely made a misstep so far, whether the hatin' numbers acknowledge it or not.

 

[cusefan88]

Very fair preview of the team. Lots of production lost and a tough schedule.

 

[AngryOtto]

The thing I find funny is last year even with all the talent brought in and the schedule we were picked at the bottom of the acc. We exceeded expectations and the claim is week schedule and now those players are gone.
We do not know how the transfers will work out. Who had Meeks as a breakout performer or weatherspoon being a stater.
You never know who is going to step up or excel. The one thing I know is Fran does not accept mediocrity or make excuses. I know when we play the best players will be on the field and Fran will make any adjustments to put us in the best position to win.

 

[upperdeck]

We had one WR they expected to be the leader who barely played and we had someone else step in with a great season.

QB and running game. We don't need superman back there if we can run better. As we can see by coaching and transfers the coaches see it too.

How well does the next QB make decisions. If we get Pitt level throwing its going to be a long year.

 

[CuseBlock]

We had one WR they expected to be the leader who barely played and we had someone else step in with a great season.

QB and running game. We don't need superman back there if we can run better. As we can see by coaching and transfers the coaches see it too.

How well does the next QB make decisions. If we get Pitt level throwing its going to be a long year.

Not sure I agree with this. Modern football requires teams to throw the ball. The days of relying on “QB and running game” are effectively over. We absolutely need receivers to step up.

 

[upperdeck]

You need to be able to make reads and decisions. We didnt have a guy who moved a ton in the pocket last year.

But we also had an avg at best running game. So we threw a ton. Can we run say 30% better? Will we have 2 options at RB to spread the load? If we run better then we throw more in spots that are easier on the QB.

If we have to throw like last year there is a better chance we are not nearly as good.

 

[upperdeck]

Much gets lost in the clutter of last season success.

Ohio up 22 in the 4th
Was GT a 1 score game or really a game that we led by 17 with 8 min left and then an onside kick goes bad?

Stan strange things happened. 1 score game late and we lost. Reality is the pick 6 kept Stan in the game and we still came back and had the game won. 85% chance to win very late 1 score game loss

HC big lead

UNLV had 2 score leads twice and blew both of them to a pumped up home team, 1 score game win

NC st up 17 with 10 min left

Pitt was ugly

VT was a 1 score game win
BC was a 1 score game loss

Cal up 16 with 3 min left
Uconn up 14 with 10 min left

Miami 1 score game win
WSU up 24 late

So while the stats say we had a hard to repeat 7-2 in one score games

The real game was played at 3-2 in one score games. and thats not hard to repeat.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Much gets lost in the clutter of last season success.

Ohio up 22 in the 4th
Was GT a 1 score game or really a game that we led by 17 with 8 min left and then an onside kick goes bad?

Stan strange things happened. 1 score game late and we lost. Reality is the pick 6 kept Stan in the game and we still came back and had the game won. 85% chance to win very late 1 score game loss

HC big lead

UNLV had 2 score leads twice and blew both of them to a pumped up home team, 1 score game win

NC st up 17 with 10 min left

Pitt was ugly

VT was a 1 score game win
BC was a 1 score game loss

Cal up 16 with 3 min left
Uconn up 14 with 10 min left

Miami 1 score game win
WSU up 24 late

So while the stats say we had a hard to repeat 7-2 in one score games

The real game was played at 3-2 in one score games. and thats not hard to repeat.

You can play that game both ways.

Ohio was out playing us halfway through the 3rd Q and we led by only 1pt because they kicked FGs.

Stanford was up 10 late 3rd Q.

Holy Cross was only down 7 late first half.

UNLV led by 7 late 4th Q and by 3 in OT.

NC St was a tight game the first 3Qs.

Pitt was over at half.

VT was up 18 mid 3rd Q

BC was up 9 going into the 4th Q and late in the game. Wasn’t as close as the score.

UConn was only down 7 going into the 4th.

Miami was up 21.



The results are the results. Last year wasn’t prime JB running out the clock.

 

[upperdeck]

You can play that game both ways.

Ohio was out playing us halfway through the 3rd Q and we led by only 1pt because they kicked FGs.

Stanford was up 10 late 3rd Q.

Holy Cross was only down 7 late first half.

UNLV led by 7 late 4th Q and by 3 in OT.

NC St was a tight game the first 3Qs.

Pitt was over at half.

VT was up 18 mid 3rd Q

BC was up 9 going into the 4th Q and late in the game. Wasn’t as close as the score.

UConn was only down 7 going into the 4th.

Miami was up 21.



The results are the results. Last year wasn’t prime JB running out the clock.

sure if we ignore what I said

Give Ohio all 4 tds and we are still up 38-28 a two score game late
Stan as I said we were driving to take the lead then the pick then we drove down again, then another pick.

I was pointing out how 1 score games are not always 1 score games

HC we had close to 400 yds more offense and they had 5 min of good play

NC St we were up 10. they scored very late. then we were up 17.,

the stats had us at 80% or more to win the Uconn game all game long. So sure they had a play to make it 7 again in a game that we had almost 300 more yds of offense in late.
yes BC was up by 9. But we were moving the ball then the blown call led to the safety and a TD and still we recovered the onside kick with the refs call taking that away.

VT was 1 score game

Pitt was pitt