#4 Seminoles Up Next for the Orange

Syracuse will play its second-straight road game against a top-15 opponent when it takes on No. 4 Florida State in Tallahassee on Saturday. Kickoff is set for noon on ABC.

"Looking forward to going down to Tallahassee – 79,560 seats, No. 4 in the country," Babers said. "Mike Norvell's Seminoles. We know we're going to have our hands full. It's a fantastic football team on tape. It's most likely the best team we've seen so far this year, although the one we just played was extremely good."

The Orange are 1-of-10 teams in the country that will play back-to-back weeks against teams currently ranked in the top-15 of this week's AP Poll. The other nine are Notre Dame, Boston College, Miami, Duke, USC, Arizona, Cal, Utah, Oregon State and Colorado. The list does not include teams who have top-15 matchups with a bye in between. Of that list, only Syracuse and Duke (at Florida State 10/21 & at Louisville 10/28) have their back-to-back games vs. top-15 teams coming as both road contests.

"I understand the challenge that we are about to play the best team in the ACC," Babers said. "We're going to need to do some things and play our best in order to have an opportunity to win. But you're playing a team that is ranked in the top five. We've beaten a team in the top five before, but it's very, very difficult to do it. And it's extremely difficult to it when you're at their place. I don't know the last time somebody's gone down there and won. They have it going and it's going to be hard."

Syracuse will face another dynamic quarterback this week in Jordan Travis. He holds the Florida State career touchdown responsibility record and ranks in the top 10 on six different categories in the Seminoles' career record book. He has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 17 consecutive games.

"He will be the best quarterback that we have played and it's really hard for me to say that," Babers said. "He has all of the attributes of the young man at North Carolina. His desire to win is amazing. You can see it in his play. And then when you think back to a guy who started at Louisville and then he transferred somewhere else and did not start off with success and now he is at the top of his game – he knows what it is like to be at the bottom and now he's back at the top. I think that difference of knowing those feelings is what keeps him driven to the style and the level of play that he plays at. He plays at an extremely high level. Fantastic arm. Has legs. He's the complete, complete deal."

Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader and Travis are in an elite group of 10 quarterbacks who have thrown for more than 5,000 yards and rushed for more than 1,500 yards in their careers. The last time the Orange visited Doak Campbell Stadium, Shrader, making his second start for the Orange, rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another. Shrader and company will face an experienced unit on the other side of the ball.

"I might be wrong, but I want to say nine of the 11 are juniors or seniors or graduate seniors," Babers said. "It's a very, very experienced defense with a lot of NFL players in it. Some NFL players that passed up the NFL to come back and win a national championship. They are on course. They're focused and they are all doing a great job as a team."

Two of the last three meetings between the teams in Tallahassee have come down to the last possession. In 2017, the Seminoles blocked Cole Murphy's 43-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the game to hold on for a 27-24 victory. Florida State kicked a field goal on the final play of the 2021 meeting for a 33-30 win. A win on Saturday would be Syracuse's first at Doak Campbell Stadium.

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