Orange Look to Bounce Back vs. Holy Cross

Syracuse is opening the season with four-straight home games for the second-consecutive season. That stretch comes to an end on Saturday when the Orange host Holy Cross in the JMA Wireless Dome. Kickoff is set for noon on ACC Network Extra.

Saturday's game is sold out. Fans should act now to secure their seats to the three-remaining home games after this weekend at Cuse.com/Tickets.

The sellout is the first in head coach Fran Brown's tenure and he can't wait to see – and hear – the fans this weekend.

"Just come," Brown said at his weekly press conference. "Make sure you come again (this week). I'm disappointed that we weren't able to get the W for the fans (last weekend). I thought they did an amazing job. I thought they were louder than ever – I mean I could barely hear sometimes. Come and repeat the same thing. It was amazing, the atmosphere was legit. And now that it's going to be sold out, I can imagine what it will be like. I'm very thankful for the fans. I appreciate everything they have done."

The Orange are coming off their first loss of the season on a last-second field goal by Stanford last Friday night. Syracuse is now 2-1 overall, 1-1 in ACC play. The Orange will face a pair of non-conference foes in its next two contests, starting Saturday against the Crusaders. The series between the two Northeast squads dates all the way back to 1905. After Holy Cross won back-to-back games against the Orange in 1957 and 1958, Syracuse has won the last 13 meetings between the schools and owns a 24-5 lead in the all-time series.

Quarterback Kyle McCord will look to keep his streak of 300-yard passing performances alive when 'Cuse takes the field on Saturday. McCord was 27-of-42 for 339 yards and two touchdowns against the Cardinal. He became just the third Orange quarterback to throw for 300 yards in three-straight games. He joins Ryan Nassib (2012), who opened that season with three in a row, and Eric Dungey, who did it in three-consecutive games in 2017.

For the first time this season and the first time under Brown, Syracuse is entering a week of preparation after a loss. Brown is confident that following the program's core values will be the key to getting back in the win column on Saturday.

"We have to be very detailed," Brown said. "We have to really fall into our culture – DART is important. And I want to see that throughout. Like I told the coaches, let's make sure that we're be detailed in everything that we do, hold each other accountable, let's hold the players accountable, make sure there's a relentless approach and we have to be tough. Just try find a way to go out and win. We want to win today. We're not worrying about what's going to happen on Saturday. We're going to have a lot of fun today at practice. We're excited about being able to practice today. It's a blessing to be able to go out and have practice today."

Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Kyle McCord

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