ACC Opener Awaits the Orange

Syracuse puts its two-game winning streak on the line when it goes to Death Valley to take on Clemson on Saturday at Noon on ESPN in the ACC opener.

The Orange are coming off a 66-24 victory against Colgate, which improved their record to 2-1. The 66 points are the most 'Cuse has scored under the direction of head coach Fran Brown. A last-second field goal by Georgia Tech handed Clemson a 24-21 loss in its conference opener last Saturday. The Tigers are now 1-2 overall.

"I'm excited to get a chance to compete against Clemson and Coach Dabo Swinney — one of the best coaches in college football, hands down top five coaches there is," Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said. "He's a really good football coach, I think he does an amazing job. It's exciting. It's a good opportunity to go and compete against a good program, like a really good, established program and a fine head coach."

The Orange offense was once again clicking in last Friday's win against Colgate. Syracuse racked up 620 yards of offense against the Raiders, including 447 through the air. Starter Steve Angeli was 23-for-31 for 382 yards and five touchdowns. He now leads the nation in passing yards (1,072) and passing yards per game (357.3). Additionally, 14th in passing touchdowns (8), 15th in points responsible for (56) and 16th in points responsible for per game (18.7)

"He's just a leader and he's getting more and more comfortable just (identifying) everything and growing with his teammates," Brown said of his starting quarterback. "Really, he's just understanding the offense more, I think I told you all in the beginning that Steve kind of came on at the end of our first game and will keep getting better and better and better. I think he's just going to keep growing. I think he's a really smart and intelligent young man who's a winner, who wants to win, loves to win, and he'll just keep getting better. He's understanding the offense more and more every week so it's set for him to win. He's a leader, and we're going to follow him. The players follow him. They respect him. I'm just proud of him."

Behind Angeli, the Orange now have two of the top-10 single-game passing totals in the FBS this season. Twelve different receivers caught a pass in the win against Colgate, led by Darrell Gill Jr.'s six catches for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Gill earned ACC Receiver of the Week honors for his performance against the Raiders.

For the second-straight week, the Orange defense did not allow a touchdown in a half. Syracuse gave up a first quarter field goal for the Raiders' only points in the first half. The unit did not allow a touchdown in the second half against UConn the week prior. Syracuse forced three Colgate turnovers.

The Orange now begin a stretch of seven-straight ACC games with two of the next three against teams that played in last year's College Football Playoff. Both of those contests will be played on the road. With the first three games of the 2025 season in the book, Brown knows his team is not yet a finished product.

"We need to keep getting better every day. Every day is a race to get better," Brown said. "It's important that we get better, it's important that we practice hard. It starts off in the morning with praying. From prayers, we gotta come to breakfast, we gotta go to class, we gotta be at treatment, we gotta do everything right. The more the things that we do right the more better karma comes our way. We want all to get better and that starts with myself being the head football coach all the way to whoever it may be you think isn't getting in the game all the way to the equipment guy that helps out after coming from class. It's our entire organization."

The Orange will open conference play on the road for the first time since 2021 and just the fourth time since joining the ACC in 2013. Syracuse has won two of its last three conference openers.

Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Darrell Gill Jr.

Related Videos