The Syracuse Orange football had a rough one against the Miami Hurricanes. As expected, the ‘Canes pretty much took over the game from the start and ended up winning 38-10. It was a tough watch for Syracuse fans, who were hoping for a repeat of their surprise win against Miami last year. Unfortunately, this time, Coach Brown lost it on the sidelines and was ready to go all WWE on Mario Cristobal on the field.

In the first half, ESPN cameras caught Mario Cristobal absolutely furious with Syracuse head coach Fran Brown on the sideline. Both coaches were exchanging intense words, and it clearly wasn’t a friendly holiday conversation. It even got to a point where the refs had to step in before it got ugly. And by the looks of it, Coach Fran Brown was already on the field looking like he was ready to throw hands at Cristobal.

No one knows exactly what triggered the confrontation, but both sides were clearly frustrated. This also may have been Cristobal’s way of trying to spark something within his team because Miami looked out of rhythm for most of the first half. Things finally turned late in the second quarter once the Hurricanes settled down a bit as Hurricanes and Carson Beck scored two tuddies in the second quarter. But it had a domino-effect on Fran Brown.

Later on, another heated scene went down on the Syracuse sideline. This time between Coach Fran Brown and some of his own players. After a rough stretch of plays, Brown let loose and started barking at his guys, and smashed the clipboard on the ground. It was a wild sequence that showed just how tense and emotional things truly were for Syracuse during that stretch of the game.

What’s going on with the Oranges?

As predicted, Syracuse’s offense once again dipped, and it dragged the rest of the team straight down with it. Unluckily, the defense eventually wilted in the Miami humidity and a sixth straight loss felt inevitable as the game went on. The funny part? The Orange are running a free-trial for everybody. Kyle Collins returned as the starting quarterback after being benched last week for lacrosse player Joe Filardi. Collins went 12-of-15 for 85 yards with two interceptions, which was only slightly better than Filardi’s 4-of-18 performance for 39 yards last week. Filardi even came in late in the fourth quarter for some garbage time snaps.

At this point, the only real tea in the second half was whether Miami would cover the spread. Syracuse has not looked the same since Steve Angeli went down with an Achilles injury against Clemson. The Orange were 3-1 at that time and since his injury they have dropped six straight. It is a shocking collapse for a team that finished 10-3 last season. Miami stayed focused on impressing the playoff committee with a bounce-back and even designed a touchdown play to offensive lineman Francois Mauigoa late in the game.

Watching Syracuse football now feels like pure insanity because fans keep seeing the same result every single week. Syracuse was 21 seconds away from going 8 straight quarters without an offensive touchdown until Filardi hit Elijah Baker-Washington late in the game. Coach Fran Brown continues to say that better days are coming in 2026. However, right now many Syracuse fans are mentally clocked out already. With a bye week now coming up, some fans may decide to stop watching entirely until next season even though two games still remains.