Every season, a few teams roll into September trailing a thundercloud of expectations—only for that sky to crack and spit disappointment by November. In 2024, programs like Florida State, Oklahoma State, and Kansas learned that the hard way. Now in 2025, Syracuse Orange’s turn. Despite what looks like a promising fall on the surface, Fran Brown enters his second season with momentum, swagger, and an eighth-year LB in David Reese, who first saw game action back in 2018. But beneath the optimism, trouble is brewing in Central New York.

FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt isn’t buying what the Orange are selling. Syracuse was one of four programs Klatt called out when asked who he’s fading before the season. His reason? “So there was a team that really popped, had a great year in particular because they had the ability to throw the football, and specifically because they had a guy transfer in with a lot of experience, and they had good players around him,” Klatt said in his namesake show. “I’m talking about Syracuse with Kyle McCord. They had the right schedule, and they had the right player to combine that into a year in which they, what, 10 wins, number one passing attack in the country? And it translated. And good for them. They had that huge win over Miami late in the year, basically knocked Miami out of the College Football Playoff.”

But now, the slate is wiped clean. “They’ve got to replace all of those players,” Klatt added, “And they’ve got to replace those players with a really difficult schedule.” The key returnees from that explosive 2024 campaign? Just seven starters. Gone is ex-QB1 Kyle McCord, who led the nation in passing. Gone is LeQuint Allen—called by Klatt “the most underrated running back in the country.” Wideouts Jackson Meeks and Trebor Pena? Both transferred, with Pena heading to Penn State. Star TE Oronde Gadsden? Also gone. In all, Syracuse must replace 15 starters, with zero proven stars among the incoming group. The QB competition is now between Steve Angeli and LSU transfer Ricky Collins, neither of whom has taken a meaningful Power Five snap.

The deeper concern is the roster composition. While Syracuse boasts one of the oldest locker rooms in the country—Reese alone belongs on an All-Geezer team—they’re not necessarily Fran Brown’s guys. Roughly 20 redshirt seniors linger from previous staffs, and many of them have cycled through two or even three offensive coordinators. The result? An aging core that’s long on experience but short on cohesion.

Fran Brown is recruiting at a high clip, sure, but the bulk of his freshman and sophomore classes won’t have the reps needed to carry a 12-game warpath. As Klatt clarified, “This is not indicative—very similar to Tennessee—about how I feel about their team long-term or in the future. This is more of a specific year in, year out, from last year to this year. I just don’t see them being able to improve; therefore, it’s a sell.”

And then there’s the schedule. Oh boy, the schedule. “They have six games away from home, and all of them are going to be tough, all of them,” Klatt warned. The Orange open with Tennessee in Atlanta—essentially a Volunteers home game just three hours from Knoxville. Then it’s Clemson, SMU, Georgia Tech, Miami, and Notre Dame all on the road. That’s a gauntlet. Gone are last year’s soft spots that allowed McCord to find rhythm and confidence. In 2025, every road trip is a dogfight.

This isn’t a referendum on Coach Brown. It’s not even a knock on what Syracuse is building. But timing matters, and this particular window looks more like a bridge year than a breakout. Reese might anchor the middle of the defense like a middle-aged gladiator, but he can’t do it alone. And no matter how talented the quarterback room looks on paper, you can’t microwave chemistry with two transfer signal-callers and a new-look receiver corps.

Fran Brown’s Cuse desperation forces them to embrace past glory

After finishing No. 20 in the final AP poll last season, Syracuse football suddenly has something it’s rarely had this century: Momentum. With a prime-time kickoff against CFP participant Tennessee on Aug. 30 in Atlanta, Fran Brown & Co. have the kind of platform that can turn belief into brand-building. A noon showdown on ABC.

Sure, the roster churn of the transfer era makes sustained success trickier than ever. But here’s the silver lining. Any positive accomplishment helps Fran Brown and his coaching staff set the tone of expectations for the younger players in the program recruited in the last two classes, and sell the winning message to future transfer portal and scholastic recruits. That’s not just coachspeak—that’s a blueprint for building staying power in a chaotic CFB landscape.

Historically, cracking the AP Top 20 hasn’t been a frequent flyer move for Syracuse. Since 2000, they’ve only been ranked a handful of times: 14th in 2001, 12th in 2018, 21st in 2019, and 14th in 2022. So this isn’t just another nice season—they’re stacking it against rare company.