Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - REVELATION: Syracuse Football Most UNPREDICTABLE Team in 2025 | Can Fran Brown BUILD off of 2024?

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

SYRACUSE ORANGE Football: Offensive Overhaul and Defensive Dilemmas for 2025Can the SYRACUSE ORANGE bounce back after losing key players? Jackson Holzer and Kenton Gibbs break down SYRACUSE's offensive rebuild, focusing on the quarterback battle between Rickie Collins and Steve Angeli. The hosts analyze the ORANGE's defensive prospects, highlighting the experienced secondary led by Duce Chestnut and Devin Grant. They debate SYRACUSE's potential win range, considering their tough schedule against half of last year's playoff teams. The impact of retaining head coach Fran Brown and his top assistants is examined, along with the transfer portal's influence on team building.Tune in for expert insights on SYRACUSE ORANGE Football's path to success in 2025 and beyond. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!RugietRugiet Ready is a next-gen prescription treatment designed to amplify arousal in the brain and boost blood flow. Head to Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGE and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE to get 15% off today. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Syracuse is one of the toughest teams to project in 2025. You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome in a locked-on ACC. I'm Jackson Hulzer, filling in for Alex Dono. I am the host of Locked-on Syracuse here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Of course, we are always joined by Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive tackle and current co-host of the Locked-on NC State Wolfpack podcast.

And on today's show, similar to what we did the other day with Clemson, it's preview season for the 2025 college football season. We're going to go to the season prediction for Syracuse football talking about their defense. And we're going to start the podcast talking about their offense. Now, before we get to everything, this episode is brought to you. by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on college at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. So normally for these season previews, we have on the host of the team in the ACC to provide context as to, you know, tell us about your team, right? Tell us about your offense, your defense, and your expectations for the season.

Well, I'm the Syracuse host. So Kenton, the floor is yours. What do you want to know about Syracuse football in 2025? First of all, will Fran Brown start watching if he loses this season? Let's start there before we go to anywhere. No, but in all seriousness, this is a team last year, was a definite riser, definitely seen as a team with one of the rising young stars into coaching ranks in Fran Brown. Did a lot of great things last year. I believe the finishing record was, what, nine and four?

Nine and three in regular season, 10 and three with the bowl win. Okay. Ten win season. That's big time. anywhere, but almost anywhere in a nation, but especially at Syracuse. 10 wins, first season, hell of a season, hell of a job. Do you think it's possible to come anywhere near that success this year? I do think it's possible when you talk about Syracuse's ceiling,

they still have the big three coaches there. And the big three coaches are your head coaches, Fran Brown, your offensive coordinator is Jeff Nixon, and your defensive coordinator is Elijah Robinson. I'm not going to lie to you. They lost most, if not all of their key talent from a year ago. It's basically all gone. I mean, shout out a name.

I can almost guarantee you that player is gone, right? Like, Arronda Gadsden, where's he? NFL. Where's Justin Barron? NFL. Kyle McCourt, he back? NFL. All their guys are basically gone.

So the key of this off season was, okay, can you find other players in the transfer portal or currently on your roster that fit your steams? Because if they fit your steams and there's some talent there, you might have a chance to be able to replicate this season. But I do think it's going to be tougher than it was a year ago. Okay. And one of the things that, you know, let's talk about specifically, you talk about the offense, defense coordinator, both coming back. Let's talk about the offense. one of the most hot power than the nation, you know, behind Kyle McCord. For the most part, when he was good, he was damn good.

He had one or two games, we're like, ah, there's the Kyle we know. But for the most part, he was spectacular all last year. How do you go about replacing that quarterback? Do you think it'll be Ricky Collins? Do you think it'll be Steve Angelly? Who do you think is QB1 for the season opener for Syracuse? Well, it was really interesting what happened this offseason with Syracuse football. At first, it seemed like they were going to try to get Kyle McCoyle,

court his fifth year of eligibility by going through this whole waiver process. Turns out that Kyle McCourt at the end of the day was like, you know what? I'm not going to go through this process. I'm going to go enter the NFL draft. More power to him. He ends up getting drafted. I hope it works out for him. So then Syracuse obviously has to replace him.

I didn't think they felt that anyone on the roster was ready to actually do so for 2025. So they go in the portal and they get Ricky Collins from LSU who just did not see the field a a whole lot. I mean, it's LSU. So you can't really blame him a whole lot. We've seen quarterbacks around the country not get playing time at a certain school, but it doesn't mean that they are bad. It's simply because you only got one quarterback on the field, right?

He's behind Jaden Daniels. He's behind Garrett Nussmeyer. Garrett Nussmeier decides to return to LSU. There's no shot that Ricky Collins is going to beat out Garrett Nussmeyer for this upcoming season. So he transfers to Syracuse and he ends up winning the job, as we kind of predicted. He wins the job. He was anointed the starter for, or in the spring, I should say, by France. Brown publicly, I might add. And then all of a sudden it comes out who the loser is of the

Notre Dame quarterback battle. And it just so happens to be Steve Angelie. And there's a direct connection with Steve Angelly in Syracuse football. A, he was offered by Syracuse in high school. And B, his high school coach is the brother of the Syracuse quarterback coach, Nunzi Ocampanelli. So you start hearing rumblings that Syracuse might be going after this guy, Angelie, and lo and behold, they get him. So now they have a quarterback competition. And it's fascinating because neither quarterback is coming to Syracuse to ride the bench. Right. They could have done it at their other schools.

Steve Angelly could have stayed at Notre Dame and just been the backup there again. Or Ricky Collins could have been the backup again at LSU, but they both decided to enter the portal. and they both decided to go to Syracuse under the impression that they would have the opportunity to start. My guess is that Steve Angelly will win the job. But I got to be honest with you, I don't think we'll know until about a week maybe before the first game, which is against Tennessee. Well, I think the most concerning part of that, as looking from the outside end, we all know the old adage.

If you have two quarterbacks, you have none. And so you're kind of left here with the who wins the starting battle. And do you believe that this team believed in Ricky Collins? Because if so, why would you go into the portal and potentially go get another quarterback? You know, you're kind of going through a lot of the paces there. But staying on the offensive side of the ball here, it's not just about the quarterback position. Because you talk about the quarterback and you talk about how, you know, he's going, talking about all the skill position guys going, all that good stuff.

what is the silver lining for this offense coming out of the offseason? What is the thing that you say? Syracuse will be able to hang their hat on this, despite X amount of departing talent from last year's 10-win squad? I know it's hard to sometimes think long-term in this day and age because of the transfer portal and the fact that, hey, you might have someone who you think is going to be there long-term, and then lo and behold, they enter the transfer portal at the end of the season.

That guy that you invested all that time in recruiting, too bad. He's gone after a year because he just had a good year. He gets paid more money, et cetera, whatever the case may be. Maybe he's got another relationship. You get the idea. Having said that, we're going to find out that's the silver lining. A lot of their guys have multiple years of eligibility. See, last season was mostly built with the impression that a lot of the guys would not be back.

And even the guys that had eligibility, like a Laquin Allen and a Rondea Gadsden, we kind of felt that if they have really good years, they're probably going to go to the NFL. Well, this year, I guess it's a good problem to have if a lot of their guys have a good year and go to the NFL. But the silver lining is a lot of their guys are young. A lot of their guys are going to get their first chance at a new role,

whether it's a guy like Darrell Gill, who really thrived last season, a wide receiver. But he was the fifth option on the offense. Now he's the number one option on the offense. A guy like Jontay Cook has a chance to reboot his career as a former five star in 23. Who's going to break out a tight end now that Arronday Gadsden is not there? He's a guy like Yassine Willis in the backfield going to be able to take over for a guy like

La Quint Allen. Their offensive line is completely replaced. We're going to find out who are the players that should stick around in 2026 as key contributors. And we're also going to find out who simply does not have it. We're also going to find out about quarterback because both Angelly and Ricky Collins have multiple years of eligibility. That's the silver lining for Syracuse's offense. All right. And then the last thing here, what concerns you most?

What position group are you most like? This group having a good year would be a surprise to say the least. I'd walk away saying, boy, that group, they sure fooled all of us in the preseason. It's funny because you can honestly make the case for any position group in certain. Syracuse because I don't think they're that experience, quite frankly. The one that I'm most confident in is the wide receivers. I like Daryl Gill. I like Jontay Cook and what they have behind them as well.

Tight end, I'm still kind of iffy on, but I'm never really going to be too concerned about the tight end position because quite frankly, it's not as important as a unit like the offensive line or the quarterback room, even the running back room to a certain extent. it's kind of a toss-up between the offensive line and quarterback. Because at least with, I'll go offensive line, at least with quarterback with a guy like Steve Angelie, he's that 80 career passing attempts. I can kind of look at that and say, maybe there's something there because he's done pretty well in those 80 passing attempts.

But the offensive line, they're replacing, I believe, four of their five starters from a year ago. A lot of the guys that they got in the transit portal, whether it's a guy like T.J. Ferguson or a Cam Pringle or an Austin Collins. Austin Collins does have a lot of starting experience. Same with T.J. Ferguson, but how great of starting experience do they truly have? Cam Pringle is a former four-star guy. Great. Is he ready for 2025 to be a full-time starter? Just a lot of question marks along the offensive line and also at quarterback.

All right. Fair enough. Well, I think that we've gotten into Syracuse's offense as in depth as we can in this time. I'm here, but stick with us, folks. We'll be right back talking some Syracuse defense, which is where Fran Brown made is, hey, so we're going to get into Syracuse's defense and off-season predictions right after this. Guys, you've probably heard of Viagra or Seattleis. Maybe you've even tried them,

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podcast. We talked about Syracuse's offense in the last segment. But Kenton, I'll throw to you again. Let's talk about Syracuse's defense. All righty. We're talking about the mob here, ladies and gentlemen, the Syracuse defense, which Fran Brown defensive back coach at Georgia before he took over here as the head coach at Syracuse. So let me ask you this. Same thing as with the offense. Give me the outlook overall. What do you see from this defense overall that you say, They have the ability to improve from last year or they'll be, you know, just as bad as last year because there were some struggles there. Let's just be honest. Despite winning 10 games, there were some struggles there.

But there were opportunistic. Got turnovers in the right moments, you know, came up with big stops when they needed to. Do you think that this team improves and becomes a more consistent unit or is it still like last year really like, hey, just give me a couple of turnovers. Just give me a couple big moments and we'll be all right. I think the issue with the defense is that last year the offense masked a lot of their flaws because the offense could simply outscore any of the problems that the team actually had. Defense last year, I'm looking at the stats right now. They were 14th in the ACC.

So that's bottom five in points per day. Not particularly good. I am hoping that Syracuse can improve upon that, but it's very similar to the offense where you're asking a lot of players to be full-time, starters or in their particular job for the very first time. They got a couple of experienced guys, particularly in the secondary at the safety position, Deuce Chestnut and Devin Grant are both back for Syracuse. I think they're both candidates to make all ECC.

But when I look at this defense, it's very similar to the offense where I'm saying, this group is very young. They got some talent, but they're very young. So we're going to find out exactly what's going to happen here. And again, it's more like a long-term thinking. we figure out who maybe the pillars are for 2025 on defense, and we try to hold on to them for the 2026 season. You know, they say that you like for a defense to be built a lot like a baseball team.

You need to be strong up the middle. You talk about having two good safeties, but obviously you've got to replace a guy like Marlow Wax. You've got to replace some defensive tackles as well, who, you know, some folks say were tampered with. Some folks do not. But what do you kind of look at in terms of that, front seven and saying, hey, these are going to be guys that could potentially be key difference

makers, or is there nobody right now? And it's a lot like you were talking about the offensive line and quarterback where you're just like, hey, anybody who shows, they show and we're all going to be a little surprise. I am worried a little bit about the linebacker position. I think they did okay with the front. They got a guy like David Reese off the edge. I don't think he's Fidel Diggs, but he's got 11 sacks over the past two seasons in a power conference. So kind of confident that he can be a facsimile a little bit of a guy like Fidel Diggs. And then they got a guy like Chris Thomas. They run stuff for Marshall.

I like that pickup as well. They got George Rooks, a starter from Boston College. He wasn't the greatest. But at the same time, you get a starter for another ACC team. Maybe he can be better for Syracuse. I think they did okay despite losing Marad Watson on the defensive line. But linebacker, I think it was one of the bigger needs of the offseason. And I don't think they did enough, quite frankly.

I'm looking at a guy like Onwar Sparrow, who are you sure he's ready to be a full-time starter? Are you sure? It's never really been that at Syracuse. Derek McDonald, at times he struggled last season. He does have a lot of starting experience. You're also looking at a guy like a true freshman, Antoine DeLoree, true freshman linebacker. He's jacked. I'll give him that.

But is he ready to play right away as a true freshman? And let me just say this also about Fran Bram. He ain't afraid to play true freshman. We had on Morgan Thomas for yesterday's season preview for Clemson, right? And he's talking about how Davosweeney, unless you're like Sammy Watkins, does not like to play true freshman. He didn't even start Trevor Lawrence as a true freshman right away. That's how it is sometimes, right?

Fran Brown's almost the opposite. He's going to play the guy who he believes gives him the best chance to win, and he does not care what your year is. Are you a senior or are you a freshman? I don't care. whoever's better is going to play. That's what I bring up with a guy like Antoine Deloree. Is he ready to play if he's called upon as a true freshman?

So when I look at the defense, I think my biggest concern overall is probably that linebacker room. Okay, so you talked about the secondary being the spot where you're like, hey, especially at safety, we're good there, all set, all that type of stuff. If you are expecting a group to lead this team, I'm guessing you would say the secondary is going to have to step up. and be the leaders overall for this team and kind of set the tone of, hey, if y'all don't know which way to go, we'll make it easy. Follow us and we'll take you to the problem. That's essentially what I'm saying, yes,

because you have two experienced starters that are back there, both have all conference on their resume. Deuce Chestnut was all ACC in 2021 and 2022. Devin Grant, while he's not an all-ACC guy, he has been all-conference in the MAC conference, which I know it's the MAC conference. is not. But the point is he was also a full-time starter last year, and Miami fans might know him pretty well because he had that great play against Xavier Restrepo that gave Syracuse the lead in

the third quarter of that upset win. And then on top of those guys, they're very young, but at corner, they got one of the top recruits in Syracuse in the past two decades. And a guy like Demetrius Samuel Jr., a consensus four-star recruit, a borderline top 200 player overall in the country out of high school. Again, he's a true freshman, but he's getting a lot of raves with Syracuse, a lot of positive reviews with him. They think he's going to be really good right away as a true freshman. So I'm excited to see him play. And then behind him, you got a guy like Davy and Kerr, who he didn't really see the field a whole lot last year. He was a true freshman. And then all of a sudden, he was called upon to start the cow game because a couple of guys had disciplinary issues on the team.

and he started every game from there on. And so he has that built-in kind of runway of, okay, he's played in college football. We're not asking Davey and Kerr to do something he's never done before, which is be a starting corner because he's already been a starting corner for four games. He can maybe do it as a full-time role this upcoming season. Now, Tennessee is going to be a different animal in week one than maybe he's ever seen before. But the point being is that you got an exciting true freshman at your one corner,

your other corner is likely Davy and Kerr who started games. And then behind him, Syracuse, I think, made an under the radar pickup in the portal, getting a guy like Chris Peel from Georgia, who was a four-star recruit for them a couple of years ago. He didn't see the field a whole lot of Georgia. A lot of players don't see the field at Georgia. But I've talked about this with the portal and a lot of people don't like it. A lot of people don't like the portal quite finally. And I understand some of the reasons why.

But one of the positives of it is you can no longer hoard talent. You can't just hoard them. If you don't play them, they're going to leave because they all kind of have aspirations of being a professional, whether it's the NFL or the CFL, whatever it is, they all want to eventually be pros. Chris Peel, maybe he's one of those guys where he's good. He just couldn't see the field at Georgia because they're loaded. He can come to Syracuse and be perhaps a starting corner on the team. So I think the secondary is probably the strength of Syracuse's defense. I think one of the more interesting parts about Pell as well is he was there at the same time as Fran Brown.

So Fran Brown knows this kid. It's not like that's a young man where it's like there's no familiarity. There's just like, hey, I hope he works hard. I hope he's a good guy. I hope he does the right things. No, you know him as being a guy who formerly coach him. Yes. And I wanted to build on that.

I believe Fran Brown was his primary recruiter in high school. So the relationship was already there. he doesn't see the field at Georgia. Jackson Meeks didn't see the field a whole lot at Georgia. And Jackson Meeks was not a four-star recruit, by the way. He wasn't. He was a three-star at Georgia. He spent a lot of time there.

He developed there, but he didn't really get a lot of playing time. He comes to Syracuse, and he wasn't even a starting wide receiver right away for the team. That's how funny it is. He was not a starting wide receiver at the start of the year, but he gets his opportunity around week three, week four, and thrives. maybe it's something similar with a guy like Chris Peel where he might not start the year. Like he'll be active. I'm not saying he's like hurt or anything.

He'll be active, but he might not be one of their top. He might not be the starter. He might not even be the third guy. Maybe he's the fourth or fifth guy. And then all of a sudden injuries happen unfortunately. It's just how the sport works. Guys are going to get hurt. It happens.

He's called upon, which I'm sure he will be. And maybe he plays pretty well. And he's the next Jackson Meeks. but on the defensive side of the ball. Absolutely. So before we get out of here in terms of the defensive questions, I will be proud, or Jackson Hozier believes this defense did a good job in 2025, 2026 if they allow X amount of points.

What's that amount? Last year they gave up 29.2 a game. Mm-hmm. I think if Syracuse, I think if Syracuse finishes around middle of the past. in defense. With this schedule that they got, it's tougher than last year and the youth on the team, if they give up 25 points per game,

I think I'll sign for that. Because I think that would fit it. If you ever, if you got up 25 points a game last year, you were right there with Miami, Georgia Tech, and Duke was at 24 and a half between 7 and 9 in the ACC. So you're right there in the middle of the pack. I think if Syracuse gives up only about

25 points a game, we're in pretty good shape because I think the offense will still be pretty good. It's not going to be like last year, but it should still be pretty good. All right. You heard it here first, folks. 25 points per game is Jackson Hose was saying, hey, this is what we, this is a great season for you all. Let's see if they can get it. I don't know if it's a great season. I'll just sign for it. I'll sign for 25. I'll sign for great season. And Jackson and I thought we were going to agree about everything today. And here we go with this.

25 would be a great season for a defense that allowed 29 and lost a ton of key pieces. Like, that's a damn good season. It's a great improvement, but great season, I would probably say like 22 to 23 a game. But I think that's being too greedy. But you're talking about great, I think that would be great. I'll sign for 25. With a front seven where you have pretty much unproven commodities, he's all over the place.

And somebody says, hey, you'll only give up 25. And you're like, yeah, I'll sign for it. I'm not sure if I'm in a little bit, but I'd sign for the beauty that is Jackson's Poling, ladies and gentlemen. There it is. In a nutshell, he'll sign for the package. He just not going to be excited about it.

Oh, it delivers for me, I guess. He just ain't going to be excited about it. Have you ever gotten a Christmas present where you're like, I like this gift, but it's not, you know, my favorite. It wasn't at the top of my list. Of course, we all have. Okay, so it's kind of like that with Syracuse's defense. If Syracuse's defense next year, we're talking in December, January,

and we're like, hey, they gave up 25 points a game this year. I'll sit there and say, yeah, that's pretty good, pretty good. I'm not going to see here and say it's great. Jackson, with half of last year's playoff on your schedule, if you give up 25 with more unproven commodities than last year, with more unknown factors and variables than last year, I don't know what you're talking about. As a kid, not a great gift.

Sox as an adult, bro yeah, I love that. I need that. This is that. This is socks as an adult, 25 points per game out of this defense with this schedule. But see, see, this is Jackson like to give my blood pressure. I got to go work out after this because he's stressing me out. He's stressing me out. But we'll be right back to talk ceiling, floor, and what Jackson actually thinks will happen with the Syracuse on.

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Use code locked on college at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's Monarch Money.com code locked on college for half off your first year. It's time for predictions for Syracuse football in 2025. I'm Jackson Holeser, the host of Locked on Syracuse. Of course, we're always joined by Kenton Gibbs, co-host of Locked on Wolfpack and former NC State defensive tackle. we've talked about Syracuse's offense. We've talked about Syracuse's defense for 2025.

Kenton, I'll throw it to you now. What do you think is going to happen with Syracuse as far as season prediction? I mean, listen, if you're asking for my season prediction for Syracuse, I just think that there is too high of a mountain to climb and too many unknowns for me to predict this team to win anything beyond six games. Like we talked about Adhazium, half of last year's playoff is on your head. schedule. That's just the fact. That's just the fact. And, you know,

you look at this and you say, well, even if everything breaks right for this team, I see maybe seven, maybe. Eight to me feels like, because if you do the math on who they beat to get to eight wins,

that means that you're imagining every one of those games where you're not playing a playoff team you win. Or, or you upset. set one of those teams, which, I mean, you know, you talk about the teams that are on the schedule. Clemson looks like an absolute unit. Notre Dame, I think that they have a lot of big questions, but I think that the positions they have answered are so much better than what Syracuse may be prepared for.

I think that's a tough ass. SMU, that's one. That's one where I say, yeah, yeah, that's possible. Tennessee is another one. Just, again, they have big questions, but the units that are answered, boy, science, delivered that answer is yours so i i think you know maybe you upset sm u but then you lose to one of the other teams that weren't a playoff team last year i think floor you're looking at four to five wins ceiling i think you're looking at seven tops i think seven is is about the ceiling there but i'm not the

syracuse guy i'm not the guy that the people are here to see talk about syracuse so i'm i ask you give me your floor and your ceiling and then what you think will actually shake out with this thing. We definitely agree on the floor. I actually did this podcast on Tuesday for Locked on Syracuse and I said as equally optimistic or as optimistic as I can be about Syracuse football, I am equally pessimistic about Syracuse football. And that's why I ultimately led this podcast with, I think they're one of the most unpredictable teams in the ACC, if not the country because you look at Syracuse and you say, oh, they won 10 games last year. Shouldn't they be pretty good this year? Shouldn't they be formidable? They still got Fran Brown. They still got

their big, their offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator is still there. Like the coaching staff for the most part is the same, except their players are so much different. And the schedule looks a lot harder, at least on paper. We'll see how that actually plays out. But it does look a lot harder on paper than it did a year ago when we were. talking around this time, right? I think we can all agree on that. So when I look at the floor for Syracuse, I see like four wins. There's definitely a world where Syracuse has a disappointing second season under Fran Brown because the schedule was really difficult. They do not have a proven quarterback like they did with Kyle McCord last year. And so they end up going out and they only

win four games. But where I disagree with you is the ceiling for Syracuse football. I think because of year and the fact that they retained their top three coaches on the team, right? Nobody left or anything like that. So you're not changing schemes or anything. You know what works and you know what doesn't work. I do still think there is a way where if everything breaks right, their ceiling could be nine wins, which would give them maybe an outside chance at the college football playoff.

Like it would be tough for them to get in at nine and three. But with their schedule, it would be more likely than last year where they were nine and three. had no chance at getting in the playoff because quite frankly, nobody really respected Syracuse's schedule. And that's why Selection Sunday came, nobody gave them a thought. Whereas with Alabama, where they were nine and three, a lot of people gave them consideration. In fact, they would have gotten in, if not for Clemson stealing a bid or Miami going 10 and 2 also got consideration. But when I look at Syracuse's ceiling, I say, you can go 9 and 3 and still lose to Clemson, Notre Dame, in Tennessee. So that's where I'm at with the absolute best-staste scenario and the worst-staste

scenario we agree on as well at about four wins. So what do you think will actually happen? What is the world that you see as most likely for the Syracuse Orange next year? So rarely does everything break right and everything break wrong for a team in a season. That's just how it is. So that's why I love doing a floor ceiling combination because you can just average them out and meet in the middle. So nine wins is a ceiling. Four wins is a four. that adds up to 13. You divide by two, you get six and a half. So I would say that I think they're going to be a bowl team, but they're going to be a lower ball team than they were last year. They're not going to be playing in the holiday bowl this season.

They're going to get a lesser bowl, maybe win six to seven games. Well, you heard it here first, folks. Syracuse Orange, you're getting a home game for the bowl game. They'll be in Yankee Stadium for their bowl game. I'm just messing with you. But in all seriousness, thank you so very much, as always, for showing up, Jackson. I agree with you on the most likely situation and on the floor. That ceiling feels a bit high. Feels a bit aggressive. But you know what?

Even Joe has a big year? If you would have told me Syracuse wins 10 last year, I would have said that feels aggressive, no way. So maybe I've got a bias against Syracuse football that I need to get out my heart. If they went nine this year, I may need to get it out my heart. And y'all coach may need to get out of Syracuse. But that's neither here nor there. That's neither here nor there. Thank you.

And for what it's worth last year, my ceiling for them was 10 regular season wins. I was what it was last year. And my floor was six. And so I met in the middle and I said eight and four. They end up going slightly better. They go nine and three, which is kind of where they should have been. Because you look at Syracuse last year and you say, You know, they could have been Indiana.

And then you also look at Syracuse to say, what happened against UNLV? How about a 21 point comeback against Miami? How about a big comeback against Virginia Tech? So it all kind of worked out. They finished exactly where they were supposed to be a year ago. And I'm hoping that they're at least a bowl team for this upcoming season. In fact, I'll sign for it. Just get a bowl for 2025.

It's a tough schedule. Just get a bowl. And I will be happy as of right now on June 25th. All right. But anyways, this has been another episode of Locked on ACC. I'm Jackson, also the host of Locked on Syracuse. That's Tenting Gibbs, the host of Locked on Wolfpack. Thank you all so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening.

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