A Syracuse team coming off a 10-win season with Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli at quarterback returning to South Bend on Senior Day looked like it was going to be a spicy matchup back in August. Fast forward a few months and things have changed to the point where Notre Dame is simply trying to move forward, honor the seniors, and head towards a potential playoff bid with another victory in the bag. If they score brownie points with a blowout win, all the better.
This Orange team beat UConn (don’t laugh they are decent this year!) and Clemson, but the season-ending injury to Angeli against Dabo’s Tigers put the offense in a bind in combination with a Syracuse defense that was already looking awfully shaky.
Syracuse (+35.5) at Notre Dame
Notre Dame Stadium
South Bend, IN
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025
Time: 3:30 PM ET
TV: NBC/Peacock
Syracuse’s defense has remained poor and their offense comes into Saturday with almost no momentum having scored a combined 70 points over their last 6 games. I know what you’re thinking, “it doesn’t have to be close!” But, could it be?????
Vegas Corner
Notre Dame opened as extremely heavy favorites by a whopping 34.5 points and the line moved up quickly to 35.5 points. It really hasn’t moved at all off this number all week long.
Weather Report
Pretty typical fall November weather in Indiana is on tap this weekend. Temperatures should be around 50 degrees with the wind coming from the SSE in the 5 to 10 mph range. The sun should be setting right around halftime with a fully lit stadium in the 2nd half.
Series History
Notre Dame leads 8-3-0
The Irish lead the series 6-2 since things re-started back in 2003. Prior to that, Syracuse and Notre Dame hadn’t met on the football field since 1963, a pretty long time for a friendly upstate New York packed with Irish fans. Notre Dame has won 5 straight in the series and honestly there aren’t very many memorable moments among those victories.
2014 – Everett Golson’s weird 25 straight (remember there was a fumbled snap/spike near halftime) completions at MetLife Stadium.
2016 – Notre Dame put up a million yards again at MetLife and won easily.
2018 – Yankees uniforms!
2020 – Another easy victory at home, it was in control before halftime.
2022 – Just the 2nd meeting ever inside the JMA Wireless Dome, Notre Dame scored on a pick six from the first play, and won comfortably.
A darker past in Werther’s Originals helmets.
The losses in 2003 and 2008 are some of the most wretched in school history, though. In the 2003 regular season finale inside the (then) Carrier Dome, the Irish and true freshman quarterback Brady Quinn notched their 7th loss of the year by 26 points to a 6-6 Syracuse team. Five years later, it was arguably worse when the Irish blew a 23-10 lead in the 4th quarter to an eventual 3-9 Syracuse squad.
We are in happier times now.
Fun Fact(s)
Syracuse is a nationally renowned television and media school with an entirely student-run CitrusTV studio on campus complete with over 300 members.
This is the 22nd season since Syracuse dropped the “Orangemen” nickname in favor of the “Orange.”
We respect Otto in this house.
The university was looking to re-brand in the mid-1990’s but received harsh pushback and criticism from students. It wasn’t until 1995 that Otto the Orange became the official mascot for Syracuse and in 2023 the fuzzy orange ball was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
Coaching Staff
Fran Brown started out as a defensive backs coach at Temple, Baylor, and Rutgers before rising to fame for 2 years in that position with Georgia back in 2022-23. In December 2023, he was hired as a head coach for the first time at Syracuse. Following a surprise 10-3 debut season and #20 finish in the AP Poll, Brown comes into the weekend 13-10 overall while struggling through a 6-game losing streak.
Both of the Orange coordinators are back from 2024.
Defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson is only 40, got into coaching at Penn State after a playing career there, and had been a defensive line coach at Temple, Baylor, and Texas A&M before joining Brown’s staff in Syracuse.
After cooking in 2024, it’s been a regression in 2025 for Brown.
Jeff Nixon had been an assistant in the NFL for many years, with a stint as co-OC at Baylor thrown in the middle, prior to being hired as the Orange play-caller. He’s an unquestioned Air Raid guy who increased Syracuse’s passes per game by an astonishing 23 attempts in 2024. Despite the injury to Angeli, the Orange were still trying to throw the ball all over the place for a few games but their offense has cratered and they’ve only averaged 25 attempts and 129 yards per game over their last 3 contests.
The Orange didn’t bring back special teams coach James Vollono and hired Georgia Tech coach Ricky Brumfield this off-season instead. Their wide receiver coach Ross Douglas left for Oregon for 2025 and they replaced him with Green Bay Packers offensive assistant Myles White.
Portal
We know Steve Angeli well, and the former Irish quarterback lasted about 14.5 quarters before tearing his Achilles against Clemson. The team also added former 4-star recruit and LSU redshirt sophomore transfer Rickie Collins this off-season and he’s had a rocky 2025 following up Angeli by throwing 10 interceptions on 181 pass attempts. As we’ll get to below, he’s being benched for the 2nd time this season.
Wideout Johntay Cook left Texas after 2 seasons, spent a brief time at Washington in January before being dismissed from the team following 2 arrests, and landed with the Orange for 2025. He is leading the team with 41 catches this season, although as the passing game has slowed down he has only 4 receptions over the last 3 games.
Cook has been through a lot in 2025.
South Carolina wide receiver transfer Tyshawn Russell had 9 catches in the first 3 games but has been lost for the season since.
Syracuse has utilized a lot of offensive line transfers. Florida State left guard TJ Ferguson has made 9 starts but missed their last game and is questionable. Louisville center transfer Austin Collins was lost for the year after 7 starts. Naquil Bertrand came over from Alabama, made a couple of starts earlier this season but has been banged up, too.
Former 5-star recruit Zach Rice came from North Carolina but doesn’t appear to be in the mix. South Carolina transfer Kam Pringle is a redshirt freshman and started at right tackle for the Orange in their last game.
George Rooks came over from Boston College to fill in a hole at defensive tackle. Marshall nose tackle Chris Thomas also sees the field a little bit, as well.
California edge rusher David Reese is tasked with getting after the quarterback with 1.5 sacks and 8 hurries.
South Dakota transfer Gary Bryant has been holding things down at Mike linebacker and is tied for the team lead with 54 tackles. Frank Brown Jr., the son of head coach Fran Brown, transferred in from St. Francis, transitioned from linebacker to long snapper, but is out for the year with an injury.
We’ll mention Georgia corner transfer Chris Peal below. Lastly, the Orange added redshirt freshman kicker Tripp Woody after he spent one year with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Top Players
WR Darrell Gill
Syracuse might need a miracle to get to 200 passing yards on Saturday so Gill’s presence might not matter a whole lot. Still, we’ll point out the junior has been developing nicely for the Orange with 60 receptions, 1,047 yards, and 7 touchdowns since the beginning of 2024.
CB Chris Peal
Peal came to Syracuse after 2 years at Georgia without much impact. He’s now grown into one of the top defenders for the Orange and one of the best cover corners in the country, according to PFF.
A bright spot for a struggling Syracuse defense.
S Demetres Samuel
The true freshman out of Heritage High School in Florida was the top recruit in Syracuse’s 2025 class and has been getting some “next Travis Hunter” talk. So far he’s played a little bit on offense but has been a very effective safety for the Orange. He’s also in the mix as a punt returner and has been named a national semifinalist for the Freshman of the Year award. I’d also note, he doesn’t turn 18 until April!
Bad Matchup
Settling for Field Goals
I don’t know, what do you want me to put in this section!?? I could say stay away from Peal and Samuel in the secondary but all the same Syracuse is still allowing 267 yards per game through the air, 5th worst among power programs. By the way, Notre Dame has played the 4th worst (Boston College) and worst (NC State) in passing yards allowed this year, averaging 320 yards per game in those contests, while the 2nd worst (Stanford) is coming up next week!
Syracuse’s 3rd down defense (77th) actually isn’t terrible relative to their defense as a whole. I can see a long-range miss and a 29-yard shank field goal providing plenty of distress in this game.
Good Matchup
A Quarterback Feast
It’s tempting to pick something in favor of Notre Dame’s offense against a Syracuse defense allowing an ugly 6.19 yards per play this season. But, there are more opportunities for the Irish to shoot themselves in the foot with missed field goals, maddening 3rd and 4th down play-calls, or turnovers.
Syracuse bringing in Notre Dame and LSU transfers at quarterback, after having so much success with a transfer from Ohio State in 2024, must’ve felt great for Fran Brown. However, post Angeli’s injury, Syracuse’s passer rating of 99.52 over the last 6.5 games would rank 135th nationally by a wide margin–only trailing the dumpster fire at UMass. Now they’re giving a walk-on his 2nd career start with 21 career pass attempts to his name.
Special Teams
True freshman Tylik Hill broke the New Jersey state single-season rushing record in 2024, and while he’s not getting much playing time in the backfield, he’s emerged as Syracuse’s top kick returner.
Sophomore corner Davien Kerr has 6 punt returns this year but the team has switched to the aforementioned Demetres Samuel for this job in recent games.
Fifth-year senior punter Jack Stonehouse is back for his 3rd year starting for the Orange (plus another year starting prior at Missouri in 2022) and has been very solid over his career.
The aforementioned transfer Woody has made 10 out of his 11 field goals and all 21 of his PAT attempts this year.
Prediction
This Syracuse team is a hot mess. Rickie Collins got 4 starts following up Angeli before Fran Brown made some rather strong remarks that had a local paper reporting that Collins had essentially played his last meaningful minutes with the Orange. He was completely benched the following game against North Carolina, although he started the next one against Miami, was mercy pulled late against the Canes, and is back to the bench this weekend against Notre Dame.
Brown is turning to true freshman Joe Filardi and mentioned to the press this week they will take a look at their other true freshman, Texas signal caller Luke Carney, seeing the field against the Irish as they weigh up the decision to use him for a 4th game in 2025.
Not an ideal situation for Filardi.
Filardi was a top lacrosse recruit for Syracuse, and while he was pretty good as a quarterback on Long Island (3,102 passing/1,204 rushing/55 total TD in 2024), he’s being thrown to the wolves this weekend.
This Syracuse team is bruised and injured, too. I’ve counted as many as 30 players who are listed as out, questionable, or probable. The offensive line has been shuffled around and has been using true freshman behemoth Byron Washington as a starter standing 6’7″ and an absurd 400 pounds–he’s comically large.
Is Notre Dame going to cover such a large spread, though? A really bad day is probably something like 28-6, or perhaps the absolute worst 28-13, in the 4th quarter with plenty of disgruntlement about how the playoff committee will view such an outcome.
Marcus Freeman has beaten 6 different power programs by 35+ points since arriving at Notre Dame, including 3 times last year. The Irish have been so good at creating explosive plays I’d be surprised if this wasn’t out of hand rather early. Although, a sleepy Senior Day 4th quarter, where not much scoring happens with a bunch of backups in the game, is probably likely, too.
You didn’t mention that the 2008 (3-9) Syracuse team was QBd by Cameron Dantley(Adrian’s son) He was originally a walk on and didn’t play at all the following year.
“Lackluster” is not a term ND can afford to here about their performance this week and next.
Oh geez, I forgot that about Dantley 🙁
We’d all like to forget that.
Don’t forget that Syracuse team fired their coach.
That was my coldest game ever. The weather at least helped the loss sting less.
I’m imagining Washington playing on the same offensive line as nfl rookie and recent UNC grad Willie Lampkin (5’11”, 290 pounds) and it’s making me giggle.
Anyway, do we know if Angeli is traveling with the team? I hope he gets a chance to see his old coaches/teammates again. Felt like every ND affiliated person and fan was rooting for him to succeed at Cuse, it really sucked that he got injured.
If Angeli’s Achilles prognosis is good, might he transfer again?
Agreed. We all wanted to see Angeli do well at Syracuse. He’s a class act for sure.
“I hope he’s able to make the trip” me too, coach
https://youtube.com/shorts/OtHejINUwQI
I believe syracuse.com reported Angeli made the trip to South Bend.
ND 37 Miami 10
1 point less than Miami victory over Cuse and becomes a huge resume builder for the Canes per ESPN
Jason Garrett admires the moxie of Filardi as he escapes 2 sacks to only be sacked 7 times in the game. He also teaches us that ND has lacrosse players on the football roster too.
But more seriously, as long as there are no major injuries and it’s not a 2 score or closer game in the 4th, I will consider that a win.