Home > Football Betting > NCAA Football Betting > Syracuse Orange
Syracuse National Championship Game Odds
It wasn’t quite the season the Syracuse Orange anticipated having after hitting the national landscape with 10 wins and a No. 15 national ranking last season. But at least they ended the campaign on a high note with win over Wake Forest on Saturday. Dino Babers is trying to build a winning culture and finishing 5-7 is unacceptable. He made changes during the season by firing defensive coordinator Brian Ward after an embarrassing home loss to Boston College. And Babers said after the Wake game that more changes are coming, though he wouldn’t elaborate. You can expect something to happen on the defensive side. Interim DC Steve Stanard didn’t stop the bleeding with the Orange giving up an average of 43 points over the last two games.
2020 Syracuse Orange at a Glance
National Championship Odds: N/A
Even though they won 10 games and a bowl in 2018 there were a lot questions surrounding this year’s Syracuse squad. The biggest was at the quarterback spot where Tommy DeVito inherited the role from the highly successful Eric Dungey. And the offensive line was a work in progress from Day 1 with a number of new starters. It turned into the perfect storm for Dino Babers, whose fast-break offense never got off the ground. So it’s back to Syracuse being a basketball town after finishing 5-7.
Entering the campaign at No. 22 in the AP poll, Babers soon realized his defense wasn’t as strong as he thought. Giving up 63 points and 650 yards in a loss to Maryland in the second game was a sign of things to come. Four times opponents amassed over 600 total yards and it happened in back-to-back weeks early. After getting thrashed by the Terps, Clemson went for 612 yards in a 41-6 victory.
Coming off a win over FCS Holy Cross and a bye, Cuse entered the meat of its ACC schedule with a 3-2 record. The defense kept them in their next two games, but the offense couldn’t generate enough points in a 16-10 loss at NC State and a 27-20 setback to Pitt. The D completely cratered in the next two games and the losing streak reached four. Florida State went for 487 yards in a 35-17 win and the Orange hit bottom in a 58-27 home loss to Boston College.
The Eagles amassed a Syracuse opponent record 496 rushing yards and 691 total yards, prompting Babers to make a change to his defensive staff. The bleeding was stopped momentarily and Cuse won its first ACC game and beat a Power 5 team for the first time, taking out Duke 48-6. Stanard was given a game ball and postseason hopes were still alive. However, things returned to Syracuse normal the following week. Louisville totaled 608 yards and 10 yards per play in a 56-34 decision. Hell, even Wake had 572 yards in the finale, but the Orange prevailed in that one.
For the season the Orange yielded 464.1 yards per game to rank 115th nationally. They also surrendered nearly 31 points per game. “There’s going to be some changes. There’s no doubt about that. We are going to get to a situation where we can turn this thing around and be a winner consistently and not occasionally,” Babers said.
Week 14 Recap
It’s rare to see a nine-point margin in an overtime game. But the Syracuse season has been anything but normal. Having their postseason hopes extinguished the week before and playing without starting quarterback DeVito, the Orange finished the season with a 39-30 victory over Wake Forest to end the year at 5-7. In his final game redshirt senior Clayton Welch had a memorable outing throwing a pair of touchdown passes in the win. However, it was only fitting that the victory was sealed by a defensive play.
Welch had scoring passes of 12 and 29 yards, and Andre Szmyt booted a 24-yard field goal for a 17-3 lead in the second quarter. A Nick Sciba field goal at the end of the half and a Cade Carney scoring run early in the third cut the lead to 17-13. Another Szmyt field goal made it 20-13 but Wake tied it on their next offensive play when backup Sam Hartman tossed a 75-yard TD to Donavon Greene.
With the score tied, 27-27, Szmyt drilled a 49-yard field goal with 44 seconds left for what looked like the game winner. Sciba, who had his record streak of 34 consecutive made field goals end earlier in the period, knocked down a 43-yarder as time expired to send it to OT. Szmyt’s fourth field goal of the game gave Cuse the lead in extra time and Trill Williams sealed the outcome when he stole the ball from a Wake receiver and raced 94-yards for a touchdown.
This is one of the higher-water marks for a Syracuse football program that has not registered a ton of success over the years. Syacuse’s heyday came in the late 1990s when it won three straight Big East championships under coach Paul Pasqualone. The team’s best record in that stretch came in 1996 when Syracuse went 9-3 overall and 6-1 in conference. Some of the big names on those teams included star quarterback Donovan McNabb, wide receiver Marvin Harrison and pass-rusher Dwight Freeney, all of whom went on to have great success in the NFL.
Syracuse’s most recent conference title came in 2012, when it went 5-2 in the Big East under coach Doug Marrone. The Orange switched to the ACC beginning in 2013 and it is no doubt a tougher conference, with annual games against Florida State and Clemson, among others. Syracuse beat Clemson two years ago and played the Tigers tough in 2018. If the Orange have that type of showing early in 2019, it will be a great sign for what is to come this season. If not, the pessimistic win total projection could be right on the mark.
NCAA Football Teams
Log into BookMaker Sportsbook and get the best NCAA Football Betting Odds, NCAA Football Betting Articles and information about this and all other sports betting events!
