2014-15 Football Previews – (ACC) – Orange
It was a decent first season for Scott Shafer at Syracuse. A 6-6 record qualified them for the Texas Bowl and a win over Minnesota gave them a winning record for the year.
It was a decent first season for Scott Shafer at Syracuse. A 6-6 record qualified them for the Texas Bowl and a win over Minnesota gave them a winning record for the year.
It wasn’t all that long ago that Syracuse was a pretty darn good program, led by players like Donovan McNabb and coaches like Dick MacPherson they more than held their own in the early days of the Big East.
But when they fell, they fell hard and it was difficult to put the pieces back together again.
It seemed Syracuse had entered the national stage when they dominated nationally-ranked West Virginia 49-23 last year in October. The win took the team to 5-2, and they looked like a team that could win the Big East. Instead, Syracuse confusingly lost its last five games to go 5-7 and miss out on a bowl berth.
Syracuse had a very strong football program until the middle of the last decade, when the school hired Greg Robinson and he made the switch to a West Coast offense.