17. Syracuse Orange
Biggest Trap Game: at Maryland (Sept. 7)
There’s no question that Dino Babers has questions that he must address regarding the Syracuse Orange heading into the 2019 college football season. Chief among those questions, of course, is whether he can keep the program that he’s masterfully built up at the level they reached last year, winning 10 games for the first time in nearly two decades. The challenge of doing that brings about other questions.
First, the Orange are tasked with replacing Eric Dungey at quarterback. While no one would ever mistake Dungey for being an elite passer, his leadership and playmaking ability were also never in question. Now, Tommy DeVito takes over for him and has massive shoes to fill in doing so. Meanwhile, the Syracuse defense must find some sort of production and consistency from a group of largely unproven players at linebacker.
The good news for Syracuse is that the ACC isn’t expected to be particularly strong this season. Though they have road games against Florida State and NC State on the schedule, they aren’t positioned in notably tough stretches on the schedule. As such, their biggest trap game of the season comes in the second matchup of the year as they go on the road to face the Maryland Terrapins.
As DeVito and the Orange look to prove themselves, they’ll no doubt be looking to give Clemson all they can handle for the third-straight year. However, that’s their third game of the season and, if Babers’ group isn’t clicking when they take on the Terps, Maryland has enough explosiveness to cause Syracuse to stumble early in the schedule.