After five games in the 2026 Syracuse Orange football season, there’s plenty to complain about or feel annoyed with: too many penalties, failed procedures, kicking woes, general special teams issues, costly mistakes, losses that have really felt self-inflicted rather than earned.
All that said, coach Fran Brown deserves his flowers for something that has turned out to be important so far this year: depth at the quarterback spot. For all the negative narratives and general frustration around the 2026
Orange, Brown took a (hard) lesson from last year, learned from it, and now, a position that has seen even worse health than in 2025 can actually withstand it.
Because yes, Syracuse was on its fourth (!) player under center in nearly as many games (five) after Danny Lauter entered late in the Orange’s game against Virginia with third-string QB Malachi Nelson injured. If it’s felt like quite the rotating cast for Syracuse fans, that’s because it has:
Presumably, Syracuse entered the season expecting Steve Angeli to return to action after the torn Achilles. Before that injury, he was playing out of his mind. When he went down in September 2025 against Clemson, so the rest of Syracuse’s offense for the rest of the season.
Yes, Syracuse could’ve banked on Angeli being back on the field, assumed his recovery would go well, and that he would pick up the superb performances right where he left off.
Instead, coach Fran learned what he hadn’t in 2025: it never hurts to have too many options, and make sure they can be at least solid options, too.
How would this season go if Angeli was not ready or looked limited, and the backup options were Rickie Collins and Joseph Filardi instead of 2025 first-team All-Conference USA selection Amari Odom, former five-star and experienced QB Malachi Nelson, and Lauter?
Not even a year ago, Syracuse fans saw what happened when that was the case:
And yes, Nelson is on the list above that no player wants to be on, and yes, he got benched at UTEP of all places. But guess what: for this year’s Syracuse team, he was option number three.
To Brown’s credit, there was some foresight and urgency to address the QB spot, knowing the risks with Angeli, the importance of the position in today’s game, and that what happened in 2025 couldn’t happen again in 2026.
Sure enough, while there was a chance Angeli could be 2025 Angeli again, it didn’t happen. He was benched midway through game three of the season. Odom flashed some potential in the Pittsburgh game, then was arguably the biggest reason (along with Tylik Hill) Syracuse avoided suffering an embarrassing collapse against UConn.
Then, with both Odom and Angeli sidelined against Virginia, Nelson at least kept the ship afloat. Syracuse still finished with over 400 yards on offense, which would’ve been a dream result in 2025. Nelson goes down during the UVA game, and even on the fourth QB, the Orange still manage to lose by just three on the road.
Again, does a play even remotely like this happen in 2025:
To be clear, none of this absolves the issues with the 2026 Orange.
Penalties have been total killers. At bare minimum, Syracuse could be 4-1. The California and Virginia games were winnable. The rest of the schedule (sans Notre Dame and SMU) isn’t as much of a beast considering how some of Syracuse’s future opponents are playing right now. The self-caused mistakes, kicking issues, coaching blunders, and so on are boiling over and (rightfully) leaving many frustrated.
All that deserves blame, but credit should be given when it is due.
