SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Every Syracuse fan had one question on their mind all winter, spring, and summer. How would Steve Angeli look when he came back from his torn Achilles?
The Orange’s 2025 season died along with his injury 350 days ago, putting a damper on what should’ve been a program-defining first-ever road win at Clemson. Syracuse’s 66-3 win over New Hampshire on Saturday to open up the 2026 season was the first win since. It was the first time SU scored even 20 points since.
And Angeli? He played
like he didn’t miss a step, throwing for 263 yards and three touchdowns with no turnovers.
“Last year’s behind me,” Angeli said postgame. “This is 2026, I’m here to play football.”
Syracuse offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon eased Angeli into the game with a run-heavy scripted drive, but turned him loose on the second possession. He dropped back and hit Miami (OH) transfer Cole Weaver on a quick route to the right side for eight yards. He threw two more quick passes in a row for back-to-back first downs to Umari Hatcher and then Weaver again to set Syracuse up in New Hampshire territory.
Nixon’s training wheels, per se, were off later in that drive. Instead of turtling on goal to go from the 19 after a penalty, Angeli threw an aggressive, tight-window touchdown pass to Hatcher to get the Orange on the scoreboard. It wasn’t a perfect throw, as he left it a step behind his target, forcing a great adjustment from Hatcher, but with a looming defender over the middle, he didn’t have a ton of room to miss in a different direction.
In the second quarter, ahead 14-0, Angeli took a big hit and stayed down on the ground after completing a pass to Noah Meyers over the middle. The fanbase that waited nearly a full year for his return held its breath as head coach Fran Brown went out to the field. He shared the same pit in his stomach as the Orange faithful for a moment.
“I started talking to God before I went to him,” Brown said.
Angeli eventually got up, and Brown challenged him to a race to “make sure he was straightened.”
Brown didn’t run, but Angeli did. As he went for a full sprint to the sideline, the Dome erupted with cheers.
“I’m all good, there’s no injury.” Angeli said postgame.
He had to sit out a play, but it was just that one play. On his first play, he proved that he was just fine, providing the key block for freshman running back Shavane Anderson’s second touchdown run after he reversed field.
Angeli stuck with the play and threw his body on cornerback Sean Webb, clearing the final hurdle for Anderson to enter the end zone.
“Steve is willing to do anything for the team,” Anderson said. “He’s a dawg. I wasn’t expecting Steve to run down there and hit him. It was impressive.”
He threw his second touchdown on the next drive, hitting David Clement over the top of the defense from 27 yards. Angeli finished the first half 15 of 20 for 176 yards and two scores. Given his injury situation and scare, Brown would’ve been justified, and arguably best-served, in sitting Angeli down after halftime, but he played the entire third quarter, and then started the fourth.
Angeli stood in the pocket and took hits on back-to-back completions to Hatcher, the first for 35 yards and the second for 13 yards. Then, he stood tall and dropped a dime to the corner of the end zone for Hatcher’s second score of the game from 18 yards out. Now, his day was done.
Brown wanted to make sure that Angeli got the reps he needed, pointing out that he’s only started five games in his college career, and despite being a senior, he’s relatively thin on game experience.
“Our team is a young football team,” Brown said. “He hasn’t had a lot of reps, and to be able to play with the (offensive) line… I think we had the least amount of starts and snaps played in college football on the offensive line. They’re a big group of kids, but we just don’t have that much experience. So the best way to do that is to continue to play. We just wanted to keep playing.”
Angeli called his performance “solid,” saying that “we left some things out there.” Brown said Angeli was about “75 (percent) or something like that,” and that he’d keep getting better.
Next week will be a much bigger test. Angeli is pitted against an ACC defense for the first time in 357 days when Cal comes to town on Saturday. But for now, he’s back on the field and back performing. And he didn’t feel any burden doing it.
“There was no pressure,” Angeli said. “I was just more excited to get out there with my guys again. Get out there and play for Coach Fran, play for the S.”
