With a 7-0 record in hand, Tech returns home to take on a foe that stinks.
To be clear, this isn’t meant to be a broadside at Syracuse’s performance this year… although it could be that too. Seven games into the season, Syracuse has four losses, all by multiple scores, as their season went sideways after starting QB Steve Angeli suffered a season-ending injury. Their most impressive win this season might genuinely be their overtime victory over 5-2 UConn, which if anything is the ultimate vindication
for Tyler from Spartanburg because this same Syracuse team also won by two scores at Clemson.
No, it was purely a reference to their coach based on canonical events. Fran Brown once told the media that he only ever showers after a win, because “winners get washed” is apparently one of his catch phrases:
This is a slight problem right now because Syracuse has lost three straight games. That’s their longest losing streak since they hired Brown, so the Stank Aura is reaching unprecedented levels.
Maybe it’s a tactic? Syracuse’s players have time to get used to the Stank Aura emanating from their coach since they practice around him every day. But when he arrives in Atlanta after three weeks of no showers, it’ll be so powerful that it incapacitates everyone within a large radius. It’s unclear if that radius is a few feet, or the ~60 yards to Tech’s sideline, or the full size of the stadium, or all the way out to Marietta and Peachtree City. We’ll presumably find out tomorrow based on how many people in the stadium appear to be trying to hold their breath.
And yes, it’s of course possible Brown just meant he doesn’t shower immediately after a loss and does shower the next morning. But that would make all of this performative nonsense. And Fran Brown would surely never do such a thing.
After all, Brown certainly didn’t fabricate a vendetta against Brent Key last year as a way to motivate his team. And he always holds his team to a high standard. That’s why he had them run sprints after their narrow escape against UConn. Look at all these players who are definitely sprinting and not halfheartedly jogging because this is definitely not performative nonsense:
Anyway, all of this leaves Tech in a weird place. A loss would be an impressively disastrous faceplant for a 7-0 team that is ranked in the top 10 for the first time in over a decade, but it would save Atlanta and all of Syracuse’s future opponents from a future Stank Aura disaster. Meanwhile, a win would keep Tech on track as an ACC contender, but it could accelerate an impending public health disaster in Atlanta and in upstate New York.
Although the good news for Syracuse is that even if they lose, a remedy is on the way in the form of their next opponent: North Carolina. If we’re lucky, uNC’s graphics department will prepare something fun for that game using Adobe Photoshop (skip to 39:56):
So there it is. This year’s Homecoming game is a rematch of a bout that saw Tech fall last year at the hands of Kyle McCord and Trebor Pena, who respectively went to the NFL and to Penn State, so neither of them are walking back through that door (although in fairness, Pena might wish he could at this point). A better outcome this year is all one can ask.
