’Cuse Visits SMU Saturday
9/29/2025 4:52:00 PM | Football
Syracuse looks to return to the win column when it's back on the road to take on SMU on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. eastern (2:30 p.m. central) on ACCN.
The Orange are no strangers to road games in October. Saturday's game is the seventh-straight October road contest dating back to the 2023 season. But unlike the last two seasons, Syracuse will host two home games in October in addition to Boston College in the regular-season finale in November. Tickets for all three games are available at Cuse.com/FootballTickets.
Saturday's game marks the second time Syracuse will face a College Football Playoff team from a year ago in its last three outings, both of which will have been played on the road. Overall, four of last year's College Football Playoff teams are on the 'Cuse schedule this season.
"They're a good football team, they were a playoff team last year, so we get the opportunity to go out and compete," Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said. "I'm excited about that and thankful for the opportunity I have to go out and lead this football team down to Texas to play against SMU."
It will be another big test for Brown's young team. Through the first five games of the season, 13 different players have made their first career starts. That total leads the ACC and ranks tied for fifth in the nation. In addition, 30 redshirt or true freshmen have seen action this season. This young group, along with the Orange's upperclassmen, will try to rebound against a squad that hasn't lost a conference game since 2022, as members of the American Athletic Conference, boasting a 17-game league winning streak. Brown knows that dealing with adversity is part of the maturing process for every player, regardless of age.
"Sometimes it's experience," Brown replied to being asked about how quickly players mature. "You have to go through some things in life in order to be ready. No matter how much they tell you - until you go through it, you don't really want to listen to it. There's also just certain things with myself – just like the class piece – everything has to be legit. Everything has to be right. When you're completely living right, then I think all the good will come that way.
"Everything we do, we want it to be done the right way," Brown continued. "We want it to be something you'll be able to sustain, that's what DART is about. That's what CCT is, being committed, caring, and trust. Although we may have lost a couple of football games, or whatever that may be, there's a lot of gains going on in life and there's different things that they are learning from those games about stuff that may have happened that week that they might not have done right that they'll be able to use as fathers and husbands. For me, sometimes, if it's a loss you have to take to develop seven more kids, sometimes you're going to have to take that loss because that's a part of the game. That's why kids pick Syracuse, so they can be developed. They want to be developed in all aspects of their lives, not just win a bunch of games so that way everybody is happy. I like the other side sometimes; I like the fact that everybody is against you. I like being the underdog a lot, that sometimes shows you how tough you are and what you can come out of."
Syracuse enters Saturday's game with a 3-2 overall record, including a 1-1 mark in ACC play. SMU is 2-2 overall and opens league play against the Orange. Saturday's game will be the second all-time meeting between the schools. The first took place 93 years ago in 1932. The Mustangs traveled to Central New York to face the Orange in Archbold Stadium. SMU came away with a 16-6 victory.
The Orange will look to continue their trend of bouncing back after a loss under Brown's direction. Syracuse is 4-0 in games following a loss since the start of the 2024 season. In his coaching career, including time as an assistant, Brown has avoided back-to-back losses at any point since the 2021 season at Rutgers.
The Orange are no strangers to road games in October. Saturday's game is the seventh-straight October road contest dating back to the 2023 season. But unlike the last two seasons, Syracuse will host two home games in October in addition to Boston College in the regular-season finale in November. Tickets for all three games are available at Cuse.com/FootballTickets.
Saturday's game marks the second time Syracuse will face a College Football Playoff team from a year ago in its last three outings, both of which will have been played on the road. Overall, four of last year's College Football Playoff teams are on the 'Cuse schedule this season.
"They're a good football team, they were a playoff team last year, so we get the opportunity to go out and compete," Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said. "I'm excited about that and thankful for the opportunity I have to go out and lead this football team down to Texas to play against SMU."
It will be another big test for Brown's young team. Through the first five games of the season, 13 different players have made their first career starts. That total leads the ACC and ranks tied for fifth in the nation. In addition, 30 redshirt or true freshmen have seen action this season. This young group, along with the Orange's upperclassmen, will try to rebound against a squad that hasn't lost a conference game since 2022, as members of the American Athletic Conference, boasting a 17-game league winning streak. Brown knows that dealing with adversity is part of the maturing process for every player, regardless of age.
"Sometimes it's experience," Brown replied to being asked about how quickly players mature. "You have to go through some things in life in order to be ready. No matter how much they tell you - until you go through it, you don't really want to listen to it. There's also just certain things with myself – just like the class piece – everything has to be legit. Everything has to be right. When you're completely living right, then I think all the good will come that way.
"Everything we do, we want it to be done the right way," Brown continued. "We want it to be something you'll be able to sustain, that's what DART is about. That's what CCT is, being committed, caring, and trust. Although we may have lost a couple of football games, or whatever that may be, there's a lot of gains going on in life and there's different things that they are learning from those games about stuff that may have happened that week that they might not have done right that they'll be able to use as fathers and husbands. For me, sometimes, if it's a loss you have to take to develop seven more kids, sometimes you're going to have to take that loss because that's a part of the game. That's why kids pick Syracuse, so they can be developed. They want to be developed in all aspects of their lives, not just win a bunch of games so that way everybody is happy. I like the other side sometimes; I like the fact that everybody is against you. I like being the underdog a lot, that sometimes shows you how tough you are and what you can come out of."
Syracuse enters Saturday's game with a 3-2 overall record, including a 1-1 mark in ACC play. SMU is 2-2 overall and opens league play against the Orange. Saturday's game will be the second all-time meeting between the schools. The first took place 93 years ago in 1932. The Mustangs traveled to Central New York to face the Orange in Archbold Stadium. SMU came away with a 16-6 victory.
The Orange will look to continue their trend of bouncing back after a loss under Brown's direction. Syracuse is 4-0 in games following a loss since the start of the 2024 season. In his coaching career, including time as an assistant, Brown has avoided back-to-back losses at any point since the 2021 season at Rutgers.
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