Syracuse (3-4, 0-3 Atlantic Coast) travels to Tallahassee, Florida, a place it’s never won, to play Florida State (3-4, 1-2) on Saturday. The Orange are looking to pick up their first conference win of the season and are the only winless ACC team in conference play.

The Seminoles are coming off a two-point loss at No. 25 Wake Forest while the Orange’s home comeback attempt against Pittsburgh fell short in a 27-20 loss.

Here’s how our beat writers think the game will shake out.

Eric Black (5-2)
Down Bad
Florida State 31, Syracuse 23

The Seminoles aren’t a great team. They’re 3-4, just like the Orange, and they’re coming off two-straight losses, just like the Orange. But they’re certainly at least a good team, something that Syracuse doesn’t quite have the right to call itself at this point. Florida State has defeated two Power 5 teams this year, two more than SU has. That includes a dominant 31-13 win over NC State a few weeks ago, the same team Syracuse lost to on Oct. 10, 16-10. And despite having lost two games in a row, the Seminoles’ opponents in those games were the two best teams in the ACC. Between the injury concerns and question marks at quarterback and the continued display of ineptitude by one of the worst offensive lines in the country, a road win at Doak Campbell is too much to ask for of this SU team right now.

Andrew Graham (5-2)
Different opponent, same result
Florida State 27, Syracuse 16

After he’d retired from coaching, legendary FSU head man Bobby Bowden sat in the booth for a quarter of an FSU game and, when asked by the commentators to choose between having the coaching abilities he had the talent he could recruit — in essence, what’s more important: good coaching or good players? — Bowden chose players. It’s that simple. These teams both have notable failings and issues that aren’t getting coached away this season, but Florida State’s players are better than Syracuse’s. That’s not to say the Orange won’t hang around — again, both of these teams are both lifeless at the moment — but I’ll always take the bad team with four- and five-star recruits playing at home over the bad team with three-star recruits playing on the road.

Josh Schafer (6-1)
Overmatched
Florida State 27 Syracuse 13

Florida State and Syracuse have equal records but not equal performance through seven games. Three of the Seminoles losses came against current Top 25 members and the other came against Virginia, which is currently first in the Atlantic Division. The only common opponent between SU and FSU is North Carolina State. While the Orange lost 16-10, the Seminoles beat the Wolfpack 31-13. Sure, FSU hosted NC State but Syracuse will have to play in Doak Campbell Stadium as well. With nearly 80,000 fans screaming, a top 50 pass rush and questionable quarterback health, Syracuse has a lot stacked against it. Then bring in FSU’s star running back Cam Akers, who already has 773 rushing yards, and FSU just has a little bit more going for it than Syracuse. The Orange may salvage this season, but on the road against a team full of four and five-star recruits isn’t the week to do it.

Published on October 25, 2019 at 12:13 pm