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Syracuse watched from afar as three top-25 teams fell on Saturday, allowing it to jump up four spots to No. 18 in the AP poll. Prior to the Orange’s game against Virginia, head coach Dino Babers said he was happy about the No. 25 ranking in the USA Today Coaches Poll, but wanted to break into the top 20. That honor came on Sunday afternoon as well, a ranking that Babers said was “deserved” following SU’s first 5-0 start since 1987.

“Now we have to go out and prove that we deserve the faith that everybody is putting in us,” Babers said.

The Orange welcome their first ranked opponent — No. 15 NC State — to the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday. It’s the first time two ranked opponents will play in Syracuse since the opening game of the 1998 season. The two squads squared off last year in Raleigh, North Carolina, but Syracuse fell 41-17 after a dominant, 300-yard passing game from quarterback Devin Leary.

The two teams know each other well, Babers said. He faced off against Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren when he was at Northern Illinois and Babers coached Bowling Green.

A sixth straight win would mark its best start since that 1987 season, a season that ended with an 11-0-1 record, and would mark SU’s first win over a ranked opponent since it beat the Wolfpack, then-No. 22, in 2018.

Bye week

When Babers first saw the 2022 schedule, he was unhappy with the placement of the bye week. But after Syracuse went undefeated in its first five games, Babers said the weekend off came at a near-perfect time. Not quite an ‘A’, but ‘A-‘ timing for a team with a three-week stretch that features two top-25 teams and Notre Dame, whom the Orange haven’t beaten since 2008, ahead of them.

Babers said Syracuse is at a point where it needed to heal and allowing the team to rest or go home for a few days was a “pat on the back.”

“The main thing coming out of the bye for me is two things: You want to come back as healthy as you can, and we want to come back as fresh as we can,” Babers said.

The Orange just need to make sure they’re not “stale” against NC State. Babers’ teams have been overcome by opponents coming out of bye weeks in the past. Last year, Syracuse entered its late bye week coming off of a fifth win with three more opportunities to clinch bowl eligibility. After coming out flat against Louisville, SU proceeded to lose its final two games of the season and finish 5-7.

Devin Leary and NC State

Leary torched the Orange in last year’s loss to NC State, but the Atlantic Coast Conference Preseason Player of the Year left Saturday’s game against Florida State, grabbing his throwing shoulder. An MRI on Sunday reportedly came back clean, but Doeren told reporters that Leary “could be (back) this week, could be six weeks.”

With the announcement of an MRI after the game on Saturday, Babers said the Orange are now preparing for both him and backup Jack Chambers, a Charleston Southern graduate transfer. In a normal situation, the bye week would afford SU’s coaching staff plenty of time to prepare for Leary or Chambers, but the late timing of the injury set the coaching staff back in terms of research and preparation.

“Any guy with that type of moxie, somebody has been around as long as that kid, if he’s got an opportunity to step onto a football field, he’s gonna do it,” Babers said of Leary.

The rest of the Wolfpack are a talented group of upperclassmen that know the Orange well. The test of the game — one Babers compared to a 15-round heavyweight matchup — will be seeing which team improved the most from last year. By the end of Saturday, Babers said, each team will know where they stand.

A packed Dome, pre-snap penalties

Last week, Director of Athletics John Wildhack announced that the university had already sold over 40,000 tickets for Saturday’s game. Student tickets, for the first time this season, are already sold out. Babers said that some of the new coaches on staff have come up to him after games to comment on how loud the Dome was.

“I said ‘that’s not loud.’ You’re having a conversation with me after the game, and your voice is not gone,” Babers said. “Wait until you get 40 something.”

When asked about the persisting penalties from the offensive line group, Babers pointed to Robert Anae’s offense, which involves a great deal of pre-snap motions and shifts. The linemen, Babers said, need to be settled despite the movement behind them and adjustments from defenders. Syracuse set a program-high in penalties (18) in its first game against Louisville and averages 10 penalties per game so far this season.

“We also got to hold our water,” Babers said. “We’ve got to settle down.”

Published on October 10, 2022 at 1:27 pm

Contact Anthony: aalandt@syr.edu | @anthonyalandt