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No soul on Syracuse’s football team has taken more of a mental beating over the past year than Kyle McCord. The former five-star recruit exuded potential out of high school and committed to Ohio State. He won his first 11 games as a starter. One 30-24 loss to Michigan on Nov. 25, 2023, though, caused the Buckeyes to throw him in the trash like a gallon of spoiled milk.

The only thing to rid oneself of self-loathing stink, whether deserved or not, is the sweet taste of revenge. So fast forward to Saturday, just over a year after McCord’s Ohio State fate was sealed, McCord — fresh off breaking SU’s single-season passing yards record — tossed for 380 yards and three touchdowns to beat Heisman-hopeful Cam Ward’s No. 8 Miami.

Minutes before Syracuse’s kickoff, Ohio State lost to Michigan in “The Game” for the fourth straight year. The Buckeyes scored 10 points. McCord’s successor, Will Howard, was dreadful. All McCord could do postgame Saturday was bow his head down and try as hard as possible to contain his laughter when asked about his former school’s blunder.

“Everything comes full circle,” he said with a wide smile, prompting Devin Grant, Jackson Meeks and LeQuint Allen Jr. to burst out laughing at the podium. They all knew.

McCord’s performance against Miami epitomizes what this Syracuse team is. It’s the team that set the standard for Fran Brown’s tenure. It’s the team that maximized its players’ potential, formerly a rarity in central New York. It’s the team that, finally, kicked SU’s northeast recruiting base into gear. Most importantly? It’s the team that proved its doubters wrong at every single turn.

Syracuse finished 2024 with a 9-3 record and three victories over top-25 teams. Brown became the second person since World War II to win at least eight games in his first year as an NCAA head coach. McCord became the Orange’s first 4,000-yard passer and set a litany of single-season program records. Coming back from a 21-0 deficit to upset the Hurricanes, SU’s largest comeback win ever and the end to Miami’s ACC title dreams, was the cherry on top.

As fans rushed the Dome turf in a fleeting state of pandemonium, it signified this is the team that revitalized SU’s program. It’s now a bonafide national threat, the closest it’s been to the program’s glory days of Jim Brown, Floyd Little and Ernie Davis running rampant while breaking tackles in leather helmets.

“It really goes back to Syracuse football, let’s go back to the history of being able to bring that back,” Brown said of what SU’s win over Miami means. “Jim Brown, Floyd Little, Ernie Davis, Larry Csonka, Tom Coughlin, there’s so many great men that played here … I just felt like we were disrespected when there’s a lot of great things that have happened here.”

After transferring to Syracuse from Ohio State, Kyle McCord set program records with 4,323 passing yards, 29 touchdown passes and 367 completions. Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer

Brown said, in his boisterous fashion, his goal was for Syracuse to win a national title this season. So his objective wasn’t met, as wild as it was. But setting Brown’s expectations aside, he helmed the Orange to their most consequential year of all time. If Curt Cignetti’s success at Indiana was out of the equation, Brown would be the lead horse for coach of the year.

McCord was the man he couldn’t have done it without. Brown said from the get-go McCord was Syracuse’s missing piece. He repeatedly heralded him as the best quarterback in the nation. Well, McCord ended the regular season with the most passing yards in the country and SU’s best statistical year ever by a quarterback in his possession.

Another doubted expectation? Another claim left invalid.

“I thought he was the best quarterback in the country at the time,” Brown said of McCord’s transfer from Ohio State. “And right now, (he’s) proving that he is the best quarterback in the country.”

This team wasn’t even supposed to make any waves. Seasons under first-year head coaches are reserved for rebuilding years, no matter the amount of talent brought in. Syracuse was picked to finish 12th out of 17 teams in the ACC Preseason Poll. That’s a fringe-bowl team. Instead, it clinched a bowl game by the first week of November and placed fourth in the conference.

The way Saturday’s game transpired shouldn’t be too much of a shock, either. The Orange have been resilient all year. They weathered a rollercoaster of a game to upset then-No. 25 UNLV on the road in overtime, came back from an 18-point home deficit to defeat a scrappy Virginia Tech squad and soundly answered embarrassments against Pitt and Boston College with a three-game winning streak to close the regular season.

You can say it’s Brown’s D.A.R.T. mentality for why his team doesn’t flinch in the face of adversity. But it was simply a culmination of his roster being properly assembled. Playmakers like Allen Jr., Meeks, Trebor Peña and Oronde Gadsden II were the perfect supporting cast for McCord to orchestrate an incredible offensive unit. Meanwhile, portal additions in Fadil Diggs and Grant, along with the retention of Marlowe Wax and Justin Barron, fortified SU’s defense.

Those elements showed up Saturday. On the grandest stage of the season, the Orange made all of the necessary plays to beat a team of Miami’s caliber.

It seemed like a shut-and-closed case once the Hurricanes embarked on a 21-0 start. Once McCord got going through the air, however, all bets were off. The Orange stormed back with 21 of their own unanswered points. From there, they responded to every blow they took.

Ward led a touchdown drive? McCord led his own. Yasin Willis fumbled? Grant punched the ball from Xavier Restrepo’s grasp en route to a 56-yard scoop and score. The Hurricanes had a chance to get the ball back with less than 2:00 left? Syracuse ran the clock out.

“Honestly, it means everything,” Grant said of SU’s victory. “It’s been awhile since (Syracuse) has been on a winning thing, not to try to talk down on my brothers that’s been here, but it’s been awhile. So to bring back that winning culture of ‘Cuse and show everybody that ‘Cuse is back, this is just the beginning.”

This is the win that validates everything for Syracuse. Its players who transferred in, like Grant and McCord, are fully rewarded for their decisions. It’s Dino Babers-era players who stayed when they didn’t have to — Gadsden, Barron, Wax and Allen Jr. — have newfound closure. November struggles are now a distant memory, solely tied to Brown’s predecessors.

Upsetting the Hurricanes gave all of SU’s players and coaches the opportunity to say they were a part of the team that turned Syracuse football into a force to be reckoned with. Yes, they didn’t win a national title, or even make the ACC Championship game. But this win was a necessary step for the Orange to be in contention among the sport’s upper echelon.

If one thing’s clear, beating Miami was Syracuse’s biggest win of the century. Undoubtedly. Who knew Ryan Day’s incompetence would lead to Brown and McCord spurring a program resurgence? Maybe the Ohio State head coach is guzzling the bottle of champagne Brown said he’d send him to curb the pain.

Cooper Andrews is the Managing Editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at ccandrew@syr.edu or on X @cooper_andrews.

Published on December 1, 2024 at 12:59 am