Sluggish out of blocks, Syracuse appears to be like to have ‘enjoyable’ vs. UConn

After a humbling season opener, Syracuse coach Fran Brown stated he hopes a extra relaxed environment will result in higher outcomes Saturday afternoon when his workforce hosts UConn in non-conference motion.

Coming off a 10-win season in Brown’s first yr on the sideline, the Orange fell behind 17-0 towards then-No. 24 Tennessee final Saturday. Syracuse made a little bit of a comeback however by no means really threatened the Volunteers in a 45-26 defeat in Atlanta.

Steve Angeli, a switch from Notre Dame, threw for a career-high 274 yards, whereas Yasin Willis ran for 91 yards and three scores. The areas the place the Orange struggled included dashing protection (6.2 yards per carry) and third-down protection (7 of 12 conversions allowed).

Perhaps the heightened expectations for 2025 bought one of the best of Syracuse, which can look to rebound towards a UConn workforce that it has overwhelmed 5 straight instances.

“We’re just ready to go out and have some fun this weekend. I’m still going to make sure the players have fun, though,” Brown stated. “It’s important that they still have fun and understand that there’s just no moral victories in it. We’re 0-1, and that’s not a good deal. We want to get on the winning side of the column, so we can continue to try to go face the things we need to face.”

UConn (1-0) trounced Central Connecticut 59-13 on Saturday as Skyler Bell caught two landing passes, together with an 80-yard scoring strike. Joe Fagnano completed with three passing TDs and one dashing rating, whereas Cam Edwards racked up 115 yards and a landing on simply six carries.

If something, Huskies coach Jim Mora Jr. is attempting to make sure that his prices don’t undergo a lapse in focus after their resounding Week 1 victory.

“Every day is a new day. … We focus on being the best we can every day,” Mora stated. “We make the corrections on Sunday and Monday, and then we move onto Syracuse. … We focus. We reset. … And then you have to focus on a really good team this week.”

–Field Level Media