There are some who believe the Orange will struggle to be .500, as Vegas has the Syracuse win total at 4.5. There are those with a much higher expectation this season, though. And The Athletic’s Austin Mock is one of those writers. He believes the Orange can find themselves in the league title game, and at that point you’re four quarters away from winning the ACC.
In the outlet’s annual bold predictions roundup, Mock’s call was direct: “Syracuse will contend for a berth in the ACC championship game.” As crazy as this might sound, he’s not alone. Earlier in the offseason we dissected how some prediction models have Syracuse’s chances of winning the ACC shockingly high. On the one hand, this team is picked 12th in the ACC preseason poll. On the other hand, winning the league is on the table according to some insiders.
Then, in the ACC season preview earlier this week, Mock made a second bold call, this time about Syracuse’s game vs. Clemson specifically. He predicted it would be “a one possession game” for Clemson, and didn’t stop there on his read of the Tigers’ broader trajectory: “I think the glory days of Dabo Swinney’s tenure are long gone, and honestly, it wouldn’t shock me if the bottom fell out for Clemson this season.”
If Clemson is genuinely declining the way Mock suggests, and Syracuse is in a tight game vs. the Tigers, that has big ramifications. The Orange upset the Tigers 34-21 last season, sending Dabo Swinney to the worst start of his career. If the Orange beat Clemson in early November that’s a major pivot point for the season.
There’s not a lot of automatic wins on the Syracuse schedule. So If Mock’s read on Clemson’s decline is right, that game stops being a trap and starts being an opportunity for the Orange. That would be a big swing game in the ACC standings, and a chance for the Orange to get a critical win. If the Tigers are coming down as the Orange are going up, then ACC title-contention might actually be in the cards.
Two predictions, one writer, zero coincidence. Syracuse fans should be rooting for both of them to be right, because they likely need each other to come true.
