Cal makes the return trip to Syracuse after the Bears lost to a ranked Syracuse in Berkeley in 2024, when the #21 ranked Orange flustered QB Fernando Mendoza en route to a comfortable 33-25 win. Unfortunately for Cal, Syracuse is looking more like the formidable 2024 squad than the 2025 one that ended last year with 8 straight losses.
Syracuse started the 2025 season off strong with a 3-1 record behind Notre Dame transfer QB Steve Angeli, but went the rest of the year 0-8 without him, as they pivoted to a run-heavy offense without their Kyle McCord-like passer.
I don’t really have all that much to say about Syracuse, with whom we share very little college football history. So instead, here are some Syracuse fans from their very colorful stadium.
You’ve got the good:
The bad:
And the ugly colorful:
Syracuse opened the season with a thorough dismantling of an overmatched FCS opponent, New Hampshire. Syracuse scored in nearly every phase of the game: on offense through the air and on the ground; on defense with a safety and a scoop-and-score (and added an interception); and on special teams with a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, and so on. Unfortunately, it’s hard to really gauge where this Syracuse team is against such an FCS opponent, and Cal looks to be their first real test to see if this team can recapture their 2024 magic.
Let’s get into it.
Quarterback
Steve Angeli returns this season after last year’s season was cut short by injury. Angeli, originally a Notre Dame transfer, helped lead Syracuse to a promising 3-1 start with a win over Clemson. However, after a season-ending Achilles injury late in the Clemson game, Syracuse went winless the rest of the season (0-8) as they struggled to replace his production on offense.
Angeli is primarily a traditional pocket passer, although he did show some mobility buying time in the pocket and the occasional scramble. After watching 24 games of UCLA and Wagner football, I was so shocked to again see competent quarterback play, and nearly took a highlight clip the very first time I saw Angeli make a quick and correct read on offense. He’s got decent arm strength, plus accuracy, and a strong command of the offense.
Here Angeli makes a nice read and makes a nice throw on time and on target:
In contrast to some quarterbacks who hesitate an extra beat before throwing, Angeli is decisive, and even uses his pump fake to set up the defense:
Here Angeli fires a rope:
And another plus-accuracy throw:
Angeli is able to place the ball where only his receiver can get it:
And again:
Angeli generally handles pressure well and will keep his eyes downfield as he looks to make a play. Here Angeli is pressured, but he sits in the pocket and still makes a nice throw into a tight window to his receiver:
Here’s another example of Angeli fitting his throw into a tight window:
Angeli was much more capable reading what the defense gives him, and here Angeli again finds his window:
While Angeli isn’t going to tear the field up like Iamaleava, he still showed decent mobility and was able to scramble when necessary, and would take the occasional designed run or two:
Here Syracuse runs the read-option just to keep the defense guessing:
And here Syracuse uses the run game to set up the deep ball later:
Here Angeli survives pressure and buys enough time to find his receiver (for a highlight catch of his own by the tight end, David Clement):
I have no idea how Angeli survived this sack, but it speaks to his ability to survive in the pocket:
Here Angeli shows he’s not afraid to stand in the pocket to make the throw (which probably would have been caught had it not been for defensive pass interference):
Although Angeli showed decent mobility last season, I suspect Syracuse may cut down on the designed runs, RPOs, etc., as Angeli is returning from a season-ending torn Achilles:
Although Angeli posted a respectable 10 TDs/2 INTs in his 4 games last season, he did get away with a number of should-be interceptions. It’s almost halftime, but he forces this throw:
Angeli also ate a number of sacks that could probably have been avoided:
Here Angeli’s throw on the run and awkward throwing motion results in an underthrow for an interception:
Here Angeli struggles a bit after rolling out of the pocket:
However, I did see that Angeli had some of that Jared Goff magic; by which I mean the pooch punt:
After a difficult season filling in for Angeli, backup QB Rickie Collins transferred to Kennesaw State, where he’ll switch places with Kennesaw State transfer Amari Odom, who led Kennesaw State to a 9-2 record in the regular season and the C-USA Championship. Odom reportedly has a big arm and is more of a threat on the ground, although he mainly played mop-up game manager duties last week against New Hampshire:
Interesting fact I learned from Roxy Bernstein in last week’s game: Odom’s dad, DeWayne Odom, played linebacker for Cal (1987-1990), while his mom Trisha Stafford-Odom played basketball at Cal and is in the Cal Athletics Hall of Fame. Also transferring in is Georgetown QB Danny Lauter, who I did see play in their match against Wagner, although I wouldn’t expect to see him in anything other than a backup role.
However, we here at WriteForCalifornia believe in the utmost thoroughness, and hence I am including a Danny Lauter highlight simply because I can:
Probably also worth mentioning is the arrival of former 5-star QB Malachi Nelson, who arrives after stops at USC (where he sat on the bench behind Caleb Williams and Miller Moss), Boise State (where he lost the QB competition to Maddux Madsen), and UTEP (where he won the starting job to start the season, but was ultimately benched for Skyler Lochlear after leading UTEP to a 1-5 record with the sole win against an FCS squad).
I feel like Cal is destined for a postseason matchup with Texas so that they can finally complete their tour of the 2023 class of 5-star QBs with Arch Manning (Cal will see Jackson Arnold in a few weeks at UNLV). Apparently 2023 was not a great year for quarterback evaluations.
But back to the main point; Angeli is much better operating out of structure and has a much better command of the field than Cal’s week one opponents, and so he’ll be a much different test to the Cal defense.
Running back
Syracuse lost nearly all of last season’s rushing production with their leading rusher last season RB Yasin Willis transferring to Kansas and the second leading rusher RB Will Nixon out of eligibility. Based on the opening week, there will be no shortage of competition for touches.
Syracuse’s only returning running back with more than 35 rushing yards is the sophomore Tylik Hill, who demonstrated some nice shiftiness in limited play time last year:
But if last week was any indication, he’ll have a much bigger role this season, as he got the early start:
He showed some nice patience and an ability to find a seam:
And here’s that shiftiness again:
The biggest surprise in the opener was the arrival of true freshman RB Shavane Anderson Jr., who ran for 102 yards and 3 touchdowns last week against New Hampshire. Like Hill, Anderson Jr. showed some nice speed and slipperiness:
Here Anderson Jr. does a great job of keeping his balance after a hit, spinning off a tackle and finding his way into the endzone:
This was Anderson Jr.’s best run of the night, and ESPN’s cameras malfunctioned in the middle of it, but look at the move he puts on the safety crashing down on him:
Syracuse also brought in some experienced transfers; Jackson State transfer RB Ahmad Miller and LSU transfer Ju’Juan Johnson. Both players were listed as inactive for the season opener.
Ahmad Miller had a very productive year at Jackson State, leading the SWAC last year with 1,054 rushing yards (including five 100+ yard games). Miller had a number of explosive plays:
Miller has decent speed, and does a good job of finding his lane and keeping his legs moving forward:
Miller wasn’t typically the goal line back, but he did show that he was also able to punch it in:
LSU’s Ju’Juan Johnson has a much more limited sample size of plays to draw on, but I’ll do my best. A similar size to Miller (they’re both listed at 6’0”, ~210 lbs), Johnson was also a track athlete in high school, where he competed at the Louisiana State championships in the 400m (and ran the 2nd leg of the state championship-winning 4x200m relay). Here he shows some of that speed:
Syracuse was a run-heavy team last year after they lost QB Steve Angeli—with the mobile QB Rickie Collins at the helm, and some strong running backs behind him—but I expect that we’ll see a much more pass-heavy offense this year, similar to the 2024 Syracuse team that went 10-3 with QB Kyle McCord. However, the emergence of Shavane Anderson Jr. and Tylik Hill will definitely give this offense some much-needed balance.
Receivers
The highlight of this section when I started this article in the off-season was going to be the highly recruited 5-star WR Calvin Russell III (Syracuse’s first and only 5-star), who committed to Syracuse over Alabama, Oregon, Georgia, Miami, LSU, Michigan, and Florida, and so on. A two-sport athlete, Russell III was offered to play both football and basketball by all of the teams in his final four (and Michigan pulled hard for him), but ultimately chose Syracuse for the ability to play both sports and for his connection to head coach Fran Brown (who had been recruiting him since middle school). Russell only spent one full year as a wide receiver (when former NFL QB Teddy Bridgewater became head coach at his high school, Miami Northwestern, in 2024), as he played quarterback for his struggling high school team prior to then. Russell is 6’5’, rangy, extremely athletic, elusive in open space, and a physical pass catcher in traffic with great body control (the basketball background probably helps). He’s reportedly a bit raw as a route runner, but that should be expected given his limited play time at the position.
Unfortunately, Calvin Russell tore his Achilles in April, and may not have the immediate impact a 5-star normally would as a result. (The NCAA’s new 5-in-5 rule may lead to him avoiding a redshirt year, however).
If Russell is limited (and he appears to be), I’d expect to see either Umari Hatcher (who missed the 2025 season with an injury) or Miami (OH) transfer Cole Weaver in his place. When healthy, Hatcher was a deep threat. He entered the transfer portal this off-season, but returned to Syracuse after the departures of Darrell Gill Jr. and Johntay Cook (both to Ole Miss).
You can find Umari Hatcher’s original 2024 highlights in the 2024 WFC Syracuse Preview. Although it turns out I used to be more selective in the highlights I would include in an article, because I still had more. Here are the others:
And again:
Hatcher did get off to a hot start in the season-opener and doesn’t appear to have lost a step. He was indeed the deep threat receiver, and he made a great catch here:
And he showed off his nice catch radius with this nice adjustment to the ball:
Cole Weaver was Miami (OH)’s best receiver last season. Although he didn’t have burner speed, he’d often make nice catches down the sideline:
Here he creates some yards:
And here he fights his way into the endzone:
His size posed a problem to his opposing FCS corner:
Returning at the slot is the true sophomore Darien Williams, who I thought did a good job of navigating the open space in a defense:
Here Williams makes a nice catch on a pass thrown a bit behind him:
And here Williams shows that he’s dangerous in open space:
FSU transfer Elijah Moore only has a couple catches under his belt, but he’s another big, rangy target at the outside receiver position:
And again:
The other slot receiver is Tyshawn Russell (who, like quite a few other Syracuse players, is returning from a major injury). Here he runs a nice slant:
And here he does a nice job of making himself open:
However, even with his limited playing time, I did see quite a few drops:
These look like concentration drops, but not what you want to see on 3rd downs:
An under the radar player I am expecting to have an impact this year for Syracuse is the Western Kentucky transfer, tight end Noah Meyers. Meyers appears to be more of the receiving TE to David Clement’s blocking TE. Here Meyers broke off a big play, although he had the ball punched out just short of the goal line:
It’s worth mentioning that Syracuse did try some trickery with their blocking tight ends last week. Syracuse lined up in multiple tight end sets, and then sent those tight ends on routes far more than I was used to seeing last year (perhaps trying to put the opposite of their usual tendencies on tape or give defenses something to think about?), including on a 4th and goal line situation. Here Clement showed some receiving chops:
Also joining Syracuse this season is JUCO transfer Zamondre Merriweather and Penn State transfer Matthew Outten (neither of whom have appeared in a D1 game prior to this season, so I have resorted to Hudl highlights for these guys).
Merriweather is another tall, rangy outside receiver, and he shows nice hands here:
A lot of Merriweather’s highlights were catches in traffic:
Merriweather did play some early snaps against New Hampshire last week, but I only saw him commit offensive pass interference and draw a defensive pass interference call:
Matthew Outten, on the other hand, demonstrated a lot of nice after-the-catch ability, and was used in a variety of ways to get him the ball (jet sweeps, wildcat snaps, etc):
That was in fact how Syracuse decided to use him in the opener. He lined up both at wide receiver and at running back (though very late in the game) for a variety of run plays:
And at RB:
Although Syracuse has some talent at receiver, there’s a lot of inexperience, and a lot of players returning from injury, which makes this group a bit of question mark for the upcoming season.
Conclusion
Well, it’s a lot harder to be optimistic after what happened last week, but the oddsmakers are expecting this to be a close game. While Cal opened the season with a marquee matchup, Syracuse (perhaps more wisely) opted to shake off the rust with an easier opponent as they finally broke their 8-game losing streak. Although it’s easy to see how hopelessly overmatched their FCS opponent was, Syracuse does have some issues they will be looking to clean up: Syracuse missed 2 PATs last week against UNH and had tons of holding penalties that were probably not necessary against such an overmatched opponent (Syracuse racked up 12 penalties for 125 yards). It’s hard to draw too many conclusions after watching an FCS buy-game, but I think Syracuse’s defensive line looked stout, while their secondary will (hopefully) be challenged by JKS, who will be much more equipped to capitalize on mistakes by that secondary.
As always,
Go Bears.
You can find my full clips here.
Good preview of things to come this Saturday Christopher. I hope Cal plays well and we win this game. Go Bears! And tackle better doggone it!
Go Bears!