Like fellow ACC cellar-dweller Wake Forest, Syracuse got a head start on the rest of its ACC comrades in starting the 2014 season. Like the Demon Deacons, the Orange received an early taste of just how brutal 2014 would be.
A Friday night opener with FCS Villanova turned into a one-point double overtime win, hardly the statement Syracuse was looking for as it embarked on Year 2 of both the ACC era and the Scott Shafer era. The victory over the Wildcats also provided an early glimpse at the turmoil that would engulf the Orange offense throughout their underwhelming 3-9 campaign.
Quarterback Terrel Hunt, who looked so promising down the stretch last season in leading Syracuse to a 7-6 season, got ejected in the first half of the opener for punching a defensive player. The offense sputtered without him, and it rarely fared much better when faced with a similar situation later in the season.
Hunt would go down with a season-ending broken left fibula in an Oct. 3 loss to Louisville. That weekend, Shafer stripped George McDonald of his offensive coordinator duties. McDonald's response was not exactly diplomatic, as he said he would not have left his previous post at Arkansas had he known he would be on such a short leash. He later apologized, but the awkwardness certainly lingered.
With a starting quarterback sidelined, and an assistant coach angered, things hardly got better for Syracuse. Backup quarterback Austin Wilson suffered a head injury. Backup to the backup, A.J. Long, suffered a nerve injury to his throwing arm. Three different signal-callers started a game -- Hunt and Long started five, while Wilson started two -- and four ended up playing. The fourth man of that group, Mitch Kimble, said after the season that he intends to seek a transfer upon semester's end.
When your punter (Riley Dixon) is tied for second on the team in touchdown passes (1), you know you have a problem.
The offense sputtered throughout. Syracuse ranked 100th or worse in a number of different categories, most notably scoring (17.1 ppg), total offense (329.3 yards per game), yards per play (4.9), passing yards (184.08 ypg), first downs per game (16.8), third down conversion rate (34.1 percent) and red zone efficiency (40 percent).
The Orange's raw QBR (33.1) and adjusted QBR (39.5) both ranked among the nation's worst as well.
The disappointing part is that the offense undid a defense that was good enough to win at least a few more games. Syracuse ranked in the top 30 nationally in total defense (349.2 ypg) and yards per play (5.0). The Orange's rushing defense was stout, too, giving up just 3.39 yards per carry, good for 19th nationally.
The offense was hardly helpful even when at full strength, unable to make a five-loss Notre Dame team pay for five turnovers in a 16-point loss. That came one week after losing to five-loss Maryland at home by 14, in a game the Orange out-gained the Terrapins by 220 total yards. (Two turnovers did the home team in.)
Later in the year, Syracuse turned it over three times, including an 82-yard pick-six, to lose by seven at home to an NC State team that had not won a league game since 2012. The Orange also wasted a four-turnover effort by Clemson in a 10-point loss one week earlier.
Where Syracuse goes from here will be telling about the future of the program. The Orange entered this fall talking eight-win seasons but took a big step back, winning just one league game and ending the season on a five-game skid. Things will only get more difficult now, too, in an Atlantic Division that includes a rising Louisville team that is knocking on the door of the conference's heavyweights.