Less than two weeks ago, the Syracuse Orange announced a three-game agreement with the Liberty Flames -- SU’s first real progress on the non-conference scheduling front since the Army series last year.
But on Monday, we received the second significant announcement around the Orange schedule in as many weeks:
NEWS: Home-and-home series with @WMU_Football scheduled for 2018/2019.
— Syracuse Football (@CuseFootball) June 5, 2017
Details ⤵️https://t.co/jOtiN5GTp3#OITNF pic.twitter.com/4qZ3stClnl
Syracuse will play the Western Michigan Broncos in each of the next two seasons -- visiting Kalamazoo, Mich. to open 2018 on September 1, then host WMU the following year on September 21 (week four of that season).
It’s unclear why we’re doing a home-and-home with WMU, when we’ve typically done two-for-ones with schools like this (Central Michigan, Liberty). But they’re still games, and beggars can’t be choosers with regard to getting these future schedules done anymore.
For those that may have forgotten, former Syracuse offensive coordinator Tim Lester is now the head coach at WMU. He’s a former Broncos QB, and will have a tall task to replace PJ Fleck, who left for Minnesota after leading Western Michigan to a MAC title and a Cotton Bowl bid last season. While Fleck was able to get a lot of talent in the door while at Western, it’s likely that trend (at least to the level it was, ranked in the 50s or 60s, nationally) drops down a bit.
This makes sense on a lot of fronts. SU has a relationship within the WMU athletic department in Lester, despite how Scott Shafer left. And the Orange have played a game against a Michigan program in three of the last four years (including this coming season). Three players on the current Syracuse roster are from Michigan, and two more are coming in the class of 2017. Defensive tackles coach Vinson Reynolds also came over from WMU last year.
The road opener is also a smart bit of scheduling, taking into account how tough it’s been for the Orange to get on TV in week one, and actually get fans into seats with these Friday-before-Labor-Day FCS games. As Dan and I discussed on a recent podcast, this sort of solution may become the norm.
Another road opener, something @JohnCassillo and I have been talking about, could be advantageous given Week 1 issues in Cuse https://t.co/M6x7bZyVg9
— Dan Lyons (@Dan_Lyons76) June 5, 2017
With five games announced recently, Syracuse is finally out ahead of scheduling a bit -- at least more so than any time in recent memory. Here’s what the next nine seasons look like:
2018: at Western Michigan, Wagner, Connecticut, at Notre Dame
2019: at Liberty, at Maryland, Western Michigan, Holy Cross
2020: at Wisconsin, Liberty
2021: Wisconsin, Liberty
2022: Notre Dame
2023: Army
2024: at Army
2025: Army, at Notre Dame
2026: at Army, at Notre Dame
Next two years done already? Huzzah! It’s nice to get off my soapbox for a bit and see that athletic director John Wildhack was definitely not bullshitting when he said they were working on schedules in early May. I like you, Wildhack. Let’s be friends.
But how does everyone else feel about this? WMU too tough? You horrified that we’ll have to watch a Tim Lester offense again? Share your own thoughts below.