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When the Syracuse Orange head down to PAWS ARF on Saturday to face the UConn Huskies, they’ll be underdogs according to Vegas. This should be nothing new for SU. They haven’t won a game on the road since beating Wake Forest 30-7 in 2014.
Read that statistic again, because it doesn’t get easier to stomach. Syracuse hasn’t won a road game since October 18, 2014 (coincidentally, a game I attended).
It’s not as if they haven’t had opportunities to do so. The Orange have lost eight straight home games since the Wake win, though every one of them has been an in-conference matchup. SU hasn’t won a non-conference road game since earlier in 2014, vs. Central Michigan. Its last non-home win against an AAC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 or SEC opponent was the 2013 Texas Bowl vs. Minnesota.
In 2010, Syracuse set a record for road wins in a single season with five. Just six years later, they haven’t won one in nearly two years.
You know how and why this happened. And while the “streak” doesn’t necessarily matter in the big scheme, the results of it do. The Orange have found zero success away from the Carrier Dome of late, and just slightly more in their home stadium. The program has gone just 5-15 since that Wake victory, and are 5-7 at home in that timeframe.
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Even if SU fans are the only ones really noticing such a trend, it would go a long way toward turning the page for the program if the Orange grab a win on Saturday. Doing so would prove things are different under the stewardship of new head coach Dino Babers. It would show that the new, faster style of football Babers brings to the Northeast is a better alternative to what UConn and the rest of the Northeast largely endorse. And yeah, it would also be another fun way to mock the Huskies.
So, please, Syracuse, end this road futility on Saturday and beat UConn. You have three pretty winnable contests away from home this year (UConn, Boston College, Wake Forest), and this would certainly help us feel better about your prospects in all of them. A scarred fan base thanks you immensely.