Syracuse Orange Season Recap: What Happened to the Orange Bowl?

Remember this enthusiasm? Remember how after an emotional family weekend game against West Virginia everyone and their mothers watching were ready to have the Orange make a return to national prominence?

One horrendous and gut-wrenching, five-game losing streak later, the Orange finish the season with more questions than there were after their shaky start.

In retrospect, while the general feeling around this team is disappointment, the end result was what was expected after the 4-2 start the Orange posted.

Scarily close wins against Wake Forrest, Rhode Island, and Tulane had fans asking about the consistency of the offense, durability and physicality of the defense and the Achilles heel the special teams presented.

What happened was that Orange fans claimed lack of execution as the reason for the narrow wins.

The talent was there. There were skilled players at skilled positions, but no unit performed at 100 percent any week.

This is what led to the hype after the West Virginia upset.

In this game, the Mountaineers came out flat and the Orange came ready to play. There were literally no holes you could find within Syracuse’s execution or game plan and everyone in the nation saw the POTENTIAL the Orange had.

I cannot stress potential enough because in the end, this season will be remembered not for the cardiac kids to start the season or the dream team that made WVU look pathetic, they will be remembered for the potential they never fulfilled.

Over the next few days, we will be looking at the different aspects of Syracuse football and how they performed this season, and who on the team can and will be a playmaker next season.

This was a disappointing year. We get it.

Now let’s see what Doug Marrone can learn from this season and change for the next make-or-break year.

Up Next: Syracuse Orange Offense: High Flying Attack Grounded in Big East.