Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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38 OCT. 29, 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: SYRACUSE ange with 32 tackles. He also had 2 of his team's 5 interceptions. Advantage: Even SPECIAL TEAMS Through six games, Notre Dame still hadn't pro- vided much to report in these units. It ranked 100th in punt return defense, 50th in punt returns, 114th in kickoff returns and 41st in kickoff return defense. The Irish and Orange both have two blocked kicks this season. For Syracuse, it features a much livelier profile in this category. Redshirt senior kicker Andre Szmyt is 11 of 12 on his field goal tries this season with a long of 50 yards. Syracuse also ranks seventh in the country in kickoff returns at 26.6 yards per attempt. This re- turn unit is led by sophomore wide receiver Trebor Pena, who was No. 2 in the ACC with a 27.6-yard kickoff return average. Advantage: Syracuse COACHING After Notre Dame's inexplicable 16-14 loss to Stan- ford Oct. 15 — and the up-and-down nature of this season — the jury remains out on the Freeman era. The Irish led in each of Freeman's first seven games as its head coach — dating back to the 2022 Fiesta Bowl — but had won only three of those before last weekend. Freeman's repeated explanations of self-evalu- ation and better execution make for good sound bites, but they hadn't done much to bring perfor- mance improvements or program assuredness. He appeared somewhat rattled during his press conference to preview the UNLV game, accepting accountability for the 3-3 start, but offering few answers on what needed to change. Hoping to find a better run-pass offensive bal- ance from last year, seventh-year Syracuse head coach Dino Babers hired new offensive coordinator Robert Anae in the offseason to install the same pro-style principles the latter successfully used at Virginia. And Anae's quick results are evident. Under its new OC, Syracuse averaged 36.0 points a game through its 6-0 start, tying it for 29th in the country in scoring. Advantage: Syracuse INTANGIBLES At the halfway post of this 2022 regular sea- son, the Irish still had scored only 10 points off a nation's worst 2 takeaways, and they were tied for 120th nationally with a minus-1.00 turnover margin. Syracuse enters this game coming off an impor- tant matchup at Clemson Oct. 22 that featured two undefeated teams aiming to earn the inside track for an ACC title. Following a terrific third year at Syracuse in 2018, when Babers led Syracuse to a 10-3 record and a bowl win, his Orange went just 11-24 (.314 winning percentage) from 2019-21. A 6-0 start to 2022 already made Babers and Syracuse bowl eligible — sapping any life out of hot-seat rumors — and kept modest hopes alive for a run at a conference title, and maybe more. Of note, Notre Dame travels to Syracuse for this game after playing its best football on the road this season, including a 21-10 loss at No. 2 Ohio State and a dominating 45-32 win over then-undefeated North Carolina. The Irish also posted a thorough 28-20 victory over No. 16 BYU in Las Vegas. Advantage: Even Head coach Dino Babers guided the Orange to their first 6-0 start since 1987 and just the third overall since 1935 (SU also accomplished that feat in 1959). PHOTO COURTESY SYRACUSE ATHLETICS