Last year Notre Dame put up 70 on Syracuse and didn't even need its offense to do most of the damage. This time the Orange bring back the guy who used to wear the other jersey.
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Best BetNotre Dame
Notre Dame walks into this one as a top-5 team against a Syracuse squad still rebuilding off a 3-9 season, and that gap is the whole story here. The Irish handled this same matchup by 63 points a year ago with backups getting run, which tells you the roster disparity isn't close. Angeli's return gives Syracuse a real quarterback, but one player doesn't erase a talent gap this wide.
Notre Dame
+CJ Carr returns as unquestioned starter, Heisman buzz
+Ranked top-5/6 nationally in early 2026 polls
+Crushed Syracuse 70-7 in last meeting
−Lost multiple defensive position coaches this offseason
−Blowout margin last year invites complacency risk
−Late-season trap-game spot after tough schedule
Syracuse
+Fran Brown landed program's best-ever recruiting class
+Steve Angeli reportedly healthy, motivated vs old team
+Started 3-1 before injuries derailed 2025
−Finished 2025 at 3-9 after 8 straight losses
−Defense got exposed repeatedly late last season
−Facing a top-5 roster with a wide talent gap
Notre Dame closed out 2025 at 10-2 and still got left out of the College Football Playoff, a snub that's fueling every preseason conversation about this program. CJ Carr is back for a second year as the starter after throwing for 2,741 yards and 24 touchdowns, and for the first time in Marcus Freeman's tenure both coordinators are returning too. Way-too-early polls have the Irish anywhere from No. 4 to No. 6 nationally, and this trip to the JMA Wireless Dome on Friday, November 27 lands right in the middle of a schedule built to get them back to the playoff they just missed.
Syracuse is starting from a much different place. Fran Brown's second season fell apart to a 3-9 finish after starting quarterback Steve Angeli tore his Achilles against Clemson, and the Orange dropped 8 straight to close it out. Angeli is reportedly back healthy for 2026, and there's an obvious subplot here: he transferred in from Notre Dame, and this is the game where he lines up against his old program. Brown backed up the rough finish with the best-ranked recruiting class in Syracuse history, which says more about the program's trajectory than about what happens on this particular night.
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The last meeting between these two wasn't close. Notre Dame ran up a program-record 70 points on Syracuse in 2025, with Jeremiyah Love turning 8 carries into 171 yards and 3 touchdowns while the defense and special teams scored 21 points before the offense even got going. That result pushed Notre Dame's edge in the series to 8-3 with 5 straight wins since 2008, and it's the kind of number that hangs over a rematch no matter how far out you're looking at it.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Nov 21?vs SMU—
Nov 14?vs Boston College—
Nov 7?vs Miami—
Oct 31?@ Navy—
Oct 16?@ BYU—
Oct 10?vs Stanford—
Oct 2?@ North Carolina—
Sep 25?@ Purdue—
Sep 19?vs Michigan State—
Sep 12?vs Rice—
Sep 6?vs Wisconsin—
Syracuse Orange
Nov 20?@ Boston College—
Nov 13?@ NC State—
Nov 6?vs Clemson—
Oct 30?vs SMU—
Oct 16?vs Louisville—
Oct 9?@ Virginia—
Oct 3?@ UConn—
Sep 17?@ Pittsburgh—
Sep 12?vs California—
Sep 5?vs New Hampshire—
Recent form.
Notre Dame's real question marks aren't on offense — they're on the defensive side, where position coaches in the D-line, secondary, and linebacker rooms all left this offseason. Nine of the top-10 tacklers are back and the portal brought in reinforcements like Keon Keeley and Tionne Gray, so the talent gap with Syracuse should still be wide even if the staff continuity is uneven. For Syracuse, everything hinges on whether Angeli, still working back from that Achilles injury, looks like the version of himself who helped the Orange start 3-1 before the wheels came off.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Syracuse Orange
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
There's a real trap-game angle buried in here for Notre Dame — blowing a team out by 63 the year before is exactly the setup that can breed a flat performance, especially this late in a long season. But talent gaps this size are hard to erase with motivation alone, and Syracuse still has to prove its defense can hold up after last season's collapse before anyone bets on an upset.
