3 ACC football teams that will exceed expectations in 2024

2. Syracuse Orange

The Dino Babers era was both unpredictable and confusing. While there were more bad times than good, he still managed to surprise people every now and then with an impressive season.

Now, the Fran Brown era is beginning and people are already overlooking the Orange.

Sure, he's a brand-new head coach in a Power Four conference, but he just got done coaching defensive backs at Georgia. Yes, that Georgia. He was dubbed the No. 1 recruiter in college football by 247Sports during his time with the Bulldogs and that is already intriguing but the fact that he landed the No. 6 transfer class in the ACC should open some eyes.

I'm a Fran Brown believer.

Kyle McCord is also coming in as his quarterback after leading Ohio State to a double-digit win season in 2023 and he's going to help this coaching staff transition and the offense will be in good hands. He's not going to be afraid of this ACC slate as he faced some elite teams in Big Ten play last year.

I can see Syracuse starting the season 5-0 with wins over Ohio, Georgia Tech, Stanford, and Holy Cross all at home before going to Las Vegas to beat UNLV in a tricky non-conference game. The Orange will lose to NC State before a bye and then to Pitt right after it. I think they'll pull off an upset over Virginia Tech, split Boston College and Cal on the road and then beat UConn before a finale at home against an overrated Miami team.

This team could very well win seven games in year one of Brown. That would really make some noise.