Orange Watch: A look at the 2025 Syracuse Football road game destinations

Much has been talked about all off-season just how hard the 2025 Syracuse football schedule was shaping up on paper overall.

That is mainly because the non-Dome portion of the schedule is so top heavy with games against three of the 12 College Football Playoff participant programs from a season ago, plus ACC road contests at Miami and Georgia Tech.

A combination of Peachtree, Palmetto, Ponies, Palms, and Pageantry mark the ’25 ‘Cuse road trips.

A Syracuse-Georgia connection to “Kickoff” the season.

Syracuse against Tennessee August 30 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (12:00 p.m. ET / ABC) in the first of two Aflac Kickoff Games Labor Day weekend, is essentially a Vols home game. Knoxville is just over a three-hour drive away, and close to 10,000 UT alums live in the sprawling metro area.

In what will be a homecoming of sorts for Fran Brown from his national championship, assistant coaching days over in Athens, SU will look for its second neutral field all-time win in Atlanta over a name SEC program, after beating Georgia in the 1989 Peach Bowl at old Fulton County Stadium.

The Orange will look to turn around their all-time ACC history at Bobby Dodd Stadium when they meet Georgia Tech October 25. Syracuse is 0-2 losing embarrassingly 56-0 under Scott Shafer in its first ACC season of 2013, then 31-22 in 2023 sealing Dino Babers’ fate ending his tenure as head coach.

Clemson fans leave their (Paw) Prints on everything they touch.

If this game kickoffs in the afternoon on September 20, it is likely to get toasty weather-wise even in late September inside cavernous Memorial Stadium on the Clemson campus.

If the game kickoffs off at night, it will certainly have, let us just say, a rather “robust” near sell-out home crowd inside the venue rooting on the Tigers, having enjoyed an afternoon of tailgating outside in a college town that gets super-charged on game day.

The cumulative score of Syracuse’s 0-5 record at Clemson since joining the ACC in 2013 is a little one-sided at 34-14.

A rare trip to the Lone Star State will spread the Syracuse football brand.

Syracuse has played just six football games in four Texas cities in its 135 seasons, but one of those was the most important victory in program history.

The Cotton Bowl win over Texas in Dallas in 1960 cemented the national championship credentials of the undefeated Orangemen.

The October 4 SMU game on “The Hilltop,” at the Mustangs’ intimate 32,000 seat on-campus stadium, will mark the first ACC game the ‘Cuse has played in Texas, which sounds like an unusual geographic contradiction, but is the reality of the college football today.

Warm up with a weekend trip to Miami in early November.

The beginning of November brings exquisite fall weather to South Florida, just as the temperatures turn cooler in the northeast.

Syracuse and Miami have only met twice over SU’s 12 ACC seasons, and now make it consecutive seasons of facing off when they play November 8 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

The ‘Cuse is 3-8 all-time in games at Miami dating to 1960, last winning in 1997. (If you are also a Bills fan, they play the Dolphins in the same stadium the next day, Nov. 9.)

The game-day football experience under the watchful eyes of “Touchdown Jesus.”

After a controversial last-second loss to the Irish in 1961 in South Bend, and a game in Yankee Stadium in ’63, SU and ND went 40 years without playing.

When they meet November 22 (3:30 p.m. ET / NBC) it will be the fourth game this century, one of which in 2020 was an ACC road defeat.

A frigid Notre Dame Stadium was also the site of one of the biggest upsets in Syracuse football history. Greg Robinson helped will his team to a last-minute 24-23 victory in the 2008 season finale, on his way out the door after a disastrous four seasons.

SUPPORT THE JUICE ONLINE

For more discussion on Syracuse athletics, visit our free Syracuse Orange discussion forum.