Syracuse QB Rickie Collins' problems are clear, but the solutions are not

When Steve Angeli went down with a season-ending injury against Clemson, I said that the offense did not need to change, at least not dramatically. The Orange had a deep group of playmakers around backup quarterback Rickie Collins. The LSU transfer was not as polished a passer, but he should be good enough to execute the offense Jeff Nixon had designed for Angeli.

I was wrong.

Syracuse’s offense has gone off the rails. Collins has been awful, the run game has disappeared and the receivers have not been as sharp. There is a lot that needs to change if SU is going to salvage its season, and it starts with Collins.

Pressure is mounting on Collins

This was always going to be a tough task. Angeli was phenomenal to open the season. Collins was suddenly taking over after having spent most of the previous month on the bench.

Make no mistake, the loss to SMU is not all on Collins. Neither is the loss to Duke. However, when you are the quarterback, you are going to be in the spotlight. Calls for true freshman quarterback Luke Carney to take the starting job are getting louder and louder from the fan base.

It’s not just the fans who are feeling frustrated with Collins, either.

QC/Offensive Specialist is fired up at Rickie Collins on the sideline right before halftime pic.twitter.com/Miu3Rk0F3P
— The Orange Zone (@TheOZpod) October 4, 2025

Despite flashing brilliance, Collins is missing too many plays

Collins is losing the trust of the coaching staff and the fanbase at a rapid rate. He is missing wide-open passes, taking bad sacks and struggling to make the right decisions. His first interception was a terrible read that he stared down the whole way before throwing a bad pass that his receiver had no chance of catching. It was a microcosm of why the offense has stalled with him at the helm.

There are moments of brilliance, though, too. He fired a ball down the seam to Justus Ross-Simmons in stride for a 52-yard gain in the second quarter. Unfortunately, that drive ended with Collins missing a wide-open Yasin Willis for what would have been a walk-in touchdown.

And despite all of that, the Orange nearly got themselves back into the game. SU came awfully close to recovering an onside kick as well that would have given them a chance to cut it to a one-score game.

The Orange has a decision to make in its bye week

While a week off would give the Orange a perfect opportunity to break in a new quarterback, somewhat ironically, against a Pitt team that just benched its incumbent starter for a true freshman with immediate success, I’m not ready to give up on Collins quite yet. The flashes are enough for me to believe the coaching staff needs to be patient and let him grow into the role.

However, the bye week is the perfect opportunity to make some strategic changes. The offense needs to change, though. Collins led the team in rushing, almost exclusively coming from scrambles when the play broke down.

Jeff Nixon needs to lean into the quarterback run game, calling some RPOs, read options and misdirections. It would give the offense a new element it lacked with Angeli. It will benefit Willis and Will Nixon as well if the defense has to genuinely account for Collins on every play. He is not going to suddenly become LaNorris Sellers or Taylen Green, but it should take the pressure off the passing game and make the offense less predictable.

At most, I think Collins has two games left to prove he deserves to be the starter for the rest of the season. Even if he struggles against Pitt, I have a hard time imagining Brown and Nixon will want to break in a true freshman quarterback on the road against a ranked Georgia Tech squad. However, Carney stepping in to start against UNC on Halloween night feels like a much softer launch, even if the opposing coach is Bill Belichick.

Bottom line, the clock is ticking for Collins. If he continues this way, turning the offense over to someone else couldn't make it much worse.

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