Roughly 30,000 people watched the debut of the 2015 Syracuse Orange, a 47-0 whooping of Rhode Island.
Eighty-five days later, about 30,000 fans again gathered in the Dome to watch the final game of the slog that was the 2015 season. The result of that contest was a surprising 20-17 victory over Boston College. An unexpected outcome because SU finished the campaign 4-8 after starting out 3-0, and because it was announced prior to the finale that head coach Scott Shafer wouldn’t be back the following season.
At the time, the football program was suffering from a nearly fatal combination of poor play, questionable-to-abysmal coaching and fan ambivalence.