SYRACUSE, NY - OCTOBER 13: Syracuse Orange fans storm the field after the team upset Clemson Tigers at the Carrier Dome on October 13, 2017 in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse defeats Clemson 27-24. Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

When you think of Syracuse football, you probably think of a basement-dwelling program that dreams of six-win seasons and mid-December bowl games. That’s understandable, because for the better part of the last 15 years that’s been the case.

Since 2002, the Orange have had three winning seasons and gone to four bowl games (they finished 6-6 in 2004 after losing the Champs Sports Bowl). After having the stability of two head coaches between 1981 and 2004, the program is currently on its fourth head coach since 2005, none of whom have spent more than four seasons at SU. The Orange entered this season with a 9-24 ACC record since joining the conference in 2013.

Longtime Syracuse fans try to explain that what you understand to be Syracuse Football is not actually what it’s supposed to be. That under Dick MacPherson and Paul Pasqualoni, the program went to 14 bowl games including a Sugar, Fiesta, and Orange, won or shared the conference title four times, and finished the season with 10 wins on five separate occasions.

Syracuse was never among the elites (at least not since 1959) but you could usually find them ranked somewhere in the No. 15-25 range. SU was a solid football program that attracted stars such as Don McPherson, Daryl Johnston, Marvin Harrison, Donovan McNabb, and Dwight Freeney. When you came to the Carrier Dome, you knew you were coming to The Loud House and needed to bring your very best with you.

It’s near impossible to explain to people that Syracuse can be that again. They look at what the Orange have been for 15 years and assume that’s the ceiling. But it’s not true. We’ve seen this program sustain thatt success. Syracuse may never be on the level of Alabama or Ohio State, but we don’t think it’s unreasonable to say SU has the potential to be a perennial bowl team that challenges the ACC’s elites every once in a while.

Syracuse’s historic 27-24 victory over No. 2 Clemson on Friday night might not be the proof that the Orange are on their way to renewed glory, but it felt like a signal to the rest of the nation that SU’s football program is not forever destined to be what you think it is.

Syracuse fans have been able to point at a few key reasons for the epic fall of the program. Pasqualoni shepherded the program through the ’90s and built on what Coach Mac started. However, SU football grew stale under his watch in the 2000s and his eventual firing felt inevitable. That was followed up by a poorly-timed decision by new AD Daryl Gross led to the hiring of Greg Robinson, arguably one of the worst head coaching hires in the history of college football. A decorated defensive coordinator, Robinson was out of his depth at a head coach, and the program bottomed out during his four-year tenure.

Under Gross’ watch, the focus was put on over-scheduling top opponents and NYC branding instead of scheduling smart and fostering the local fanbase. While similar schools such as Baylor, Duke, and Northwestern were being smart about building a foundation, Syracuse tried to be Oregon East without any real understanding (or money) to make it happen.

The only good thing to come out of the Greg Robinson Era is that it led to the hiring of Doug Marrone. The former Syracuse player said he had dreamed of one day coaching the Orange and brought a wave optimism with him to turn things around. His 25-25 record as SU head coach isn’t indicative of just how successful he was. He took one of the weakest football programs in the nation and turned it into an eight-win bowl team within two seasons, taking the team back to a second bowl game again two years later.

Unfortunately for the school, the NFL had eyes for Marrone, and he was gone from his “dream job” just as things were about to get really good.

Defensive coordinator Scott Shafer was elevated to maintain the level of success that Marrone had achieved, but his three-year tenure was a major backslide towards the Robinson years. His quick exit also coincided with the arrival of a new AD who had a keen interest in hiring his own head coach. Enter Dino Babers, and two years later Syracuse is knocking off the defending national champion on national television.

Like for so many of us, 2017 has been a strange year for Syracuse football. Thanks to a brutal schedule and the rebuilding process, most folks said SU was still a year away, including Babers himself. But the head coach was adamant that whenever he took over a new program, things usually clicked into place in “year two, game four.” That really didn’t seem possible when Syracuse lost at home to Middle Tennessee State in Week 3 (featuring defensive coordinator Shafer in a vengeance takedown). The team then lost a hard-fought road game against LSU before rebounding with a solid win over Pittsburgh to open ACC play.

It was against Clemson, however, in week seven, where it all truly came together for Babers and the Orange. The coach was off by three weeks.

Syracuse has been here before. The Orange have had plenty of “we’re back, baby” wins over the years. In 2007, Syracuse’s monumental upset of No. 18 Louisville was supposed to signal that Robinson was about to turn things around. Turned out that Louisville wasn’t actually that good, Syracuse lost the next week, and the program finished the year 2-10.

In 2012, the Orange went to Columbia to take on SEC squad Missouri without much hope. Not only did they win but they became bowl eligible. It looked like the win that would kickstart the new modern era of Syracuse football. Instead, Marrone left after the bowl game and the program started sliding backward.

Last year, Syracuse knocked off No. 17 Virginia Tech in the Dome, which introduced the nation to Babers’ unique locker room speech style. While the win gave Orange fans hope to a quick turnaround, they would go on to lose four of their five remaining games to finish 4-8.

Of course, beating the No. 2 team in the nation a year after they won the national title trumps all of those wins. As for the potential this game has to help remake the program, you have to go all the way back to 1984 when SU stunned No. 1 Nebraska in the Dome, 17-9. The dividends didn’t come immediately, but it’s hard not to see a direct line from that win and the 1987 Syracuse squad that went 10-0-1. Syracuse Football’s modern golden era (1987-1999) needed a foundation from which to build, and that epic, program-altering victory was that foundation.

That’s the potential of the Clemson win for the Orange in 2017. Maybe they won’t feel the payoff right away. Maybe they’ll even lose next week in Miami and people will jump off the bandwagon they just hitched a ride with.

But current AD John Wildhack and head coach Dino Babers have set Syracuse on a smart road back to success. The schedules get much easier here, as Wildhack seems to have realized the error of Gross’s ways. Babers’ system has finally been installed, and he’s got the weapons to make it work, not to mention some good-looking recruits waiting in the wings. And now every time a Syracuse coach walks into a recruit’s home, they can say, “Hey, did you catch that Clemson game?”

The foundation is set. Now all Syracuse has to do is keep winning. Easier said than done, but it finally feels doable.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.