The Syracuse Orange football team's home suffered another close defeat on Saturday night, falling 34-26 against Louisville at the JMA Wireless Dome. As is well documented now, the Orange haven't won an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) game since Sept. 2025 (Clemson) and they haven't beaten at an FBS team at home also in more than a year (UConn Huskies).

Our own Brady Farkas gave you his biggest takeaways from the contest, which dropped SU to 2-4 overall.

One of his takeaways involved freshman wide receiver Calvin Russell III. The five-star prospect was playing his third game since coming back from a torn Achilles in March, and his performance certainly ran the full gamut against the Cardinals.

Russell notched his first career receiving touchdown in this one. The six catches, 53 yards and a touchdown all are now career-highs for the talented freshman. 

Following his first career touchdown, Russell celebrated in an odd fashion that you rarely ever see.

After the play had finished, the referee spotted the ball for the extra point. Russell found the ball and then threw it into the seats. The maneuver by Russell drew a 15-yard penalty for the Orange forcing the extra point try to pushed back. Syracuse missed that extra point and left with just six points. And that miss continued a season's worth of kicking woes.

Brown noted in the postgame that he spoke to Russell and said "Is that intelligent?"

Brown hopes that Russell takes that moment as a learning lesson and gets his high emotions under control for the future. 

Although Russell had the best game of his career, Brown still believes Russell needs to be a larger part of the offense:

Brown said "I think you can see how good he’ll be. I think he needs more targets...I can’t wait to watch him over the next three years here."

As well as Russell played, could more potential plays targeting Russell helped Syracuse beat Louisville? It's a likely decision the Orange coaches will be discussing this week in practice. 

After Brown's comments in the postgame press conference, it is likely the freshman wide out will be seeing more designed plays featuring him with the football. Whether those plays involve screen passes, designed targets or even handoffs, Russell's impact on the offense is likely to increase as the season progresses.

Russell will have to wait until Oct. 31 to showcase his skills again in front of the home fans. The Orange return to the JMA Wireless Dome on Halloween to take on SMU Mustangs. An official kick off time is likely to be announced on Monday or Tuesday.

Before the Orange take on SMU, they will travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 24.