The David vs. Goliath matchup that saw a prized lacrosse recruit serving as Syracuse’s quarterback against defensive genius Bill Belichick won’t be made into a Hallmark feel-good move anytime soon.
In perhaps the least-shocking result of the year, Syracuse’s decision to start walk-on quarterback Joseph Filardi, who prioritized lacrosse in college, against arguably the greatest coach in NFL history failed spectacularly Friday night in North Carolina’s 27-10 road win.
Filardi completed 4-of-18 passes for 39 yards with zero touchdowns.
“His first time playing, of course it wasn’t all passing things you want,” Syracuse coach Fran Brown said after a fifth straight loss. “I thought he tried to protect the football, running the football. A lot of times you guys you just want to blame the quarterback but there’s a lot, like 10 other people out there also, a lot of times, there’s calls that come from a coordinator and things that may come from the head football coach.
“I think everybody gotta be on the same page in being able to do those things and move the right away and not just push it to the quarterback, who just happens to be in that position.”
Syracuse is a school known for having a two-way star in the late Jim Brown, who is a member of the NFL, collegiate football and lacrosse Hall of Fames, and Filardi certainly had a strong pedigree.
Filardi excelled as both a football and lacrosse player for Half Hollow Hills West High School on Long Island, ranking 52nd among the class of 2025 lacrosse recruits, via Inside Lacrosse.
His Syracuse football bio states he holds the Long Island single-season passing touchdowns record with 44, while also earning 2024 New York State Player of the Year honors.
Filardi committed to the Syracuse lacrosse program in 2023, but had eyes on playing two sports.
“And then I took a football visit this past March (2024) and I talked to the lacrosse coaches to see if they would be okay with me playing football,” Filardi said on “The Juice with the Cuse” podcast, as transcribed by SI.com. “And then I mentioned it to the football coaches to see if I could play lacrosse and football because they didn’t know I was committed. So, I mentioned it to them and they said I could.”
That he actually started under center for the Orange stems from the program losing starting quarterback Steve Agneli for the year with an Achilles injury.
LSU transfer Rickie Collins led the offense to 40 total points in four straight losses, leading Brown to seek a change.
The coach added that Filardi outplayed Collins in practice.
“Just try to get something new to happen,” said Brown, whose team dropped 3-6 and 1-5 in ACC play. “Just something to keep going on, be able to move. It was a month straight of football and we got other kids on the football team also. Just trying to get a new spark or something different to be able to move, hoping that would give our team a little bit of momentum.”
Filardi did not provide that momentum, beginning the game with eight incompletions before finally completing his first pass with a little over six minutes left in the first half.
He completed just 1-of-11 passes for 25 yards in the first half.
Syracuse finished with 12 first downs, 147 total yards of offense and just 2.2 yards per pass.
“Quarterback’s definitely a tough position and football in general, a lot of things got to be put together to have a successful offense,” Filardi said. “We got to get better as a unit and be more productive, me included.”
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