The Syracuse football squad may have the best defensive line in the country. Now they have to live up to the Bleacher Report hype in 2019.
Syracuse football lost some key pieces from their 10-3 record-breaking 2018 campaign: star quarterback Eric Dungey, NFL draftee Chris Slayton, stud WR Jamal Custis, and key pieces on the offensive line (Koda Martin, Cody Conway).
One of the underrated losses is Chris Slayton. He didn’t put up monster stats during his time on the hill (7.5 sacks), but he ate up double and triple teams in the middle. Which allowed senior defensive ends Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson to have one-on-one matchups vs offensive tackles more times than not.
Will they be able to have the same production in 2019 without him? That’s a big question.
Although SU has incredible depth with Kenneth Ruff, McKinley Williams, Tyrell Richards, Josh Black, and Kingsley Jonathan to name a few to try and fill the void.
Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller thinks SU’s defensive line can be one of the best in the country. In a recent column, he ranked SU sixth-best in the nation heading into 2019:
"“Anchored by Robinson, Coleman and—to a lesser degree—Kingsley Jonathan, the Orange ranked sixth with 3.31 sacks per game in 2018. They’re in a great position to repeat that feat, even though their overall defense may suffer from the departure of leading tacklers Ryan Guthrie and Kielan Whitner. Aside from the home game against Clemson, though, Syracuse doesn’t face any elite offenses. As such, this unit should put up great numbers.”"
Syracuse will miss Slayton a lot more than Ryan Guthrie or Kielan Whitner. While Guthrie made All-ACC second team last year, he hasn’t received any NFL interest since his collegiate career ended.
Plus Syracuse over the last two years has had to replace their starting linebacking corps and have been able to do so successfully, they’ll do so again in 2019 likely with Lakiem Williams and Andrew Armstrong.
The Orange could’ve been ranked even higher in these rankings but they failed in two critical areas that were among the criteria for this list: “year-over-year success in regard to sacks and run defense.”
- SU was ranked 63rd in the nation in rush yards allowed (162.5 per game) in 2018.
- While last year Syracuse was ranked sixth in the nation in sacks with 43, it was a one-year wonder. In 2017, the Orange ranked 108th with an average of 1.4 sacks per game.
Syracuse dominated the third category (returning production) no one in the ACC could top the combination of Coleman and Robinson (20 sacks, most in the ACC).
The only real criticism on the list from a personal perspective is ACC rival the Clemson Tigers. While they adhere strongly to two of the three criteria, the returning production category should merit more weight in this conversation.
Clemson is ranked third best in the nation despite not returning a single starter from last year’s squad on the defensive line. Regardless of how much depth they possess or how talented their incoming recruits are, that seems a bit ridiculous to place that squad ahead of the Orange who returns 20 sacks of production from two players alone. But hey, different strokes for different folks.