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Syracuse Football: Can Cuse move to ACC middle class?

By Patrick Mayhorn

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - OCTOBER 21: Moe Neal #21 of the Syracuse Orange celebrates a touchdown during a game against the Miami Hurricanes at Sun Life Stadium on October 21, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL - OCTOBER 21: Moe Neal #21 of the Syracuse Orange celebrates a touchdown during a game against the Miami Hurricanes at Sun Life Stadium on October 21, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) /

Defense

The defense is a lot like the offense. The core is pretty strong. Up front, Chris Slayton will dominate, and Kendall Colton, Alton Robinson, Brandon Berry and McKinley Williams should all be good.

The line wasn’t great last year, but with all that returning production, it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be better. Syracuse will need them to be better.

Just like the offense, while it’s solid up front and in its core, one of the best units from last year is depleted. Linebackers Paris Bennett, Zaire Franklin, Austin Valdez and Jonathan Thomas are all gone. What was an awesome linebacker core last year could be very bad this year.

Ryan Guthrie will help hold this group down, but the outlook beside him is bleak. Lakiem Williams, Andrew Armstrong and Shyheim Cullen could all step in, but I’m not confident in any of them.

The secondary, while not in nearly as bad of a place, still has some work to do. Most of their production is back, including Christopher Frederick, Scoop Bradshaw and Evan Foster. However, like the offensive line, the returning production wasn’t great last year.

This group, along with Devon Clarke, Ifeatu Melifonwu will need to be better against the pass, For Syracuse to improve, the defense is the first place they need to start. If the offense is decent, which they should be, it won’t take a ton defensively to get to a bowl.

Can they put the “bend” back in “bend don’t break”?

Syracuse has been awful defensively for a long time now. They weren’t good under Shafer. They weren’t particularly good under Marrone. It’s been the same story with Babers.

This team can’t take a step forward until they can stop giving up massive plays and huge point totals to most good teams they play. A huge part of improvement will come from keeping themselves in close games.

However, to do that, Syracuse has to be more aggressive and sound defensively. If they can force more turnovers, and improve their tackling, it’ll go a long way. That may be the difference between 4-8 and 7-5.

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