DB Preview (Post-Standard)

[OrangeXtreme]

Syracuse football’s 2023 defensive backs: Pair of transfers have been tied since before they were born

Jaeden Gould and Jayden Bellamy, two of SU's transfer additions, grew up playing football together.

www.syracuse.com

 

[SU91]

Again, as it always seems with this team, there are pieces but the situation doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

 

[kcsu]

Again, as it always seems with this team, there are pieces but the situation doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

I think we are in good shape.

 

[RF2044]

I think we are in good shape.

Agreed. SU91 always sees the sky is falling.

We are in terrific shape in the secondary, despite the attrition.

 

[SoBristol]

Again, as it always seems with this team, there are pieces but the situation doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

It is college football. You always lose some good players (Williams, Chestnut, Carter in our case), and you hope the RsF and transfers can be good replacements. We have a good mix of experience and new talent. No reason to be down on our group.

 

[Trueblue25]

Johnson’s better than Chestnut, my opinion.

 

[AngryOtto]

I feel the secondary will not see a drop off this year. We added talented players with size. We return Barron, Clark, Johnson and Simmons. Barron is up to 231. Clark has added weight. Feel Johnson is going to have a break out season. Both the jucos are 6’2 and over 200 pounds. Gould, Bellamy (sp) and Martin were all highly ranked players. We also bring back some other experienced players. Every year teams have losses. The team addressed those. The sky is not falling.

 

[RF2044]

I feel the secondary will not see a drop off this year. We added talented players with size. We return Barron, Clark, Johnson and Simmons. Barron is up to 231. Clark has added weight. Feel Johnson is going to have a break out season. Both the jucos are 6’2 and over 200 pounds. Gould, Bellamy (sp) and Martin were all highly ranked players. We also bring back some other experienced players. Every year teams have losses. The team addressed those. The sky is not falling.

I'm going to channel the way-back machine here, but this situation reminds me a lot of 1988 -- when we lost a lot of blue chip talent off of that magical 1987 team, but had talented, experienced guys ready to step in.

Don't envision much of a dropoff, either. And in fact, these replacements stepping in for us this year might end up proving to be NFL caliber in their own right. Also, don't sleep on Oliver / Delanie [in addition to the trio you mention above].

Both depth and quality have improved [compared to a few years ago, where we lost for example an NFL caliber talent in Trill when he got injured, but didn't have anyone on par to step in for him]. Competition for PT is going to be fierce. Iron sharpens iron.

 

[cusefan88]

Lots of scholarship players and good athletes. Whoever wins the battle should be in good shape. Plus there's plenty of guys just waiting for an opening to play.

 

[CbusCuse]

I think we have a fair amount of experience and talent returning in the safety group with a lot of new additions that can step in. We should be pretty good there. The CB group is certainly more green than i'd like but that is college football. Isaiah Johnson should be a solid CB but the second corner will probably not be quite as good as we have seen recently. I think in general the CB's should be fine in the tackling department but we will see how they develop as cover corners. I think they will end up OK but that is probably the weakest of the units on defense. Luckily they have a good coach teaching them in Travis Fisher. Maybe a little bit of growing pains but at least we have a few easy games in the schedule to start.

I really like the fact that Wilson added some weight from 171 to 179. 8 lbs is quite a bit for a kid at that size. That should help him a lot. Wouldn't be surprised to see him play more in the slot CB role though. Bellamy seems like he is likely to play a role and probably Gould as well. Really like that Quan Paterson hit the weights and went from 178 to 197. I think we may see him quite a bit.

I'm thinking Rocky may dial up the pressure more this year a bit more often so the CB's don't need to cover for as long. Really love this info below from Rocky's bio on Cuse.com.

Long joins the Orange by way of New Mexico, where he was serving his alma mater as the defensive coordinator for the past three seasons. Since his arrival, Long has steadily improved the Lobos' defense. For the third-straight year, the defense lowered its yards per game surrendered and now has cut over 125 yards per game off what the per contest average was the year prior to his arrival.

His unit finished in the top-50 of total defense in each of the past two seasons and surrendered an average of just 202 yards per game through the air this year, making them one of the 30 best pass defenses in the nation. New Mexico was last nationally in the category prior to his arrival. These past two seasons were also the first time that UNM has finished in the top-50 of total defense in back-to-back seasons in 15 years. The Lobo defense also placed in the top 35 in third-down defense and in the top 25 in defensive first downs.

New Mexico saw eight players garner All-Mountain West honors this season, tying for the most in the past-10 seasons and had its first positional Freshman All-American since 2014 in safety A.J. Haulcy.

 

[Cuse181]

I think we are in good shape.

100%, DB is probably our best group after LBs. Even with the losses the talent pool is deep. Are we going to have an elite disruptor like Carter or a shutdown guy like Williams? Probably not, but you dont need a top 10 DB group, top 40 should be enough to win you 8 games this year.

 

[PhatOrange]

Secondary is fine. Need one CB to step up.