Syracuse football: will the Orange defense stop being so gracious

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As we wait for Syracuse Football to start pre-season camp, we’ve been keeping an eye out for interesing information and ESPN columnist David Hale delivered this:

This was startling to me. That means that Syracuse was constantly on their heels against opposing offenses. You’re letting the offense dictate the tempo and never give your defense a chance to force them to be one-dimensional. The Orange allowed opponents to rush for 5.27 yards per carry and overall gave up 6.5 yards per play.

So out went a number of the staff on that side of the ball and in came Vince Kehres from Toledo. Obviously it’s a different level, but last season Toledo held their opponents to 2.68 yards per carry and 4.03 yards per play. Kehres’ mantra is “11 vs 1” and as he said this spring, “We want to put a defense on the field that plays with great effort and tackles well, leverages the ball and plays together”.

Last year the Toledo defense forced 21 turnovers, Syracuse forced 10. As we head into camp it will be interesting to see how Kehres fits the pieces together. Syracuse looks to have two corners who can hold their own in coverage, so will that allow them to be more aggressive with the safeties against the run? Can the transfer edge rushers bring back a pass rush that forces opponents to make poor decisions?

There are a lot of factors which will determine if the Orange get back to a bowl game in 2026, but a turnaround on the defensive end is near the top. Will the changes Fran Brown made be enough?

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