In head coach Dino Babers’ first year at Syracuse, the Orange finished the year 4-8 and 2-6 in conference play. After opening the season with four wins in its first eight games, SU lost four straight down the stretch.

Beat writers Tomer Langer, Chris Libonati and Jon Mettus recap the season by grading each position group, awarding superlatives to top players and evaluating the team.

GRADES

TOMER LANGER

Quarterback — B+

Running Back — C-

Wide Receiver — A-

Offensive Line — D

Defensive Line — C

Linebacker — B

Defensive Back — C+

Special Teams — B+

Coaching Staff — B

 

CHRIS LIBONATI

Quarterback — B

Running Back — D-

Wide Receiver — B+

Offensive Line — F

Defensive Line — C

Linebacker — B

Defensive Back — C+

Special Teams — B

Coaching Staff —B

 

JON METTUS

Quarterback — B

Running Back — C-

Wide receiver — A-

Offensive Line — D

Defensive Line — C

Linebacker — B

Defensive back — C+

Special Teams — B-

Coaching Staff — B

 

SUPERLATIVES

Offensive MVP

Amba Etta-Tawo, wide receiver

He scored five touchdowns against Pittsburgh and was Syracuse’s best player all year. In all, Etta-Tawo hauled in 94 passes for 1,482 yards and 14 touchdowns. He had the best year by an SU receiver ever and likely put himself in a good spot to be drafted. Etta-Tawo has been one of the most impressive players in the country from start to finish and deserves to be an All-American this season. That’s more than can be said for nearly every other player on the SU roster. — Chris Libonati

Tony D. Curtis | Staff Photographer

Defensive MVP

Zaire Franklin, middle linebacker and Parris Bennett, outside linebacker

The two linebackers were the anchors of Syracuse’s defense all season long. Bennett and Franklin led the team in tackles with 110 and 101, respectively. Bennett is third in the conference in tackles per game and Franklin’s season was highlighted by multiple fourth down game-changing stops, including one in SU’s upset win over Virginia Tech. The duo was the only defensive players to earn All-ACC honors from the media with Franklin getting on the third team and Bennett being an honorable mention. — Jon Mettus

Offense’s biggest surprise

Amba Etta-Tawo, wide receiver

Even though he was also the offensive MVP, the answer is Etta-Tawo. It has to be. The graduate transfer caught 30 balls in his last two years at Maryland before coming to Syracuse, and nobody really knew what to expect when we got here. But even the most optimistic people couldn’t have predicted him shattering the single-season receiving yards record and tying the single-season touchdown mark. — Tomer Langer

Defense’s biggest surprise

Kendall Coleman, defensive end and Daivon Ellison, safety

SU needed to fill a lot of spots this season on its defense. It came into the year with spots open at defensive end and spots opened up in the secondary after Juwan Dowels and Antwan Cordy were injured. Coleman looked solid enough that it’s reasonable to expect him to be good next year. Ellison showed flashes at safety, particularly against the run. That bodes well when the Orange can put Cordy at free safety and Ellison at strong safety, assuming those are the two strongest options SU has next year. Ellison had 90 tackles this season, more than any player had in the 2015 season for SU. He ranked behind Bennett (110) and Franklin (101). — Chris Libonati

Jacob Greenfeld | Asst. Photo Editor

EVALUATIONS

Evaluating the offense

The most recent thing you’ll remember about Syracuse’s offense this season is backup quarterback Zack Mahoney accounting for a school-record seven touchdowns and leading SU to score 61 points in the highest-scoring game in FBS history. But don’t let that cloud your judgement of the season. SU had its downs at the start with the new system, scoring early and often through the first few weeks of the year but then sputtering out. The offensive line had to deal with injuries, but struggled mightily at times which led to a poor rushing attack from the Orange. That being said, the offense broke several points and passing records. Eric Dungey and Etta-Tawo looked like one of the best duos in the country at times. There was plenty of progress throughout the season in the new system, which should be plenty encouraging for next year. — Jon Mettus

Evaluating the defense 

It was a mixed bag year for the defense. Things started off really poorly. Lamar Jackson and Louisville hurdled over any resistance in Week 2 on the way to scoring 62 points and two key secondary players —Cordy and Dowels — got hurt and were out for the year. And things got tough against Florida State’s Dalvin Cook and against Pittsburgh as a whole down the stretch. But even in a major transition year, the defense did have a nice stretch against Virginia Tech and Boston College. And with a lot of key players returning and getting experience this year, things should be looking up. — Tomer Langer

Tony D. Curtis | Staff Photographer

Evaluating the special teams

Sterling Hofrichter started off a bit rough, but he got significantly better as the year continued. By the end of the year, he averaged 42.7 yards per punt. Brisly Estime was one of the nation’s best returners this season as well, leading the NCAA in yards per punt return with 17.7. Cole Murphy was the biggest problem Syracuse had this season on special teams, as he only hit 10-of-18 field goals, good for 55.6 percent. Prior to this season, he had hit 72.7 percent of his field goals. — Chris Libonati

Evaluating the coaching staff

Dino Babers’ squad ended the year exactly where we thought it would be before the season. Changing regimes is never easy and it’s hard to evaluate a coach playing with guys he didn’t recruit and less than a year after he arrived. Babers also can’t be held accountable for the devastating injuries that struck the offense and defense. His Kumbaya meetings rallied the troops enough for the upset win over Virginia Tech, but losing out through the final four games when one win would have taken you to a bowl game has to fall on the coaches. Babers tempered expectations at the beginning of the year and gave fans plenty of catch phrases to hang on to heading into next season. — Jon Mettus

Outlook for next year

Scheduling aside (the Orange has to play at Louisiana State, which won’t be easy), the Orange should improve next year. Babers always talked about how the full turnaround really happens in the middle of Year 2. The Orange is returning players who played a lot on every defensive unit which should help the unit. Losing Etta-Tawo and Estime hurts a lot, but Steve Ishmael and Ervin Philips are still around and Devin Butler and Sean Riley showed flashes at receiver this year. But this all really boils down to Eric Dungey and his health. Somehow, Babers didn’t know if the most important player on the team received a second opinion on his injury suffered in the Clemson game within the following two weeks, but this is back-to-back seasons that he’s missed the final few games due to an “upper-body injury.” Highly-touted quarterback Tommy DeVito will be a freshman next year, but if Dungey is healthy, this should still be his team, and SU should thrive. But that’s a really big if. — Tomer Langer

Jessica Sheldon | Photo Editor

Published on December 1, 2016 at 1:13 am