Syracuse Football: Get To Know Your Orange Man - #49 Ryan Norton

Let's Get To Know the guy who'll probably be kicking off for SU this season...

Name: Ryan Fergus Norton

Position: #49

Year: Freshman

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 170

Hometown: Garden City, N.Y.

High School: Garden City

2011 Stats: 48 touchbacks with an average of around 70 yards and a long of 80 on kickoffs.

2012 Projections: More than Ashton Broyld, Norton is the one Syracuse freshman with the best chance of seeing the field this season. Marrone even said so in an interview. Norton's boot is far superior to anyone on the roster last year. He's basically a shoo-in to be our kickoff specialist and he's got an outside shot at competing for the FG/XP job.

How'd He Get Here?: He reportedly received interest from Georgia Tech and offers from Rice and Richmond but went with the Orange. He also plays lacrosse so maybe he wants to be able to watch SU lax games in his downtime.

What'd Scout/Rivals Say?: Rivals said unrated and Scout said two stars.

Money Quote: "My best strength is definitely kickoffs with distance and hangtime. I think I need to work on punting and accuracy with field goals."

Links of Wonder: Norton had a rough day at the 2012 Empire Challenge. Hopefully he'll leave that behind.

What Does Marrone Think: "If you said, 'Which player do you think will come in here and have an immediate impact?' I would say Ryan Norton, the kicker. I think he's going to be the kickoff guy, we've seen that on film. He doesn't have to block, he doesn't have to tackle, and he doesn't have to do a lot of things. All he has to do is what he's been doing his entire life which is kicking the ball into the endzone. When you talk about immediate impact and what it's going to do for you statistically, that's a big difference. That was a major decision that we had to make going through this process."

Interesting Nugget O'Interest: Norton also played varsity lacrosse, playing in the 2009-10 State Championship game and was a long jumper and sprinter for the track & field team.

Let Us Get a Good Look Atchya: