Syracuse football: Florida guard Chris Bleich transferring to Orange

While you’re plenty excited about the Syracuse Orange’s 2020 football recruiting class thus far, we have some more good news coming in for Dino Babers’s team. According to a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, former Florida Gators guard Chris Bleich is signing with Syracuse.

Bleich is originally from Hanover, Pa. and spent the last two seasons on campus with the Gators, starting at guard this past season. Syracuse was primarily fighting with Pitt for his services. He’ll have three years left, though is likely to burn one of those sitting out 2020 due to transfer rules.

At 6-foot-6 and 330 pounds, Bleich would become one of the Orange’s biggest players right off the bat, and brings with him SEC starting experience that could pay some major dividends for SU given the struggles on the line this past year. Things are projected to get better in 2020 given the improvements we saw with some adjustments over the final three games of 2019. Still, Bleich would step in and start right away, which could give younger linemen on the roster more time to develop.

As CuseNation notes, he’s a solid run blocker, which should be great news for Orange fans. Florida didn’t have a great rushing offense this past year (just 120.25 yards per game), but also didn’t need to do much there with a stout defense and top-20 passing attack. Plugging him into this offense will be an upgrade, and one we’re excited to see on the field.

Welcome aboard to Chris, who isn’t officially part of the 2020 class but nonetheless will be one of many new faces on campus for next season. You can check out some of his highlights below.