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We all knew that Sterling Hofrichter was the ACC’s best punter, and once again, the rest of the conference has to acknowledge it, too. Syracuse Orange football’s redshirt senior was named first-team All-ACC on Tuesday — one of six SU players to get a nod on the first-, second- or third-team, along with one honorable mention.
Per stats David Hale pulled the other day, Hofrichter averaged 43.9 yards per punt this year, with a 43.03 net average and just a 14.5% return rate. He put 31 punts inside the 20 and 11 inside the 10. Hof’s ability to pin teams back has always been impressive, and this year was yet another example of that as he makes a real case to be selected in the NFL Draft this coming spring.
Both Andre Cisco and Trishton Jackson earned second-team honors for Syracuse. Despite playing in just nine games, Cisco had five picks on the year. He also defended 10 passes total, collected 65 tackles, forced a fumble and recovered one as well. In his first full season after transferring from Michigan State, Jackson led the Orange across all three major receiving categories. He caught 66 passes for 1,023 yards and 11 touchdowns while serving as SU’s big-play receiver for much of the year.
Andre Szmyt and Lakiem Williams made the third-team, with the former hitting 17-of-20 field goals in a follow-up to last year’s Lou Groza Award-winning campaign. Williams, in his first and only season as a starer with the Orange, led the team in tackles with 110. He also collected 12.5 TFLs (4.5 of those were sacks).
Alton Robinson was an honorable mention, coming just five votes short of the third-team.
Clemson led all teams with 20 players earning All-ACC honors, while Wake Forest had 14, and UNC, Pitt and Virginia each had 11 on the list. Boston College had nine, and Duke and Virginia Tech each had eight. Syracuse and Florida State had six apiece, followed by Miami (5), Georgia Tech (4) and NC State (4).
Anyone else from Syracuse you would’ve liked to see on this list? Share your own thoughts below.