Syracuse football: DE Kevin Lemieux enters transfer portal, per report

The Syracuse Orange football program has had a pretty eventful offseason, and the changes aren’t done just yet, apparently. On Monday, 247Sports’ Stephen Bailey reported that defensive end Kevin Lemieux had entered his name into the transfer portal.

Lemieux just wrapped up his first year on campus after signing from Ashburnham, Mass. He didn’t appear in any games during the 2020 season, and with at least three of the top defensive linemen returning to the position group, it was probably going to be another year or so before he could see the field. Now, he’ll potentially get to play right away — or worst-case, wait a year and be in a better spot to get playing time in 2022.

Assuming he departs, Lemieux would be the latest in a long line of players to leave the program this year — something not unique to Syracuse given the extra year of eligibility and increased player movement toward immediate playing time.

Previous Syracuse players to enter the portal or already announce their new homes include: Cooper Dawson (Charleston Southern), Drew Gunther (Bowling Green), Aaron Hackett (TCU), Nykeim Johnson (Kent State), Cam Jonas (Florida A&M), Jawhar Jordan, Zach Morton, Jason Muñoz, Markenzy Pierre and Qadir White.

While it’s not great to see so many defensive linemen on the list above, the Orange have also been busy adding players to that position group in recent years (11 remaining from the 2020 and 2021 signing classes) and the 3-3-5 also calls for fewer of them than we previously needed.

Good luck to Kevin wherever he lands