Syracuse football: DE Zach Morton enters transfer portal, per report

Changes continue for the Syracuse Orange football team this offseason. On Monday, 247Sports’ Stephen Bailey reported that defensive end Zach Morton was entering the transfer portal.

Morton was about to enter his fifth season with SU, though his path to playing time looked iffy at best in 2021 with last year’s seniors coming back plus younger players getting time last year. While at Syracuse, Morton played in six games — four in 2019 and two this past season. He redshirted in 2017 and missed all of 2018 with an injury.

This is the latest transfer for Syracuse in a long line of them this offseason. Morton becomes the ninth player to depart since the start of the offseason. That list also includes Cooper Dawson (Charleston Southern), Drew Gunther (Bowling Green), Aaron Hackett (TCU), Nykeim Johnson (Kent State), Cam Jonas (Florida A&M), Jawhar Jordan, Jason Muñoz and Markenzy Pierre.

We wish Zach the best in finding a new landing spot. For Syracuse, his departure means there are 89 scholarship players (by my count) on the roster — but only 80 of those apply toward the limit. We still don’t know what four “super seniors” will do for next year, but those players are currently included in the count right now.