Syracuse football: CB Duce Chestnut named ACC’s co-rookie of week one

After only receiving a handful of weekly ACC honors during the 2020 college football season, it was refreshing to see the Syracuse Orange get a name on the conference list right off the bat.

On Tuesday, the ACC released its players of the week for week one — a list that included freshman cornerback Duce Chestnut.

Chestnut earned co-rookie of the week honors with Wake Forest’s Jasheen Davis, and based on what we saw in Duce’s initial game vs. Ohio, it’s potentially the first of many honors throughout the season.

Starting during his first action at Syracuse, Duce had eight tackles, a tackle for loss, a pass break-up and secured this impressive one-handed interception as the Bobcats were driving late to try and narrow the score a bit.

While we were a little concerned about what the secondary would look like after three players departed for the NFL, it appears Chestnut’s immediate emergence can lay some of those questions to rest already. Chestnut, Garrett Williams and assorted others showed themselves plenty capable at corner in week one — though obviously there are also more daunting challenges ahead, too.

Congrats to Duce! And while we probably would’ve liked to see Sean Tucker make this list as well, it’s understandable that the top running back honor went to Duke’s Mateo Durant for the week. Despite the Blue Devils losing to Charlotte, he did have 292 total yards and three scores.