Football

Riley Dixon named to All-ACC 1st team, Brisly Estime and Ron Thompson to 3rd

Logan Reidsma | Photo Editor

Riley Dixon averaged 43.7 yards per punt this season and over 43 percent of his kicks were downed inside the 20-yard line.

Syracuse punter Riley Dixon has been named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference first team, SU announced Monday afternoon. He is the first player in the program’s three-year tenure in the conference to receive first-team honors.

Dixon received 77 votes compared to 75 garnered by Wake Forest punter Alex Kinal, who was placed on the second team. Dixon averaged 43.7 yards per punt this season, with more than 43 percent of them downed inside the 20-yard line. He only tallied five touchbacks and logged a long of 64 yards and 18 punts that went at least 50. Dixon was one of 10 semifinalists for the Ray Guy Award given to the nation’s top punter but didn’t make the list of three finalists.

Wide receiver and return specialist Brisly Estime and defensive end Ron Thompson were named to the third team. Estime received the honors as a return specialist, ranking second in the country and first in the ACC with 18.1 yards per punt return. He was the first SU player since 1997 to return two punts for touchdowns in a season and ranked seventh nationally in combined kick return yards. Those two scores came in the season-opener against Rhode Island and on Oct. 31 against Florida State.

Thomspon led the conference with four forced fumbles and recorded seven sacks. He led all Syracuse defensive linemen with 35 tackles and had six tackles, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and two pass breakups against No. 1 Clemson on Nov. 14.

Syracuse’s season ended Saturday with a 20-17 win against Boston College. The Orange finished at 4-8 and 2-6 in the ACC. Scott Shafer was fired as head coach last Monday along with his assistants and the Orange is still looking for replacements.







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