ESPN College Football

Seventeen players on Big East teams during the 2011 season have been selected to the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society, it was announced Wednesday.

To qualify, college football players from all divisions have to maintain at least a cumulative 3.2 grade-point average throughout their college career. A total of 721 players from 232 schools qualified this past season, making this the largest class since the program was created in 2007.

Cincinnati

• Alex Hoffman, OL
• JK Schaffer, LB

UConn

• Harris Agbor, S
• Corey Manning, TE
• Dave Teggart, K

Louisville

• Chris Philpott, K

Pitt

• Myles Caragein, DT

Rutgers

• Scott Vallone, NT

USF

• Chaz Hine, C
• Joel Miller, WR

Syracuse

• Torrey Ball, DT
• Kevyn Scott, CB

West Virginia

• Ricky Kovatch, RB
• Cody Nutter, LS
• Keith Tandy, CB
• Tyler Urban, TE
• Casey Vance, LB

Syracuse defensive end Chandler Jones has been cleared to return to limited practice Tuesday, but will miss his fifth game Saturday at Tulane.

Jones, who sustained a lower body injury in the opener against Wake Forest, will return to full practice Oct. 10, the school said in a statement. Syracuse has a bye next week and then hosts West Virginia on Oct. 21. Jones had been one of the most experienced starters returning to the defense, and losing him for five games has hurt.

But the defense improved its play last week, and Torrey Ball has done a nice job filling in, with 1.5 sacks and 13 tackles.

Syracuse Orange coach Doug Marrone has suspended players Delone Carter, Ryan Gillum and Torrey Ball for Saturday's spring game.

Carter, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, was charged with misdemeanor assault this week for allegedly punching a student who threw a snowball at him. Gillum, a starting linebacker, was questioned in the incident but not charged. It's unclear if Ball, a defensive end, was involved in that incident or something else. All three were suspended because of a violation of team rules, according to a release by the school.

All three are valuable members of the team, but missing the spring game is hardly a big deal. It will be interesting to see if the punishments linger, depending on the outcome of the case against Carter.

This the second part of my interview with Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone. You can read the first part here.

Let's talk about the defense, starting up front. You lost a great player in the middle in Arthur Jones but you have both starting defensive ends back. How do you see that position this spring?

Doug Marrone: At the ends we have Mikhail Marinovich and Chandler Jones, and they have a lot of experience playing. Chandler Jones is a very talented player and Marinovich, he's a long kid with good speed, good leverage, a very quick kid. Torrey Ball came over from junior college last year and added some depth. Jarred Kimmel is not participating in the spring but he's played a lot and he'll come back in the fall. So those players have some experience.

On the inside, Andrew Lewis played a lot for us. Bud Tribbey stepped up and played well. It's hard to replace a player like Arthur Jones, though. Anthony Perkins played some and we have some junior college kids coming in and some freshmen who should add depth to the inside position. Ollie Haney played for us in short-yardage situations, and we'll see if he can play more in normal downs. So we have some players there and we have some coming in. But you don't want to be sitting here saying, we've got a kid coming in here, a kid coming in there and then you're banking on that. You go to that well too many times and it's hard to run a program that way.

At linebacker, you have two of your best playmakers back in Derrell Smith and Doug Hogue. You must feel pretty good about that spot.

DM: I do. Having Derrell Smith back in the middle and the year he had was very good for us. It's interesting because a year ago at this time when we started spring, he made the move from outside to inside and, really, he struggled early on in the spring. And really of all of sudden, for lack of a better term, the light goes off for him and he really excelled within the structure of the defense. He really had a solid year with some postseason honors, and we expect the same from him this year. Doug Hogue, he was the third or fourth team running back when we first got here. And he broke the tackles for loss in a game record held by Dwight Freeney, which is pretty darn good. And he's another big kid who can run.

So they've had a year in our system to develop, and that will help them. Ryan Gillum is at the other outside position, and we'll see what he can do. And we've got kids coming in and kids here now who'll come in and compete at those positions.

What about the secondary? You had a lot of young kids get experience there a year ago and now it seems like you have some pretty good depth there.

DM: Yeah, we do. Phillip Thomas as a freshman, he played quite a bit, and he can play safety or corner for us. Mike Holmes has been a solid player for us in the secondary along with Max Suter. Then, obviously, Shamarko Thomas had a great year for us back there. Da'Mon Merkerson played the other corner and Kevyn Scott is there at corner. So it's a good competition back there. I think the competition can really help them. We'll be able to have some versatility because there are about three or four players who can play the nickel position, too.

You talked earlier about the seven mid-year enrollees. How many do you think will have a chance to make an immediate impact

DM: The kids who came from high school, it's a little bit tougher for them. But they'll have the experience of going through spring and our six-week program as far as weight lifting and running. The junior college guys are physically ready; it's a matter of how they compete and how they handle it. Michael Hay can help us on the offensive line. Olando Fisher, whether its at linebacker, defensive back or on special teams, can help us right away. Then there are the two kids from Hofstra. I mentioned Aaron Weaver. Jose Cruz also came in and can help us at tight end.

Do you anticipate any position changes, like Mike Jones or Doug Hogue pulled off last year?

DM: Not right now. Right now, we're pretty much set as far as where guys are playing, whether it's the offensive line or the secondary or things like that. We just want to see them compete and then we're trying to play the best player. We might have three good corners and one is better than the starting safety, so you've got to make a decision to get the kid on the field somehow. It's no different than the offensive line. If your third or fourth best lineman is a backup right tackle, you've got to get him on the field somehow. We have to have some type of diversity to play those players, and that's what we'll look out when we start practice.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Syracuse coach Doug Marrone has reinstated sophomore defensive end Torrey Ball, sophomore running back Antwon Bailey and junior offensive guard Andrew Tiller.

The trio was suspended for a team rules violation for last week's Pittsburgh game. All three were involved in a car accident early on Nov. 1 several miles from campus. Receiver Mike Williams was also in that accident and quit the team.

Bailey is Syracuse's second-leading rusher and fourth-leading receiver, while Tiller moved into the starting lineup before the Orange's game against West Virginia on Oct. 10. Ball has six tackles, including one for loss, in eight games.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

We have another clue in the Mike Williams mystery.

The Syracuse Post-Standard is reporting that Williams, Antwon Bailey, Andrew Tiller and Torrey Ball were all involved in a car accident early Sunday morning. Williams quit the team Monday morning, and Syracuse coach Doug Marrone announced today that Bailey, Tiller and Ball were suspended for this week's game at Pitt for undisclosed team violations.

According to the report, Tiller was driving an SUV that was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer at 5:30 a.m. Sunday in Lenox, N.Y., which is about 30 miles east of Syracuse. Tiller was taken to the hospital, but no one else was hurt.

Police also said the driver of the tractor-trailer was entirely at fault, and no alcohol was involved.

Still, one has to wonder what the players were doing on the road at that hour of the night. Syracuse lost to Cincinnati on Saturday in a game that started at noon.

We still need more information on this story. Williams apparently would have been suspended for this week's game at Pitt like the other three, making his second suspension in three weeks. We don't know if his suspension would have been longer because of his previous undisclosed transgression. But if this is the only reason why Williams quit the team, it doesn't make much more sense than before.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

It's been a tumultuous week at Syracuse already, to say the least.

Head coach Doug Marrone announced today that junior defensive end Jared Kimmel will undergo season-ending left knee surgery. Kimmel has played in all eight games for the Orange, recording 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Syracuse will also be without running back Antwon Bailey, defensive end Torrey Ball and offensive lineman Andrew Tiller on Saturday at Pitt, as all three have been suspended for a violation of team rules. Bailey might be the biggest loss of the three, as he has been used in Wildcat packages and as a change of pace to Delone Carter.

There is some good news for the Orange, however. Starting center Jim McKenzie is expected to return this week after missing the last three games with an injury. He had been replaced by Ryan Bartholomew. McKenzie in an all-league caliber center when healthy.

McKenzie's return means Bartholomew can slide back to guard and allow the Ornage to replace Tiller in the lineup.

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Syracuse needs an infusion of talent at just about every position, which would seem to make the Orange ripe for our Big East fresh faces series.

It's hard to tell which of the 13 true freshmen in Doug Marrone's first class will play right away. But we figure these three junior-college transfers will have a chance to make their presence known quickly:

• Andrew Tiller, OL: The Orange offensive line performed poorly in the spring game, and you know that Doug Marrone -- a former offensive lineman himself -- won't stand for that long. Tiller, who comes over from Nassau Community College, is a mountainous prospect at a listed 6-foot-6, 360 pounds. If he can pick things up and prove he can move at that size, he should have a good chance to earn some fast playing time.

• Torrey Ball, DE: Ball played one year at Georgia Military College before signing with Syracuse, which means he should be a little more mature than the incoming freshmen. He's solidly built for a rush end at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds and showed his athleticism by blocking two kicks in junior college. Syracuse hasn't had a great pass-rush specialist in a while and will certainly give Ball a chance to audition for the role.

• John Mark Henderson, CB: Henderson was a late signee from City College of San Francisco after apparently falling through the cracks in the coaching change at his first choice, Kansas State. Juco transfers can be hit or miss, but cornerback is one of the easier positions to step in and play right away, and the Orange aren't exactly bursting with depth in the defensive backfield.