Syracuse football’s 2023 special teams: Transfer punter carrying on family tradition

Published Jul. 20, 2023, 11:41 a.m.
By Emily Leiker |
Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse football’s newest punter, Jack Stonehouse, was pretty much destined by his bloodline to play the position.
His father, John, punted at University of Southern California and then for the New York Giants in the late ‘90s. He has uncles who have been collegiate punters, and his cousin, Ryan Stonehouse, is the current punter for the Tennessee Titans.
The family even has a particular style of punting that’s been well-documented, including in the LA Times. They hold the ball with an underhand grip before dropping it as opposed to an overhand one.
Stonehouse transferred from Missouri, where he had the starting job but no scholarship, in December after the conclusion of the 2022 season.
He joins the Orange’s special teams in a transitionary year, as two key members of the unit phased out of the program and none of the remaining members have more than 15 games of experience. It will be the group’s second season under coordinator Bob Ligashesky.
Lou Groza Award-winning kicker Andre Szmyt and long snapper Aaron Bolinsky aged out of the program and are pursuing NFL careers.
That creates near complete turnover in the kicking unit on PATs and field goals, with the exception of Justin Barron likely remaining the holder.
SU has three rostered place kickers in Brady Denaburg, James Williams and Ian Hawkins. It has two long snappers, Mike Midkiff and Ethan Stangle.
At punter, there’s Stonehouse and last year’s starter Max Von Marburg. Williams and Hawkins are also credited as punters on the official roster.
Denaburg already took kickoffs for the team last season as a true freshman, averaging 63.4 yards per kickoff and having 65% of his attempts result in touchbacks and just one go out of bounds. He’ll certainly be the kickoff specialist again in 2023.
The Florida native is also likely to be SU’s point-after and field goal kicker, too. Williams has been primarily used as a punter for Syracuse, and Hawkins, a walk-on, hasn’t seen action for SU since spending four games at the end of the 2021 season as the team’s primary punter.
In the spring game, Denaburg went 5-for-9 on field goals from varying distances and under no pressure.
First-year Australian punter Von Marburg could have been a solid four-year fix at the position last season when he arrived, but he proved inconsistent. He had a season-high punt of 55 yards, but his average came out to a meager 36.42. In the bowl game, his longest of four punts was just 34 yards.
And so Syracuse brought in Stonehouse, the No. 7 kicker in the class of 2021 per Kohl’s Professional Camps.
Stonehouse had six offers out of high school, including Washington State and Arizona. He went to Missouri without a scholarship.
While there, he redshirted his freshman year behind two older peers. Last season, he initially lost the position battle but was named starter by the fourth game of the season.
Stonehouse punted 47 times in 2022, averaging 42.3 yards per punt. He had nine punts over 50 yards and posted a long of 68 yards.
With Colgate and Western Michigan as the first two games of the year, it’s unlikely Stonehouse or Marburg will see much action. Between SU’s most recent matchups with each school, the Orange had eight total punts.
Overall, the special teams unit might not face much of a test until Week 3 of the season at the earliest, when the Orange travel to West Lafayette, Indiana, to play Purdue.