Linebacker Derek McDonald is blossoming in redshirt junior season

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Alijah Clark has seen “a whole new” Derek McDonald this year. In years past, the safety said McDonald was more reserved. But now, in his third year as a starting linebacker, Clark has seen McDonald play with fire.

As the quarterback of the defense, McDonald’s voice has blossomed. Clark even feels he can’t make any tackles because McDonald’s perfect timing doesn’t allow opposing players to get to the next level.

“I would say he was hesitant at first, but now he’s shooting his gun every time,” Clark said of McDonald.

McDonald started his career at SU by redshirting, using his freshman year to learn how to play linebacker. In 2022, he became a full-time starter and hasn’t lost his place since. Though in 2024, he’s on pace for his best season yet. McDonald has recorded a team-high 48 tackles, which helped stabilize SU’s defense during Marlowe Wax’s five-game absence.

“(I’ve seen) him build more confidence in himself, just being able to tell himself that he is that guy and he belongs here,” Wax said of McDonald. “(It’s) definitely exciting to see him go out there and just play with a different swag, different confidence.”

“Steady, consistent,” Syracuse linebackers coach Robert Wright added about McDonald’s veteran presence. “He helps those guys in the transition like he’s on the field, communicating with them, helping them get lined up, making sure they’re seeing what he’s seen.”

Prior to McDonald arriving on campus in 2021, he didn’t have experience at linebacker. He mostly played tight end and defensive end growing up. As he grew to 6-foot-4, 180 pounds in high school, McDonald said he played a little linebacker because of his frame. But his time there was limited.

Once he bulked up, McDonald moved back to playing defensive end while still playing tight end. He didn’t leave the line from there, becoming a three-star defensive end, according to 247Sports, with his recruiting tape being solely him playing off the edge. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McDonald’s recruiting process was mostly virtual.

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The Georgia native received interest from schools like Villanova and UConn, but his conversations with former SU defensive coordinator Tony White led to his Syracuse commitment. McDonald says he did “a lot of talking” over the phone with White and there was a mutual understanding that McDonald would play on defense.

When McDonald committed to the Orange following his junior year of high school, there weren’t discussions of a position change. As White and SU’s staff monitored McDonald throughout his senior year, though, they started seeing him fit better as a linebacker.

At that point, McDonald was still playing off the edge, though he started dropping back into coverage more than he had. But his time away from the defensive line was sparse as he helped lead the Marist School to a 13-0 record and a Georgia High School Association 4A State Championship win.

When he arrived at SU, McDonald was relegated to the sidelines as he tried to get acclimated to the position. He put himself in the best position to learn how to play linebacker. McDonald said he rigorously worked on his footwork and drop coverage to begin understanding how linebackers move.

“I think coming in I had a lot to learn, not having played much linebacker before, so I remember going to practice and trying to learn the defense and realizing that I had a lot of stuff to learn real quick,” McDonald said of his first year at Syracuse.

With a year of training under his belt and more experience from training camp, McDonald entered 2022 as a backup linebacker. In his first action of the season, McDonald registered an interception and tackle for loss against Louisville on Sept. 3, 2022. Meanwhile, starting linebacker Stefon Thompson suffered a season-ending injury, pushing McDonald into a starting role for the remainder of the season.

“I grew a lot during that (redshirt) year, and then it gave me the opportunity to get on the field,” McDonald said.

Heading into the 2023 season, under new defensive coordinator Rocky Long, McDonald maintained his role as a starter. As White had run, Long also instilled a 3-3-5 defensive formation.

Because of its structure with three linebackers on the field, SU frequently dropped a linebacker — typically McDonald — down to the line of scrimmage. McDonald’s defensive line background drastically helped his position switch and development. After notching 43 tackles across nine games in 2022, he started all 13 of Syracuse’s games and registered a career-best 67 tackles.

While new defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson doesn’t usually use a 3-3-5 formation, it’s something he’s deployed at times. Because of Wax’s injury, the Orange mixed and matched at linebacker. McDonald was the lone consistent piece, guiding the middle of SU’s defense.

“He’s like another coach on the field … He’s just so mature, so reliable. He’s a guy that I’m glad (we) have,” Robinson said.

In his four years at Syracuse, McDonald has gone from not knowing how to play linebacker to being among its defensive leaders. It’s not how he envisioned his college career would go at first, but he’s taken the chance and ran with it.

“He’s a guy that always does everything right,” SU head coach Fran Brown said of McDonald. “I’m very thankful and happy that he’s had this opportunity and that he’s made the best of the opportunity.”

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