PINEHURST, N.C. — Syracuse enters the 2015 season with three scholarship kickers on his roster — sophomore Cole Murphy, senior Ryan Norton and freshman Sterling Hofrichter.

Though the scholarship placement may seem redundant, Scott Shafer explained his reasoning on Tuesday at Atlantic Coast Conference Media Day.

“I think people forget that Sterling Hofrichter is a very, very good punter. And I think a lot’s been said about his placekicking ability obviously,” Shafer said. “But Riley Dixon is done after this year. So I think if you look at it that way, you say you have to have one ready to go when Riley’s out. And we happen to have a guy that does both extremely well in Sterling Hofrichter. I think you can figure out that we have to make sure we take care of business, and I didn’t want to wait a year when we had one that was really excited about his opportunity.”

Shafer said the kicking unit will have “good competition” among the three, though the depth chart lists Murphy as the starter with Norton backing up and Hofrichter as a third string ahead of senior walk-on Alex Hodgkinson.

“Depending on how the guy opposite of him is doing in the kicking, Sterling can focus in on being better at one or the other,” Shafer said. “We got some time to get him right, but we’re excited to get him in the program.”