Syracuse safety Daivon Ellison was named co-ACC defensive back of the week after recording a career-high and team-high 11 tackles in Syracuse’s (1-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) 45-20 loss to South Florida (3-0) on Saturday in his first career start.

Ellison started in place of injured safeties Antwan Cordy, who is out for the season, and Kielan Whitner, who did not dress for the game and is out an undisclosed amount of time. He forced a fumble in the first quarter against USF — his first career forced fumble, which came a week after he snagged his first career interception against then-No. 13 Louisville’s Heisman-candidate quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Ellison ripped the ball away from South Florida receiver Rodney Adams, but the Bulls recovered the ball. He returned the interception against the Cardinals 50 yards and set up the Orange for a field goal try with just seconds left in the half.

“Daivon is big time,” Whitner said prior to the South Florida game. “He’s been doing great things. I look at a lot of the things he does in his game and kind of want to model those things in my game.”

Ellison’s 11 tackles (8 solo and 3 assisted) in the South Florida game were the most by a Syracuse defender in a game this season. He only had one tackle this year coming into the game and had just seven in eight games played as a freshman in 2015.