SWC75
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Coach Babers’s Show will be at the new Marriott Syracuse, (the former Hotel Syracuse). The first show will be Wednesday night at 7PM because the game is Friday, (the show will normally be two days before the next game). Matt thinks they will be in the Cavallier Room. This article contains the schedule:
http://cuse.com/news/2016/8/30/football-dino-babers-radio-show-debuts-wednesday.aspx
You can also listen to the show live each week on the Syracuse IMG Sports Network and Cuse.com. Wednesday's show will be on 99.1 FM and 97.7 FM, as well. The show will regularly air on 99.5FM (Syracuse)99.1 FM (Utica) and 1200 AM.”
You can also get it on: WGVA
I haven’t heard that there will be any change in the phone numbers, which last year were 315-424-8599 (local) or 1-888-746-2873. You can call to ask questions or submit them via Twitter at: #AskDino hashtag on Twitter
Or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
(For the moment, I assume they want us to submit it to the “Scott Shafer Show”)
My Question(s)
“Coach, last year we got off to a 3-0 start and then gave LSU all they could handle. We felt good about our team. An 8 game losing streak crushed our hopes and led to the firing of your predecessor. Everybody’s all excited about what you and your staff will bring to this program after the success you’ve had at other schools. But you are talking about “belief without evidence”, how long it takes Novocain to take effect and how your offense doesn’t click in until midway through your second year. What should Syracuse fans expect from your team this year and what should they not expect – yet?”
The Show
(I sometimes re-arrange the comments so that statements made on the same subject are reported together, even if they came at different points of the show.)
They were in the Cavallier Room of the Marriott but for future shows they will be in Shaughnessy’s Irish Pub, which can be accessed from the street.
Today’s practice was “Feel Good Thursday”. They do 1- 1 ½ hours of practice, depending on how well the players do. They go over the entire kicking game, then the offense and defense break off for 30 minutes to work from scrimmage. They like to get off 100 plays in those 30 minutes. Matt pointed out that they got off 168 plays in an hour and a half scrimmage. “That’s because the referees were there” said Babers. He said that the practice tempo is faster than the typical game tempo.
I asked my question. “You should always expect to see a a well-coached team that has a minimum of penalties and turnovers, one that is giving fantastic effort.” (He likes the word “fantastic” the coach Coach Boeheim likes the word “unbelievable”. Hopefully we’ll have a fantastic football team and an unbelievable basketball team. ) “We’ll make mistakes but we’ll make them so fast we’ll have a chance to make up for them”. What we will see in year two is “increased confidence. We’ll have so many repetitions that it will be muscle memory and you’ll see them move with a swagger, even with arrogance.” Are you ready for an arrogant team?
He also said that he wasn’t sure what to expect for the third year because he’s never had a third year. He’ll looking forward to it to see what happens.
Matt said that Dino “asks the players to do so much and they have to be able to run themselves”, by which he meant they have to be able to make decisions on the field. Coach Babers said “A lot of coaches like to treat their players like robots. We don’t. “.
Colgate announced their leading receiver, John Maddaluna, will be available for the game. There was some doubt about that, apparently. “It’s a good thing we prepared for him.”
They discussed the Red Raider quarterback, Jake Melville. Babers: “He can elude the rush and force the defense to come out of their coverage early. He finds young men who are wide open for huge strikes…..They love to run to control the clock. We need to make sure they can’t run and we need to cover passes so we can attack downfield.”
John in Baltimore asked the coach what surprised him about Syracuse- the team, the school or the community. Babers: “It was the hunger to get this fixed. I know this has the reputation of a basketball school that used to be a football school. The schools I’ve been at were both football and basketball schools. If we are a basket5ball school that also plays good football, I’ll be satisfied with that.”
John also noted Dino’s success in recruiting defensive players and wonder what his selling point was there, since he has a reputation as an offensive coach. HCDB: “In my second year at both places we had numerous all-league players and most of them were on defense... 98% of college football players won’t be playing in the NFL so this is their last chance to hit people without getting arrested for it. They don’t mind if the games are longer playing our way. They are longer and they are more entertaining. “
Andy asked him about his first recruiting class. Coach said he couldn’t discuss individuals. They did pretty well for 2016 on short notice. “We’re excited about some players but some need additional development and will red-shirt”. Which means that if a guy is ready to play, he’ll play. Babers said that the 2017 class will be better than the 2016 class and that the 2018 class will be better than the 2017 class. I wonder what the 2019 class will be like. The football recruiting board is going to be an interesting read in the next few years.
Jay asked him what his favorite college team was growing up. Coach said it was San Diego State in the Don Coryell era. He discussed several players he remembers from that time, including Fred Dryer, (“Hunter”) and Carl Weathers, (“Apollo Creed”), who were their defensive ends in 1968 when they went undefeated and won the national small college championship. They also had Isaac Curtis, who had a strong NFL career as a wide receiver. Mike Martz who designed the Rams offense when they won the Super Bowl, was on Coryell’s staff.
The Aztecs were the Boise State of the 1960’s-70’s, a highly successful small college team that moved up to Division 1 and became the top mid-major in the country, then joined the WAC. Unfortunately, they couldn’t sustain it the way Boise has and leveled off in the late 70’s. But they were an exciting, high scoring team full of fast players that threw the ball more than anybody else. Here is a list of SDS’s seasons and you can see the influence Coryell had one the program:
San Diego State Yearly Totals
And here is an article from a 1966 Sports Illustrated that has some interesting things to say about Coryell’s team, especially about their game against defending small college champion North Dakota State:
On a clear day, San Diego State saw forever
I especially like this paragraph:
"Put that thing on regular speed," Dakota's Ron Erhardt told an assistant running a film showing San Diego backs racing off in spectacular isolation. "Coach," said the assistant, "this is regular speed."
"Good grief," said Erhardt.
It was, of course, San Diego State that Baber’s Eastern Illinois team upset in the game Dino has been referencing this week in trying to get people to realize that Colgate might beat us if we don’t play well.
Jay also wanted his opinion on who the best quarterback in the NFL was. Babers chose Tom Brady, which led to a discussion of Jimmy Garappolo, who was his quarterback at Eastern Illinois. “All the quarterbacks in our system will do well in the NFL. It’s not all shotgun. We run players under center. Quarterbacks have half-a-field reads and full field reads.”
Fran in East Syracuse wondered what the coach wanted to see from this first game “besides the victory we all expect”. Babers: “A football team grows the most between the end of the first game and the beginning of the second. We can show them film of what they did and show them the difference between winging blocking and losing blocking and winning tackling and losing tackling. Hopefully it will show up on the scoreboard.”
They had a trivia question: What player ran for a touchdown, threw for a touchdown and passed for a touchdown in a Syracuse Colgate game? I’ll let you try to figure out the answer and tomorrow I’ll tell you who it was, what game it was and what they said about it.
Coach discussed the labels for his offense and defense: “spread” and “Tampa 2”. “You think they are all
the same. Those our base offense and defenses. There are may different kinds of spreads. There are different styles and disguises off the Tampa 2. The tag doesn’t matter. We have to get pressure on the quarterback. We’d like to do it with 4 men but if we need 5, 6, 7 or even 8 men we can do that. All defenses can do that. We can’t let the quarterback get comfortable. If we can do it with 4 guys we should be OK.” He repeated his joking statement: “If you have a son or a firend who can play defensive end, bring him to the game and I guarantee that he will play.”
David in Queens wanted to ask about “complimentary football” with a “fast-paced offense and a bend but don’t break defense”. He wondered if the defensive players might get tired, being on the field as long as they are likely to be with that concept. Coach did not like the “bend but don’t break” description”. “I don’t know what that means. The defense has one job; get off the field in three plays. Sometimes that involves being aggressive. Sometimes it involves being more conservative. Our defensive players are also special teams players so we want to keep them fresh.”
He said that in his first year at Eastern Illinois, they were predicted to finish last but they won the conference. His first year at Bowling Green they were predicted to finish first but lost their quarterback in their first game – and still won the conference, (actually their division). “I don’t want ceilings and I don’t want walls”. How are you on floors, coach?
Robert wanted to know about conditioning: what did coach see when he arrived and where are they now? Coach praised Sean Eddinger, who has bene his S&C guy at both stops and is now with him in Syracuse. He knows just what they need and how to get here. “It doesn’t matter what you have when we arrive. You are not in our condition. It’s our ‘secret sauce’. We train players differently. We train quarterbacks differently. We train receivers differently…. We run so many plays in practice that sometimes players are not as fresh as they should be. I’m 2-2 in openers so sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong. It’s one thing to be in good condition as a group – and this team is more advanced in their conditioning as a gro0up than any team I’ve had. But if you have 1-2 individuals in a unit who aren’t where they need to be, it slows us down.” Matt noted that Steven Clark has lost 25-30 pounds. Coach: “In our defense you have to be strong but you have to be quick. We aren’t just going to fight you in a phone booth.” Good thing- when was the last time you saw a phone booth?
Pat asked Dino for a movie recommendation. At 3AM he watched “Roadhouse” with Patrick Swayze, who played a bouncer who told his assistants: “Be nice until it’s time not to be nice. I’ll tell you when that is.” Coach likes that because it’s “Old School.”
It’s time to not be nice to Colgate.
http://cuse.com/news/2016/8/30/football-dino-babers-radio-show-debuts-wednesday.aspx
You can also listen to the show live each week on the Syracuse IMG Sports Network and Cuse.com. Wednesday's show will be on 99.1 FM and 97.7 FM, as well. The show will regularly air on 99.5FM (Syracuse)99.1 FM (Utica) and 1200 AM.”
You can also get it on: WGVA
I haven’t heard that there will be any change in the phone numbers, which last year were 315-424-8599 (local) or 1-888-746-2873. You can call to ask questions or submit them via Twitter at: #AskDino hashtag on Twitter
Or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
(For the moment, I assume they want us to submit it to the “Scott Shafer Show”)
My Question(s)
“Coach, last year we got off to a 3-0 start and then gave LSU all they could handle. We felt good about our team. An 8 game losing streak crushed our hopes and led to the firing of your predecessor. Everybody’s all excited about what you and your staff will bring to this program after the success you’ve had at other schools. But you are talking about “belief without evidence”, how long it takes Novocain to take effect and how your offense doesn’t click in until midway through your second year. What should Syracuse fans expect from your team this year and what should they not expect – yet?”
The Show
(I sometimes re-arrange the comments so that statements made on the same subject are reported together, even if they came at different points of the show.)
They were in the Cavallier Room of the Marriott but for future shows they will be in Shaughnessy’s Irish Pub, which can be accessed from the street.
Today’s practice was “Feel Good Thursday”. They do 1- 1 ½ hours of practice, depending on how well the players do. They go over the entire kicking game, then the offense and defense break off for 30 minutes to work from scrimmage. They like to get off 100 plays in those 30 minutes. Matt pointed out that they got off 168 plays in an hour and a half scrimmage. “That’s because the referees were there” said Babers. He said that the practice tempo is faster than the typical game tempo.
I asked my question. “You should always expect to see a a well-coached team that has a minimum of penalties and turnovers, one that is giving fantastic effort.” (He likes the word “fantastic” the coach Coach Boeheim likes the word “unbelievable”. Hopefully we’ll have a fantastic football team and an unbelievable basketball team. ) “We’ll make mistakes but we’ll make them so fast we’ll have a chance to make up for them”. What we will see in year two is “increased confidence. We’ll have so many repetitions that it will be muscle memory and you’ll see them move with a swagger, even with arrogance.” Are you ready for an arrogant team?
He also said that he wasn’t sure what to expect for the third year because he’s never had a third year. He’ll looking forward to it to see what happens.
Matt said that Dino “asks the players to do so much and they have to be able to run themselves”, by which he meant they have to be able to make decisions on the field. Coach Babers said “A lot of coaches like to treat their players like robots. We don’t. “.
Colgate announced their leading receiver, John Maddaluna, will be available for the game. There was some doubt about that, apparently. “It’s a good thing we prepared for him.”
They discussed the Red Raider quarterback, Jake Melville. Babers: “He can elude the rush and force the defense to come out of their coverage early. He finds young men who are wide open for huge strikes…..They love to run to control the clock. We need to make sure they can’t run and we need to cover passes so we can attack downfield.”
John in Baltimore asked the coach what surprised him about Syracuse- the team, the school or the community. Babers: “It was the hunger to get this fixed. I know this has the reputation of a basketball school that used to be a football school. The schools I’ve been at were both football and basketball schools. If we are a basket5ball school that also plays good football, I’ll be satisfied with that.”
John also noted Dino’s success in recruiting defensive players and wonder what his selling point was there, since he has a reputation as an offensive coach. HCDB: “In my second year at both places we had numerous all-league players and most of them were on defense... 98% of college football players won’t be playing in the NFL so this is their last chance to hit people without getting arrested for it. They don’t mind if the games are longer playing our way. They are longer and they are more entertaining. “
Andy asked him about his first recruiting class. Coach said he couldn’t discuss individuals. They did pretty well for 2016 on short notice. “We’re excited about some players but some need additional development and will red-shirt”. Which means that if a guy is ready to play, he’ll play. Babers said that the 2017 class will be better than the 2016 class and that the 2018 class will be better than the 2017 class. I wonder what the 2019 class will be like. The football recruiting board is going to be an interesting read in the next few years.
Jay asked him what his favorite college team was growing up. Coach said it was San Diego State in the Don Coryell era. He discussed several players he remembers from that time, including Fred Dryer, (“Hunter”) and Carl Weathers, (“Apollo Creed”), who were their defensive ends in 1968 when they went undefeated and won the national small college championship. They also had Isaac Curtis, who had a strong NFL career as a wide receiver. Mike Martz who designed the Rams offense when they won the Super Bowl, was on Coryell’s staff.
The Aztecs were the Boise State of the 1960’s-70’s, a highly successful small college team that moved up to Division 1 and became the top mid-major in the country, then joined the WAC. Unfortunately, they couldn’t sustain it the way Boise has and leveled off in the late 70’s. But they were an exciting, high scoring team full of fast players that threw the ball more than anybody else. Here is a list of SDS’s seasons and you can see the influence Coryell had one the program:
San Diego State Yearly Totals
And here is an article from a 1966 Sports Illustrated that has some interesting things to say about Coryell’s team, especially about their game against defending small college champion North Dakota State:
On a clear day, San Diego State saw forever
I especially like this paragraph:
"Put that thing on regular speed," Dakota's Ron Erhardt told an assistant running a film showing San Diego backs racing off in spectacular isolation. "Coach," said the assistant, "this is regular speed."
"Good grief," said Erhardt.
It was, of course, San Diego State that Baber’s Eastern Illinois team upset in the game Dino has been referencing this week in trying to get people to realize that Colgate might beat us if we don’t play well.
Jay also wanted his opinion on who the best quarterback in the NFL was. Babers chose Tom Brady, which led to a discussion of Jimmy Garappolo, who was his quarterback at Eastern Illinois. “All the quarterbacks in our system will do well in the NFL. It’s not all shotgun. We run players under center. Quarterbacks have half-a-field reads and full field reads.”
Fran in East Syracuse wondered what the coach wanted to see from this first game “besides the victory we all expect”. Babers: “A football team grows the most between the end of the first game and the beginning of the second. We can show them film of what they did and show them the difference between winging blocking and losing blocking and winning tackling and losing tackling. Hopefully it will show up on the scoreboard.”
They had a trivia question: What player ran for a touchdown, threw for a touchdown and passed for a touchdown in a Syracuse Colgate game? I’ll let you try to figure out the answer and tomorrow I’ll tell you who it was, what game it was and what they said about it.
Coach discussed the labels for his offense and defense: “spread” and “Tampa 2”. “You think they are all
the same. Those our base offense and defenses. There are may different kinds of spreads. There are different styles and disguises off the Tampa 2. The tag doesn’t matter. We have to get pressure on the quarterback. We’d like to do it with 4 men but if we need 5, 6, 7 or even 8 men we can do that. All defenses can do that. We can’t let the quarterback get comfortable. If we can do it with 4 guys we should be OK.” He repeated his joking statement: “If you have a son or a firend who can play defensive end, bring him to the game and I guarantee that he will play.”
David in Queens wanted to ask about “complimentary football” with a “fast-paced offense and a bend but don’t break defense”. He wondered if the defensive players might get tired, being on the field as long as they are likely to be with that concept. Coach did not like the “bend but don’t break” description”. “I don’t know what that means. The defense has one job; get off the field in three plays. Sometimes that involves being aggressive. Sometimes it involves being more conservative. Our defensive players are also special teams players so we want to keep them fresh.”
He said that in his first year at Eastern Illinois, they were predicted to finish last but they won the conference. His first year at Bowling Green they were predicted to finish first but lost their quarterback in their first game – and still won the conference, (actually their division). “I don’t want ceilings and I don’t want walls”. How are you on floors, coach?
Robert wanted to know about conditioning: what did coach see when he arrived and where are they now? Coach praised Sean Eddinger, who has bene his S&C guy at both stops and is now with him in Syracuse. He knows just what they need and how to get here. “It doesn’t matter what you have when we arrive. You are not in our condition. It’s our ‘secret sauce’. We train players differently. We train quarterbacks differently. We train receivers differently…. We run so many plays in practice that sometimes players are not as fresh as they should be. I’m 2-2 in openers so sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m wrong. It’s one thing to be in good condition as a group – and this team is more advanced in their conditioning as a gro0up than any team I’ve had. But if you have 1-2 individuals in a unit who aren’t where they need to be, it slows us down.” Matt noted that Steven Clark has lost 25-30 pounds. Coach: “In our defense you have to be strong but you have to be quick. We aren’t just going to fight you in a phone booth.” Good thing- when was the last time you saw a phone booth?
Pat asked Dino for a movie recommendation. At 3AM he watched “Roadhouse” with Patrick Swayze, who played a bouncer who told his assistants: “Be nice until it’s time not to be nice. I’ll tell you when that is.” Coach likes that because it’s “Old School.”
It’s time to not be nice to Colgate.
