Babers Restructures Syracuse Football Staff | Syracusefan.com

Babers Restructures Syracuse Football Staff

Orange head football Dino Babers has reshaped his coaching staff, announcing Thursday that five assistant coaches will have new responsibilities for the 2018 season.

Mike Lynch has been elevated to offensive coordinator and running backs coach. Assistant head coach Kim McCloud will mentor the Orange cornerbacks. Justin Lustig continues as Syracuse's special teams coordinator and will coach the outside receivers. Tight ends coach Reno Ferri adds overseeing the inside receivers to his list of duties, while Nick Monroe will lead the Syracuse safeties.

The Orange's co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach the past two seasons, Lynch will hold the title of sole offensive coordinator for the first time in his career. Lynch helped the Orange to two of the three highest total offense figures in team history the past two seasons (2016 - 5,290 yards; 2017 - 5,476 yards). He has previous experience coaching the offensive backfield, mentoring the running backs for four seasons under Babers at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green.

McCloud shifts to defense after coaching the wide receivers in his first two seasons at Syracuse. An All-WAC defensive back as a player at Hawaii, McCloud signed with the San Diego Chargers in 1991 and played two seasons (1991-92) for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League. McCloud also tutored the entire secondary and/or cornerbacks at four of his previous coaching stops.

Lustig joined the Orange in 2017 and coached the running backs last fall in addition to serving as special teams coordinator. Lustig molded the Orange punt team into one of the best in the FBS last season, as Syracuse ranked in the top 10 statistically in punt return yardage defense (4th – 2.67) and net punting average (10th – 41.3).

In addition to now mentoring the inside receivers, Ferri will continue as tight ends coach, a position he's held since joining the Orange in 2016.

Monroe narrows his focus to the Orange safeties after serving as the team's secondary coach since accompanying Babers from Bowling Green to Syracuse in 2016.

Syracuse returns 43 letterwinners, including 16 starters (8 offense, 7 defense, 1 specialist), from last season. The Orange open spring practice next month.

2018 SYRACUSE COACHING STAFF
Dino Babers – Head Coach (Hawaii '84)
Kim McCloud – Assistant Head Coach/Cornerbacks (Hawaii '91)
Mike Lynch – Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs (Montana '00)
Brian Ward – Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers (McPherson College '97)
Justin Lustig – Special Teams Coordinator/Outside Receivers (Bucknell '00)
Mike Cavanaugh – Offensive Line (Southern Connecticut State '86)
Reno Ferri – Tight Ends/Inside Receivers (U.S. Military Academy '00)
Kirk Martin – Quarterbacks (UTEP '93)
Nick Monroe – Safeties (St. Cloud State '01)
Vinson Reynolds – Defensive Tackles (Northern Illinois '94)
Steve Stanard – Defensive Ends (Nebraska '89)
 
Wow, that's quite a bit of restructuring. I was hoping that Cavanaugh and Lynch would split the offensive line duties considering that it's improvement next year is most important to the team imo. Give one centers and guards, and the other could take the tackles. But I guess Babers trusts Cavanaugh even though his lines at Nebraska were not good the last couple years.

Now that the coaching #'s are even on both sides hopefully the defense takes a big step forward
 
I really like this re-structuring. I've always been in favor of splitting Corners and Safeties and McCloud now coaches the position he was All-WAC playing. I think this is a really good move.

I like Ferri coaching TE and "Inside Receivers".

Lustig not sure. Has never coach outside receivers before. This might be one to watch. Four-year starter at defensive back though.
 
PhatOrange said:
I really like this re-structuring. I've always been in favor of splitting Corners and Safeties and McCloud now coaches the position he was All-WAC playing. I think this is a really good move.

I like Ferri coaching TE and "Inside Receivers".

Lustig not sure. Has never coach outside receivers before. This might be one to watch. Four-year starter at defensive back though.
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Good Point about Lustig. I'd imagine Babers based on his past experiences is probably more heavily involved with both of the receiver positions during practice, so he may be ok putting a first timer there.
 
FasterCuse said:
Good Point about Lustig. I'd imagine Babers based on his past experiences is probably more heavily involved with both of the receiver positions during practice, so he may be ok putting a first timer there.
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Good point on Babers.

Lynch has had success coaching RBs at bowling green to so this move makes sense and also takes some load off his position plate.
 
I see moving McCloud to CB coach as a risk. He did a great job as WR coach with the development of ET and Ish into stud WR's in this system and with Estime and Erv being top notch #2's. Hopefully he can work the same magic with the CB's and Lustig/Ferri can do a comparable job with the WR's.
 
PhatOrange said:
I really like this re-structuring. I've always been in favor of splitting Corners and Safeties and McCloud now coaches the position he was All-WAC playing. I think this is a really good move.

I like Ferri coaching TE and "Inside Receivers".

Lustig not sure. Has never coach outside receivers before. This might be one to watch. Four-year starter at defensive back though.
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Good post.
I think this is a much better lineup. I think co anything basically sucks.
This is the year we will see the future. For the first time in forever we will have the size and speed to compete. With the staff having valuable ACC experience, I am hoping for much better play everywhere.
 
rrlbees said:
I see moving McCloud to CB coach as a risk. He did a great job as WR coach with the development of ET and Ish into stud WR's in this system and with Estime and Erv being top notch #2's. Hopefully he can work the same magic with the CB's and Lustig/Ferri can do a comparable job with the WR's.
Expand...

I agree, that's a 180 for mcloud and most players will tell you that their position coach is their primary mentor for their time on campus. Dont get. Its bizarre, we have coordinators being coordinators AND in charge of other FULL positions of 8-10 players . Yet, we have full time assistants in charge of 4 -6 kids as in inside vs outside receivers. I support DINO but at first glance this seems bizarre and a bit of micromanagement .
 
Ish88888 said:
I agree, that's a 180 for mcloud and most players will tell you that their position coach is their primary mentor for their time on campus. Dont get. Its bizarre, we have coordinators being coordinators AND in charge of other FULL positions of 8-10 players . Yet, we have full time assistants in charge of 4 -6 kids as in inside vs outside receivers. I support DINO but at first glance this seems bizarre and a bit of micromanagement .
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As long as it makes sense to them, it doesn’t matter what we think.

Bizarre or Out-of-the-Box will be dependent on how well we do.
 
McCloud played CB.
McCloud was a DC.
Lustig is a smart dude and I have zero worries about him moving to IWR and maybe, just maybe Dino has been training him to take over this role?
With Cavanaugh you don't need to split the OL, his track record speaks to how great of a coach he is (just don't ask a Nebraska fan).
These moves where well thought out and will have a huge impact this upcoming year.
Dino knows what he is doing, he has a plan, and zero reason for anyone to think any of these moves are a "risk".
 
TheCusian said:
As long as it makes sense to them, it doesn’t matter what we think.

Bizarre or Out-of-the-Box will be dependent on how well we do.
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Well... lets shut the board down then.
 
PAcuse said:
Dino knows what he is doing, he has a plan, and zero reason for anyone to think any of these moves are a "risk".
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Im sure Dino knows what he’s doing, no doubt. I’m sure he has a plan. I’m sure it’ll all work out. But if all the coaching moves the one that is the riskiest is moving McCloud from WR. The proof is in the production we had the last 2 years. Hopefully Lustig and Ferri are up to the task. The positive is that if McCloud is that good a teacher and can do the same with the CB’s, it’ll be great because IMO CB is more critical than WR.
 
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Ish88888 said:
I agree, that's a 180 for mcloud and most players will tell you that their position coach is their primary mentor for their time on campus. Dont get. Its bizarre, we have coordinators being coordinators AND in charge of other FULL positions of 8-10 players . Yet, we have full time assistants in charge of 4 -6 kids as in inside vs outside receivers. I support DINO but at first glance this seems bizarre and a bit of micromanagement .
Expand...

It’s pretty common for coordinators to also coach a position.
 
PhatOrange said:
It’s pretty common for coordinators to also coach a position.
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I get that , but for assistants being paid 200k, to have 4 players to coach? Its a bit weird . Just seems as though the corners and safeties WHO need to play together and have a feeling of chemistry and continuity, should hear the same voice.
 
Ish88888 said:
I get that , but for assistants being paid 200k, to have 4 players to coach? Its a bit weird . Just seems as though the corners and safeties WHO need to play together and have a feeling of chemistry and continuity, should hear the same voice.
Expand...

Well we have a separate coach for inside and outside WRs.

We have a separate coach for DEs and DTs.

Should we just consolidate them all and tell the NCAA thanks but no thanks on the additional coach?

I’m with Whigham on this one. He should know.
 
I think most people are over thinking it.. to think the Neb oline was bad last year because of the oline coach means not enough watching nebraska fball. I think the success of Ish and ET and to think that the WR coach was the cause is a simplification of the system. Ish in year 4 was healthy and had the ball thrown a ton to him. his stats got better because of the system and he was more consistent. ET what do we have to base any improvement on? He really took advantage of matchups in a system that thrives on that.

WR coaches need to get the players to run the routes better and run the correct routes and catch the ball consistently. The drills do much of the physical stuff and that stuff is all known.. getting into the players heads to learn/study and want to get better we have no idea how much one coach is better than another. After Ish and Phillips we didnt really see any other WR step up his game. Custis we thought was, but he got dinged, Butler showed signs a couple games but still had the dropsies, Who else showed? the 2 best WRs talent wise played well. Maybe coach thinks we can do better? Maybe he thinks we can improve more on D by moving him?
 
We are splitting everything but online and it's a damn good idea. Mcloud played in secondary in college so he might know what he is doing there. Lol. We need help back there badly and Monroe has less kids to correct and focus on this way. All the calls are the same so they should be on same page. I love this idea. Kudos to Dino. He does seam to go after our weaknesses in an effort to fix them quickly. Also having Lynch at Rb is perfect so when they run team and he is looking at backs he can also help with line if they need correction. Plus there are GA who can help too.
 
rrlbees said:
Im sure Dino knows what he’s doing, no doubt. I’m sure he has a plan. I’m sure it’ll all work out. But if all the coaching moves the one that is the riskiest is moving McCloud from WR. The proof is in the production we had the last 2 years. Hopefully Lustig and Ferri are up to the task. The positive is that if McCloud is that good a teacher and can do the same with the CB’s, it’ll be great because IMO CB is more critical than WR.
Expand...

I have to believe that Dino also works closely with the WR and that should help with have the McCloud move.
Lustig and Ferri both seem to be excellent coaches and I have a feeling we won't see a drop in WR development.
 
PAcuse said:
I have to believe that Dino also works closely with the WR and that should help with have the McCloud move.
Lustig and Ferri both seem to be excellent coaches and I have a feeling we won't see a drop in WR development.
Expand...

Agree -- Dino has a passion for the passing offense. He will stay on top of the QBs & WRs and spend a lot of time supporting Martin, Lustig & Ferri as they implement what Dino wants. If the kids can play, these guys can coach.
 
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