Babers, Syracuse face stark reality / David Hale (ESPN)

[Shrmdougluvr]

One thing Babers always excelled at was coming up with a reason why something wasn’t his fault.

I’ve lost the ability to “like” posts and I would have “loved” this one.

Babers was an absolute master at “managing expectations.”

 

[Orijinal]

Hale makes many good points here.

On the plus side for Dino:
Dino is a fantastic person and personality, and a good representative of the program. He could attract some quality coaches. Dino was able to bring in talent on the defensive side of the ball. Dino also was beginning to make it work on the offensive side of the ball WITHOUT utilizing a QB that can throw. This is insane when you think about it. Maybe Cuse should just do away with the QB position altogether (I kid, but only partly...)

The negative:
Dino's feel for the game left something to be desired (when to call timeouts, when to go for it on 4th, unnecessary onside kicks). His teams committed way too many procedure penalties. He never seemed to see the game well from the sideline (was asking refs who committed penalties and what they did, his recount of events in post-game pressers made you scratch your head). His stubbornness to throw the deep ball just out of bounds along the sideline was frustrating

 

[721Comstock]

As articles go, given what was left out in order to round out the full picture, this was a 56 yard punt.

From the opponent's 45.

So, a net gain of 20 yards.

 

[Scooch]

I like Hale, but obviously there are ton of holes in what he wrote.

However, he nailed our circumstances with this one sentence: "There's simply no room for error when the margins are so thin."

Bingo and amen.

The last five years of the Babers era were marked by a never-ending array of self-inflicted wounds. You simply can't have the amount of botched player personnel moves, organizational approaches, coaching hires and in-game decisions that occured and also see consistent success.

We're a small market team. We have to minimize those errors. Dino did the opposite.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

A huge stretch of the truth here by Hale. Must have been close to Dino because it makes very little sense what he wrote.

Teams with fewer P5 conference Ws than Dino the last 3 years:

Northwestern 6 (fired HC non FB)
Rutgers 6
Colorado 5 (fired HC)
Stanford 5 (fired HC)
Indiana 3 (HC hotseat)
Vandy 2 (HC hotseat)


That is right, no ACC team has fewer conference Ws than Dino. So does Hale think we should have extended Dino with 1 year left on his contract? And this is ignoring 2019 and 2020.

 

[David332]

Life is full of adversity, success comes from overcoming the cards dealt to you at times. When Dino starting pointing to the challenges of coaching here, it came across like he had given up and the job was impossible.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I like Hale, but obviously there are ton of holes in what he wrote.

However, he nailed our circumstances with this one sentence: "There's simply no room for error when the margins are so thin."

Bingo and amen.

The last five years of the Babers era were marked by a never-ending array of self-inflicted wounds. You simply can't have the amount of botched player personnel moves, organizational approaches, coaching hires and in-game decisions that occured and also see consistent success.

We're a small market team. We have to minimize those errors. Dino did the opposite.

Absolutely, I banged the drum on "margin for error" for a while.

 

[DCUNITED13]

Funny is that Tommy DeVitto is throwing TD's in the NFL and we don't have a 3rd String QB, or a QB that can throw the ball downfield last 5 games..

 

[oldpinepoint]

Hale makes many good points here.

On the plus side for Dino:
Dino is a fantastic person and personality, and a good representative of the program. He could attract some quality coaches. Dino was able to bring in talent on the defensive side of the ball. Dino also was beginning to make it work on the offensive side of the ball WITHOUT utilizing a QB that can throw. This is insane when you think about it. Maybe Cuse should just do away with the QB position altogether (I kid, but only partly...)

The negative:
Dino's feel for the game left something to be desired (when to call timeouts, when to go for it on 4th, unnecessary onside kicks). His teams committed way too many procedure penalties. He never seemed to see the game well from the sideline (was asking refs who committed penalties and what they did, his recount of events in post-game pressers made you scratch your head). His stubbornness to throw the deep ball just out of bounds along the sideline was frustrating

I think he was an average representative of the program and did the bare minimum that was required. Offensively I’m not sure who gets credit for the single wing/wild cat offense but that’s not sustainable in the long run except for a few games. There is no margin for error with this offense and it showed.

 

[PhatOrange]

That pesky depth always impacts penalties. No wonder we rate last.

 

[dollarbill44]

It's an interesting opinion piece. I still think the portal is an excuse. We also got guys in the portal that Dino would have been ecstatic to have gotten out of high school. Thw fact is he struck lightning with one DB class.
His decision making and clock management cost him games each season and I'm not talking about decisions that could go either way, but obvious brain farts - like trying a 50 yard FG on 4th and 3 down two scores when our kicker hadn't made one that long all season, punting on 4th and 1 across midfield. And the penalties...

 

[Orijinal]

I have to wonder if a new coach will ever be the answer at Syracuse.

I think the answers will have to come from elsewhere:
1) facility upgrades (which are happening),
2) NIL regulation/reform (which may never happen),
3) an NIL pendulum swing--meaning millionaires get sick of wasting money on flame outs (which may happen),
4) expanding the Syracuse fan base to include much of upstate NY, which would help push recruits to choose Cuse (which may never happen)

 

[Trueblue25]

Well, Jawahr Jordan had a heck of a year for Louisville.

We’re not hurting at running back. Allen’s about to rush for over 1000 yards. Good for Jordan but he was never going to play over Tucker. This is a dead horse we continue to beat.

 

[Chip]

This whole notion of we were stuck with a TE playing QB just ignores that the backup QB couldn't hit water from a boat in the BC game. In the friendly confines of the Dome against a mediocre (at best) team.

Just one week later, the QB who transferred to the west coast because he wanted to be the starter went 4-16 with an INT.

It was also the 3rd straight year that we had no backup option when Shrader, a QB who was asked to do everything, went down with an injury.

But woe is Dino.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

A huge stretch of the truth here by Hale. Must have been close to Dino because it makes very little sense what he wrote.

Teams with fewer P5 conference Ws than Dino the last 3 years:

Northwestern 6 (fired HC non FB)
Rutgers 6
Colorado 5 (fired HC)
Stanford 5 (fired HC)
Indiana 3 (HC hotseat)
Vandy 2 (HC hotseat)


That is right, no ACC team has fewer conference Ws than Dino. So does Hale think we should have extended Dino with 1 year left on his contract? And this is ignoring 2019 and 2020.

If you extend it out to the last 5 years teams with fewer...

Rutgers 9
Vandy 3

That is it. Only two teams have fewer Ws, but let's give Dino a lifetime contract.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

This whole notion of we were stuck with a TE playing QB just ignores that the backup QB couldn't hit water from a boat in the BC game. In the friendly confines of the Dome against a mediocre (at best) team.

Just one week later, the QB who transferred to the west coast because he wanted to be the starter went 4-16 with an INT.

It was also the 3rd straight year that we had no backup option when Shrader, a QB who was asked to do everything, went down with an injury.

But woe is Dino.

At a certain point excuses stop mattering.

Year 8 feels like it's in range of that point.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Funny is that Tommy DeVitto is throwing TD's in the NFL and we don't have a 3rd String QB, or a QB that can throw the ball downfield last 5 games..

Correction, he threw three touchdown passes despite getting sacked 10 times.

 

[Bayside44]

At a certain point excuses stop mattering.

Year 8 feels like it's in range of that point.

Yeah, this. I mean I get it but he didn't have a serviceable plan B.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

Funny is that Tommy DeVitto is throwing TD's in the NFL and we don't have a 3rd String QB, or a QB that can throw the ball downfield last 5 games..

Tommy’s performances the last two years should absolutely be one nail in the coffin for Dino.

 

[shantydaze]

. . .
Syracuse is not Little Sisters of the Poor.
We can't support our program like Clemson & FSU, but we should at least be able to match peers like Wake, BC, Pitt, etc.

According to U.S.N&W.R., Clemson has an undergraduate enrollment of 22,566 and Syracuse has an undergraduate enrollment of 15,421. It is not like Clemson has four times the student population like a B1G state school might have. Other than the administration and alumni having different priorities, there is no reason why we can not support the program similar to Clemson.

 

[Millhouse]

This whole notion of we were stuck with a TE playing QB just ignores that the backup QB couldn't hit water from a boat in the BC game. In the friendly confines of the Dome against a mediocre (at best) team.

Just one week later, the QB who transferred to the west coast because he wanted to be the starter went 4-16 with an INT.

It was also the 3rd straight year that we had no backup option when Shrader, a QB who was asked to do everything, went down with an injury.

But woe is Dino.

The number one priority should be to hire someone who can recruit and develop adequate passing consistently

Dino failed so he's gone and I have very little confidence that wildhack will prioritize this

 

[cali315phan]

What Hale's article leaves out, is that Dinos teams have been one of the most penalized teams of the last 5 years EVERY year and his time management is atrocious. We had years with solid players. He coached his teams into more poses than he did victories.

 

[shantydaze]

. . .

We're a small market team. . . .

Wait, I thought we were New York City's college team?

 

[bcubs9497]

Okay, so what about when NIL wasn’t a thing?

 

[TheCusian]

I think it asks the orange fan to look in the mirror, which I like. Are we, Syracuse fans evaluating the job properly or are we waxing nostalgic about coach Mac and O days? Are we accounting for reality?

I think, my take away after years of supporting Dougie, SS, and Dino here on the message board is that the ground shifting beneath the program is very difficult terrain to win on consistently. We need a *good* HC to do that. And that someone needs to be a rock star at winning support and building belief so that NIL is easier. Winning happens when the situation is evaluated properly and the admin/coaching/players/fans/boosters are all in alignment.