Babers to Arizona OC/QB Coach | Page 8 | Syracusefan.com

Babers to Arizona OC/QB Coach

texascpa said:
Man, I still remember the day Babers was announced as HC. It was my birthday. What a great present it was at that time. In hindsight, it ranked right below the birthday I got nothing, and I mean nothing, from my ex-wife.
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He left the program much better than he found it. He inherited a three win program and turned it into a six win. It was a fun ride for a while with a lot of excitement and some truly great wins.

I’ve never quite understood where the bitterness comes from other than that he seemed rather disengage toward the end.
 
NKR1978 said:
He left the program much better than he found it. He inherited a three win program and turned it into a six win. It was a fun ride for a while with a lot of excitement and some truly great wins.

I’ve never quite understood where the bitterness comes from other than that he seemed rather disengage toward the end.
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I don't know if I can say he left it in a much better place. He inherited a 4.6 win program that had it's first back to back bowl wins since 1995/1996. I am in no way saying that Shafer had us on the right trajectory. I think he needed to go.

I also think Babers came in and we "looked" better with his first two seasons (both 4 win seasons BTW) but after we lost Sean Lewis, the O seemed to take a step back each year with the exception of the miracle 2018 season, his first without Lewis and his last with Shafer recruit Eric Dungy (and Strickland, Custis, Slayton). It can be argued that the 2018 team had more of his recruits than not, but the same has to be said for each team after. Without that season he averaged 3.8 wins. With it, he averaged 4.6.

Fran also had a 10 win season and there were many valuable contributors who were Babers recruits, but Fran brought in some important players for that too, including and especially McCord.
 
NJCuse97 said:
I don't know if I can say he left it in a much better place. He inherited a 4.6 win program that had it's first back to back bowl wins since 1995/1996. I am in no way saying that Shafer had us on the right trajectory. I think he needed to go.

I also think Babers came in and we "looked" better with his first two seasons (both 4 win seasons BTW) but after we lost Sean Lewis, the O seemed to take a step back each year with the exception of the miracle 2018 season, his first without Lewis and his last with Shafer recruit Eric Dungy (and Strickland, Custis, Slayton). It can be argued that the 2018 team had more of his recruits than not, but the same has to be said for each team after. Without that season he averaged 3.8 wins. With it, he averaged 4.6.

Fran also had a 10 win season and there were many valuable contributors who were Babers recruits, but Fran brought in some important players for that too, including and especially McCord.
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We had Lewis for two years and year 3 was 2018. Not sure that was a miracle season. It was the best of Schafer talent combined with guys Dino brought in.

If you were going to take out his best year, then surely you need to take out the one win Covid season. That can’t possibly be held against him in a year where we had tons of guys opt out, injuries, and barely had a roster. We also seemed to be the only team in the country that for whatever reason had no cancellations.

We also literally averaged 6 wins his 3 post Covid seasons and got in the top 25 more weeks than the basketball team ever sniffed it during those years.
 
texascpa said:
Man, I still remember the day Babers was announced as HC. It was my birthday. What a great present it was at that time. In hindsight, it ranked right below the birthday I got nothing, and I mean nothing, from my ex-wife.
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Why would your ex-wife get you something? (I don’t get adults celebrating their own birthdays. It’s an anniversary of your mother risking her life to bring you into the world. I send my mother flowers on my birthday.)
 
l think that once Babers realized that 6-7 wins and a bowl was all he needed for job security he lost his edge and got lazy. l loved Babers but it was time for him to go because l don't think he fits the new NIL world of college football.
 
Capt. Tuttle said:
Why would your ex-wife get you something? (I don’t get adults celebrating their own birthdays. It’s an anniversary of your mother risking her life to bring you into the world. I send my mother flowers on my birthday.)
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I think he meant she is now his ex but wasn't at said time so as not to imply current wife.
 
wfschrec said:
I think he meant she is now his ex but wasn't at said time so as not to imply current wife.
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I assumed he meant he divorced her because she didn’t get him anything for his birthday.
 
UD1954 said:
l think that once Babers realized that 6-7 wins and a bowl was all he needed for job security he lost his edge and got lazy. l loved Babers but it was time for him to go because l don't think he fits the new NIL world of college football.
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He also never believed in Syracuse. I feel like there was constant complaints about how difficult it was to recruit. Fran proved that wrong on day 1.
 
NKR1978 said:
He also never believed in Syracuse. I feel like there was constant complaints about how difficult it was to recruit. Fran proved that wrong on day 1.
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Fran is a unicorn and last year was a unique set of circumstances leveraging a lifetime of connections.

This is not saying I don’t think he can do it, but let’s see how the next 2 or 3 yrs go.
 
NKR1978 said:
We had Lewis for two years and year 3 was 2018. Not sure that was a miracle season. It was the best of Schafer talent combined with guys Dino brought in.

If you were going to take out his best year, then surely you need to take out the one win Covid season. That can’t possibly be held against him in a year where we had tons of guys opt out, injuries, and barely had a roster. We also seemed to be the only team in the country that for whatever reason had no cancellations.

We also literally averaged 6 wins his 3 post Covid seasons and got in the top 25 more weeks than the basketball team ever sniffed it during those years.
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I’m not hating on Babers, I’m just not going to celebrate him either. He was here 8 years and you seem to want to ignore 5 of them. Everyone dealt with challenges during the COVID year. Again, I am not saying he didn’t bust his butt to overcome them, but with one win, it’s hard to say he was successful in doing so. When I include all years, he averaged the same amount of wins that Shafer did. If I drop the high and low as you suggest, he averaged 5 wins (vs 4.6). He was not better by 3 games as you assert. He walked away with an extra $8 million in his pocket for his troubles. Bet that would have come in handy for facilities investment or revenue sharing.

Why on earth are you comparing football and basketball? Are you suggesting Babers was a better coach of collegiate athletics than HOFer and National Championship winner Jim Boeheim!? BTW hoops ranked 7 weeks and football 9 during Dino’s tenure. More than a sniff. I don’t get this take.
 
Babers was clearly auditioning for a better job, believing the one superb year with Dungey would catapult him to a top tier program. When that didn't manifest he literally packed it in. Which was followed by his apathy and dreaded deer in the headlight look. I would prefer not to think of him anymore. Please lock this thread lol
 
Capt. Tuttle said:
Why would your ex-wife get you something? (I don’t get adults celebrating their own birthdays. It’s an anniversary of your mother risking her life to bring you into the world. I send my mother flowers on my birthday.)
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Hah on my birthday I always told my Mom: Happy My Birthday to you, you did all the work!
 
NKR1978 said:
He also never believed in Syracuse. I feel like there was constant complaints about how difficult it was to recruit. Fran proved that wrong on day 1.
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I think he grew disillusioned and frustrated with Syracuse. And to be fair he had very valid complaints. People forget Marrone was frustrated with Cuse at the end also. It’s been a hard place to recruit and Dino was way out of his depth in the modern world on NIL. .
Fran is a different animal. He was built to be a HC in the current NCAA era. We caught lightning in a bottle.
 
Not sure why people want to keep bringing him back up just to trash him. He did some good things here and left the program better than when he found it but hit his ceiling. He wasn't GRob and he wasn't Mac. He was somewhere in the middle. He seems like the exact kind of guy that should simply fade into obscurity. It's not like we were getting Fran any sooner and I doubt anyone else was going to do what Fran is doing, so we didn't keep him too long. Everything probably really worked out about as well as we could hope.
 
sufandu said:
Not sure why people want to keep bringing him back up just to trash him. He did some good things here and left the program better than when he found it but hit his ceiling. He wasn't GRob and he wasn't Mac. He was somewhere in the middle. He seems like the exact kind of guy that should simply fade into obscurity. It's not like we were getting Fran any sooner and I doubt anyone else was going to do what Fran is doing, so we didn't keep him too long. Everything probably really worked out about as well as we could hope.
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Dino was OK, I think he gets dumped on more than is warranted. But I also remember seeing a video when he took the job at Arizona and he was asked about his time at Syracuse. What should have been a softball question which he answered with something like “Syracuse has a lot of historical football success and we had some when I was there as well, but I’m more of a good weather west coast guy so I think Arizona is a perfect fit for me” - he opted to dump on Syracuse and contrast it to how much better Arizona is.

People dumping on him here bothered me a lot less after that; this feels like a bad marriage that ended in an acrimonious divorce that left all parties with irrationally bad feelings about the experience.
 
23Zone said:
Babers was clearly auditioning for a better job, believing the one superb year with Dungey would catapult him to a top tier program. When that didn't manifest he literally packed it in. Which was followed by his apathy and dreaded deer in the headlight look. I would prefer not to think of him anymore. Please lock this thread lol
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This. His last few years were the problem.

Hit his ceiling and then when the USC job didn't happen he lowered his effort put forth and it really showed in teams with poor depth that couldn't handle injuries and laid bare his recruiting issues.

sufandu said:
Not sure why people want to keep bringing him back up just to trash him. He did some good things here and left the program better than when he found it but hit his ceiling. He wasn't GRob and he wasn't Mac. He was somewhere in the middle. He seems like the exact kind of guy that should simply fade into obscurity. It's not like we were getting Fran any sooner and I doubt anyone else was going to do what Fran is doing, so we didn't keep him too long. Everything probably really worked out about as well as we could hope.
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I don't think stating above is just trashing him for no reason. It is what happened and he was paid a lot of money to do better than "grandpa coast mode". That 45-0 bowl loss was a fitting end to his era and confirmation that he let the program fall into an uncompetitive state.
 
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I don't think there's a need to lock this thread unless people want to just bash the guy. For some here, I think looking at the CFB landscape at the cusp of it changing and the history of the program as it related to a coach's legacy should be fine to discuss,
  • Dino Babers
  • D.J. Durkin
  • Randy Edsall
  • Scott Frost
  • Al Golden

Those were the choices. I think SU won the hiring that off season. 2018 was special. Yeah 2020 sucked and blew any momentum it seems. B2B bowls into Fran Brown. Fran obviously saw something in what Dino built, even with its flaws. I agree I don't think Dino could head coach in this new landscape.

Think about this: If Dino wins 1 more game in 2019 (Pitt and NC state games were kinda close) and 1+ more game in 2021(Rutgers, FSU, Clemson, Wake OT game were all close), he is still the coach? These are the things I think about when the lights go out.
 
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I think in a few more years i'll look at the dino tenure as keeping the program treading water. Sometimes we found land, sometimes we slipped under the surface, but he didn't tank the program and he didn't ascend it.

After going through GRob & Shafer, he did something that we needed. He brought a vision, he brought hope, he brought some exciting wins and one really good season. He just couldn't consistently get over the hump -- but that led us to Fran
 
If only some of you knew some of the stuff that was going on behind the scenes with Dino and how poor of a recruiter he was and some of the things he said to student athletes, you all would feel much different about him.

With that being said, everyone on here sounds like scorned exs.

Lets move on and leave him in the past.

We have found someone we truly belong with in Fran Brown.
 

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