If anyone is doubting Babers as THE guy...

[sufandu]

I don't see him leaving WSU. Pullman is a perfect spot for him and I think he knows it and likes it up there. He's also got momentum on his side right now as well. Tenny has to high expectations as well. I wish he took Kentucky job at one point, that's his type of place. red headed step child in good conference and I don't think he wants to deal with 5 star prima donnas. Why give up past 6 years to go to another job. I watch WSU anytime I can and Leaches pressers are the best. Great follow on twitter as well, he engages with fans way more than any other P5 coach out there. Why? because he really doesn't give a about so many things that others worry themselves sick about. I think it's because he's a lot smarter than most coaches, a lot.

He had a 5 minute story couple weeks ago about a streaker at some football game he was at when he was a kid that was hilarious. Out of left field

Yeah, I take everything anyone says here (Knoxville) with a grain of salt. I don't care for the guy, myself, but would think it was entertaining watching people here react to him.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

Greg Robinson and Dino are the only two SU coaches to ever lose to Wake. Dino did it back to back years

I guess and again they right now are better than Syracuse and have proven it on the field. They are also year 4 of their rebuild.

Good for Shafer beating up on Wake and Marrone was very fortunate to beat Wake, we should have lost that game. It's about 2017 not 10-20 years ago. Syracuse fans are just to stuck in the past, two pretty evenly matched teams really over the past 7-8 years, I just think SU fans can't get over it

 

[Pyle]

I guess and again they right now are better than Syracuse and have proven it on the field. They are also year 4 of their rebuild.

Good for Shafer beating up on Wake and Marrone was very fortunate to beat Wake, we should have lost that game. It's about 2017 not 10-20 years ago. Syracuse fans are just to stuck in the past, two pretty evenly matched teams really over the past 7-8 years, I just think SU fans can't get over it

It wasn't that we lost. It was that they blew our dang doors off in our house. Outscored 40-5 in one half.

 

[Rocco]

IMO, it's as simple as this...

We've been so terrible in football for so long that we need to "take a risk" and lock Babers up for another 2 years (yes after 2 measly 4-win seasons). If he somehow ends up being a dud, then would we really have been better off continuing to play the coaching carousel? Absolutely not.

Time to go all-in and have some blind faith. Yes, he has a long contract now, but let's let everyone know that we're committed to growing this program under the leadership of one guy, and one guy only, Dino Babers.

Differently than what some of you might think, Syracuse is NOT in a position of strength without him.

 

[Pyle]

Actually I do, thank you for asking. Not sure what that has to do with the topic at hand though?

It just seems like you don't grasp how important consistency is in college sports. We're on our 4th HC in the past 10-11 years. Name one other p5 program that has had as much coaching turnover as we have that is successful.

Why is Wake, NC state, FSU, Clemson, VT good every year? Hmmmm they all share something in common. (And I know Wake and NC state are just now starting to trend positively, but they finally have consistency).

It's a classic abusive technique, silent treatment with no communication as to what's wrong, i.e. the old 'You should know what you did wrong' move. It was made in jest, let's move on. Name one other P5 program...ok....ready...it was easy...Miami. What do I win.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

It wasn't that we lost. It was that they blew our dang doors off in our house. Outscored 40-5 in one half.

Yeah I guess. Syracuse has been blown so many times over the years I really don't think much about it anymore. One more loss really

 

[Pyle]

IMO, it's as simple as this...

We've been so terrible in football for so long that we need to "take a risk" and lock Babers up for another 2 years (yes after 2 measly 4-win seasons). If he somehow ends up being a dud, then would we really have been better off continuing to play the coaching carousel? Absolutely not.

Time to go all-in and have some blind faith. Yes, he has a long contract now, but let's let everyone know that we're committed to growing this program under the leadership of one guy, and one guy only, Dino Babers.

Differently than what some of you might think, Syracuse is NOT in a position of strength without him.

What's to lock up? A coach with about a .333 winning percentage at the P5 level with losses to G5 teams who's in year 2 of a 6 year contract? I don't want to get rid of Dino, but seriously I think you're a little paranoid about Dino's tenure right now.

 

[Rocco]

What's to lock up? A coach with about a .333 winning percentage at the P5 level with losses to G5 teams who's in year 2 of a 6 year contract? I don't want to get rid of Dino, but seriously I think you're a little paranoid about Dino's tenure right now.

I'm not paranoid about anything, lol.

I want to lock him up for 6 more years to let the fans know that it's either BOOM or BUST with him.

What's so hard to figure out?

We need to commit to someone and HOPE it turns out for the better. We're not in a position of strength in college football. Dino hands down gives us our best chance to become relevant again.

If he turns out to be a success and we haven't committed to him via an extension (regardless of his body of work up to this point), then it will be much harder to fend off other schools. This is simply being proactive.

You're paranoid about not wanting to go all-in, I guess.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

IMO, it's as simple as this...

We've been so terrible in football for so long that we need to "take a risk" and lock Babers up for another 2 years (yes after 2 measly 4-win seasons). If he somehow ends up being a dud, then would we really have been better off continuing to play the coaching carousel? Absolutely not.

Time to go all-in and have some blind faith. Yes, he has a long contract now, but let's let everyone know that we're committed to growing this program under the leadership of one guy, and one guy only, Dino Babers.

Differently than what some of you might think, Syracuse is NOT in a position of strength without him.

It goes against sound business principles for sure but I don't necessarily disagree with you. I have no interest in starting over again, I just don't. I am fine with whatever but certainly see your point. I just don't think the job is very good and I also think it's really hard to win period at Syracuse. To win consistently? who knows. That said, I am willing to push all the chips in, why not? Nothing we have done the past years has really worked other than Marrone and maybe we waited too long with Doug. ( Not that we need to beat that dead horse as we will never know)

And again, Dino needs to get the offense really up to speed before we see an overall improvement from actual wins/ losses.

I would gamble on Dino but as John Candy said "I am a gambler"

 

[Newhouser]

IMO, it's as simple as this...

We've been so terrible in football for so long that we need to "take a risk" and lock Babers up for another 2 years (yes after 2 measly 4-win seasons). If he somehow ends up being a dud, then would we really have been better off continuing to play the coaching carousel? Absolutely not.

Time to go all-in and have some blind faith. Yes, he has a long contract now, but let's let everyone know that we're committed to growing this program under the leadership of one guy, and one guy only, Dino Babers.

Differently than what some of you might think, Syracuse is NOT in a position of strength without him.

Would you require a steep buy out to insure that he is as committed to the deal as the school is? I see some merit in the extension for 2 reasons - 1) we clearly are better even if the record says otherwise and 2) I don't trust us to make a good hire when and if HCDB leaves.

 

[TheCusian]

lots of syracuse fans just don't like college football that much. they vaguely know about games out west that are way too high scoring but they can just ignore those to avoid getting offended that harry carson isn't shutting down keith byars

Yep. Same crowd that thinks they didn't play D in the Big 12. Great offense/simple systems make defenses look bad.

 

[TheCusian]

Agreed, don't know why people cant admit that Wake is playing pretty good football and Clawson is a good coach and done a damn good job there. Crazy, Whatever floats ones boat I guess. I just think it's because 99% of Syracuse fans believe that it's 100% unacceptable to ever lose to Wake in football, well those days left town 15 years ago.

I didn't think much of him until this season. He changed his offensive philosophy - which is odd, but good in this case.

 

[TheCusian]

Greg Robinson and Dino are the only two SU coaches to ever lose to Wake. Dino did it back to back years

Marrone lost to Rutgers and Dino didn't so, Dino is better. Obviously.

If you don't believe in Babers, fine. But you either look at the results and see it or you don't.

It's slower than I'd like, but he's the guy.

 

[PhatOrange]

Look at Baylor's results under Briles. Look at Wazzu's results under Leach. Teams that play this style get burned sometimes, it happens. ESPECIALLY early in those coaches' careers. If we go 8-4 next season but lose some What games because we gave up too many points, I'll deal with it.

yup. I'll deal with it to. Babers is basically trying to bring the Big12 offense to the ACC and maybe the defense to - haha. You want to outscore people and make just enough stops to win.

Top4 Oklahoma has given up 38 (L), 35 (W), 52 (W), 41 (W) and 27 (W) points to teams this year. But their scoring is phenomenal. I'll take it.

 

[TheCusian]

It wasn't that we lost. It was that they blew our dang doors off in our house. Outscored 40-5 in one half.

Tempo. This happens to teams who play tempo who are not playing well. Play well? Beat teams like Clemson. Play poorly? Lose to teams with absurd scores like Wake.

It's more volatile. In both directions. The quicker you get this, the less mental anguish you'll have.

 

[Pyle]

Tempo. This happens to teams who play tempo who are not playing well. Play well? Beat teams like Clemson. Play poorly? Lose to teams with absurd scores like Wake.

It's more volatile. In both directions. The quicker you get this, the less mental anguish you'll have.

You guys can have your tempo offense. Stop playing rush 3 drop 8 soft zone and I'll be happy. Fact is, Dungey runs it pretty well, Mahoney never was going to win much as a starter, not for Shafer, not for Dino.

 

[PhatOrange]

We got after it plenty this year. We blitzed more this year than last, actually it started toward the end of last year. Shafer's defenses both as coordinator and head coach would mix blitzes with dropping 8 into coverage. Remember the oakie package? We've been over matched athletically for much of the conference schedule. We made up for it with effort but we're worn out at LB and paper thin in the secondary.

I liked that Babers/Ward showed they're willing to adapt with the increased pressures this year. I think we'll see improvement as we get better athletes. We'll see some of that next year as our young dline has another year of maturity, we get guys back along with some new faces in the secondary, and we see new faces at LB.

This.

1st half of the season we always rushed 4 and blitzed quite a bit. Something changed and I think it has to do with injuries/personnel more than anything.

 

[Pyle]

This.
I think it has to do with injuries/personnel more than anything.

Whatever the reason it didn't help. Ward should have recognized that and moved on, they stuck with it like it's their safety blanket but this blanket is old and eaten by moths.

 

[PhatOrange]

You guys can have your tempo offense. Stop playing rush 3 drop 8 soft zone and I'll be happy. Fact is, Dungey runs it pretty well, Mahoney never was going to win much as a starter, not for Shafer, not for Dino.

you either have a short memory, don't watch the games or don't pay attention when you are watching. the first 3/4 of the season we rushed 4 and blitzed a lot. if we've backed off that (admittedly I've had to radio the last two games) but if we've backed off what we were doing defensively for the first 8 games then what's changed to force us to do that.

 

[PhatOrange]

Whatever the reason it didn't help. Ward should have recognized that and moved on, they stuck with it like it's their safety blanket but this blanket is old and eaten by moths.

With either defense, the end results would still be the same because Mahoney can't move the team and score points

Of course these endless debates about scheme are largely speculation. I can see with my own two eyes how bad the safety play and linebacker play is right now.

 

[Pyle]

With either defense, the end results would still be the same because Mahoney can't move the team and score points

Of course these endless debates about scheme are largely speculation. I can see with my own two eyes how bad the safety play and linebacker play is right now.

I can't really argue any of that. There's no real point in beating this horse anymore either because I don't want Dino fired. I do want more than 1 functional QB on our roster(how many times over the years have we made backups look like heisman frontrunners?), I want a running game to better than the Detroit Lions, I want a defense that isn't going to give up TDs 2 plays into games or give up 35 points in a half, and I want football in December, same as everyone else around here. Please Santa put these under my tree for 2018 and let's hope the Seniors get to go out with a win Sat.

 

[Charlie]

FWIW Greg Robinson beat ranked UL and ND teams on the road.

Let’s provide a little context to this point you make. Louisville finished 6-6 and ND finished 7-6 the years we beat them as “ranked” opponents. So in the end they weren’t anything special (although for GROB they were still noteworthy because they were wins).

 

[SoBristol]

With either defense, the end results would still be the same because Mahoney can't move the team and score points

Of course these endless debates about scheme are largely speculation. I can see with my own two eyes how bad the safety play and linebacker play is right now.

Agree about the schemes -- but you did see Mahoney put up 35 points in one half vs Wake (best half for the offense all season); and a ton of points vs Pitt in the season finale in 2016 (best offensive output in 2016). Those end results might well have been different. The defense, which was good in October, ran out of gas. They got blocked; they got out run. Basic football -- not schemes.

 

[Millhouse]

Yep. Same crowd that thinks they didn't play D in the Big 12. Great offense/simple systems make defenses look bad.

"This defense is just terrible against Heisman Trophy winners who have 12,500 yards in 36 games!"

 

[PhatOrange]

Agree about the schemes -- but you did see Mahoney put up 35 points in one half vs Wake (best half for the offense all season); and a ton of points vs Pitt in the season finale in 2016 (best offensive output in 2016). Those end results might well have been different. The defense, which was good in October, ran out of gas. They got blocked; they got out run. Basic football -- not schemes.

defense was only giving up 27 ppg against LSU, NCState, Pittsburgh, Clemson, Miami, and Florida State. Same scheme. That's pretty darn good imo.