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AmeriCU Dino Babers Show Returns Thursday - Syracuse University Athletics
The season's first edition of the AmeriCU Dino Babers Show is set to air at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 2, live from Heritage Hill Brewery.
Coach Babers’s show this year show will be Thursday nights at 7PM except when the game is not on a Saturday. This year it will be 90 minutes, with the first hour being with Dino and the last half hour being with a ‘special guest’, who in the past just got a couple minutes at the end of the show.
The show originates from Heritage Hill Brewery in Jamesville:
Heritage Hill Brewhouse
Heritage Hill Brewhouse in Pompey. Handcrafted Beer, Homemade Food & Amazing Views set upon our active crop and animal farm. A family friendly destination that's an escape but close enough to call home.
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: Listen to Free Radio Online | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn
There hasn’t been 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: https://twitter.com/CuseIMG
#AskDino or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
Submit a Question! - Syracuse University Athletics
Submit your question for Syracuse Learfield Sports Network programs.
You can (or could last year, anyway), listen to a podcast of the show, probably the next day, at: Search results for babers | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn
My Question(s) or Comments
First segment question:
“Coach, I really like the defense you and Coach White have put together. It shows you can recruit well and choose your assistants well. We’ve had a good kicking game for years and will again. We need to get the offense going. At Eastern Illinois, Jimmy Garoppolo had 53 touchdown passes while two guys ran for 1,000 yards. At Bowling Green Matt Johnson threw for 46 scores while a guy ran for 1,300 yards. In five years at Syracuse we’ve had no 1,000 yard rushers and no quarterback has had 20 touchdown passes. We have none at all so far this year. When does the show start? When do we re-write the record book?”
Second segment question:
“Coach, I watched the Super Bowl last season and both teams had a #87 as their leading receiver. Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce caught a total of 16 passes for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns. We also have a #87, Luke Benson, who has 15 receptions for 244 yards and 5 touchdowns, including on of 70 yards and another of 59 yards. But that’s in 15 games. This year he has 1 catch for 5 yards. Why can’t we use our tight ends the way the pros do?”
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.)
Matt Park was out with a positive Covid test, (and mild symptoms), even as Dino got a negative one. Brian Higgins filled in for Matt.
Brian asked if the team was ready to bounce back from the Rutgers loss. Coach admitted that there had bene “residual leftovers from that physical battle. They were sluggish in our first practice. But today they were really flowing around. It was by far the best practice of the week. It’s tough to win them all, especially when you lose 2 of the 3 aspects of the game, (offense and the kicking game). You have to grow and find a way to turn negatives into positives.” Brian asked about playing in front of the fans again. “That was an enormous positive. On third and fourth downs it was almost impossible to check into plays. But the noise affected us, too. Our punter freaked out and our return man missed some signals.”
I called in three times and finally got through the third time. They explained that when someone is on the line sometimes their system fails to indicate that someone else is calling. The someone who was on the line proved to be Stefan from Utica, who was on in the background while I was discussing this with the producer. Stefan was asking why coach didn’t stay with ‘Derrick’ Schrader. Coach said he went back to Tommy DeVito “because he was 7 for 8 when he was in there”. I didn’t hear the rest because the producer was talking to me. Tommy wound up 15 for 26, so he was 7 for 15 after the Schrader experiment.
When I was able to listen to the show again, Dino was saying “People call me a player’s coach. I try to tie their situation to things I experienced as a player. I tell guys what’s going to happen so they will know what to expect.” Brian asked how different it is to alternate quarterbacks vs. other positions. “With tail backs, the position is so physical you need to use more than one guy.” What does he want to see in the Albany game: “I’d like to see us clicking, spreading the ball around to all different areas. I want our players playing with a swag that they can go out there and do these things and the team will follow.” Higgins asked how much you need game action to evaluate a guy like Schrader, since taking and delivering contact is his forte and you can’t do that in practice. Dino: “He’s a big guy you think he’s going to be good at breaking tackles.” He described Tommy’s runs with admiration. “Both guys can run. We’ll make a decision after this game. I would love clarity.”
I then asked my first question. It produced a multi-part answer. At first he suggested they were making a dent in the SU record books. He expects Taj Harris to become out all-time receiver. He didn’t mention Amba Etta Tawo or Steve Ismael but he could have. But his main point was that we are in a different situation than at EIU or BG: “the biggest thing is the personnel difference. At EIU were among the top three teams in the conference in talent. At Bowling Green, we were, maybe not in the top 3 but in the top half. We had a really good offensive line there – a couple of guys are on NFL practice squads. If we had a good match-up, we could get explosive plays. The ACC is no joke. Most of the schools aren’t private schools. Our offensive line has to hold off NFL caliber players. It’s hard to get explosive plays. We have to use our running back, fullback and tight end for blocking. We can do more than we’ve been doing.“
I asked if we were over-matched in the ACC. Dino said that we are not and offered as proof that we are the last conference team to beat Clemson. Higgins note that Notre Dame was a conference team last year when they did so. “But Clemson had it’s back-up quarterback in.” (The five-star guy who is first string now.) Higgins suggested, (as one of our posters did earlier), that Eric Dungey’s 2018 season was “reasonably on par” for successful season for a quarterback, although he was surprised that Eric didn’t have 20 TD passes. Maybe that’s our ceiling now. If so, it’s not a bad one. But I guess we can forget about Garoppolo or Johnson numbers here. I had thought that was the offense that Dino was trying to create. “When you throw for enormous numbers it takes ferocious personnel. You need to get all of the 50-60 yards, not just 10 yards. The receiver has to win 1 on 1, the offensive line has to hold and the quarterback has to make the throws.” I guess we can’t get personnel that is ‘ferocious’ enough.
Higgins asked what our young receivers might be capable of. Dino said he was “excited about their athletic ability. I want to see growth. They have to learn the offense and avoid mistakes. When you have guys that cannot win battles but avoid mistakes and guys who can win battles but make mistakes, you have a decision to make. When you don’t option route, the quarterback has to make the decision and throw the ball to a spot when the window opens. The receiver has to get to that spot.”
Tom in Syracuse called into praise Dino for the good job he does of watching his player’s behavior off the field while getting them to perform on the field. Tom felt that Schrader has “shown moxie and heart” and he saw him interacting with the offensive linemen on the sidelines and was impressed. Dino thanked him for the praise and said that he views his job as to “make better husbands, fathers and sons. It's important to win but also to teach life lessons….Garrett will get an opportunity in this game. For the sake of the family, we have to decide who’s going to get the job and move on. Sometimes the worst decision is no decision.” Higgins described Schraders successful scramble and pass as a ‘No, no, no… Yes!” type of play. (I used to call Pearl Washington ‘Triple No Yes’). Dino: “He threw across his body to a hashmark, not across the field. Based on who we were playing, it was ‘exciting and new’ like they said on the Love Boat…
….but that won’t normally work out.”
Brian said “You’ve seen Tommy for 5 years and Garrett for a few months. Does that make a difference?” Dino: “We have to see what they do on the field: do they repeat mistakes? Do they do certain plays well? What’s in their library?“ (I think he meant portfolio.) One might take the team in one direction, the other in a different direction. Then there’s the fact that split the reps in practice. It’s not fair to the team.”
Higgins asked about the defense. How much difference did it make to have spring ball? “It improved their camaraderie. They learned to not think and just react. Even the coaches have a better feel for the players. They know who can and can’t do things. They know that certain guys are best for certain defenses. We’ve lost several guys. The young players gained experience and worked out in the weight room.” Higgins marveled at the average age of the 6 defensive linemen on our two-deep: 22 years. Dino joked that “it sounds like a good BYU line. They are part of the super seniors group: it would be tough sledding without them and the four linebackers we are using. There are only three spots but we are alternating them so they are, in effect four starters”. Brian asked about ‘Bear’ Williams. Dino: “A bear is one of the most amazing animals God ever made. They are ‘bad’ animals. He’s been here all 6 years that I’ve been here. I’ve met Mama Bear. You don’t want to mess with either one of them.” Cody Roscoe “got an opportunity to train at this level. He’d been at McNeese State when coach Sterlin Gilbert was there. Cody really bought in to our strength and conditioning program.”
What about Albany? “They played in the spring so it’s been like continuous practice for them. They should be strong in techniques and fundamentals. They’ve got a 6-5 quarterback with some weight to him who loves to run it. Their receivers don’t drop the ball. They have a 1,000 yard running back and a fine edge rusher at defensive end as well as a CBA grad at linebacker. They have good linebackers. Their coach, (Greg Gattuso), has coached at a high level.” Brian pointed out that he intercepted a pass in the Dome for Penn State in 1983. Dino compared them to the Steelers in the way they play. He said SU will need the ‘12th man’ of a crowd.
Vinson Reynolds, Dino’s defensive line coach, (and stepfather of D-back Eric Coley), came on at the end of the first hour. He praised his “veteran group. Three of them were here when I got hired. They’ve made a world of difference.” He said that the coaches had to learn the 3-3-5 defense along with the players and that that was hard last year without spring practice. Having it this year was “like night and day”. Cody Roscoe “puts a lot into his craft. It’s why he had 7 tackles last week.”
Gomez came on and talked about the spectacular sunset at Heritage Hill. Then he described a discussion from his radio show in which they debated who was the best movie quarterback. Dino favors Jaimie Foxx from “Any Given Sunday”, Mack Davis in “North Dallas Forty” but also like Warren Beatty in ‘Heaven Can Wait’ (no love for Charlton Heston in ‘Number One’ or Alan Alda in ‘Paper Lion’?
Dino said that the somersault Foxx uses to score in “On Any Given Sunday” was based on a play one of his, (he was the OC), Arizona quarterbacks made in 1998, the year they went 12-1 and beat Nebraska in a bowl game. They also beat Washington that year on a somersault by Ortege Jenkins. He had told him it's Ok to run on the last play but not on the second-to-last play. He ran on the second-to-last play and knew he’d better make it.
Gomez asked what kind of movie they show the players the night before the game. Dino said that he’s showed them the Express, most recently after Floyd Little and the man who played him, Chadwick Bozeman, had died. But usually, it’s a film the players chose. The idea is to get their minds off the game.
What does Dino do at halftime? Address the team first or confer with his coaches first. It varies but in that game, he talked to the special teams coaches, where “Young guys are playing young”.
Gomez asked what Dino considered to be the greatest sports moment he’d witnessed. He picked the 1981 Chargers-Dolphin playoff game, Keri Strug winning the team gold in the Olympics with a vault on a broken ankle and the 2006 Rose Bowl when Vince Young beat all those USC stars.
I called in my second question, which Dino said was “a fantastic question. It pains me to say that Gronk went to Arizona, despite the fact that his father had gone to Syracuse. He and Kelce are among the best in pro football. Luke is an amazing competitor. We play a game where we split the team up and play a sort of “Battle of the Network Stars” competition. His team won because he picked the right guys and led it to victory. Urban Meyer was once told after a game that Zeke Elliott had said that he needed the ball more. Meyer agreed with him, and they got him the ball. I agree that we need to get Luke the ball more and we’re going to get him the ball. We are a better team when he gets the ball. People know about him and there’s all kinds of holding, grabbing and cheating -with no calls” I warned Coach not to say anything that would get him fined and he laughed.
Gronk predicted that Brady would play 6 more seasons. Dino was dubious. “He’d have to have enormous talent on the offensive line. Eventually they will get shots on him. It’s never been done but he’s already done things that have never been done.” He referenced Al Michaels saying, “Do you believe in miracles?” he then said that one of his favorite movies is “Secretariat” and he loves the final race where the announcers says that he’s ahead by 13, 15 and 17 lengths and that always make him cry. It reminded me of the story Heywood Hale Broun told of Jack Nicklaus watching that race. He also cried and asked Broun why. Broun told him, “Because Jack, you’ve spent your life seeking perfection and you’ve finally witnessed it.”
