SWC75
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AmeriCU Dino Babers Show Returns Thursday - Syracuse University Athletics
The AmeriCU Dino Babers Show at Heritage Hill returns tonight!
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 60 minutes, with the first 50 minutes being with Dino and the last 10 minutes 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: https://tunein.com/radio/home/
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 (Update: this account seems to have closed.)
#AskDino or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
Submit a Question! - Syracuse University Athletics
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 (or theories)
Coach, I’m a Mets fan. A few years back the Mets were off to a bumpy start and on a west coast road trip that would end with a four game series in Arizona. People were saying that would cure the Mets’ troubles because the D-Backs were off to an historically bad start and it was felt that the Mets could get going there. Arizona swept that series, sending the message that if your team is not playing well, playing teams presumed to be weaker is not the solution to your problems.
I wonder if the whole scenario of “Win the first four games, survive he next three games and then the schedule will lighten up” put us at a disadvantage two ways: it fired up the opposition who didn’t like being the through of as the easier part of the schedule and it put our team in the mindset of “we’ll start winning now because the teams will be easier to beat”, which is not the best way to prepare for a game.
Note: The first Coach Autry Show will be Tuesday, November 7th.
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.)
Tim Leonard was in for Matt Park, who was doing the basketball game on ESPN+ and K-Rock.
Coach is excited to be back in the Dome but wanted to talk about Halloween. “The greatest thing is that it snow sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t but when it’s over, you know it could snow any time. Did he wear a Halloween costume? No – too busy. And he had his wife send him pictures of the trick or treaters through his ring camera. Leon Lowery dressed up as Coach Prime.
Does Dino like pineapple pizza? “My son-in-law hammers me on this but I like pineapple on my pizza. But it’s got to be fresh pineapple – real pineapple.” Leonard said that he was brought up in the south so “I have high standards for barbeque. The Dinosaur clears the bar.” Dino asked if he’d ever bit into sugar cane? No. “If your teeth don’t hurt from all the sugar, it’s not the real thing.”
How did practice go? “This is rivalry week. We had to stress that the players had to play within the framework of the rules. You remember that referee that said, “he was giving him the business”? There was too much business in last year’s game. It’s a true rivalry game. Our older guys know. The younger guys have to be careful.
What did the Virginia Tech game film show? “The guys who started were not the same as the guys who finished but the kids played hard the whole game. We had mishaps in the kicking game and on offense, especially on deep balls. I just snowballed.”
What about the slow starts? Tim pointed out that we’ve scored a total of three points on first drives this season. “We’ve worked hard to analyze it. I’m not going to be specific but we’re not going to do the same things. We’ve changed our practice schedule.”
Tim asked about players like Marlowe Wax, who had 14 tackles in a one-sided loss. “Our six captains were picked by their peers for the way they approached things on and off the field.”
Bowling Green is playing in one of those mid-week Mid-America Conference games. Tim calls them “Maction Games”. Did Dino ever play in those games? “Eight of them. What I remember is the weather. The Dome is one of the things that brought me to Syracuse.”
I called in my question, first making reference to the death of Coach Knight. “Any time you are playing at Virginia Tech on a Thursday Night, you know it’s not going to be easy with that crowd. It was a Dome-level crowd. We’ve played them three times. The first was the big upset in the Dome. The second was a daytime game on a Saturday. That noise level was unique. We have to get off to a fast start. I’m not an Amazing Mets fan – I like the Giants and the Jets. The Raiders new head coach [Antonio Pierce] is a guy I had playing linebacker for me in Arizona. The coach we had at Purdue when I was there.” [Gene Keady, 21-20. But the Coach he had here recently was 4-1 against Knight. The problem was, that 1 is the one they remember.] Coach Babers remembers BK and JB acting together in “Blue Chips”.
Leonard pointed out that BC had lost games to Florida State and Louisville, then started their four game losing streak. DB kept pounding the same point: “It’s a rivalry game [Is it?] and they will be a very motivated opponent.” They mentioned the reports that the BC attendance will be higher than for Clemson. “Our fans and us need to get together. Rivalry games go down to the 4th quarter.”
Leonard got back to the subject of getting off to a good start. “It’s the key in any game. If somebody gets a hit, the floodgates will open.” [Then why defer to the second half?] BC QB Thomas Castellanos has rushed for more yards than any QB in the country, 673 in 125 carries (5.4) and 9TDs. By comparison Garrett Shrader whose running ability gives us such an advent age in most games, has run for 316 yards in 89 carries (3.6) and for 6 scores. “We need to get Garrett’s legs back in the game.” Leonard pointed out that last year the BC line was ravaged by injuries. Dino: “all those guys are back and their defensive line is really good with one of our legacy recruits, George Rooks. Their linebackers run downhill. Their safeties are good and the cornerbacks can cover. Their old line coach is back from the pros. Their defense is exception because their offense keeps them off the field. In their last game they had the ball 40 minutes to 20. They are a bigger and more skilled version of Army.”
Tim then interviewed D-backs coach Travis Fisher, who gave him his entire resume. He was recruited to Syracuse by Coach Teryl Austin but he had to go to junior college. He wound up at Central Florida and was drafted by the Rams, where he was “surrounded by eight Hall of Famers” [?!?] and went on to the Lions, Seahawks and Ravens before becoming a coach at UCF, SE Missouri, back to UCF and then Nebraska. His brother had been in coaching since college and is now the RB coach at Illinois. He’s “loving the ’Cuse and has experienced things I haven’t experienced before. Coach Babers is a legend and I wanted to pick his brain. He’s coached guys that are in the NFL. Then there’s Rocky Long.”
“The 3-3-5 is fun with cover 1, cover 2 and cover 3. But you’ve got to have guys who can play man to man coverage. You also have to teach them how to be a pro at a young age.” Leonard said that we had to play a lot of young guys in the Virginia Tech game. Fisher said “And all those guys are redshirt freshmen. There’s a lot of football ahead of them.” {But will it be at Syracuse and will Fisher be the one coaching them?] Leonard asked about Zeke Johnson. “He’s easy to coach because he ants to be a pro. The thing about players like that is that you don’t have to find them. They will find you. He’s taking care of his body. He’s from Dartmouth and so you know that he’s a smart guy.” [I wish he was a fast guy, too.]
The keys vs. BC: “they are a very good, tough team. They’ll come in with their heads on fire. They have a solid receiver group. They can stretch you vertically and with intermediate plays. This game means a lot and we couldn’t have a better game at this time.”
Leonard said that the all time series record is in our favor, 34-22, although we had to score 26 unanswered points last year to win in a similar situation, when we had to break a 5 game losing streak. DB: “They were putting it to us. The defense just played the whole night and got us some turnovers. Alford caught a long pass and Tucker made some runs.”
Injury report: (Jakob) Bradford and Umari (Hatcher) and our two starting cornerbacks left the game and we’re just not going to put those guys back in. They are still banged up and missed practices.” Tim asked for a comparison of the health of this year’s team at this point in the season to last season. “Our health is the same as last year, except last year was mostly about the defensive line.”
Speaking of the defensive line, Dwight Freeney will be honored Friday. “He’s in the college Hall of Fame and he bee in the Pro Hall of Fame. He may not be the prototype but they can’t measure the heart. I understand he’ll be coming to one of our practices. I can’t wait to rub shoulders.”
Leonard again brought up the need for a good start. Dino: “I have confidence in the ability of our offense to bounce back and look like it did in the first four games. We had previous success and have to get back on the wagon and make a crack in the dam so that the water can flow.” [Jeeze…]
Dino’s message to the fans: “Come out. We’ve had just one Dome loss. Let’s get that crazy back in our eye. It will take the entire community. These guys are good.”
[It’s significant that my phone call was the only one. Crickets.]
