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Coach Babers’s show this year show will be Thursday nights at 7PM except when the game is not on a Saturday. The show is two days before the game, except for Thanksgiving week. Here is the schedule:
Thursday, Aug. 29 – 7 pm; Thursday, Sept. 5 – 7 pm; Thursday, Sept. 12 – 7 pm
Thursday, Sept. 19 – 7 pm; Thursday, Sept. 26 – 7 pm; Tuesday, Oct. 8 – 7 pm
Wednesday, Oct. 16 – 7 pm; Thursday, Oct. 24 – 6 pm; Thursday, Oct. 31 – 6 pm
Thursday, Nov. 14 – 6 pm; Thursday, Nov. 21 – 6 pm; Tuesday, Nov. 26 – 6 pm
They are now adding the “Gomez Hour” that they do from 8-9PM for the Jim Boeheim basketball shows to the Dino Babers football show. I’ll be summarizing the comments directly related to the team and the next game (late) on the night of the broadcast and anything else interesting the next day, (if there is anything else that seems interesting). I’ll have a “first hour” and a “second hour” question.
The show will originate from PressRoom Pub, located at 220 Herald Place in Syracuse's historic Herald Square, each week this season.
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: Home | 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
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
I’ve been asked to continue doing the summaries, even by people who listen to the podcasts. I may focus on the major points, rather than trying to record everything.
My Question(s) or Comments
First Hour:
“Coach, there was talk in our forum that the improved running attack in the second half vs. Florida State was because we switched from zone blocking to drive blocking. Is that correct? Could you give us a tutorial on the difference between the two?”
Second Hour:
“Coach, in 2018 we had a graduate transfer offensive tackle from Texas A&M. This year we had one from South Alabama. If you go for another grad transfer will it be from a power conference team or does that matter?”
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.)
(Program notes: the Dino Babers Show will be from 6PM-8PM the rest of the season. The Jim Boeheim Show, which begins on Tuesday, 11/12, will still be from 7PM-9PM. The Boeheim Show will be on Tuesday for the first two weeks, (11/12-11/19), then move to Thursdays. They didn’t say what the plan is for Thanksgiving week, when the Babers show will be on Tuesday the 26th)
(Another note: This show was on Halloween and my listening to it was interrupted from time to time by trick or treaters. There might have been a few points I missed.)
Gomez said that Adam Terry, (the former SU and Ravens OT who is now the color man for SU’s radio broadcasts), had noticed improvement in the performance of the offensive line in the second half. Dino said he’d notice some positive things, something to build on.
What surprised him about Florida State? They hadn’t seen Cam Akers in the Wildcat before.” Gomez said that the Seminoles had several player “who would be playing on Sunday”. Dino agreed, citing Akers, their wide-out, Tamorrison Terry and their nose tackle, Marvin Wilson as future NFL starters.
Matt Bergeron did well. Does the coach like Canadian players? “They play hockey up there, so they are used to contact. But the completion up there isn’t as great. It asked them about a year and half to adjust, (they do it in the 4th to the 6th week). Dino once roomed with a guy named Jim mills who was from Canada and was a 6-7 tight end. The guy built himself up to about 290 pounds and was NFL rookie of the year for the Colts:
Jim Mills (gridiron football) - Wikipedia
Jim was not the 1983 NFL Rookie of the year. Some dude named Marino was.
Bob from Liverpool asked something about why this team wasn’t able to match the achievements of last year’s team, (I was on the porch handing out the goodies). DB: “the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. In the off-season we’ll get to see who really loves the game and who is just going through the motions. We have a chance to be better next year than we were this year.”
Gomez noted that Sterling Hofrichter is a finalist for the “Senior Class Award”. Dino: “That’s about being a high quality performer on and off the field. It means you don’t freak out.” (?)
Sterling Hofrichter | Football 2019 | Senior CLASS Award
On the botched onside kick: “I can’t tell you how difficult it is to nail it the way he nailed it. I might have seen one as good in my 34 years of coaching. And it’s a tie at best. We did that onside kick correctly 60 times in a row in practice. The kid was amped up. That’s what I mean by ‘Try less harder’.” Sterling can “punt, kick off and, when he’s not doing anything else, kick 50 yard field goals.”
I called in my first question and Dino surprisingly said “We did the opposite. We are traditionally a drive-blocking team. We used the outside zone in the second half. Normally the middle is the weak point but Florida State was weak on the edges. The running backs and the line did a good job. We have a lot of zones. We have an inside zone, and outside zone, a 2 gap zone, and an insert zone. One thing we don’t do is trap.”
Tommy DeVito “did a nice job with his legs. It’s like him to go faster. I wish it was coming together faster. It is coming together but slowly.”
Coach reminisced about his childhood in Hawaii when he got to see the Hula Bowl each year as well as the Superstars competitions and something called the Carole Kai bed race, where a woman would be transported in a bed, run an obstacle course and be transported on the bed again.
Coach said his team won that with Don Ho’s daughter in the bed on year. The next year they had a different woman and lost. The third year they had Don ho’s daughter again and won.
They talked about the World Series. Dino was most impressed that the go-ahead home run was hit by a 41 year old guy who ignored the “box” on TV and swung at a a ball outside of it and hit it over the fence. Dino mentioned that one of the Nationals asked his best friends daughter to marry him. He didn’t recall which one.
Dino supports players getting paid for the use of their image but “How do they make it fair? Scholarships are tax free so will they tax this extra money. Will there be a kitty for the rest of the team? It will be interesting to see how the NCAA will make it fair.”
About Boston College: “AJ Dillon, a Heisman Trophy winner, runs downhill and smacks things. You need to really commit yourself to bringing him down.” Dino has an obsession with African wildlife, calling offensive linemen elephants and defensive linemen hippos. He compared taking Dillon down to nature video he’d seen where a pride of lions bring down a water buffalo.
Epic Battle Between Lions and Bull | The Hunt | BBC Earth
Do the players on the two teams know each other from high school completion and the recruiting process? “Yes. All the northeastern schools recruit them. When they don’t get chosen and have to go to another school, they want to prove to the school that didn’t offer them that they were wrong.”
Tom in Bernard’s Bay asked if the mistakes we make are due to tension or memory issues. DB”: “Not so much memory issues. It’s more tension. Basketball isn’t my game but I remember being told to take a deep breath at the foul line and to ex-hale. Both the young and old players have tension. The really good ones don’t sweat.”
Gomez went over things player shave bene known to do to prepare to play games. The kicker for the Eagles, (Jake Elliott), always has a pre-game meal of a pizza slice and cheesecake. Frank Gore listens to Michael Jackson’s “Bad”. Dino asked what positon he plays - ?!? George Kittle, the tight end for the 49ers, read as letter from his dad, who send him a new one each week. Dino likes that – Ohana, Familia. He also wondered what position he played. He’s often mentioned that he doesn’t pay much attention to the pros. At least we don’t have to worry about him leaving for an NFL job. He said that at Hawaii they used to have a guy who threw up before each game. They couldn’t go out on the field until he did it and then they got all excited. “We’d go crazy- it was party time. We were never ready to play until it happened. It’s all about psyche.” I’m surprised they didn’t mention Wade Boggs.
Gomez asked if Dino like the Twilight Zone. He does and also like the Outer Limits. Local theaters are showing a TZ marathon on 11/14, including a documentary on Rod Serling, who lived in Binghamton and Syracuse. Dino would love to go but it’s football season. “There are four seasons – Winter, Spring, Fall and Football Season.” (?) Dino’s favorite TZ episode is “To Serve Man”. Gomez had never heard of of it and Coach gave him a summary of the plot. (If you don’t know, you can look it up.)
Matt Park took over at this point. Everybody at the Pressroom Pub was in Halloween costumes. A couple was dressed as referees. Dino said he wished he had his crucifix with him. He discussed his wife’s excessive generosity with the Halloween candy, (would any be left when he got home?)
One of his old schools, Baylor is playing tonight. Dino praised Matt Rhule, the Baylor coach, who came there from Temple. He’s met him once and found him to be “a great person and great for the college game.”
Jimmy Garoppolo is also in action tonight with the undefeated 49ers. Dino recalled that Jimmy took quite a beating his first two years at Eastern Illinois but survived it and prospered as a junior and senior. “I think everything happens for a reason. Iron sharpens Iron.” (And the strongest steel is forged in the hottest flame.) “I’m trying to patiently work through today. It starts today. It starts tomorrow. It starts yesterday. It starts every day.”
John in Baltimore suggested that misdirection could help our running game. Apparently he also asked about why we ran out the clock at the end of the half, (I was handing out the goodies again). “There was 23 seconds left. We were a huge distance from the goal and we were going to get the ball in the second half.” (No we weren’t coach – remember the onside-s kick?) He must has also asked about using the tight ends. Dino said that “our tight ends have already caught more touchdown passes than our tight ends caught in our first three years here.” Aaron Hackett has 4 scores, Luke Benson 1. In 2018 Ravian Pierce had 3 scores, Hackett 1 and Gabe Horan 1. In 2017 Pierce had 4. No tight end caught a TD pass in 2016. Maybe coach meant that we already have as many as any previous year of his tenure here with four games to go. “The defense is working from the inside of the field out, using the 12th defender- the end line, (sideline). We are more a vertical stretch team than horizontal. They push us to the sideline. Using the tight end is something we want to do. We have good tight ends coming into the program.”
I called in for my second question and was on hold, second in line. They tried to put another caller on and the connection didn’t work. Then they tried to put me on and the same thing happened. Matt said “Our phones are disguised as working phones for Halloween.”
Eventually Travis in Waterloo got through to ask what other sport Dino would coach if he wasn’t a football coach. He chose track and field. “I did track to make me a better football player and I fell in love with it. The referees are not involved. With electronic timing, you can compete with anyone in the world. There’s speed and jumping ability in football and basketball but it’s something else in track where they really know what they are doing.”
They again discussed Boston College and AJ Dillon, who Coach again described as a “Heisman Trophy Winner”. This caused me to check the listing of Heisman winners – nope. I’m sure Dino meant “Heisman Trophy candidate” He against wants “Gang tackling, with a whole bunch of people on his back.” Jerry, a Pub Patron, submitted a question about whether we can get some sacks off the Boston College back-up quarterback, Dennis Grosel who has replaced the injured starter. DB: “Throwing the ball isn’t his job. Handing it off is.” Matt said that Grosel has only been sacked 8 times but that he’s also only co9mpleted 35% of his passes. DB: “He only throws to wide-open receivers. He throws it away a lot to avoid being sacked. They don’t want 3rd and 10. They want third and manageable so they can run for it. It’s all about down and distance.”
Mike from Old Avon Connecticut got through and pronounced this year a disappointment compared to last year. “What do you learn from this or what can you change?” DB: “Some stuff is still in progress. I’ve been through bad season before, although not in a long time. It’s about other people’s expectations vs. your own. You have to have a work ethic. You have to treat it as a growing moment. You have to remember where true north is and have a standard within yourself and don’t lower the bar.” Matt wondered if this team has ever figured out what “true north” is. DB: “All those guys from 2018 aren’t here. I tell the players ‘Don’t get caught up in the noise’.”
I finally got through with Question #2. DB: “There’s no doubt you want someone from the highest level of competition possible – if they played there. If they weren’t playing, we might not want them. The ACC is at the highest level of completion. You need to go out and give it all you’ve got here or you might as well go someplace else.” Matt said “you can patch up a team better now.” DB: “SMU has 31 transfers on their roster and now they are undefeated for the first time since the Pony Express days. Some schools do that. Some don’t. We have a different way.” Matt suggested that “meshing a team with that many new dudes.” Dino doesn’t want “a whole army of mercenaries”. Especially if they are from South Alabama.
Dino said the team has been practicing well. We had a good one at 6AM this morning. (6AM- Ugh!). “They had fantastic effort. They aren’t down and out.” Matt said that “chasing down all the details must be an endless process”. Dino: “It’s like those fires on the west coast. One guy might be OK now but look at that spark over there. We’ve got to get our best players to play better. If we can get the upperclassmen to execute at a higher level and we’ll be fine.”
They discussed tempo: “You need first downs to create tempo. We need to be right more than wrong. We need to be good more than bad. Unforced errors make it more difficult. We could go slower and maybe be right more often. But I always remember that scene in “Glory” where the sergeant says “train them to do it the right way”. Actually it’s the Colonel saying “Teach them properly, major”:
Glory-teach them properly
“You need to be stern and make sure they do it. They have to function at a very high level.”
Rich from Clay wanted to know if “it’s tougher to maintain recruiting in a season like this. How do you deflect all the losses?” Dino” Recruiting is so different now. After a 10 win season some recruits didn’t come because they figured there would be no place for them here. They thought they wouldn’t play. Now, with a bad season, they see an opportunity to play. It depends on what kind of player you are recruiting.” That was the second time Dino had labeled this a “bad season”. It has bene so far but we have four games left including a bye. We could still go 7-5. I realize that many fans have given up hope we could do that but it’s disturbing to see a coach seeming dismiss the possibility, (unless that would still constitute a bad season: to me it’s a bad season if we can’t make it to a bowl and get a winning record.)
There was a brief interview with Sean Edinger, SU’s strength and conditioning coach for football. Dino told a story about hiring him years ago that I missed because of the arrival of more trick or treaters. Sean was asked how listeners should work off the Halloween candy. He advised a “fast cardio workout in the morning.” (Then what do you do when you’ve eaten the rest of it the next day?) He described the complexity of his job. There are the bumps and bruises of the starters, keeping the reserves in shape and ready to go, preparing redshirts for the spring, etc. Different players at different levels at different positions with different agendas. He praised the Canadian players who are a little older and closer to being in shape to play. He is really excited about what Josh Black has accomplished over his career here. “He’s got an entirely different body- big lean and strong.” That beats most of us.
Thursday, Aug. 29 – 7 pm; Thursday, Sept. 5 – 7 pm; Thursday, Sept. 12 – 7 pm
Thursday, Sept. 19 – 7 pm; Thursday, Sept. 26 – 7 pm; Tuesday, Oct. 8 – 7 pm
Wednesday, Oct. 16 – 7 pm; Thursday, Oct. 24 – 6 pm; Thursday, Oct. 31 – 6 pm
Thursday, Nov. 14 – 6 pm; Thursday, Nov. 21 – 6 pm; Tuesday, Nov. 26 – 6 pm
They are now adding the “Gomez Hour” that they do from 8-9PM for the Jim Boeheim basketball shows to the Dino Babers football show. I’ll be summarizing the comments directly related to the team and the next game (late) on the night of the broadcast and anything else interesting the next day, (if there is anything else that seems interesting). I’ll have a “first hour” and a “second hour” question.
The show will originate from PressRoom Pub, located at 220 Herald Place in Syracuse's historic Herald Square, each week this season.
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: Home | 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
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
I’ve been asked to continue doing the summaries, even by people who listen to the podcasts. I may focus on the major points, rather than trying to record everything.
My Question(s) or Comments
First Hour:
“Coach, there was talk in our forum that the improved running attack in the second half vs. Florida State was because we switched from zone blocking to drive blocking. Is that correct? Could you give us a tutorial on the difference between the two?”
Second Hour:
“Coach, in 2018 we had a graduate transfer offensive tackle from Texas A&M. This year we had one from South Alabama. If you go for another grad transfer will it be from a power conference team or does that matter?”
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.)
(Program notes: the Dino Babers Show will be from 6PM-8PM the rest of the season. The Jim Boeheim Show, which begins on Tuesday, 11/12, will still be from 7PM-9PM. The Boeheim Show will be on Tuesday for the first two weeks, (11/12-11/19), then move to Thursdays. They didn’t say what the plan is for Thanksgiving week, when the Babers show will be on Tuesday the 26th)
(Another note: This show was on Halloween and my listening to it was interrupted from time to time by trick or treaters. There might have been a few points I missed.)
Gomez said that Adam Terry, (the former SU and Ravens OT who is now the color man for SU’s radio broadcasts), had noticed improvement in the performance of the offensive line in the second half. Dino said he’d notice some positive things, something to build on.
What surprised him about Florida State? They hadn’t seen Cam Akers in the Wildcat before.” Gomez said that the Seminoles had several player “who would be playing on Sunday”. Dino agreed, citing Akers, their wide-out, Tamorrison Terry and their nose tackle, Marvin Wilson as future NFL starters.
Matt Bergeron did well. Does the coach like Canadian players? “They play hockey up there, so they are used to contact. But the completion up there isn’t as great. It asked them about a year and half to adjust, (they do it in the 4th to the 6th week). Dino once roomed with a guy named Jim mills who was from Canada and was a 6-7 tight end. The guy built himself up to about 290 pounds and was NFL rookie of the year for the Colts:
Jim Mills (gridiron football) - Wikipedia
Jim was not the 1983 NFL Rookie of the year. Some dude named Marino was.
Bob from Liverpool asked something about why this team wasn’t able to match the achievements of last year’s team, (I was on the porch handing out the goodies). DB: “the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. In the off-season we’ll get to see who really loves the game and who is just going through the motions. We have a chance to be better next year than we were this year.”
Gomez noted that Sterling Hofrichter is a finalist for the “Senior Class Award”. Dino: “That’s about being a high quality performer on and off the field. It means you don’t freak out.” (?)
Sterling Hofrichter | Football 2019 | Senior CLASS Award
On the botched onside kick: “I can’t tell you how difficult it is to nail it the way he nailed it. I might have seen one as good in my 34 years of coaching. And it’s a tie at best. We did that onside kick correctly 60 times in a row in practice. The kid was amped up. That’s what I mean by ‘Try less harder’.” Sterling can “punt, kick off and, when he’s not doing anything else, kick 50 yard field goals.”
I called in my first question and Dino surprisingly said “We did the opposite. We are traditionally a drive-blocking team. We used the outside zone in the second half. Normally the middle is the weak point but Florida State was weak on the edges. The running backs and the line did a good job. We have a lot of zones. We have an inside zone, and outside zone, a 2 gap zone, and an insert zone. One thing we don’t do is trap.”
Tommy DeVito “did a nice job with his legs. It’s like him to go faster. I wish it was coming together faster. It is coming together but slowly.”
Coach reminisced about his childhood in Hawaii when he got to see the Hula Bowl each year as well as the Superstars competitions and something called the Carole Kai bed race, where a woman would be transported in a bed, run an obstacle course and be transported on the bed again.
Coach said his team won that with Don Ho’s daughter in the bed on year. The next year they had a different woman and lost. The third year they had Don ho’s daughter again and won.
They talked about the World Series. Dino was most impressed that the go-ahead home run was hit by a 41 year old guy who ignored the “box” on TV and swung at a a ball outside of it and hit it over the fence. Dino mentioned that one of the Nationals asked his best friends daughter to marry him. He didn’t recall which one.
Dino supports players getting paid for the use of their image but “How do they make it fair? Scholarships are tax free so will they tax this extra money. Will there be a kitty for the rest of the team? It will be interesting to see how the NCAA will make it fair.”
About Boston College: “AJ Dillon, a Heisman Trophy winner, runs downhill and smacks things. You need to really commit yourself to bringing him down.” Dino has an obsession with African wildlife, calling offensive linemen elephants and defensive linemen hippos. He compared taking Dillon down to nature video he’d seen where a pride of lions bring down a water buffalo.
Epic Battle Between Lions and Bull | The Hunt | BBC Earth
Do the players on the two teams know each other from high school completion and the recruiting process? “Yes. All the northeastern schools recruit them. When they don’t get chosen and have to go to another school, they want to prove to the school that didn’t offer them that they were wrong.”
Tom in Bernard’s Bay asked if the mistakes we make are due to tension or memory issues. DB”: “Not so much memory issues. It’s more tension. Basketball isn’t my game but I remember being told to take a deep breath at the foul line and to ex-hale. Both the young and old players have tension. The really good ones don’t sweat.”
Gomez went over things player shave bene known to do to prepare to play games. The kicker for the Eagles, (Jake Elliott), always has a pre-game meal of a pizza slice and cheesecake. Frank Gore listens to Michael Jackson’s “Bad”. Dino asked what positon he plays - ?!? George Kittle, the tight end for the 49ers, read as letter from his dad, who send him a new one each week. Dino likes that – Ohana, Familia. He also wondered what position he played. He’s often mentioned that he doesn’t pay much attention to the pros. At least we don’t have to worry about him leaving for an NFL job. He said that at Hawaii they used to have a guy who threw up before each game. They couldn’t go out on the field until he did it and then they got all excited. “We’d go crazy- it was party time. We were never ready to play until it happened. It’s all about psyche.” I’m surprised they didn’t mention Wade Boggs.
Gomez asked if Dino like the Twilight Zone. He does and also like the Outer Limits. Local theaters are showing a TZ marathon on 11/14, including a documentary on Rod Serling, who lived in Binghamton and Syracuse. Dino would love to go but it’s football season. “There are four seasons – Winter, Spring, Fall and Football Season.” (?) Dino’s favorite TZ episode is “To Serve Man”. Gomez had never heard of of it and Coach gave him a summary of the plot. (If you don’t know, you can look it up.)
Matt Park took over at this point. Everybody at the Pressroom Pub was in Halloween costumes. A couple was dressed as referees. Dino said he wished he had his crucifix with him. He discussed his wife’s excessive generosity with the Halloween candy, (would any be left when he got home?)
One of his old schools, Baylor is playing tonight. Dino praised Matt Rhule, the Baylor coach, who came there from Temple. He’s met him once and found him to be “a great person and great for the college game.”
Jimmy Garoppolo is also in action tonight with the undefeated 49ers. Dino recalled that Jimmy took quite a beating his first two years at Eastern Illinois but survived it and prospered as a junior and senior. “I think everything happens for a reason. Iron sharpens Iron.” (And the strongest steel is forged in the hottest flame.) “I’m trying to patiently work through today. It starts today. It starts tomorrow. It starts yesterday. It starts every day.”
John in Baltimore suggested that misdirection could help our running game. Apparently he also asked about why we ran out the clock at the end of the half, (I was handing out the goodies again). “There was 23 seconds left. We were a huge distance from the goal and we were going to get the ball in the second half.” (No we weren’t coach – remember the onside-s kick?) He must has also asked about using the tight ends. Dino said that “our tight ends have already caught more touchdown passes than our tight ends caught in our first three years here.” Aaron Hackett has 4 scores, Luke Benson 1. In 2018 Ravian Pierce had 3 scores, Hackett 1 and Gabe Horan 1. In 2017 Pierce had 4. No tight end caught a TD pass in 2016. Maybe coach meant that we already have as many as any previous year of his tenure here with four games to go. “The defense is working from the inside of the field out, using the 12th defender- the end line, (sideline). We are more a vertical stretch team than horizontal. They push us to the sideline. Using the tight end is something we want to do. We have good tight ends coming into the program.”
I called in for my second question and was on hold, second in line. They tried to put another caller on and the connection didn’t work. Then they tried to put me on and the same thing happened. Matt said “Our phones are disguised as working phones for Halloween.”
Eventually Travis in Waterloo got through to ask what other sport Dino would coach if he wasn’t a football coach. He chose track and field. “I did track to make me a better football player and I fell in love with it. The referees are not involved. With electronic timing, you can compete with anyone in the world. There’s speed and jumping ability in football and basketball but it’s something else in track where they really know what they are doing.”
They again discussed Boston College and AJ Dillon, who Coach again described as a “Heisman Trophy Winner”. This caused me to check the listing of Heisman winners – nope. I’m sure Dino meant “Heisman Trophy candidate” He against wants “Gang tackling, with a whole bunch of people on his back.” Jerry, a Pub Patron, submitted a question about whether we can get some sacks off the Boston College back-up quarterback, Dennis Grosel who has replaced the injured starter. DB: “Throwing the ball isn’t his job. Handing it off is.” Matt said that Grosel has only been sacked 8 times but that he’s also only co9mpleted 35% of his passes. DB: “He only throws to wide-open receivers. He throws it away a lot to avoid being sacked. They don’t want 3rd and 10. They want third and manageable so they can run for it. It’s all about down and distance.”
Mike from Old Avon Connecticut got through and pronounced this year a disappointment compared to last year. “What do you learn from this or what can you change?” DB: “Some stuff is still in progress. I’ve been through bad season before, although not in a long time. It’s about other people’s expectations vs. your own. You have to have a work ethic. You have to treat it as a growing moment. You have to remember where true north is and have a standard within yourself and don’t lower the bar.” Matt wondered if this team has ever figured out what “true north” is. DB: “All those guys from 2018 aren’t here. I tell the players ‘Don’t get caught up in the noise’.”
I finally got through with Question #2. DB: “There’s no doubt you want someone from the highest level of competition possible – if they played there. If they weren’t playing, we might not want them. The ACC is at the highest level of completion. You need to go out and give it all you’ve got here or you might as well go someplace else.” Matt said “you can patch up a team better now.” DB: “SMU has 31 transfers on their roster and now they are undefeated for the first time since the Pony Express days. Some schools do that. Some don’t. We have a different way.” Matt suggested that “meshing a team with that many new dudes.” Dino doesn’t want “a whole army of mercenaries”. Especially if they are from South Alabama.
Dino said the team has been practicing well. We had a good one at 6AM this morning. (6AM- Ugh!). “They had fantastic effort. They aren’t down and out.” Matt said that “chasing down all the details must be an endless process”. Dino: “It’s like those fires on the west coast. One guy might be OK now but look at that spark over there. We’ve got to get our best players to play better. If we can get the upperclassmen to execute at a higher level and we’ll be fine.”
They discussed tempo: “You need first downs to create tempo. We need to be right more than wrong. We need to be good more than bad. Unforced errors make it more difficult. We could go slower and maybe be right more often. But I always remember that scene in “Glory” where the sergeant says “train them to do it the right way”. Actually it’s the Colonel saying “Teach them properly, major”:
Glory-teach them properly
“You need to be stern and make sure they do it. They have to function at a very high level.”
Rich from Clay wanted to know if “it’s tougher to maintain recruiting in a season like this. How do you deflect all the losses?” Dino” Recruiting is so different now. After a 10 win season some recruits didn’t come because they figured there would be no place for them here. They thought they wouldn’t play. Now, with a bad season, they see an opportunity to play. It depends on what kind of player you are recruiting.” That was the second time Dino had labeled this a “bad season”. It has bene so far but we have four games left including a bye. We could still go 7-5. I realize that many fans have given up hope we could do that but it’s disturbing to see a coach seeming dismiss the possibility, (unless that would still constitute a bad season: to me it’s a bad season if we can’t make it to a bowl and get a winning record.)
There was a brief interview with Sean Edinger, SU’s strength and conditioning coach for football. Dino told a story about hiring him years ago that I missed because of the arrival of more trick or treaters. Sean was asked how listeners should work off the Halloween candy. He advised a “fast cardio workout in the morning.” (Then what do you do when you’ve eaten the rest of it the next day?) He described the complexity of his job. There are the bumps and bruises of the starters, keeping the reserves in shape and ready to go, preparing redshirts for the spring, etc. Different players at different levels at different positions with different agendas. He praised the Canadian players who are a little older and closer to being in shape to play. He is really excited about what Josh Black has accomplished over his career here. “He’s got an entirely different body- big lean and strong.” That beats most of us.
