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Coach Babers’s Show will be at the new Marriott Syracuse, (the former Hotel Syracuse). The first show will be Wednesday night at 7PM because the game is Friday, (the show will normally be two days before the next game). They will be in Shaughnessy’s Irish Pub, which can be accessed from the street.
This article contains the schedule:
Dino Babers Radio Show Debuts Wednesday
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: WGVA
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: #AskDino hashtag on Twitter
Or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
Submit a Question!
You can listen to a podcast of the show, probably the next day, at: Search results for babers
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)
“Coach, in your last show you said of the Boston College line: “Their offensive line is like trees. That’s the sort of line we want in 2-3 years, that size and girth.” Matt listed the heights and weights of the BC line. I averaged them up and it came to 6-5, 301 pounds. I did the same for our offensive line and it came to 6-5 313, a larger number. When you were talking about size and girth, were you talking about something that isn’t apparent in those averages?”
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.)
(They were still in the Cavalier Room. They will move to Shaughnessy’s when it is finished. )
Program note: Brian Higgins will be doing the show with Coach Babers next week because Matt Park will be hosting the Lettermen of Distinction dinner which will honor, among others, Daryl “Moose Johnston” of our 1987 undefeated team and the Dallas Cowboys. Matt said that “the following week” Coach Boeheim’s show would “piggyback” with the Babers show. That sounds like it will two weeks from tonight, perhaps from 8-9PM. In past years the Boeheim Show has started on Wednesdays and moved to Thursdays when the football show ended. And we will have already played two non-exhibitions games by two weeks from tonight, so I’m not sure I’ve got this right. I’ll play it by ear. (What else can you do with a radio show?)
They talked about the Clemson game and the challenge it represented. Coach Babers: “In this conference and on our side of it, you’re going to play Top 5 teams. Hopefully tha5t will be us someday.”
Of the November schedule, Dino would like to pay teams that “have nothing to play for” but unfortunately every team we will play is trying to win a national championship, get to a bowl game or get to a better bowl game. “We’ve been underdogs in every game but one and we’ll probably be underdogs the rest of the way.” But Coach sees this as an opportunity for us to get to a bowl. Matt said that these should be “meaningful games that should get everybody’s attention.”
Liam from Pompey beat me to the phone and, of course, wanted to discuss the officiating in the last game. He wanted to know about those “scary” nine false starts. Dino said the problem was “internal” in the offensive line- not anything BC or the refs do. He feels that with the two weeks off, the problem has been “hopefully cleaned up”. Clemson’s DC, Brent Venables likes to use a lot of movement on the defensive line and among the linebackers so “it will be a new issue. Hopefully it won’t have an impact. We need to sit in our stances”, (which sounds like we may be a bit slow at getting to our blocks). .
Liam asked about the possibility of beating Clemson. Babers repeated the statement from his press conference about the ball being round, which causes it to take “untruthful” bounces. “We need some of those untruthful bounces to go our way.”
Matt asked about the impact of 80,000 “crazies” keeping up a din. Coach feels that players actually focus more on the game in those situations because they have to.
I called in my question. Coach said: “Two things: 1) We’ve got one offensive lineman who is overweight and brings the average up. The others aren’t that big. 2) A freshman 303 pounder is not the same as a senior 303 pounder. Some don’t have the biceps, the triceps and the gluteus maximus to be really strong. “ Regarding #1, our depth chart for this week shows:
6-6 287 soph Cody Conway Prior to the BC game, 6-5 312 senior Michael Lasker was in this spot.
6-4 280 soph Aaron Roberts
6-5 312 R-Fresh Colin Byrne
6-6 333 R-Fresh Evan Adams
6-7 328 junior Jamar McGloster
So I don’t really see a fat guy pulling the average up. He might have bene talking about Adams but McGloster, next to his is virtually the same size. I certainly understand that a freshman or a sophomore is not going to be as well-developed as a junior or senior. That’s why it will be fun to see Conway, Roberts, Byrne and Adams grow up together.
Coach said “We have to run the football. We are trying to develop strength and run the ball better. You have to be able to run the football and to stop the run. (Music to Bob Casullo’s ears!) “it takes 11 guys to run the football – actually 12 because you need the guy who calls the play, too. Running the football is the hardest thing to do but doing it consistently gives you an opportunity to win consistently.”
Dave in Syracuse thought this might be Coach Baber’s youngest offensive line ever due to injuries. He wondered if the coach can tell before games is the players are “locked in”. Babers said that he could tell if they were locked in but not if they were going to play well. “You can’t tell in pre-game warm-ups, either. You won’t know until they put some heavy hands on their opponent.” (Isn’t that holding?) Dave said he’s got a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue he’s been saving for the Clemson game and he’ll save some for the coach.
Matt asked about the team’s level of confidence at this point. DB: “We got our first ACC road win in a long, long time.” (I admit watching the World Series has given me a different idea of a ‘long long time’. Coach said the team was “on an emotional high.” Matt noted that the last two games were 10 point games but Dino pointed out “Clemson sees a different opponent coming in now. They will not under-estimate us.” Matt said that Clemson has won 10+ games five years in a row and this year they are the only team with three wins against ranked teams, (that would be Auburn, Louisville and Florida State).
Matt played a clip of Dabo Sweeny’s news conference where he said that Syracuse “has a system they believe in and they will get it done.” Coach Babers liked the compliment but “We don’t look outside of us.” He did say that Clemson played for the national championship in Sweeny’s 7th year there and were in contention in his 8th. “I would like to think that by then we will be parallel to their program.”
Matt asked how similar or different Clemson’s offense is from Syracuse’s. DB: “They like to isolate people. They force you to put an extra guy in the box. DeShaun Watson can sure drop it in those vacated areas.” He talked about a play in the Florida State game. “They were in a cover 2 and on outside they released the corners. They had a safety who will play in the NFL and a cornerback who will play in the NFL. And he zipped it right between them.” Matt quoted Watson’s numbers: He’s completed 63% of his passes for 22 TDs but 10 interceptions.
John in Baltimore noted that the Big Ten is playing Friday games. What does Coach Babers think of weeknight games? “I’ve coached in the Big ten and it’s a privilege to play on a Saturday and go home and relax with your family and watch other games and rest up on Sunday. I’ve also coached in the MAC, where they play every day except Wednesday” (I think it’s Monday) “That was very good for our league and its brand. It helped recruiting.” But he thought playing on Fridays would impact Big Ten attendance. Matt said that Michigan won’t do it and Purdue has no lights.
Mike from Cornell was interested in punts and punt returns. He noted that Nebraska is typically among the nation’s top punt returning teams and they put a second safety back, upfield from the main guy, to handle short kicks. Could we consider doing that? DB: “No doubt we would consider that. We’ve used it before. The problem is, you are more vulnerable to fakes.” (I guess because you don’t have as many players near the line of scrimmage.)
They also discussed Sterling Hofrichter’s roll-out punts. Babers likes them because it gives the gunners more time to get downfield. “The risk is that somebody could break through. But Sterling is good at perusing the field and getting the punt off.”
They introduced running backs coach mike Hart, who set all those records at Onondaga Central in the early 2000’s, became Michigan’s all-time leading rusher and played in the NFL. Mike ran for 11,000 yards and scored 200 touchdowns in high school, setting national records and Onondaga won three straight state championships. Babers said it’s nice he’s local guy but it’s nicer that he’s a great coach. “His running backs beat me at Bowling Green and I decided that if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em” I’m glad everybody knows him.
Mike said it’s been his good fortune to play or work for several great coaches: Bill Spicer at Onondaga, Lloyd Carr and Michigan, Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell in the pros. He “had a good job at Western Michigan. I came here because of Coach Babers. At Western Michigan we had a former Eastern Illinois coach on our staff and he raved about Coach Babers. I spent four hours with him and wanted to come back home. It was the one call I was hoping for. There was no thinking about it. You don’t really do that in coaching: come home and work for a great coach.”
He said he grew up an SU fan and had season tickets to the Dome with his grandfather. He was a big fan of Donovan McNabb and Marvin Harrison. “But when I came out, Coach P was on the hot seat. He was fired after my freshman year at Michigan. It was tough to watch the program go downhill the next four years. Then Coach Marrone brought it back and I knew Scott Shafer. We can win here because it’s been done. We aren’t starting from scratch. Dino Babers will get it done here- no question." So...if we'd retained Paul Pasqualoni, might we have had Mike Hart and Ray Rice alternating at tailback?
His running backs “a good group- a young group. Jordan Fredericks has a lot of experience from last year. Dante Strickland worked his tail off. Moe Neal is an exceptional athlete. The injury to George Morris didn’t help. They get a lot of ‘YAC’ yards”, (after contact: do they?) They also pick up line backers and blitzes. They are going the job every day, getting better every day.”
Coach’s movies picks were his favorite baseball movies. He said he was still bleary eyed from staying up to watch last night’s game. “The natural speaks volumes about the things that happen in life and how you make comebacks regardless of age.”
(He’s also a fan of Bull Durham and Major League.)
This article contains the schedule:
Dino Babers Radio Show Debuts Wednesday
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: WGVA
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: #AskDino hashtag on Twitter
Or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
Submit a Question!
You can listen to a podcast of the show, probably the next day, at: Search results for babers
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)
“Coach, in your last show you said of the Boston College line: “Their offensive line is like trees. That’s the sort of line we want in 2-3 years, that size and girth.” Matt listed the heights and weights of the BC line. I averaged them up and it came to 6-5, 301 pounds. I did the same for our offensive line and it came to 6-5 313, a larger number. When you were talking about size and girth, were you talking about something that isn’t apparent in those averages?”
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.)
(They were still in the Cavalier Room. They will move to Shaughnessy’s when it is finished. )
Program note: Brian Higgins will be doing the show with Coach Babers next week because Matt Park will be hosting the Lettermen of Distinction dinner which will honor, among others, Daryl “Moose Johnston” of our 1987 undefeated team and the Dallas Cowboys. Matt said that “the following week” Coach Boeheim’s show would “piggyback” with the Babers show. That sounds like it will two weeks from tonight, perhaps from 8-9PM. In past years the Boeheim Show has started on Wednesdays and moved to Thursdays when the football show ended. And we will have already played two non-exhibitions games by two weeks from tonight, so I’m not sure I’ve got this right. I’ll play it by ear. (What else can you do with a radio show?)
They talked about the Clemson game and the challenge it represented. Coach Babers: “In this conference and on our side of it, you’re going to play Top 5 teams. Hopefully tha5t will be us someday.”
Of the November schedule, Dino would like to pay teams that “have nothing to play for” but unfortunately every team we will play is trying to win a national championship, get to a bowl game or get to a better bowl game. “We’ve been underdogs in every game but one and we’ll probably be underdogs the rest of the way.” But Coach sees this as an opportunity for us to get to a bowl. Matt said that these should be “meaningful games that should get everybody’s attention.”
Liam from Pompey beat me to the phone and, of course, wanted to discuss the officiating in the last game. He wanted to know about those “scary” nine false starts. Dino said the problem was “internal” in the offensive line- not anything BC or the refs do. He feels that with the two weeks off, the problem has been “hopefully cleaned up”. Clemson’s DC, Brent Venables likes to use a lot of movement on the defensive line and among the linebackers so “it will be a new issue. Hopefully it won’t have an impact. We need to sit in our stances”, (which sounds like we may be a bit slow at getting to our blocks). .
Liam asked about the possibility of beating Clemson. Babers repeated the statement from his press conference about the ball being round, which causes it to take “untruthful” bounces. “We need some of those untruthful bounces to go our way.”
Matt asked about the impact of 80,000 “crazies” keeping up a din. Coach feels that players actually focus more on the game in those situations because they have to.
I called in my question. Coach said: “Two things: 1) We’ve got one offensive lineman who is overweight and brings the average up. The others aren’t that big. 2) A freshman 303 pounder is not the same as a senior 303 pounder. Some don’t have the biceps, the triceps and the gluteus maximus to be really strong. “ Regarding #1, our depth chart for this week shows:
6-6 287 soph Cody Conway Prior to the BC game, 6-5 312 senior Michael Lasker was in this spot.
6-4 280 soph Aaron Roberts
6-5 312 R-Fresh Colin Byrne
6-6 333 R-Fresh Evan Adams
6-7 328 junior Jamar McGloster
So I don’t really see a fat guy pulling the average up. He might have bene talking about Adams but McGloster, next to his is virtually the same size. I certainly understand that a freshman or a sophomore is not going to be as well-developed as a junior or senior. That’s why it will be fun to see Conway, Roberts, Byrne and Adams grow up together.
Coach said “We have to run the football. We are trying to develop strength and run the ball better. You have to be able to run the football and to stop the run. (Music to Bob Casullo’s ears!) “it takes 11 guys to run the football – actually 12 because you need the guy who calls the play, too. Running the football is the hardest thing to do but doing it consistently gives you an opportunity to win consistently.”
Dave in Syracuse thought this might be Coach Baber’s youngest offensive line ever due to injuries. He wondered if the coach can tell before games is the players are “locked in”. Babers said that he could tell if they were locked in but not if they were going to play well. “You can’t tell in pre-game warm-ups, either. You won’t know until they put some heavy hands on their opponent.” (Isn’t that holding?) Dave said he’s got a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue he’s been saving for the Clemson game and he’ll save some for the coach.
Matt asked about the team’s level of confidence at this point. DB: “We got our first ACC road win in a long, long time.” (I admit watching the World Series has given me a different idea of a ‘long long time’. Coach said the team was “on an emotional high.” Matt noted that the last two games were 10 point games but Dino pointed out “Clemson sees a different opponent coming in now. They will not under-estimate us.” Matt said that Clemson has won 10+ games five years in a row and this year they are the only team with three wins against ranked teams, (that would be Auburn, Louisville and Florida State).
Matt played a clip of Dabo Sweeny’s news conference where he said that Syracuse “has a system they believe in and they will get it done.” Coach Babers liked the compliment but “We don’t look outside of us.” He did say that Clemson played for the national championship in Sweeny’s 7th year there and were in contention in his 8th. “I would like to think that by then we will be parallel to their program.”
Matt asked how similar or different Clemson’s offense is from Syracuse’s. DB: “They like to isolate people. They force you to put an extra guy in the box. DeShaun Watson can sure drop it in those vacated areas.” He talked about a play in the Florida State game. “They were in a cover 2 and on outside they released the corners. They had a safety who will play in the NFL and a cornerback who will play in the NFL. And he zipped it right between them.” Matt quoted Watson’s numbers: He’s completed 63% of his passes for 22 TDs but 10 interceptions.
John in Baltimore noted that the Big Ten is playing Friday games. What does Coach Babers think of weeknight games? “I’ve coached in the Big ten and it’s a privilege to play on a Saturday and go home and relax with your family and watch other games and rest up on Sunday. I’ve also coached in the MAC, where they play every day except Wednesday” (I think it’s Monday) “That was very good for our league and its brand. It helped recruiting.” But he thought playing on Fridays would impact Big Ten attendance. Matt said that Michigan won’t do it and Purdue has no lights.
Mike from Cornell was interested in punts and punt returns. He noted that Nebraska is typically among the nation’s top punt returning teams and they put a second safety back, upfield from the main guy, to handle short kicks. Could we consider doing that? DB: “No doubt we would consider that. We’ve used it before. The problem is, you are more vulnerable to fakes.” (I guess because you don’t have as many players near the line of scrimmage.)
They also discussed Sterling Hofrichter’s roll-out punts. Babers likes them because it gives the gunners more time to get downfield. “The risk is that somebody could break through. But Sterling is good at perusing the field and getting the punt off.”
They introduced running backs coach mike Hart, who set all those records at Onondaga Central in the early 2000’s, became Michigan’s all-time leading rusher and played in the NFL. Mike ran for 11,000 yards and scored 200 touchdowns in high school, setting national records and Onondaga won three straight state championships. Babers said it’s nice he’s local guy but it’s nicer that he’s a great coach. “His running backs beat me at Bowling Green and I decided that if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em” I’m glad everybody knows him.
Mike said it’s been his good fortune to play or work for several great coaches: Bill Spicer at Onondaga, Lloyd Carr and Michigan, Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell in the pros. He “had a good job at Western Michigan. I came here because of Coach Babers. At Western Michigan we had a former Eastern Illinois coach on our staff and he raved about Coach Babers. I spent four hours with him and wanted to come back home. It was the one call I was hoping for. There was no thinking about it. You don’t really do that in coaching: come home and work for a great coach.”
He said he grew up an SU fan and had season tickets to the Dome with his grandfather. He was a big fan of Donovan McNabb and Marvin Harrison. “But when I came out, Coach P was on the hot seat. He was fired after my freshman year at Michigan. It was tough to watch the program go downhill the next four years. Then Coach Marrone brought it back and I knew Scott Shafer. We can win here because it’s been done. We aren’t starting from scratch. Dino Babers will get it done here- no question." So...if we'd retained Paul Pasqualoni, might we have had Mike Hart and Ray Rice alternating at tailback?
His running backs “a good group- a young group. Jordan Fredericks has a lot of experience from last year. Dante Strickland worked his tail off. Moe Neal is an exceptional athlete. The injury to George Morris didn’t help. They get a lot of ‘YAC’ yards”, (after contact: do they?) They also pick up line backers and blitzes. They are going the job every day, getting better every day.”
Coach’s movies picks were his favorite baseball movies. He said he was still bleary eyed from staying up to watch last night’s game. “The natural speaks volumes about the things that happen in life and how you make comebacks regardless of age.”
(He’s also a fan of Bull Durham and Major League.)
