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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 – 7 pm; Thursday, Oct. 31 – 7 pm
Thursday, Nov. 14 – 7 pm; Thursday, Nov. 21 – 7 pm; Tuesday, Nov. 26 – 7 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):
cuse.com
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, it seemed to me that the Maryland game was all about the tackles: our young offensive tackles couldn’t handle their defensive ends and the loss of Chris Slayton to graduation and McKinley Williams to injury meant that Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson were seeing a lot more blockers than they used to. You said that our “elephants and hippos” have to grow up. How quickly can they grow up? Are these going to be problems that our opponents can exploit all season? “
Second Hour:
“Coach, fans often forget that football is a team sport and that everybody can help everybody else out by doing their job. When fans see a passing play, they blame the quarterback for its failure without considering what the receivers might have done to help him make the play a success. How would you grade our receivers so far in running precise routes and improvising to get Tommy some options when he’s scrambling?”
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.)
HCDB: “Sunday, there was a 4 hour meeting. There were bathroom breaks. We wanted every using their normal lights, not high beam. I told them that the tape will tell you who you are. The kids were numb on Tuesday but had a spirited physical practice The pads were poppin’. They were giving each other the business. On Wednesday they remember they were family. It was a very crisp practice. The kids were flying around.
“We’ve got to find a way to slay Goliath.
If we can do that, it’s something that would stick with you the rest of your life. Alabama and Notre Dame couldn’t do it.” Matt Park pointed out that Clemson’s last regular season loss occurred right here in the Dome. Coach recalled Scoop Bradshaw reaching out to trip a Clemson ball carrier and sustaining an injury he had the rest of the season. But he made the play.
They were having a dinner in the back room for prominent former players and SU officials, (they were honoring Dan Conley). Matt said that “#2 is there, #49 and #47”. I’ll let you look those numbers up. Dino said that there were “a lot of guys who don’t need name tags in that room”.
John in Baltimore noted that outside runs hurt us a lot but we always seem to run inside- why? He also wondered how we balance the need for RPOs with the physical threat to his quarterback. Coach answered the second question first: “Everybody runs RPOs. They copied what we were doing at Baylor. RPOs don’t always mean that you have a running quarterback. Quarterbacks are not built like others. Trevor Lawrence looks like Achilles plus about 6 inches.
(I hope Tommy deVito doesn't wind up like Hector)
He started to answer the second question, saying that inside runs are stopped by tackles, middle linebackers and safeties, outside runs by ends, outside linebackers and cornerbacks. I never heard the end of it because suddenly I was on the air, (they have a delay in the broadcast to deal with people who wish to abuse the privilege of the airwaves). I went on to my first question.
HCDB: “It’s not going to be a problem all season. You’re not going to like this answer. It takes time to adjust to the speed when you move up to the next level. If we can stay healthy with the same units, somewhere between the 4th and 6th game it checks in.” That’s between the Western Michigan and North Carolina State games. Sorry, the Clemson game is only #3.
Matt asked about tackling – “Liberty isn’t going to expose it like Maryland.” Dino said that it’s been a disadvantage that the rules have reduced practice from three a days to two a days to one a day. It makes it more difficult to teach and drill on basic skills. “Look at that Florida and Miami game in week zero. Everybody said it was an ugly game. The players were just rusty.” Matt said that this week we’ll find out who the defense is. DB: “We are going to find out against a really good opponent, a real good measuring stick.”
Matt pointed out that there will be a lot of the season to go after this game. DB: “I came here to play teams like Clemson, Florida State and Louisville. If you beat them, people will know who you are.”
Matt asked about the improvement of Tommy DeVito and Trishton Jackson. DB: “The entire offense had a better day. The defense didn’t have such a good day. The defense was outstanding in the first game, lacking in the second game, although we weren’t that far off.” We looked pretty far off on a lot of those plays. Someone asked why didn’t run the ball more. Dino had answered that before: “if we’d run the ball down big we’d have lost the game. As Herman Edwards said: You play to win the game! Two years ago we were up by 3 with 6:45 left and we had to figure out how to not let Clemson have any of that 6:45. The offensive line was fantastic. Our wide receivers made some plays and Eric Dungey made a big play.
Today’s trivia questions:
1) Who holds the SU record for the most tackles by a freshman?
2) Dwight Freeney is #2 all time in sacks by an SU player. Who is number 1?
One Clemson: their secondary is better than people think. They have a guy that scored 14 points on us in the last two games, (Tanner Muse: actually it was 2016-2017: he captured the bouncing ball interception and went 64 yards on the that made it 0-54 and then returned a fumble 63 yards in the Dome when we beat them). He also praised Isaiah Simmons, who is listed at outside linebacker but “plays three different positions” and it “long lean and fast”….”Their receivers get open and if the pass is accurate, they catch it. If it isn’t, they catch it anyway. They are on the fast lane to the NFL.”…”The offensive line has four seniors who have played for the national championship three times and won it twice.”…Xavier Thomas got a sack against my son-in-law. Every time I look at it I throw something at the TV in basement.”
Will coach take any unusual chances to beat Clemson? “You have to pick and choose your chances. It might help you or it might take you out of the game.”
A woman from Arizona, calling herself ASU’85, asked what Dick Tomey or Homer Smith would have said to the team after the Maryland game. Tomey, who died last May, was Dino’s head coach when he played for Hawaii and had him on his staff at Arizona from 1995-2000. Smith, who died in 2011, was the offensive coordinator at Arizona in 1996. “Homer was a detail man, very honest. Dick was more fiery. He’d probably throw something and use bad language. But he was just as honest. He was a master motivator and great at taking a team from a low point to a high point so they could give a fantastic performance when it was not expected.
Gomez later asked Dino when he started coaching. It was 1984 at the University of Hawaii, where he’d played. Gomez pointed out that was the year of the Nebraska game – when did Dino hear that score? “there was a 6 hour time difference. Was that a day =game or a night game? (day). If it was a 1 o’clock game, it would have been early in the morning. If it was a 4 o’clock game, we would have been preparing for our own game. I probably didn’t hear about it until Sunday.” I later told him that Nebraska fans called her to find out what the ‘real’ score was, since “Your team could not have beaten our team.” He laughed. Gomez was in Watkins Glen covering a race and recalled the score being announced over the PA system.
During 9/11, he was at Texas A&M. Coach R. C. Slocum was holding a meeting and when they got out of it, they saw the second plane hit on the TV cameras. Dino told Slocum “This means war.” Slocum responded “You’re dam right it does!” A&M has a strong ROTC program so they knew a lot of their students would be going to that war. Dino was impressed that A&M, on short notice, organized the fans to wear red white and blue based on what section they were in and when Dino climbed up to the coaches booth and looked down, there wasn’t a shirt that was out of place. “That was Aggie Land. I can’t wait to see what this community does this Saturday.”
Matt interviewed Coach Justin Lustig who handles our special teams. Dino said that few coaches want to coach special teams because when something goes wrong, everybody gets their media guide and looks up who the special teams coach is. He sat in on Coach Lustig’s first meeting when he became the special teams coach and knew that he wouldn’t have to worry about special teams because “everyone in that room spoke his language and they were all on the same page.
La Familia | Episode 5
Coach Lustig said that there had been a good week of practice. He compared kicking to golf: you have to have the same mindset each day, not get too high or too low. He agreed with mat that, per that driving range segment from “La Familia”, they should keep their day jobs. Andre Szmyt messed up that extra point by putting his plant foot too close to the ball. Coach Lustig had never seen him do that before, even in practice. “Like Coach Babers says, it was ‘a happening’”. He praised long snapper Aaron Bolinsky who had to take over suddenly at Clemson last year when his predecessor got injured and snap the ball with 90,000 people cheering. He’s done a good job ever since. But “we have to get to the point where we aren’t kicking field goals.” He noted that Clemson missed a couple of field goals when we beat them. On kickoffs, he says that opponents are now kicking away from Sean Riley and people like Markenzy Pierre are returning kicks. “But we get good field position so we’re OK with it.”
I called in my second question about the receivers helping the quarterback. “It’s hard to single out one group. We lost a lot of timing during those one a days. There were soft muscle tissue injuries and players were in and out of the line-up. It was the same thing last year. Against Western Michigan Eric set a school rushing record for quarterbacks because the timing wasn’t there with the receivers yet. For two years in a row we’ve had these injuries. We’ll have to check the structure of our preparation and our medial people to try to figure out why.”
Gomez asked him what stats he looks at after a game. “The coach’s grades on the players have to be in on Sunday. By then I will have watched the game 2-3 times and their grades need to agree with mine. If they don’t, I get together with the coach and ask why he gave the grade he did. I’m the lead guy so they need to see it my way. We must see it through the same vision. There’s no yelling or screaming. We just speak the same language.” Coach watches the TV broadcast of our games twice- once with the sound down and once with the sound up so he can hear what the announcers say. “Sometimes they say things he hadn’t thought of and sometimes they are right.” He even listens to new conferences and interviews to see if he can pick up anything. He used to get to watch Saturday football as a fan when there was a bye week but these days they have to fly all over the country recruiting so that’s out now. He’s a coach, not a fan. He sadly noted that he’s not able to go to anniversary get together of his high school or college teams, such as the one we are having for the 1959 team because they always have them in the fall in conjunction with a football game and he’s always somewhere else, coaching football.
Gene Mills was part of the dinner event and came back out to sit at the bar with a drink. Dino: “I love wrestlers. They have great hands, are in great shape, are used to being on a team and they have no quit in them. They make great football players.” He didn’t mention Ben Honis, the All-American wrestler from Cornell who is now a grad transfer linebacker for SU.
Gomez asked about a quote he’d heard Coach make about “Young quarterbacks are like old men”. “I made a mistake when I was 18 and again at 24 and I’m not going to do it again. Brady or Manning makes a mistake once. They have a memory. It’s called learning. In college you only get them so long. In the pros you can have them from age 25 to age 40. In college you’ve got to say ‘Raise your hand if you’ve toughed the oven.’”
They had a musical interlude and they played something by the Eagles. Dino remembered that his first ever 45RPM that he bought in 1974 was the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman”. His brothers said that he’d gotten the wrong one but they are still playing that and nobody remembers what his brothers bought. As they were finishing, the musical group Barndogs started playing a set. Dino said that there was a “guy wearing a hat that just might be my size”.
HCDB: “We need our crowd desperately and I’ll be extremely disappointed if Clemson can communicate verbally. If they can’t, it should give us an opportunity to do great things. They are an exceptional team. The best weapon we have is our fans. If they can cut communications and be quiet as a mouse when we have the ball, then maybe, just maybe, we have a chance. The Dome is special. We don’t practice there. I don’t think we’ve been in there this year. It will be Tommy deVito’s first start in the Dome. I hope nobody is in the parking lot on the Quad when the game begins. I want them all in the Dome and let’s go!...One of the reasons I came here is because of the Dome. One of my dreams is to have it filled. I’ll look around before I lead the team onto the field. It’s like the track announcer: Take Your Marks…Get Set….Go! When they play the national anthem, to a football player, that’s “Take Your Marks”. It’s 9/11 – let’s go! “
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 – 7 pm; Thursday, Oct. 31 – 7 pm
Thursday, Nov. 14 – 7 pm; Thursday, Nov. 21 – 7 pm; Tuesday, Nov. 26 – 7 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
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
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, it seemed to me that the Maryland game was all about the tackles: our young offensive tackles couldn’t handle their defensive ends and the loss of Chris Slayton to graduation and McKinley Williams to injury meant that Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson were seeing a lot more blockers than they used to. You said that our “elephants and hippos” have to grow up. How quickly can they grow up? Are these going to be problems that our opponents can exploit all season? “
Second Hour:
“Coach, fans often forget that football is a team sport and that everybody can help everybody else out by doing their job. When fans see a passing play, they blame the quarterback for its failure without considering what the receivers might have done to help him make the play a success. How would you grade our receivers so far in running precise routes and improvising to get Tommy some options when he’s scrambling?”
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.)
HCDB: “Sunday, there was a 4 hour meeting. There were bathroom breaks. We wanted every using their normal lights, not high beam. I told them that the tape will tell you who you are. The kids were numb on Tuesday but had a spirited physical practice The pads were poppin’. They were giving each other the business. On Wednesday they remember they were family. It was a very crisp practice. The kids were flying around.
“We’ve got to find a way to slay Goliath.
If we can do that, it’s something that would stick with you the rest of your life. Alabama and Notre Dame couldn’t do it.” Matt Park pointed out that Clemson’s last regular season loss occurred right here in the Dome. Coach recalled Scoop Bradshaw reaching out to trip a Clemson ball carrier and sustaining an injury he had the rest of the season. But he made the play.
They were having a dinner in the back room for prominent former players and SU officials, (they were honoring Dan Conley). Matt said that “#2 is there, #49 and #47”. I’ll let you look those numbers up. Dino said that there were “a lot of guys who don’t need name tags in that room”.
John in Baltimore noted that outside runs hurt us a lot but we always seem to run inside- why? He also wondered how we balance the need for RPOs with the physical threat to his quarterback. Coach answered the second question first: “Everybody runs RPOs. They copied what we were doing at Baylor. RPOs don’t always mean that you have a running quarterback. Quarterbacks are not built like others. Trevor Lawrence looks like Achilles plus about 6 inches.
(I hope Tommy deVito doesn't wind up like Hector)
He started to answer the second question, saying that inside runs are stopped by tackles, middle linebackers and safeties, outside runs by ends, outside linebackers and cornerbacks. I never heard the end of it because suddenly I was on the air, (they have a delay in the broadcast to deal with people who wish to abuse the privilege of the airwaves). I went on to my first question.
HCDB: “It’s not going to be a problem all season. You’re not going to like this answer. It takes time to adjust to the speed when you move up to the next level. If we can stay healthy with the same units, somewhere between the 4th and 6th game it checks in.” That’s between the Western Michigan and North Carolina State games. Sorry, the Clemson game is only #3.
Matt asked about tackling – “Liberty isn’t going to expose it like Maryland.” Dino said that it’s been a disadvantage that the rules have reduced practice from three a days to two a days to one a day. It makes it more difficult to teach and drill on basic skills. “Look at that Florida and Miami game in week zero. Everybody said it was an ugly game. The players were just rusty.” Matt said that this week we’ll find out who the defense is. DB: “We are going to find out against a really good opponent, a real good measuring stick.”
Matt pointed out that there will be a lot of the season to go after this game. DB: “I came here to play teams like Clemson, Florida State and Louisville. If you beat them, people will know who you are.”
Matt asked about the improvement of Tommy DeVito and Trishton Jackson. DB: “The entire offense had a better day. The defense didn’t have such a good day. The defense was outstanding in the first game, lacking in the second game, although we weren’t that far off.” We looked pretty far off on a lot of those plays. Someone asked why didn’t run the ball more. Dino had answered that before: “if we’d run the ball down big we’d have lost the game. As Herman Edwards said: You play to win the game! Two years ago we were up by 3 with 6:45 left and we had to figure out how to not let Clemson have any of that 6:45. The offensive line was fantastic. Our wide receivers made some plays and Eric Dungey made a big play.
Today’s trivia questions:
1) Who holds the SU record for the most tackles by a freshman?
2) Dwight Freeney is #2 all time in sacks by an SU player. Who is number 1?
One Clemson: their secondary is better than people think. They have a guy that scored 14 points on us in the last two games, (Tanner Muse: actually it was 2016-2017: he captured the bouncing ball interception and went 64 yards on the that made it 0-54 and then returned a fumble 63 yards in the Dome when we beat them). He also praised Isaiah Simmons, who is listed at outside linebacker but “plays three different positions” and it “long lean and fast”….”Their receivers get open and if the pass is accurate, they catch it. If it isn’t, they catch it anyway. They are on the fast lane to the NFL.”…”The offensive line has four seniors who have played for the national championship three times and won it twice.”…Xavier Thomas got a sack against my son-in-law. Every time I look at it I throw something at the TV in basement.”
Will coach take any unusual chances to beat Clemson? “You have to pick and choose your chances. It might help you or it might take you out of the game.”
A woman from Arizona, calling herself ASU’85, asked what Dick Tomey or Homer Smith would have said to the team after the Maryland game. Tomey, who died last May, was Dino’s head coach when he played for Hawaii and had him on his staff at Arizona from 1995-2000. Smith, who died in 2011, was the offensive coordinator at Arizona in 1996. “Homer was a detail man, very honest. Dick was more fiery. He’d probably throw something and use bad language. But he was just as honest. He was a master motivator and great at taking a team from a low point to a high point so they could give a fantastic performance when it was not expected.
Gomez later asked Dino when he started coaching. It was 1984 at the University of Hawaii, where he’d played. Gomez pointed out that was the year of the Nebraska game – when did Dino hear that score? “there was a 6 hour time difference. Was that a day =game or a night game? (day). If it was a 1 o’clock game, it would have been early in the morning. If it was a 4 o’clock game, we would have been preparing for our own game. I probably didn’t hear about it until Sunday.” I later told him that Nebraska fans called her to find out what the ‘real’ score was, since “Your team could not have beaten our team.” He laughed. Gomez was in Watkins Glen covering a race and recalled the score being announced over the PA system.
During 9/11, he was at Texas A&M. Coach R. C. Slocum was holding a meeting and when they got out of it, they saw the second plane hit on the TV cameras. Dino told Slocum “This means war.” Slocum responded “You’re dam right it does!” A&M has a strong ROTC program so they knew a lot of their students would be going to that war. Dino was impressed that A&M, on short notice, organized the fans to wear red white and blue based on what section they were in and when Dino climbed up to the coaches booth and looked down, there wasn’t a shirt that was out of place. “That was Aggie Land. I can’t wait to see what this community does this Saturday.”
Matt interviewed Coach Justin Lustig who handles our special teams. Dino said that few coaches want to coach special teams because when something goes wrong, everybody gets their media guide and looks up who the special teams coach is. He sat in on Coach Lustig’s first meeting when he became the special teams coach and knew that he wouldn’t have to worry about special teams because “everyone in that room spoke his language and they were all on the same page.
La Familia | Episode 5
Coach Lustig said that there had been a good week of practice. He compared kicking to golf: you have to have the same mindset each day, not get too high or too low. He agreed with mat that, per that driving range segment from “La Familia”, they should keep their day jobs. Andre Szmyt messed up that extra point by putting his plant foot too close to the ball. Coach Lustig had never seen him do that before, even in practice. “Like Coach Babers says, it was ‘a happening’”. He praised long snapper Aaron Bolinsky who had to take over suddenly at Clemson last year when his predecessor got injured and snap the ball with 90,000 people cheering. He’s done a good job ever since. But “we have to get to the point where we aren’t kicking field goals.” He noted that Clemson missed a couple of field goals when we beat them. On kickoffs, he says that opponents are now kicking away from Sean Riley and people like Markenzy Pierre are returning kicks. “But we get good field position so we’re OK with it.”
I called in my second question about the receivers helping the quarterback. “It’s hard to single out one group. We lost a lot of timing during those one a days. There were soft muscle tissue injuries and players were in and out of the line-up. It was the same thing last year. Against Western Michigan Eric set a school rushing record for quarterbacks because the timing wasn’t there with the receivers yet. For two years in a row we’ve had these injuries. We’ll have to check the structure of our preparation and our medial people to try to figure out why.”
Gomez asked him what stats he looks at after a game. “The coach’s grades on the players have to be in on Sunday. By then I will have watched the game 2-3 times and their grades need to agree with mine. If they don’t, I get together with the coach and ask why he gave the grade he did. I’m the lead guy so they need to see it my way. We must see it through the same vision. There’s no yelling or screaming. We just speak the same language.” Coach watches the TV broadcast of our games twice- once with the sound down and once with the sound up so he can hear what the announcers say. “Sometimes they say things he hadn’t thought of and sometimes they are right.” He even listens to new conferences and interviews to see if he can pick up anything. He used to get to watch Saturday football as a fan when there was a bye week but these days they have to fly all over the country recruiting so that’s out now. He’s a coach, not a fan. He sadly noted that he’s not able to go to anniversary get together of his high school or college teams, such as the one we are having for the 1959 team because they always have them in the fall in conjunction with a football game and he’s always somewhere else, coaching football.
Gene Mills was part of the dinner event and came back out to sit at the bar with a drink. Dino: “I love wrestlers. They have great hands, are in great shape, are used to being on a team and they have no quit in them. They make great football players.” He didn’t mention Ben Honis, the All-American wrestler from Cornell who is now a grad transfer linebacker for SU.
Gomez asked about a quote he’d heard Coach make about “Young quarterbacks are like old men”. “I made a mistake when I was 18 and again at 24 and I’m not going to do it again. Brady or Manning makes a mistake once. They have a memory. It’s called learning. In college you only get them so long. In the pros you can have them from age 25 to age 40. In college you’ve got to say ‘Raise your hand if you’ve toughed the oven.’”
They had a musical interlude and they played something by the Eagles. Dino remembered that his first ever 45RPM that he bought in 1974 was the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman”. His brothers said that he’d gotten the wrong one but they are still playing that and nobody remembers what his brothers bought. As they were finishing, the musical group Barndogs started playing a set. Dino said that there was a “guy wearing a hat that just might be my size”.
HCDB: “We need our crowd desperately and I’ll be extremely disappointed if Clemson can communicate verbally. If they can’t, it should give us an opportunity to do great things. They are an exceptional team. The best weapon we have is our fans. If they can cut communications and be quiet as a mouse when we have the ball, then maybe, just maybe, we have a chance. The Dome is special. We don’t practice there. I don’t think we’ve been in there this year. It will be Tommy deVito’s first start in the Dome. I hope nobody is in the parking lot on the Quad when the game begins. I want them all in the Dome and let’s go!...One of the reasons I came here is because of the Dome. One of my dreams is to have it filled. I’ll look around before I lead the team onto the field. It’s like the track announcer: Take Your Marks…Get Set….Go! When they play the national anthem, to a football player, that’s “Take Your Marks”. It’s 9/11 – let’s go! “
