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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, you bemoaned the loss of good players to other schools because of NIL in your Monday press conference. You said that you did not wish to discuss our efforts in this area, so I have a different question.
You’ve lost some key people to the portal but you’ve also gained quite a few, including three quarterbacks, three starting offensive linemen, (two of them currently injured), D’Marcus Adams, Dan Villari, Braylen Ingraham on the defensive line and Isaiah Johnson, Alijah Clark, the guys from Nebraska and Notre Dame in the backfield. What does the balance sheet look like? Is this era hurting or helping schools like Syracuse?
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.)
Dino: “Six games down, the second half of the season. The games are really starting to matter.” [They haven’t mattered until now?] “We love this game. It’s the second most exciting game in the world, next to pro football. Give 100% and let God take care of the rest.” [God and the refs.]
Matt: “It’s another road sell out on national TV…What will close the gap between Syracuse and these teams?” DB: “Personnel….When a guy gets hurt, someone will get a bigger slice of the pie.” [?] “Dividing up the slices is more important than how you’re doing it.” [Anyway, that’s what my notes say.]
I called in my question. DB: (after repeating the last two statements slowly) “We’re somewhere in the middle. I’ve always been a part of growing you won by making them stronger and faster. It’s the reputation of your product that sells it. You train somebody for 24 games and somebody comes and takes them away. That’s no good. Athletes Who Care and Orange United really keep us afloat. Here’s a story. In May 2019, my old coach Dick Tomey was dying and was going in an out reality. I asked him if you can win a national championship without paying players. He replied ‘I don’t know.’” [Was that when he was in reality or out of it?] “In July 2021 NIL started for the first time. The rules were all the same everybody. I felt we need it to balance the books. We need all the contributions we can get. The amount doesn’t matter as much as the number. We need community involvement. We need small business donors. Marlowe Wax got his first contract from an ice cream stand and he refuses to give it up for a bigger company because it was his first one. My first one was the Empower FCU and I feel the same way about it.” Matt, obviously smiling, announced that after some ads, the ‘Americu Federal Credit Union Dino Babers Show will return”.
When they came back, Matt said “Not all NIL transfers are the same. The numbers don’t tell the whole story. Some transfers are not part of the same ecosystem. Some are transferring up and some are transferring down.”
They too two questions from restaurant patrons. Dick from Dayton felt that more should be done to honor Jim Brown and suggested a toast at the restaurant. I’m not sure that any toast was done in response. Sam asked about Dino’s attire during press conferences. Did it have anything to do with Dino’s Hawaiian roots? Dino: “I’m not (native) Hawaiian but I was born there and went to school there. I try to take the Aloha spirit everywhere with a warm weather attitude.” Matt asked if he might borrow a shirt for the upcoming Maui Classic and Dino promised to have one made for him.
Matt wanted to talk about Florida State, although the conversation inevitably drifted back to NIL. “Florida State has actually won 11 straight games, dating back to last year. Dino: They are such a complete team. Even their special teams players are great. You’d think they were starters. They would be for other schools. They are like an All-star team.” [The FSU play-by-play man was on orange Nation today and was asked to compare this team to the 2013 team. He said that this team was very good but that ever starter on the 2013 team played in the NFL and several still are.] Matt: “And they have a ton of experience.” This got Dino back on the subject of NIL: We’ve done a nice job of keeping guys here. They come in if they want to come. I’m not ready to put a football team together like that, (Florida State using large numbers of transfers).” Matt noted a couple of injured players whose careers had been revitalized at FSU. DB: ‘People don’t see the talent in the sleepers or the injured players. Players get a second life.” They discussed various examples and wound up with Tommy DeVito and Garrett Shrader.
Matt related what Alijah Clark had told him about coming here from Rutgers” “Different places and coaches appeal to different players. I like it here because it’s like high school football.” Dino was fascinated by that statement. “We look at what a player does in his high school tapes. If he doesn’t perform that way when he gets here we wonder if it’s something in the ‘culture. I want his college experience to have elements of his high school experience, in terms of academics and social media.” [?] “Only the stakes are bigger. I want them to feel at home and comfortable with the team. I wanted a little leeway in what I said to him. I wanted some ‘mulligans’. You might say the wrong thing but it will turn out to be OK.” [??]
Matt returned to the discussion of the team and the upcoming game. “What are the things that keep you up at night?” Dino: The pass rush. These last two quarterbacks are elusive like Garrett. We had some guys free and they couldn’t have pulled a flag out of the quarterback’s belt. You’ve gotta hit ‘em when they don’t see it coming. (Jordan) Travis is in the same mold. He’s got leadership. They don’t feel they will lose a game with him. He’s like a point guard.
Matt brought up the height of Florida State’s receivers (Johnny Wilson is 6-7 and Keon Coleman 6-4). [Of course, we can virtually match that – but you’re not a receiver unless you catch the ball.] DB: “There are two ways to get open: horizontally by getting past your man and vertically by out-jumping him. No one has a corner that tall and absolutely no one has two of them.”
Matt: “You have had some opportunities with short fields. How do you get off to a quality start? Garrett said the guys have to be ready to go?” DB: “We normally win the toss. I’ll bet that’s way over 50%. We get a stop and get a blocked kick. What odds would give on that happening? (Kevon) Darton should get credit for a TFL that held them to 3 points, not 7. Is Florida State better than North Carolina?”
Matt asked about the status of injured players. Dino: “It’s basically the status quo. When you’ve missed half a season, you begin to think about redshirting or ask for a medical hardship for the seniors. We try to take care of them as best we can.” [That doesn’t sound good for anybody coming back any time soon.]
Matt declared that the 2021 game at Florida State was Garrett Shrader’s “coming out party”. He passed for 150 yards and one score and ran for 137 more and 3TDs, one for 55 yards. Matt observed that on some of his runs, you think the defensive players through the play was over and quit on it. Dino laughed and said that perhaps nobody wants to be in the same picture with Garrett running wide open for a touchdown. But, getting serious, “Florida State is deserving of their ranking. It starts on the offensive and defensive lines. Then add in who’s under center and who he is throwing to. They are a real football team.” Matt said that NFL scouts are predicting that Jared Verse, Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson will all be first round draft picks and that Jordan Travis, could be, too. [How many will we have?]
They brought on Coach Darrell Perkins, who works with the “safeties and rovers”. He’s coached with Rocky Long before and has had assistant jobs in Connecticut and Wyoming. Dino said that coaching in Connecticut helped him recruit in the east and he respects anyone who would coach at Wyoming, which is “7,200 feet up and in the middle of the you-know-what and he’s a minority”.
Coach Perkins: “Stopping Florida State starts with fundamentals and then disguising what you are doing.” Matt praised Justin Barron for “playing with a club and leaving it out there”. [The club?] CP: “He loves to play football. He said to me ‘Coach, I’m playing next week.” Still the next man up has to be ready. That would be Myles Farmer, who has some background and credentials of his own. He’s got to learn the position front to back and back to forward. He way Barron is playing we have to ride him. But Farmer provides competition. Dino: “The best guy plays no matter what. The only stipulation is that if I say ‘High!’, you have to say ‘High!’ back.
Matt said that the proposed 2025 schedule is so difficult he hopes there will be some kind of adjustment. 2025 Syracuse Football Schedule | FBSchedules.com
Dino: “BOOMSHAKALAKA!!”
There will be no show next week due to the off week.
