SWC75
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AmeriCU Dino Babers Show Returns Thursday - Syracuse University Athletics
The AmeriCU Dino Babers Show at Heritage Hill returns tonight!
Coach Babers’s show this year show will be Thursday nights at 7PM except when the game is not on a Saturday. This year it will be 60 minutes, with the first 50 minutes being with Dino and the last 10 minutes being with a ‘special guest’, who in the past just got a couple minutes at the end of the show.
The show originates from Heritage Hill Brewery in Jamesville:
Heritage Hill Brewhouse
Heritage Hill Brewhouse in Pompey. Handcrafted Beer, Homemade Food & Amazing Views set upon our active crop and animal farm. A family friendly destination that's an escape but close enough to call home.
You can also listen to the show live each week on the Syracuse IMG Sports Network and Cuse.com. Wednesday's show will be on 99.1 FM and 97.7 FM, as well. The show will regularly air on 99.5FM (Syracuse) 99.1 FM (Utica) and 1200 AM.”
You can also get it on: https://tunein.com/radio/home/
There hasn’t been any change in the phone numbers, which last year were 315-424-8599 (local) or 1-888-746-2873. You can call to ask questions or submit them via Twitter at: https://twitter.com/CuseIMG (Update: this account seems to have closed.)
#AskDino or through Cuse.com, (the SU Athletic website):
Submit a Question! - Syracuse University Athletics
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
My Question(s) or Comments (or theories)
“Congratulations coach on a fine win and the amazing feat of putting in a whole new offense in such a short time. It proves we have a fine coaching staff and players who are focused on winning. The thing that impressed me the most was the offensive line. They looked like the Lombardi Packers. They had a seal here and a seal there and we ran it up the alley.
How did this offensive line go from a group that couldn’t get us a single net yard rushing two weeks before against Virginia Tech to a line that produced 382 yards rushing against Pitt?”
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.)
Coach Babers was in an upbeat mood. He finally had a victory to describe. “These are exciting times. It’s been a long week and I’m excited and ready for this weekend. Our young men did a fantastic job. It starts with them and works up to the coaching staff.” [Wouldn’t it start with the coaching staff and work down to the players?] “Especially the defense in the second half with a shutdown. It was a throw-back physical game. After that, teams don’t want to play you again. It’s a run-game mentality. Older guys from other SU teams were glad and I was one of ‘em.”
Matt Park looked it up and found that the last game in which we had single digit passing attempts was “the first game of the 2000 season”. I looked that up. I assumed that would be a miserable performance by SU where we never had the ball. I was wrong:
Buffalo at Syracuse Box Score, September 2, 2000 | College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Buffalo at Syracuse Box Score, September 2, 2000
www.sports-reference.com
Dino: “There’s a lot of ways to get the ball to people if you have a lot of options. If you don’t there’s going to be fewer ways to do it. We couldn’t have run this without LeQuint. Then there was Dan Villari.
All three phases came together.”
I called in my comments and my question. Dino said that was a great question and he always appreciates my questions, (it’s the first one I’ve been able to ask after a win in a long time so it wasn’t ‘negative’). “Look at the sacks vs. Pittsburgh. You can multiply it times itself and it’s the same number. [0] We didn’t give up any sacks and not a lot of TFLs. They take sacks off the offensive rushing totals.” Sorry coach, but we didn’t have many sacks because we only threw the ball 7 times. Army doesn’t get many sacks, either. Also sacks and TFLs wouldn’t account for the difference in the rushing output in the two games. I looked it up. Per the SU website against Virginia Tech we gained 61 yards on rushing plays but lost 61 yards on sacks and TFLs:
Football vs Virginia Tech on 10/26/2023 - Box Score - Syracuse University Athletics
The official box score of Football vs Virginia Tech on 10/26/2023
Football vs Pittsburgh on 11/11/2023 - Box Score - Syracuse University Athletics
The official box score of Football vs Pittsburgh on 11/11/2023
SU credits Garrett Shrader with 9 more years and LeQuint Allen with 1 more.
Dino went on to talk about getting a good down and distance situation so you can run or throw. That also didn’t answer the question. Matt, as he often does, pursued the issue after my call was over: “Sacks can’t eliminate all of it. Getting 40 or 60 rushing yards is not a lot better. Against Pitt SU had it’s most yards rushing since the 1996 Liberty Bowl/ Direct snaps may have helped. How much of it was scheme?” Dino: “Go back and look at the film. Watch where our runners were first touched and where they wound up. It’s YAC. Look at the fumbles our guys fell on because everybody was saying so extremely hard…You need two things to throw the ball. They say three things can happen and two of them are bad but you can overcome that. The throw has to be close enough to be caught and the receivers must catch it. People think they can get into the playoff and win with the running game. They can’t. The only running game that could win a national championship is the wishbone. Chemistry with receivers builds through the spring, summer and fall. You can’t just put someone in and have him hit the receivers.” I wonder why Dino wasn’t willing to discuss the sudden improvement in the offensive line play, praise the players and the line coach.
Mike in Chittenango, (Matt Park’s home town), called and also congratulated the coach. He made reference to disciplinary issues on the local high schools, (and later said he was referring to the problems at CNS), and to Dino’s decision to suspend Alijah Clark from defense for a half, (although that wasn’t mentioned specifically. Mike praised the coach for “upholding values” and using “tough love”. He wondered what role that decision had in turning the team around to finally win a game. DB: “You’re asking me to bring you inside the family. I want to win. I like living here. But we’re raising young men. I have 104 stepsons looking at me. I won’t allow them to decide but I want their opinions on how they would handle it. I want them leading the family and to be leaders in the community. That’s how life started. Then came the portal and NIL. But it’s still really important how they lead – that’s L-E-A-D the program. [How they leave the program works, too.]
Dom in North Carolina has a nephew who wants to go to Dino’s camp. “He’s a rising freshman. Is that too young?” DB: “It’s the perfect time. He’ll be better or not as good as anyone there.” [Not just as good?] “If he’s better he’ll get more serious and up his game, getting more serious about pursuing the game. If not he’ll see how big the game is.” Dino said his camp, which is in the spring “Costs 30 or 40 bucks, probably more since it’s me.” Dom said he’d brought his nephew to last year’s Purdue game. Dino: “I didn’t like that game with all the penalties. But I liked how it ended.” He told Dom to look up Katie Berardi on the internet and she can tell him how to get his nephew into the camp. Dom also knows a priest who is trying to get a job as a high school football coach and wants to know how he can get connected with an ‘outreach’ program at Syracuse. Dino also asked Dom to look up someone on the interest: Deon Maddux. 2023 Football Coaches - Syracuse University Athletics
They brought on the strength coach, Sean Edinger. Dino said that when he first became a head coach in 2012, (at Eastern Illinois), he had a strength coach with a bunch of degrees who wanted to do everything his way. His was involved setting records for the various measurables. Dino wanted football players. That’s when he brought in Sean Edinger. “I don’t want damaged bodies. We have a good enough NFL base here and in my prior stops to show we can put people in the NFL. I don’t want giant robots or muscle-bound cars. I want them strong enough to push down the field but athletic enough to cover the field.”
Matt jokingly complained that he’s always interviewing Sean around Thanksgiving, when we each have “an extreme feedbag”. SE: “Moderation in everything, including moderation….You train year around to play for 3 months- not even that, 12 weekends. You get 30-40 car crashes a game.” Matt said that was not just a joking phrase.” SE: “No, it isn’t. A player has to survive collisions of 12, 13, 14 even 16 G’s. There are somethings you can’t avoid, leg injuries, roll overs.” MP: “Lisfranc injuries to your best player?” SE: “Yes, Lisfranc injuries to your best player. There’s nothing you can do about some things.”
“Certain players are so competitive. Garrett Shrader is a big, strong man. Eric Dungey started at 205 pounds. He said ‘I want to be 222’. Eventually he got to 232, which was a magic number as it allowed him to play his whole senior season, (and we went 10-3). Villari was 206 coming out of high school. He’s not 239 this morning. He can take hits and deliver them. A lot of things came together last week. The team came together and said “enough is enough”.
Matt asked for Hawaii tips. “#1 is to visit Pearl Harbor. Take the Diamond Head run. Visit Hanauma Bay. My ex-teammate has a shaved ice place. After the show I’ll tell you about Sandy’s. The biggest thing is that all the fish is fresh – they just went outside and caught it.”
“Georgia Tech’s quarterback and running back are outstanding. They have a receiver who ran a 10.2 hundred meters. Guys like that usually on the track team. He’s faster than anyone on our roster. Their back end and edges are exciting.” [So are mine…] “They are such a good football team. They outscored North Carolina. They have had some major wins and some losses. We have to be one family and one team. Make it close in the fourth quarter. Like ‘Dumb and Dumber’, we may have a chance."
“Both teams are 5-5 but it’s in their park and they are favored, as they should be. We’ll be getting back home at 2AM. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” (Chuckles, sort of.)
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