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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: Listen to The Jim Bohannon Show on WGVA on 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, I like to think you used the two-back backfield just to make me happy. It’s been suggested that you didn’t really want to use it against Liberty because you were saving that and other things for the Clemson game. Do coaches really not use formations or plays because they are saving them for a future opponent? Are we to the point where we can afford to hold things back against certain opponents?”
Second Hour:
“Coach I saw a report on TV that Georgia is very proud of their starting interior offensive line which averages 328 pounds per man. Our starters average 304. The famous “Sizable Seven” line of our 1959 national champions average 215 pounds per man. Our 1987 undefeated team had a line that averaged 275, which seemed impressive at the time. Where is this trend going? Where were all the 300 pounders in the old days? Is it a healthy thing to have this many players who are carrying this much weight?”
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.)
Matt started out by summarizing the defensive achievement: “0 points, negative rushing yards. We’re 1-0.” Dino said he’d told his coaches that half of college football is 1-0 and half is 0-1. “It’s good to be on this side of that.”
The game plan for Maryland is “locked in. Maryland is similar to Liberty as far as preparation, except they’ve played a game we can look at. Well, really one half we can look at….Two away games to start a season unusual for a school and a conference of our stature.“ the result of his film review is that “the defense can play even better. Kudo to Coach Ward and the young men in their search for perfection. The special teams performed well but their slate was not clean- we put the ball on the ground. The running game was OK. The passing game must improve.”
I called in my first question. Matt Park in his “In the Booth” show this afternoon had said he was looking forward to my calling in to discuss coach’s use of two running backs. I jokingly thank coach for putting those plays in, just to make me happy. I pointed out that he had said last week that “football evolves” and that that was why everyone used a single running back these days. I said that football is also cyclical and that defenses are geared to stopping what everybody seems to be doing at one point in its history. If you can tear a page out of an old playbook, sometimes you can catch them off guard with something they aren’t prepared for.
Coach didn’t respond directly to that but he did respond to the question I submitted. “Yeah, some of the things I say are intended to deceive an opponent. Some schools, like Clemson have advent ages in the coaching staff that we don’t have. They have former head coaches, SEC guys, NFL guys to break down film. We don’t have these type of individuals. They can’t break down something they haven’t seen.”
Maryland Coach Mike Locksley started out at Alabama as an “advisor” and rose to be their offensive coordinator, “and went for a million yards a game”. Dino recently watch a replay of the Clemson-Alabama national championship game and they panned the Alabama sideline and he recognized the face of every coach there. “A Who’s Who of former head coaches.” They were middle-aged men doing jobs that at a school like Syracuse would be done by a younger coach who had not yet made a name for themselves. Locksley has quite a reputation as a recruiter, with a couple dozen 4 and 5 star recruits from the Maryland-DC area credited to him in his career.
Maryland “was a good football team last year. They just needed a quarterback and now they’ve got one. 50 points is a great game. 79 is a plus plus plus game.
They discussed the passing game. Again, Dino said the problem was a lack of chemistry because some people had bene out with injuries and they hadn’t had the opportunity to work with each other enough. “You have to go back and make it up. It’s a battle between getting your team ready for a physical game and keeping them healthy. We had too many guys in and out of our line-up. We don’t have a Mickey Mouse throwing game. (against Liberty it was more like Daffy Duck). It’s complicated. If we want a player 12 yards downfield, 9 yards or 15 yards isn’t good enough. If we want him to a certain spot in 1.5 seconds, 1.8 seconds is not good enough.”
Scott form Auburn called in to ask about “the shuffling in the offensive line” Coach said it was all based on Sam Heckel’s health. He was glad Airon Servias was able to move back from tackle to center and that Ryan Alexander and Carlos Vettorello were able to handle the tackle spots. He wouldn’t discuss Heckel’s injury specifically. But “it affects everything we do. We have to have nobody else get hurt so everybody on the offensive line can begin working together. Was that depth that just walked out the door?”
On the running backs: Moe Neal “was the MVP of the offense”. Abdul Adams “performed some outstanding physical acts. A lineman missed a block on a pass play and a 260 pounder was coming in on Tommy, who didn’t see him. Abdul did a 1960 flipper from Louisiana to Minnesota.” Jarveon Howard “had an explosive run and yet maintained ball security.”
Sean Riley “had a decent game. I’d like him to show up more. He put the ball on the ground.”
DC Brian Ward was the special guest. “Our guys played well. They really put it together. The key is to not look for plays to make: do your job and play team defense. You do that and the individuals will get plenty of credit. Guys like Iffy, Cisco and Cordy are good students who do things right and have a high upside. We need to rush the quarterback, stop the run and challenge all routes.
Josh Jackson “is an experienced guy, a coach’s son who has played in big games and make good decisions. Anthony MacFarland Jr. is a “home run hitter”. Their receivers are “a talented group. Dontay Demus will stretch the field.”
Wayne “in the truck” wanted to know the best way to develop a young quarterback’s arm. DB: “You’re not going to like this. You’re going to wind up trying something else. It’s an old-school answer: Throw the football. Keep doing it until it hurts. Your arm will get stronger. Jimmy Garoppolo threw the ball until his arm got sore. Eric Dungey threw it until his arm got so. If you go to someone else, he’ll put him on a “pitch-count” and he won’t even feel like he warmed up properly.”
Gomez compared physical problems with the coach. He has a hip pointer and a lower back injury. Coach sympathized with the hip pointer, saying that it can cause a lot of pain. He’s had them. He advised surgery on the back. (He had surgery on his shoulder this summer.) Dino has some “owies” in his mouth. He hopes his dentist is listening so he can get an appointment. But he’ll stick out the season because he doesn’t want the cure to set him back while he’s trying to coach the team. Gomez joked about the push-ups Dino had to do when he tried to catch an errant pass and failed. The team rule for not making a catch when you get a hand on the ball is ten push-ups. Moe Neal expressed the opinion that coach’s push-ups didn’t make the grade. Coach noted his shoulder surgery but respects Moe’s opinion because he’s one of the leaders on the team. Moe doesn’t make many mistakes but should he have to do 10 push-ups at some time in the future, Coach Babers will personally supervise Moe’s push-ups.
What did Dino think of Hugh Freeze coaching from his hospital bed? “I didn’t know you could fit a hospital bed in the booth. I don’t see how he could follow the game. He must have gotten a crick in his neck.” But he was impressed that the coach “wanted his players to know that he had their back and wanted to give them the best chance to succeed.” Freeze had called Dino before the game, (which is a very rare thing, per Dino), to tell him that he might not be able to shake hands with him after the game. Coach wouldn’t reveal what else they talked about but he said “So much of our lives are taken up with other people’s children, we can ignore the needs of our own kids.”
He told Gomez that he “couldn’t be more proud” of his staff and players who had to figure out how to beat a team with no useful film on them. “Great is not over-used in describing the defense. But we can get greater on defense. We want to strain every drop of water from that rope.”
Gomez talked about the huge crane next to the Dome, (let’s not call it the Carrier Dome). He said they are having traffic problems because people are slowing down to take pictures of it. Gomez said that when the Dome was originally being constructed in 1979-80, he drove his mother’s Chevette through a gap in the construction barriers and “did donuts” at what would become the 50 yard line. He figures he can say this now because of the statute of limitation and because his mother is dead. Coach laughed at that. He said the first car he drover was a ‘baby blue’ Pinto. “It’s hard to be man in a baby blue pinto.”
I called in my second question about the weights of linemen. Dino said that he “had to go to a grocery store” to answer that one. When he was a kid you couldn’t by a chicken breast, a leg, and wing like now. You had to buy a whole chicken and cut it up. Today my wife cooks check and she gives me a breast and I tell her that I can’t eat a whole break. I just want half a breast. She says that is half a breast. They make bigger chickens these days. They kill the insects so they can’t eat all the grain and there’s more meat to eat.”
As to whether it’s bad to have players carrying all this weight, it depends on what that weight is made of and how it’s distributed. He said that Georgia wants a power running attack so they want all those big guys clearing the way. At Syracuse it’s all about tempo. Some players think they need to be big but they usually lose weight in SU’s work-outs. Evan Adams can get by being 352 because he’s a freak of nature. Most of our guys can get away with a speedo. If we brought them in you’d think they were 260-270 pounds. Muscle weighs more than fat.
He told a story of when he was a player at the University of Hawaii. Tom Selleck, who was in the islands doing Magnum PI, liked to use the facilities at UH to work out. Sylvester Stallone was visiting the island and wanted to do the same thing. He was assigned to work out with Dino’s group. They had a rule that you start out at 135 pounds and have to do it 10 times, then you move on to 225 pounds, which is a big leap. Stallone had no problem doing the 135, although he did it slower than the football players. He didn’t want to go on to 225. Rules are rules so they told him he’d have to work out alone. He did 135 fifty times, then decided to go over to the girls workout room to say hello to Selleck. Coach described Stallone as ”not very tall or strong but fit and ripped”. You could see everything in his body one the outside.” Yeeeewww… They looked it up and Stallone is 5-8. Mr. T is 5-10. “Cameras make you seem larger”. Carl Weathers was a linebacker and San Diego State when Dino was growing up. He described the beach scene where Apollo Creed was training Rocky to fight like him and Rocky, running through the water and sand, finally catches up with Creed and they hug. “Two alphas- it just didn’t look right.”
Vince in North Syracuse asked if Coach would ever do what the Giants did in the 1991 Super Bowl vs. the Bills: set up in a 2-3-6 defense, let Thurman Thomas run for 100 yards but slow the Bills down so they run out of time. Coach saw that at good clock management. “The Bills were one of the first no huddle teams. The Giants shorted the game so that their defense didn’t have to play too many plays. Army does the same thing- limit possessions so that you have to be totally efficient when you have the ball.” Dino doesn’t watch the NFL much. If he’s walking past a TV with an NFL game on and there’s a Syracuse player in it, he’ll stop and watch a couple of plays but that it- Sunday is a working day for a football coach.
Today was the 30th anniversary of Dion Sanders hitting a home run in a Yankees game, then flying down to join the Falcons and running a punt back 68 yards for a touchdown. Dino described Sanders as ‘pure’, “just a pure athlete, like very few others”. He mentioned an eclectic group: Dion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, Jim Brown, Dick Butkus, Fran Tarkington and Archie Manning. He described meeting the Mannings and asking Archie to autograph a book. Peyton reached for the book and Dino told him, “No, I want Archie to sign the book. He’s the one I grew up with.” Peyton broke up with laughter at that.
Maryland “is a good football team. They have two Virginia Tech transfers, (QB Josh Jackson and WR Sean Savoy), a tight end from Buffalo, (Tyler Mabry), who was the best player in the MAC and Ohio State transfer, (LB Keandre Jones), that gives them two book ends on defense, (I didn’t get who the other was- possibly DB Antonio Brooks). “They were a quarterback away from 8-10 wins last year. If you lined up all their personnel, you’d have to say that they had more talent than we do. But talent doesn’t tell you who is going to win the game and hopefully we can get people to take notice of us.”
They had a trivia contest with two questions:
- What record setting Syracuse receiver got his first 100 yard receiving game against SU?
- When Syracuse played Maryland in the Cherry Bowl, what who had the #1 hit single in America?
I’ll post the answers tomorrow night.
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: Listen to The Jim Bohannon Show on WGVA on 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, I like to think you used the two-back backfield just to make me happy. It’s been suggested that you didn’t really want to use it against Liberty because you were saving that and other things for the Clemson game. Do coaches really not use formations or plays because they are saving them for a future opponent? Are we to the point where we can afford to hold things back against certain opponents?”
Second Hour:
“Coach I saw a report on TV that Georgia is very proud of their starting interior offensive line which averages 328 pounds per man. Our starters average 304. The famous “Sizable Seven” line of our 1959 national champions average 215 pounds per man. Our 1987 undefeated team had a line that averaged 275, which seemed impressive at the time. Where is this trend going? Where were all the 300 pounders in the old days? Is it a healthy thing to have this many players who are carrying this much weight?”
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.)
Matt started out by summarizing the defensive achievement: “0 points, negative rushing yards. We’re 1-0.” Dino said he’d told his coaches that half of college football is 1-0 and half is 0-1. “It’s good to be on this side of that.”
The game plan for Maryland is “locked in. Maryland is similar to Liberty as far as preparation, except they’ve played a game we can look at. Well, really one half we can look at….Two away games to start a season unusual for a school and a conference of our stature.“ the result of his film review is that “the defense can play even better. Kudo to Coach Ward and the young men in their search for perfection. The special teams performed well but their slate was not clean- we put the ball on the ground. The running game was OK. The passing game must improve.”
I called in my first question. Matt Park in his “In the Booth” show this afternoon had said he was looking forward to my calling in to discuss coach’s use of two running backs. I jokingly thank coach for putting those plays in, just to make me happy. I pointed out that he had said last week that “football evolves” and that that was why everyone used a single running back these days. I said that football is also cyclical and that defenses are geared to stopping what everybody seems to be doing at one point in its history. If you can tear a page out of an old playbook, sometimes you can catch them off guard with something they aren’t prepared for.
Coach didn’t respond directly to that but he did respond to the question I submitted. “Yeah, some of the things I say are intended to deceive an opponent. Some schools, like Clemson have advent ages in the coaching staff that we don’t have. They have former head coaches, SEC guys, NFL guys to break down film. We don’t have these type of individuals. They can’t break down something they haven’t seen.”
Maryland Coach Mike Locksley started out at Alabama as an “advisor” and rose to be their offensive coordinator, “and went for a million yards a game”. Dino recently watch a replay of the Clemson-Alabama national championship game and they panned the Alabama sideline and he recognized the face of every coach there. “A Who’s Who of former head coaches.” They were middle-aged men doing jobs that at a school like Syracuse would be done by a younger coach who had not yet made a name for themselves. Locksley has quite a reputation as a recruiter, with a couple dozen 4 and 5 star recruits from the Maryland-DC area credited to him in his career.
Maryland “was a good football team last year. They just needed a quarterback and now they’ve got one. 50 points is a great game. 79 is a plus plus plus game.
They discussed the passing game. Again, Dino said the problem was a lack of chemistry because some people had bene out with injuries and they hadn’t had the opportunity to work with each other enough. “You have to go back and make it up. It’s a battle between getting your team ready for a physical game and keeping them healthy. We had too many guys in and out of our line-up. We don’t have a Mickey Mouse throwing game. (against Liberty it was more like Daffy Duck). It’s complicated. If we want a player 12 yards downfield, 9 yards or 15 yards isn’t good enough. If we want him to a certain spot in 1.5 seconds, 1.8 seconds is not good enough.”
Scott form Auburn called in to ask about “the shuffling in the offensive line” Coach said it was all based on Sam Heckel’s health. He was glad Airon Servias was able to move back from tackle to center and that Ryan Alexander and Carlos Vettorello were able to handle the tackle spots. He wouldn’t discuss Heckel’s injury specifically. But “it affects everything we do. We have to have nobody else get hurt so everybody on the offensive line can begin working together. Was that depth that just walked out the door?”
On the running backs: Moe Neal “was the MVP of the offense”. Abdul Adams “performed some outstanding physical acts. A lineman missed a block on a pass play and a 260 pounder was coming in on Tommy, who didn’t see him. Abdul did a 1960 flipper from Louisiana to Minnesota.” Jarveon Howard “had an explosive run and yet maintained ball security.”
Sean Riley “had a decent game. I’d like him to show up more. He put the ball on the ground.”
DC Brian Ward was the special guest. “Our guys played well. They really put it together. The key is to not look for plays to make: do your job and play team defense. You do that and the individuals will get plenty of credit. Guys like Iffy, Cisco and Cordy are good students who do things right and have a high upside. We need to rush the quarterback, stop the run and challenge all routes.
Josh Jackson “is an experienced guy, a coach’s son who has played in big games and make good decisions. Anthony MacFarland Jr. is a “home run hitter”. Their receivers are “a talented group. Dontay Demus will stretch the field.”
Wayne “in the truck” wanted to know the best way to develop a young quarterback’s arm. DB: “You’re not going to like this. You’re going to wind up trying something else. It’s an old-school answer: Throw the football. Keep doing it until it hurts. Your arm will get stronger. Jimmy Garoppolo threw the ball until his arm got sore. Eric Dungey threw it until his arm got so. If you go to someone else, he’ll put him on a “pitch-count” and he won’t even feel like he warmed up properly.”
Gomez compared physical problems with the coach. He has a hip pointer and a lower back injury. Coach sympathized with the hip pointer, saying that it can cause a lot of pain. He’s had them. He advised surgery on the back. (He had surgery on his shoulder this summer.) Dino has some “owies” in his mouth. He hopes his dentist is listening so he can get an appointment. But he’ll stick out the season because he doesn’t want the cure to set him back while he’s trying to coach the team. Gomez joked about the push-ups Dino had to do when he tried to catch an errant pass and failed. The team rule for not making a catch when you get a hand on the ball is ten push-ups. Moe Neal expressed the opinion that coach’s push-ups didn’t make the grade. Coach noted his shoulder surgery but respects Moe’s opinion because he’s one of the leaders on the team. Moe doesn’t make many mistakes but should he have to do 10 push-ups at some time in the future, Coach Babers will personally supervise Moe’s push-ups.
What did Dino think of Hugh Freeze coaching from his hospital bed? “I didn’t know you could fit a hospital bed in the booth. I don’t see how he could follow the game. He must have gotten a crick in his neck.” But he was impressed that the coach “wanted his players to know that he had their back and wanted to give them the best chance to succeed.” Freeze had called Dino before the game, (which is a very rare thing, per Dino), to tell him that he might not be able to shake hands with him after the game. Coach wouldn’t reveal what else they talked about but he said “So much of our lives are taken up with other people’s children, we can ignore the needs of our own kids.”
He told Gomez that he “couldn’t be more proud” of his staff and players who had to figure out how to beat a team with no useful film on them. “Great is not over-used in describing the defense. But we can get greater on defense. We want to strain every drop of water from that rope.”
Gomez talked about the huge crane next to the Dome, (let’s not call it the Carrier Dome). He said they are having traffic problems because people are slowing down to take pictures of it. Gomez said that when the Dome was originally being constructed in 1979-80, he drove his mother’s Chevette through a gap in the construction barriers and “did donuts” at what would become the 50 yard line. He figures he can say this now because of the statute of limitation and because his mother is dead. Coach laughed at that. He said the first car he drover was a ‘baby blue’ Pinto. “It’s hard to be man in a baby blue pinto.”
I called in my second question about the weights of linemen. Dino said that he “had to go to a grocery store” to answer that one. When he was a kid you couldn’t by a chicken breast, a leg, and wing like now. You had to buy a whole chicken and cut it up. Today my wife cooks check and she gives me a breast and I tell her that I can’t eat a whole break. I just want half a breast. She says that is half a breast. They make bigger chickens these days. They kill the insects so they can’t eat all the grain and there’s more meat to eat.”
As to whether it’s bad to have players carrying all this weight, it depends on what that weight is made of and how it’s distributed. He said that Georgia wants a power running attack so they want all those big guys clearing the way. At Syracuse it’s all about tempo. Some players think they need to be big but they usually lose weight in SU’s work-outs. Evan Adams can get by being 352 because he’s a freak of nature. Most of our guys can get away with a speedo. If we brought them in you’d think they were 260-270 pounds. Muscle weighs more than fat.
He told a story of when he was a player at the University of Hawaii. Tom Selleck, who was in the islands doing Magnum PI, liked to use the facilities at UH to work out. Sylvester Stallone was visiting the island and wanted to do the same thing. He was assigned to work out with Dino’s group. They had a rule that you start out at 135 pounds and have to do it 10 times, then you move on to 225 pounds, which is a big leap. Stallone had no problem doing the 135, although he did it slower than the football players. He didn’t want to go on to 225. Rules are rules so they told him he’d have to work out alone. He did 135 fifty times, then decided to go over to the girls workout room to say hello to Selleck. Coach described Stallone as ”not very tall or strong but fit and ripped”. You could see everything in his body one the outside.” Yeeeewww… They looked it up and Stallone is 5-8. Mr. T is 5-10. “Cameras make you seem larger”. Carl Weathers was a linebacker and San Diego State when Dino was growing up. He described the beach scene where Apollo Creed was training Rocky to fight like him and Rocky, running through the water and sand, finally catches up with Creed and they hug. “Two alphas- it just didn’t look right.”
Vince in North Syracuse asked if Coach would ever do what the Giants did in the 1991 Super Bowl vs. the Bills: set up in a 2-3-6 defense, let Thurman Thomas run for 100 yards but slow the Bills down so they run out of time. Coach saw that at good clock management. “The Bills were one of the first no huddle teams. The Giants shorted the game so that their defense didn’t have to play too many plays. Army does the same thing- limit possessions so that you have to be totally efficient when you have the ball.” Dino doesn’t watch the NFL much. If he’s walking past a TV with an NFL game on and there’s a Syracuse player in it, he’ll stop and watch a couple of plays but that it- Sunday is a working day for a football coach.
Today was the 30th anniversary of Dion Sanders hitting a home run in a Yankees game, then flying down to join the Falcons and running a punt back 68 yards for a touchdown. Dino described Sanders as ‘pure’, “just a pure athlete, like very few others”. He mentioned an eclectic group: Dion Sanders, Barry Sanders, Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, Jim Brown, Dick Butkus, Fran Tarkington and Archie Manning. He described meeting the Mannings and asking Archie to autograph a book. Peyton reached for the book and Dino told him, “No, I want Archie to sign the book. He’s the one I grew up with.” Peyton broke up with laughter at that.
Maryland “is a good football team. They have two Virginia Tech transfers, (QB Josh Jackson and WR Sean Savoy), a tight end from Buffalo, (Tyler Mabry), who was the best player in the MAC and Ohio State transfer, (LB Keandre Jones), that gives them two book ends on defense, (I didn’t get who the other was- possibly DB Antonio Brooks). “They were a quarterback away from 8-10 wins last year. If you lined up all their personnel, you’d have to say that they had more talent than we do. But talent doesn’t tell you who is going to win the game and hopefully we can get people to take notice of us.”
They had a trivia contest with two questions:
- What record setting Syracuse receiver got his first 100 yard receiving game against SU?
- When Syracuse played Maryland in the Cherry Bowl, what who had the #1 hit single in America?
I’ll post the answers tomorrow night.
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