SWC75
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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.
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.
They are doing the show on Zoom, not at any local restaurant.
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
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
“Coach, in football proper preparation is very important. Your, (and everyone else's) preparation for this season has been disrupted several times in several ways. Is this going to make the players more vulnerable to injury than they would usually be?”
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.)
The show was done via Zoom with Matt and Dino in separate locations. They did take calls but there was no “Gomez Hour”.
Matt asked about the oft-interrupted preparation for this season and its impact on the team. Dino: “You have to be flexible, bend like the wind and run with it.” (How many of you played football and encountered a coach who ‘bent like the wind’?) DB: “If we’d known ahead of time, we could have gotten in 5-6 practices but we were only practicing 3 times a week in shorts. The players were on their own over the summer, with no access to the weight room. They were doing ‘chair-ups’ Then we had to come back in ‘pods’, first of 4 players then 8, then 10, 20 and finally 40. The throwing game and the DB’s lost their entire summer. They usually make their biggest improvement after the spring. August felt like March, except we had fewer scrimmages than we’d have in March. “ Dino was a teammate at Hawaii of the Navy coach, Ken Niumatalolo, who has been criticized for not allowing contact in his fall work-outs. Dino: “We didn’t do much more.” Matt pointed out that there are no pre-season games and “barely any non-conference games”. Dino said that he considers non-conference games to be ‘pre-season’ games.
At that point I called in with my question about the potential for injuries. DB: “It’s equal for everybody.” (Which is little consolation to an injured player.) “We tried to train them into good shape, then give them time to get their legs back. I told them ‘Don’t bring your camp legs into Game 1’. We won’t be fully in shape until 3-5 weeks into the season.”
He also said that “we have such a diverse roster. We had several players who had a hard time getting here form their home countries due to visas. It’s not just Ohana, La Familia – it’s gumbo or jumbalaya .” On the social issues we are facing: “The younger generation handled it better than the older generation, which left some dirty dishes in the sink. We can’t complain about how the younger generation is cleaning the dishes. Some topics warrant the high beams young people are putting on them.
Matt suggested that we were going down there with a ‘skeleton crew’. DB: “There will be a lot more of them than us. It’s ‘bring your own crowd’. With Covid 19 teams, teams are allowed to suit up 105 players.” Matt said that considering that there’s no crowd, Mack Brown said it “might as well be a Noon game”. DB agreed, saying “this will be a 24 hour visit”. He’s had his team practicing in the afternoon except one day a week so they can get used to getting up early. The home team is allowed to pipe in sounds: “constant music, but at a low to medium level. To me that’s a distraction. Once you get the ball they can pipe in a wave of noise but it has to end just before the snap. I hope it’s the same for UNC as it is for us.” Good luck with that.
Matt asked “What are we good at?” Dino said “I really don’t know. It’s not that I think we are bad but we’ve had veteran groups going up against rookies and we haven’t gone up against somebody else. Older teams with experience playing in ACC games will have an advent age for the first 3-4 games. We need to keep the development going and really get it going in the last 4-6 weeks. We are top heavy with seniors and juniors who may or may not be ready to leave.“ This led Matt to ask about Abdul Adams, Jarveon Howard and Tyrell Richards. Dino: “I don’t want to sound like I’m jumping all over these young men for opting out, although only two of the opted out. We need someone to pick up the flag like they did in Glory and continue the charge on Fort Sumpter (Wagner)!
We played 6 offensive linemen when we won 10 games in 2018. Last year we played a lot more and went 5-7. The Chris Bleich decision doesn’t help us but we’ve got more than 6 offensive linemen. We’ve just got to get lucky.” (Sound of him knocking on wood.) “Who was it – Jim Brown? - who said ‘Just give me 16 inches of daylight. That’s all I ask. 20-24 inches is better. We’ve got some guys who can get through there.” Matt Park attributed it to Walter Payton but it was actually Gayle Sayers and it was 18 inches:
NFL Films on Facebook Watch
Matt tried to ask about the Chris Bleich decision but Dino said “I’m going to go back to my faith and turn the other cheek.” Not quite. Matt said that half the NCAA personnel were furloughed due to Covid 19. Dino: We got the wrong half.”
Stefan called in from Utica and asked “What do we have to do to improve?” Dino wants to cut down on penalties, especially the ones we get at exactly the wrong time. “We also have to clean up the kicking game.” He’s not talking about Andre Szmyt.
Matt asked about some of the receivers who really haven’t had much of a chance yet but will get it this year: Jackson, Queeley, Hendrix, etc. Dino said that they all had “good camps. Sharod and Nykeim have bene steady and strong.” (Johnson and Johnson) Coach is also looking forward to seeing ‘Tank’ (Javonte?) Williams, Justin Barron, Isaiah (Jones) and Damian (Alford). I believe that this group is better and now they have to prove it.”
But Coach is really excited about his linebackers. “We’ve got young talent and they hit things that move. I don’t know about the right gaps but they’ll run through something. If you aren’t wearing orange and blue, you are going to get hit. They aren’t like the modern fighters. They are like the old time Madison Square Garden fighters who used to throw punches amid the cigar smoke.” Could they be contendahs?
I Coulda Been a Contender - On the Waterfront (6/8) Movie CLIP (1954) HD
Dino promised “more aggressive play, not sit-back play.” My favorite line from Coach Mac was, “When you blitz, somebody’s band is going to be playing.” But if you were already playing to avoid that and still giving up big plays, (Maryland, Boston College, Louisville), you might as well warm up the band.
What should we expect in the first game? “Most years 7-8 games will go pretty much the way you prepare. With opening games, you really don’t know. I’m going to keep my mind clear and let the coordinators handle things, in case we see something we don’t expect.” Dino described North Carolina as having a “great quarterback, two 1,000-yard receivers and two running backs who gained 1,900 yards between them”.
Then Dino came up with a malapropism, or maybe a Freudian slip: “It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s whether you play together and lose together.“ He wondered if he could borrow some of Jim Beoheim's points from that game in March.
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.
They are doing the show on Zoom, not at any local restaurant.
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
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
“Coach, in football proper preparation is very important. Your, (and everyone else's) preparation for this season has been disrupted several times in several ways. Is this going to make the players more vulnerable to injury than they would usually be?”
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.)
The show was done via Zoom with Matt and Dino in separate locations. They did take calls but there was no “Gomez Hour”.
Matt asked about the oft-interrupted preparation for this season and its impact on the team. Dino: “You have to be flexible, bend like the wind and run with it.” (How many of you played football and encountered a coach who ‘bent like the wind’?) DB: “If we’d known ahead of time, we could have gotten in 5-6 practices but we were only practicing 3 times a week in shorts. The players were on their own over the summer, with no access to the weight room. They were doing ‘chair-ups’ Then we had to come back in ‘pods’, first of 4 players then 8, then 10, 20 and finally 40. The throwing game and the DB’s lost their entire summer. They usually make their biggest improvement after the spring. August felt like March, except we had fewer scrimmages than we’d have in March. “ Dino was a teammate at Hawaii of the Navy coach, Ken Niumatalolo, who has been criticized for not allowing contact in his fall work-outs. Dino: “We didn’t do much more.” Matt pointed out that there are no pre-season games and “barely any non-conference games”. Dino said that he considers non-conference games to be ‘pre-season’ games.
At that point I called in with my question about the potential for injuries. DB: “It’s equal for everybody.” (Which is little consolation to an injured player.) “We tried to train them into good shape, then give them time to get their legs back. I told them ‘Don’t bring your camp legs into Game 1’. We won’t be fully in shape until 3-5 weeks into the season.”
He also said that “we have such a diverse roster. We had several players who had a hard time getting here form their home countries due to visas. It’s not just Ohana, La Familia – it’s gumbo or jumbalaya .” On the social issues we are facing: “The younger generation handled it better than the older generation, which left some dirty dishes in the sink. We can’t complain about how the younger generation is cleaning the dishes. Some topics warrant the high beams young people are putting on them.
Matt suggested that we were going down there with a ‘skeleton crew’. DB: “There will be a lot more of them than us. It’s ‘bring your own crowd’. With Covid 19 teams, teams are allowed to suit up 105 players.” Matt said that considering that there’s no crowd, Mack Brown said it “might as well be a Noon game”. DB agreed, saying “this will be a 24 hour visit”. He’s had his team practicing in the afternoon except one day a week so they can get used to getting up early. The home team is allowed to pipe in sounds: “constant music, but at a low to medium level. To me that’s a distraction. Once you get the ball they can pipe in a wave of noise but it has to end just before the snap. I hope it’s the same for UNC as it is for us.” Good luck with that.
Matt asked “What are we good at?” Dino said “I really don’t know. It’s not that I think we are bad but we’ve had veteran groups going up against rookies and we haven’t gone up against somebody else. Older teams with experience playing in ACC games will have an advent age for the first 3-4 games. We need to keep the development going and really get it going in the last 4-6 weeks. We are top heavy with seniors and juniors who may or may not be ready to leave.“ This led Matt to ask about Abdul Adams, Jarveon Howard and Tyrell Richards. Dino: “I don’t want to sound like I’m jumping all over these young men for opting out, although only two of the opted out. We need someone to pick up the flag like they did in Glory and continue the charge on Fort Sumpter (Wagner)!
We played 6 offensive linemen when we won 10 games in 2018. Last year we played a lot more and went 5-7. The Chris Bleich decision doesn’t help us but we’ve got more than 6 offensive linemen. We’ve just got to get lucky.” (Sound of him knocking on wood.) “Who was it – Jim Brown? - who said ‘Just give me 16 inches of daylight. That’s all I ask. 20-24 inches is better. We’ve got some guys who can get through there.” Matt Park attributed it to Walter Payton but it was actually Gayle Sayers and it was 18 inches:
NFL Films on Facebook Watch
Matt tried to ask about the Chris Bleich decision but Dino said “I’m going to go back to my faith and turn the other cheek.” Not quite. Matt said that half the NCAA personnel were furloughed due to Covid 19. Dino: We got the wrong half.”
Stefan called in from Utica and asked “What do we have to do to improve?” Dino wants to cut down on penalties, especially the ones we get at exactly the wrong time. “We also have to clean up the kicking game.” He’s not talking about Andre Szmyt.
Matt asked about some of the receivers who really haven’t had much of a chance yet but will get it this year: Jackson, Queeley, Hendrix, etc. Dino said that they all had “good camps. Sharod and Nykeim have bene steady and strong.” (Johnson and Johnson) Coach is also looking forward to seeing ‘Tank’ (Javonte?) Williams, Justin Barron, Isaiah (Jones) and Damian (Alford). I believe that this group is better and now they have to prove it.”
But Coach is really excited about his linebackers. “We’ve got young talent and they hit things that move. I don’t know about the right gaps but they’ll run through something. If you aren’t wearing orange and blue, you are going to get hit. They aren’t like the modern fighters. They are like the old time Madison Square Garden fighters who used to throw punches amid the cigar smoke.” Could they be contendahs?
I Coulda Been a Contender - On the Waterfront (6/8) Movie CLIP (1954) HD
Dino promised “more aggressive play, not sit-back play.” My favorite line from Coach Mac was, “When you blitz, somebody’s band is going to be playing.” But if you were already playing to avoid that and still giving up big plays, (Maryland, Boston College, Louisville), you might as well warm up the band.
What should we expect in the first game? “Most years 7-8 games will go pretty much the way you prepare. With opening games, you really don’t know. I’m going to keep my mind clear and let the coordinators handle things, in case we see something we don’t expect.” Dino described North Carolina as having a “great quarterback, two 1,000-yard receivers and two running backs who gained 1,900 yards between them”.
Then Dino came up with a malapropism, or maybe a Freudian slip: “It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s whether you play together and lose together.“ He wondered if he could borrow some of Jim Beoheim's points from that game in March.
