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
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, the last SU quarterback to get through a season without having to miss substantial time due to an injury was Ryan Nassib in 2012. That means that our back-up quarterback is an important guy. We’ve had one really good one in that time: Zack Mahoney, a junior college walk-on. This year we had a quarterback room with three players who had been 4 star recruits who went to SEC schools. We had to go to the back-up against Boston College and we got 37 yards passing and 4 interceptions in a game we lost by a touchdown.
Why is it so difficult to develop a competent back-up quarterback?”
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.)
They talked about Yankee Stadium. This is not only the 100th anniversary of the first SU-Pittsburgh game at the big ballpark: it’s the anniversary of the first ever college football game thee, which SU was 3-0, which Dino, (who seemed to be in a good mood throughout the show), described it as a “massive explosion of points” with a chuckle. Matt had looked up SU’s record that year and we gave up only 19 points all season, 16 in the loss to Colgate, our only loss that year. We beat Alabama, Pitt, Penn State and Nebraska that season.
On Boston College: “They played excellent defense. We had a couple of mistakes in the kicking game. On the fake, one guy didn’t stay in his lane and didn’t see the crack (back), coming. Justin Barron made the tackle but he’s not the none who made the mistake. We just didn’t do enough to win. We’ve got to put our guys in position to make plays and they need to make those plays. The back-up quarterback doesn’t have to win the game. He has to manage the games. We’ve got to do more so he can do less.”
I called in and started with some more history. A statistician and football historian named James Howell has that Syracuse team as his national champion for 1923: 1923 NCAA Division IA Football Power Ratings Matt did some research and announced that Illinois and Michigan were considered co-national champions for 1923 by most sources. (Howell has a tendency to downgrade the Big Ten teams, for some reason). Another tidbit from me: Alabama in 1923 was coached by the legendary Wallace Wade who turned that school and later, (briefly) Duke into a national power. He said of that 23-0 beating in Archbold Stadium, “I learned more football in that afternoon than in any other”. Two years later, the Tide won its first national championship.
As to my question: “The #1 quarterback gets the majority of reps on any college or pro team. The backup doesn’t get as much time to develop a relationship with a receiver.” [Carlos didn’t have much of a relationship with his receivers last week. I still think, given the frequency that we’ve had to use the back-up, that some special effort to bring him up to speed and keep him there would be in order.] Dino then turned his guns toward the star system: “We don’t get into stars. Matthew Bergeron has no stars.” [That’s because he’s a Canadian.] “Andre Cisco was a walk-on at IMG. Then there’s Triston Jackson, Zaire Franklin and Iffy Melifonwu.” [All lousy quarterbacks.] There’s not a big difference between 3 and 4 stars. The big difference is between the guys with the chips on their shoulders because of the lack of high school recognition over the guys coasting on their high school ratings.” [So I guess we don’t want guys with high ratings to coast on.] He then tried to remember the stat about high school stars and super bowl participants, saying there were more 0-3 star players than higher than that. That’s likely true but I think he was searching for the fact that the more super bowl players had 2 stars coming out of high school than any other star rating. “When people say you can’t do something, it motivates them.”
Matt asked “How much better can a quarterback be in the early stages. How do you get him comfortable?” DB: “People can get better by watching others but there’s no greater growth than when you watch yourself on film. Pitt has two games to watch him in.” [Thee: including the Notre Dame game.] “The interceptions were not all his fault”. [Nothing in this conversation suggested that Garrett would play in this game or that Carlos would not.]
Matt wanted to talk ‘personnel’, (he’s not going to find out about injuries). Alijah Clark is back in good standing and will play both on defense and special teams. When he was suspended from playing his defensive position, he asked to continue playing special teams “to help the team”. Dino was touched and allowed him to do so, despite his suspension.
Mark called in, asking why Dino ‘signed off’ on giving up Dome field advent age for this game. DB: “Every D1 coach except the football coach has control over his schedule. Football creates more revenue than any other sport. I’m a team player. Everybody knows what I want: to play in the Dome with the heat turned up and the air conditioner unplugged. At least it’s a neutral site and not down south or out west.
They brought on the running backs coach, Mike Lynch, who’s been with Dino the whole 8 years. The McNamara family was there, too. Mike and GMAC and the soccer coach, Ian McIntyre, are all neighbors and close friends. Matt simply asked “How can we figure out something? ML: “We’re doing everything we can do to be more efficient, move downfield and put it in the end zone. We want to put it in LeQuient’s hands…If you just do one thing. You become predictable. You have to take occasional shots to lighten up the box.” Matt: “With Sean Tucker you got those 40-50 yard runs. LeQuint is not quite that.” Mike stressed LeQuint’s versatility and said that he practices hard and plays hard every play.”
Pittsburgh: “They are often in ‘cover zero’. They are tough and do a great job. We’ll do 101’s on the outside.” [Whatever that is.] “We’ll run the quarterback and get the ball in LeQuint’s hands.” On the back-ups” Price can run the ball and he’s become a good blocker, too. Daniels can play. They are good options but we want LeQuint out there.” Matt noted that Dan Villari comes under his jurisdiction, too. Lynch compared him to Mark Bavaro. [Let’s pass to Mark Bavaro, please.] The quarterback “can take shots but we want them to be predictable shots. We want him to get the ball out fast and let him create.” [?]
They briefly discussed recruiting. “People are fired up, (to come here) because of our awesome tradition and our being in the ACC. We get lots of guys from Virginia, (presumably his area).
Dino came back on, bursting with pride that his boy, Tommy DeVito was going to start a game in the NFL for the Giants against the Cowboys, “Real Giants and real Cowboys and in Jerry’s place.”
Matt said that as he left the Dome last Friday, he found himself walking next to Kevon Darton, who had been helped off the field but came back to play. “You get every once of what he’s got”. DB: You look at him and say “Whaaat?” Then you see him play and you say “Yeesss!”
Pitt: “is using their back-up quarterback and rotating two running backs. They got Christian (Veilleux, the back-up QB), from Penn State. They have quite a lot of transfers like lots a teams. (A note of regret for what’s happened to college sports). They’ve been barely missing the boat and can beat any team on any day. They have big play ability with 5 eligible receivers and always have a way, way above average offensive line.” [Must be nice…]
“We’ve got to find a way to score one more win and get to 5-5 and then become bowl eligible. It would be a heck of a thing to find a way to win despite injuries. It would show the grit of the team and would be a tribute to our six captains, (who he start to name as the show-ending music was playing). [We needed to show the grit last month.]
