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AmeriCU Dino Babers Show Returns Thursday - Syracuse University Athletics
The season's first edition of the AmeriCU Dino Babers Show is set to air at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 2, live from Heritage Hill Brewery.
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 90 minutes, with the first hour being with Dino and the last half hour 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: Listen to Free Radio Online | 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
My Question(s) or Comments
First segment question:
“Coach, Garrett Shrader only carried the ball 7 times against Clemson while passing it 37 times. That doesn’t seem like a formula for victory. You said that that happened because Clemson had a guy as big and athletic assigned to him. Is it that easy to take away such a big part of our offense? How many of those 37 passes were RPOs and how many were planned passing plays?”
Second segment question:
“Coach, it’s hard to win by simply outgaining teams. It helps to have big plays from special teams and your defense. In 2018 we had 31 takeaways. In 2019 it was 25 and in 2020 it was 24. This year we have 6 takeaways in 7 games. The defense is playing well but where are the takeaways?”
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 said “I’ve been around a long time but I’ve never been to Lane Stadium. It one of those that are always on TV. You can play a game there and years later watch one on TV and tell you son that you played there.” They talked about how the Hokies enter the field to the same song Mariano Rivera used: ‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica:
Some background: Why does Virginia Tech play Enter Sandman at football games?
They started using it the night Lee Corso’s car got hit by lightning!
Matt asked Dino what his favorite heavy metal tune was. He was unable to answer as he didn’t know which ones were heavy metal. (well, if they don’t float…) he wasn’t sure if he’d hear the tune because he’s so locked in pre-game. He remembers one time at Wisconsin the crowd went into their ‘chicken dance’ and he did notice it “because they were getting after us pretty well”. (9/20/14, 17-68)
Matt asked if there was anything more to say about Tommy De Vito. There wasn’t “much to add after the articles and interviews. He’ll be graduating from business school in December. He’ll always be orange and we wish him well.“ How did the rest of the team react? “This is the reset generation. They handle it better than I do. I’m a family guy. This has happened a lot with quarterbacks over the years when a guy gets beaten out. Now it’s happening at all positions. Do it the right way and get your degree, then go to where you can be a guy.”
I called in my first question. Dino said hit doesn’t remember how many of Garrett Shrader’s 37 passes were RPOs, (where the big, bad Clemson guy made him pass instead of running the ball), and how many of them were designed passes. (I felt there were more of the latter, meaning we were not even attempting to use him as a runner.) “We’d rather have Tucker run the ball than Shrader when the other team has a really skilled guy. He, (Shrader) is a quarterback first and a guy who can help us with his legs second.”
Matt added that Sean “is not only our leading rusher but in some ways also our leading receiving target.” Dino: “We are looking for match-ups. If Deon Sanders is covering your wide receiver you don’t throw to that wide receiver….in some ways the running back takes more punishment pass blocking than running the ball. There was a play early in the year where Sean went to cut a rusher and didn’t use the proper technique and the guy leaped over him. But if he hits him high he takes more punishment.” Matt asked how Sean was as a “blitz picker-upper”. Dino said that he was ‘OK’. “You’re not taking him out of the game for that, are you?” Dino: “No… Their body is their company and they are the CEO. In the NFL they have third down backs so their million dollar guy doesn’t have to take the punishment of pass-blocking and running routes. We don’t sub Sean out. he subs himself out. the back-up know they have to be prepared to go in if the taps out, unless we’re playing tempo.”
John in Baltimore thought recruiting was going slowly because he hasn’t heard much about commitments lately. Dino said that we have “a normal amount of commitments. It’s about the same.” John also asked if we do drills on ’50-50 balls’, by which he meant passes to wide receivers. Dino said that they do and “certain guys have been doing better than others but I’m not going to tell you their names because I don’t want future opponents to know that those guys might be playing against them.” Matt noted that Clemson had had success throwing to two 6-4 wide receivers and a big tight end, (on the fake punt). Dino said that on the play in the end zone, “Duce was in fantastic position”. He also talked about the game winning catch the Wake Forest wide receiver had made. “The throw was not exactly correct but withing the receiver catch radius. On the fake punt, Garrett Williams was underneath perfectly but needed help from the safety up top and didn’t get it.” I got the impression form this conversation that we are going to see more and more of SU receivers with a large ‘catch radius’. (With Shader, we’re going to need them.) Matt said he couldn’t remember too many catches of ‘imperfect balls’ by SU receivers. Dino remembered a couple by Sharod Johnson and Courtney Jackson. “Unless the quarterback bowls the ball to you, you really need to catch it… Wide receivers are always open, (they say). I’m a wide receiver guy but they have to have the team concept…we use play-action. We can throw the drop-back. That’s what the play to Pena was. It’s a play we used to do with Dungey. We’ve got some young people who are making a move. We don’t’ want them to run into each other and concuss each other. We want them 1 on 1 against a guy who cant cover them or to help each other get open.”
Virginia Tech had only 225 total yards against Pittsburgh. Dino said that Pitt is very good. The on team they’ve lost to is Western Michigan who “really has a team this year”. (They are 5-2). “Pitt is scoring on everybody. Kenny Pickett has been extraordinary.” Justin Fuente is still the coach but Bud Foster is no longer the defensive coordinator. “Matt: He always had those big men guys up front to stop the run.” Dino: “They are a team that wants to run. They have a mobile quarterback like #13 at Florida State. Their defense is electric. They have extraordinary defensive ends, a middle line backer like Mikel Jones, two good cornerbacks and safeties who know how to get people down. They will try to take away the run and get us to throw like Clemson did.”
Matt noted that we have a late bye week- after 9 games have been played. (It seems to me we rarely have bye weeks in the middle of the season.) DB: “It’s difficult. We are using tape and bandages to hold the wheels on. We probably have a smaller roster than anyone in the ACC. The expense of going to SU – you want to be in the library, not a crash test dummy on the practice field.” Matt suggested that SU and Wake Forest, also a private school, are in the most similar position as far as tuition and academics and recruiting players. Dino: “We are one of the few universities where you can get a master’s degree in 365 days.“
He admitted that our “special teams are not as good as they used to be. We are normally at the top. We have a veteran guy who missed a field goal. We have a young punter and the best thing about freshmen is that become sophomores.“ He pointed out that our defense was young last year and look at how they are playing now. “Everybody knows the laces are supposed to be out, like they said in Ace Ventura. But you know what – wherever the laces are, it’s still the kicker’s job to make the kick. Quarterbacks spin the balls but they still have to make the throws.”
The new ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has already been to Syracuse two more times than John Swofford ever came here. Matt says that “he wants to see the people.” Dino: “He’s a stand-up guy and he’s going to do a fantastic job.”
They brought on Reno Ferri, who coaches the tight ends and inside receivers. He’s been with Dino since they both came here in 2016. He recruited Sean Tucker and said “he was the easiest guy to recruit ever. I timed him at 4.29 in the 40 with my watch. I had him run it again and everybody gathered around and he ran a 4.34. I’ve never seen anyone go through the bags and cones like him. He was a Ferrari. Marlowe Wax was, too, of a different type.”
He said that the Va. Tech game was big for recruiting in the Virginia, and Maryland areas, which are important for us. Matt said that was true in basketball, too. Tech “plays hard all the time. We have to keep track of their backers and safeties.”
Reno thinks Chris Elmore is “the bast fullback in the country”. (That used to mean Larry Csonka. Now it means Chris Elmore.) “Look at Sean Tucker and you’ll find Chris Elmore out in front of him”. Matt said that there is a list of the top 25 players in the country in explosive runs. Tucker was second and Shrader #24. (I was unable to find it.” Ferri said that Max Mang was “really smart and had done great”. They line up Elmore at various positions, trying to ‘hide him’. (That sounds difficult.) They use different formations and motions to set up the rushing attack.
Gomez was doing a charity event involving the basketball team so Matt did the last half hour for him with the coach. The charity was the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs of America. Dino used to come home from Hawaii, (to San Diego), and do a summer job delivering meals to Boy’s and Girl’s clubs. He enjoyed it: “I’m a truck guy”.
Matt wanted to know “How are you doing?”, referring to all the criticism Dino has received after the three game losing streak. “As iron sharpens iron one man sharpens another. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Grass grows easier in the valley than on the mountain.” That’s one cliché for every loss in the streak. Dino seemed to remember a year where SU struggled but got to a bowl game and then the next year they won all the close games. Matt suggested he was referring to 1985-87 when we won a bowl game, had a losing record and then went undefeated. (Do we have to wait until next year to win the close games?) “We’re not terribly far off.” Dino said that analytics are fine but they don’t take account of what has happened in the game, especially injuries. “If you have a couple of linemen hurt, you have to take into account who was blocking whom. If I’m blocking Paulie, (the show’s producer), Paulie’s going to take a ride.” The four consecutive three point games are an SU record. The NCAA record seems to be 5 by Eastern Michigan in 2018.
John in Baltimore called in again, wondering what we can do to spring Trebor Pena on those kick returns. Dino agreed that “the defenders are too close to him. He needs 4-6 more yards of separation. This is where depth hurts you. We’ve had 4-6 transfers, guys who could help on special teams while waiting for a chance at a starting position. It’s the new normal. There is a lot more parity. We need to do a better job preparing for these games, seeing which guys couldn’t beat the guys they’d face. We need to look more for mismatches.” Matt said that Cooper Lutz and Geoff Cantin-Arku are leading special teams players and also the ‘next man up’ at two athletic positions. They talked about muffed punts that haven’t been recovered.
I called in my question about takeaways. Dino: “It goes back to recruiting. We had some defensive players with offensive skills. Andre Cisco and Trill Williams had great hands. They could catch any ball that came their way and Trill could just take it away from you. Iffy has fantastic ball skills. They’re in the NFL now. You may only get one opportunity and you have to cash in on it. You have to have good opportunity batting average. It's good to have a quarterback sack but great if you can rip the ball out of his hands. Mikel, Josh, and bear are that kind of player. We’ve not been as successful as with our previous back end. “ I suggested that a lack of experience maybe the problem.“ An old swimmer knows that went he gets into a riptide to swim with it until it lets you go. You can’t be over-anxious. It’s not a round ball. It can squirt out. We don’t need to be so amped up. Dick Tomey liked to say “try less harder”.
Dino said that he needs to “try less hard” in golf. Matt said that that’s definitely a try less hard game – take deep breaths, don’t grip the club so hard. Dino: “I’m great on the first and last hole. I’m awful on 2-17.
