Syracuse Football: Who is Dino Babers?

The Syracuse football squad has finally found their coach in Dino Babers, the former head coach of Bowling Green who just won the MAC Championship last night.

Babers had been waiting until after the championship game to make any decisions about his future. Bowling Green won the game 34-14 last night in dominant fashion. The offense dropped over 500 yards on Northern Illinois and had a commanding 21-0 lead going into halftime.

So who exactly is Dino Babers? Babers began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1984 at Hawaii. He moved from there to Arizona State and then to Eastern Illinois over the next three years where he landed his first full-time job as a runningbacks coach in 1987.

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From there, he held a number of positions over the next 8 years, including: UNLV (1988-89, special teams coordinator), Northern Arizona (1990, special teams coordinator and defensive backs), Purdue (1991-93, receivers), and San Diego State (1994, receivers).

Then in 1995, he became an assistant coach for the Arizona Wildcats, a position he held for six years, coaching recievers, runningbacks, and quarterbacks. He also spent time there as the assistant head coach and three seasons as the offensive coordinator. In his first year as coordinator, the offense averaged over 470 yards per game to rank third nationally. The team went 12-1 that year.

In 2001, he became the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Texas A&M, a position he held for two years.

After a year in Pitt as the runningbacks coach, he was off to UCLA to to coach the receivers. He stayed with the Bruins for four years, serving time as an assistant head coach, wide receivers coach, and recruiting coordinator in 2006. During his time at UCLA, the receiving corps became one of the best in the business, scoring a whopping 24 touchdowns in his first year after having only 12 the season before.

The next stop for Babers came in 2008, when he took a job to be the Baylor Offensive Coordinator under Art Briles. In case you didn’t know, Briles is the head coach who has completely turned around the Baylor program into a national power. His first two season were a pair of 4-8 finishes, but then things changed dramatically, in large part thanks to the overhaul in offense he and Babers established at Baylor. By the time Babers left in 2011, the program was 10-3 and the offense was a well-oiled machine.

Babers then finally got his shot to be a head coach, serving two years at Eastern Illinois from 2012-13. He went 19-7 in those two seasons and turned them into a high-octane offense in a similar mold to Baylor. In his second season they made it to the FCS quarterfinals.

From there he went to Bowling Green, where he has been the head coach for the last two seasons. He’s gone 18-9 in those two years and finished 1st in their division both times. This year, he won the MAC championship over Northern Illinois 34-14. His offense at Bowling Green finished the season third in the nation with 566 yards per game.

Dec 4, 2015; Detroit, MI, USA; Bowling Green Falcons head coach Dino Babers is seen in the third quarter of the MAC Championship against the Northern Illinois Huskies at Ford Field. Photo Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

In his time as a coach, Dino has sent 22 players into the NFL including 17 wide recievers and 5 runningbacks. He’s had two players drafted in the second round, and one in the first. He’s clearly shown an excellent ability at developing offensive talent, something that is sorely need at Syracuse.

Babers coaching philosophy is very aggressive. His offense is more of a West Coast, hurry-up style offense. There is almost never a huddle, and the plays are called in from the sideline. It’s an incredibly up-tempo style that is looking to score lots of points in a hurry and get through as many offensive plays as possible. It’s very receiver heavy, going almost exclusively to 4 and 5 wide receiver sets. In the red zone they have been known to break out a jumbo set from time to time, but even that has often been used as misdirection for play action and screens. The run game is mostly off draws and read options up the middle.

The defense has been a base 4-3 with lots of late down blitzing. His style is a bit more of a “read and react” philosophy, which could be difficult to translate to the ACC with the increased speed of offensive threats. Don’t be surprised if that changes once he comes to SU and brings in his own defensive coordinator.

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To be honest, I’m very happy with this decision. I think it’s very smart fit for the Orange and it plugs up the major hole in the offense that’s been missing with Shafer. I’m a bit nervous how he will handle the defense, but I do like his aggressive mentality. I think he will bring in the right guy for the job defensively.

Overall, I just like how he’s willing to take risks. Unlike Shafer, who was more apt to punt on 4th and 1 or call vanilla runs at the goal line, Babers is willing to take risks and chances. A perfect example occurred last night in the MAC Championship game. Bowling Green had the ball at the 2 yard-line of Eastern Illinois with a third and goal. Babers brought out the jumbo set and looked like he was going to pound it up the middle. Instead, they went play action and found a wide open fullback in the flat for a gimme score. It was incredibly risky, as half a second later it would have been a huge sack or tipped ball/interception, but it paid off and got the touchdown that put the game away.

I’m very excited to see what Babers will do with the program. I think Coyle made the right decision with the hire and I’m really looking forward to what the future holds for Syracuse football!