Syracuse Football: Fans Must be Patient with Dino Babers

Syracuse football is looking for a big turnaround after going 7-17 the last two seasons, but expecting instant results probably isn’t fair for Dino Babers.

The 2016 recruiting class is mostly finished and pretty successful. By all accounts, it’s one of the better classes Syracuse football has landed in the past decade. Although there are no flagship 4 or 5 star talents, there are some pretty exciting names on the list such as Moe Neal, Rex Culpepper, Michael Clark, Jaquwan Nelson, and Kenneth Ruff.

But even with the solid recruiting class, we as fans need to temper our expectations. Not only is this an entirely new coaching staff, but it’s an entirely new scheme on offense and defense.

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Offensively, we’re going from a slow paced, run-first, read option style of play to a crazy up-tempo, spread offense with a much more balanced attack that focuses a lot of throws downfield and runs up the gut. Talk about a transition.

People misrepresent the Babers spread offense by assuming that it is a pass-heavy, one-dimensional attack that doens’t run much and that couldn’t be further from the truth. The spread style offense does rely on passing, but it is used as a way to open up the run game.

Don’t be surprised if it’s a pretty even 50-50 split between run and pass by the end of the season. Last year for instance, Bowling Green passed it 594 times. They ran it 542 times for a 52/48 split. Even though it’s a very even split, compared to Syracuse football last year, that’s a heck of a lot more passing. SU threw 306 times and ran 445, for a 40/60 split. They will also be trying to run about 20 more plays a game, and that will be a lot of changes for this team to figure out.

Defensively, we’re moving away from the attack-style, no-particular-scheme defense of the Scott Shafer era. I’m not saying that defense was a bad decision, as he had a couple of outstanding years for Syracuse football. But the lack of a scheme and discipline really hurt us last year as we were repeatedly torched by the deep ball and gashed by runs to the outside.

Babers is implementing a Tampa-2 coverage scheme that is much more focused. The front four need to play aggressive and get into the backfield to disrupt plays early. The linebackers need to be able to cover side to side and find their gaps in run support. The corners will be playing much tighter and the safeties will each be given a half of the football field on an island and asked to make plays. It’s a more organized, tactical style than what Shafer used, and it’s going to take a lot for these guys to learn the discipline, new gap assignments, coverage assignments, and everything else that goes along with it.

Anyone thinking this will be an instant change and that the offense and defense will be at 100% from game one is fooling themselves. It’s a process, and it very well could take into the 2017 season before we see big results.

Sep 26, 2015; Syracuse, NY, USA; Syracuse Orange offensive tackle Ivan Foy (72), running back Devante McFarlane (29) , running back George Morris II (27) and other teammates come onto the field prior to a game against the LSU Tigers at the Carrier Dome. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports /

Dino Babers said it best himself in an interview with ESPN yesterday: “The 2016 recruiting class is like a jigsaw puzzle with the 2017 recruiting class. It’s going to take two classes to get this school back on the correct foundation so we can build on that base to something that’s going to last a long period of time.”

And that’s the truth of the matter. There isn’t some magic band aid coach Babers can apply that will fix some of the holes this team had. Yes, good recruits go a long way, but they still need to learn the system and grow into their bodies, especially the two and three star guys who can absolutely be outstanding football players, but take time to develop.