Where would Jimmy Garoppolo be without Dino Babers?

Thanks to his former head coach Dino Babers, Jimmy Garoppolo has and will continue to do the unthinkable for the San Francisco 49ers.

What Dino Babers did with Jimmy Garoppolo in a two-year span is to this day, extremely overlooked. Six years ago, the current Syracuse Orange head coach and former Eastern Illinois bench boss transformed Garoppolo into the elite quarterback he is today.

Thanks to Babers, Garoppolo has become one of the NFL’s scarier quarterbacks heading into the 2018-19 season.

Before Babers flipped the script in Illinois and made Panthers football a must-see spectacle, Garoppolo was nothing short of an average FCS quarterback.

In his freshman and sophomore seasons, Garoppolo threw for a combined 4,283 yards, had a combined 36 touchdowns on just 29 pass attempts per contest. Once Babers arrived, things quickly changed for the better.

In 2012 alone, Garoppolo threw for a strong 3,823 yards and had 33 touchdowns to his name on

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45 pass attempts per game. The incredible turn around was recognized, as the junior finished 10th in voting for the 2012 Walter Payton Award, the FCS’s equivalent of the Heisman.

However, it was Garoppolo’s 2013 season that makes the three seasons that came before it seem laughable.

In 14 games played, Garoppolo posted a mind-boggling 66% completion rate, threw for a ridiculous 5,050 yards (360.7 yards per game), and a combined 57 touchdowns (53 throwing and four rushing). The scary thing is that all of that came on five less throwing attempts per game than in 2012.

The unprecedented season from Garoppolo is to this day, considered one of the best seasons from a college quarterback ever. In response to the record-shattering season, Garroppolo was awarded the following:

2013 Walter Payton Award winner
A 2013 Consensus First Team All-American
The OVC Male Athlete of the Year
2013 FCS ADA National Offensive Player of the Year
A 2013 Senior Bowl Participant
The Offensive MVP of the 2013 East-West Shrine Game

After throwing at least 13 interceptions in his freshman, sophomore, and junior seasons, Garoppolo threw just eight in his storied senior year.

The reason why Garoppolo has one of the quickest releases in the NFL today, and flourishes in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, can be credited to Babers, who taught the quarterback to release the ball as quickly as he does today.

The Eastern Illinois football program was not known for making the playoffs before Babers became the head coach. The Panthers made the playoffs in both seasons with Babers at the helm.

Without Babers, Garoppolo wouldn’t have been considered one of the better QB prospects ahead of draft night, and most definitely would not have been selected 62nd overall by the New England Patriots.

Following a lengthy four-and-a-half year stint in New England, where Garoppolo served as a backup for future Pro Football Hall of Famer, Tom Brady, the Patriots dealt the 26-year-old to a one-win San Francisco team for just a second-round pick.

Three months later, after completing more than 67% of his passes, and winning all five games he started with the Niners, Garoppolo now is the highest paid player in NFL History.

Even Babers, who has received next to no attention since Garoppolo became the face of the NFL, was confident that the quarterback would dominate as soon as he was traded to the Red and Gold.

Babers, who since day one believed that Garoppolo was the “most accurate quarterback” he’d ever seen, knew that the 2x Super Bowl Champion would thrive under Kyle Shanahan from the get-go.

While Garoppolo has carved out an unforgettable name for himself in the NFL, Babers’ coaching roles have risen drastically. After his memorable two years with Eastern Illinois, Babers replaced Dave Clawson at Bowling Green.

After a pair of stellar season’s with the Falcons, one of which resulted in a 34-14 win over Northern Illinois in the 2015 Mid-American Championship Game, Babers also left Bowling Green and joined one of the NCAA’s toughest conferences, the ACC.

Just one day after Bowling Green’s win, Babers became the eighth head coach in Syracuse history, and his high-octane no-huddle offense has already made the Orange’s offense a force to be reckoned with.

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Simply put, Babers launched Garoppolo into relevancy, while Garoppolo launched Babers’ journey to coaching at the NCAA’s highest level.

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