Syracuse Football: Pieces are falling into place for Dino Babers in 2018
Syracuse football fans feel split on the Dino Babers experience thus far. But one insider says the pieces are falling into place for a magical 2018.
What side of the fence are you on as it pertains to Dino Babers? On one side of the fence, the Syracuse football squad has taken a top-25 win in each of Dino’s two seasons.
While opponents of the Babers’ movement would say, look at the record man: 8-16. Both of these sides have fair arguments. So let’s see what a third party thinks about this interesting situation.
Our good friends at Athlon Sports is back at it again, this time ranking every college football head coach in the country, here’s how Dino Babers fared:
"56. Dino Babers, SyracuseBabers has recorded back-to-back 4-8 seasons to begin his tenure in Syracuse, but the pieces are beginning to fall into place entering 2018. The Orange have pulled off a couple of big upsets (Virginia Tech in 2016 and Clemson in ’17) and had close losses to Florida State, Miami, LSU and NC State last season. With three signing classes and the progression of the roster to fit his schemes, Babers has Syracuse poised to improve in 2018. Prior to taking over with the Orange, Babers went 19-7 in two years at Eastern Illinois (2012-13) and 18-9 at Bowling Green (2014-15). He also has stops as an assistant from a handful of programs, including Purdue, Arizona, Texas A&M, Pitt, Baylor and UCLA. Babers is regarded as one of college football’s top minds on offense and is 45-32 overall in six years as a head coach."
Let’s break this down in a few categories. First off rapid reaction to Dino being 56th overall? Sounds about right. There’s 130 coaches ranked and Dino has been mediocre — average at best, that’s what that 56th ranking says to me.
Now let’s get into the arguments by Athlon Sports. They address the elephant in the room, which is the overall record, but suggests ‘pieces are falling in place for 2018’. Well are they?
On one hand SU is returning 14 of 22 starters, which sounds good on paper. But they’re losing four pillars of production on both offense and defense. That’s of course Steve Ishmael (all-time yardage leader at Syracuse), Erv Philips (all-time reception leader at Syracuse) on offense. Then defensively Zaire Franklin (second 3-time captain in Syracuse history), Parris Bennett (freak of nature who lived in the shadow of Franklin, despite being just as talented).
Wow…
So even with all those stars on the team, SU still went 4-8 last year and now we think they’re going to get better? Not saying it’s impossible, but it seems like a tall task.
Although the major difference from 2016 to 2017 was the margin of losses. SU lost so many close games which leads you to believe they’re close. While the record is the same in both (4-8 in back-to-back seasons under Babers), there’s that hope that Athlon Sports references.
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Oh yeah, here’s one more nugget to stay positive. Everywhere Dino has been he’s had success: Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green, the records are great. Dino Babers says that 2018 will be special, now it’s time to put his money where his mouth is.