The Syracuse football team is looking to change the narrative in 2018. One way they’re trying to do that is with their practice habits.
Not much is known about how Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers runs his operation when not on camera. The local media gets 10 minutes or 600 seconds (if you prefer) to watch the team do some work in practice, before being rushed off the field so the real work can be done.
In a recent interview, Inside the Loud House Site Expert Paul A. Esden Jr. spoke with Syracuse running back Moe Neal about how intense practice really is:
"“Yes it’s very intense. We go fast, you know our offense is up-tempo. We try to tire defenses out so in the third and fourth quarter we can take over. Our Strength Coach (Sean) Edinger does a really good job with us in the offseason with conditioning and getting us ready for these Summer camps. After those we’re in shape and we can go as fast as possible.”"
The Orange is the New Fast is almost a microcosm of what Neal just talked about. Not only does Syracuse ‘try to finish opponents in the second halves of games’, but perhaps that can translate to the second halves of seasons.
Believe it or not, coach Babers has yet to win a game in the month of November. In fact, over the last two years after thrilling wins over No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 2 Clemson, Syracuse is a combined 1-9. That’s the true separation of good teams and great teams, how they perform, not only late in games, but late in seasons as well.
Later in my conversation with Moe Neal, he said it was satisfying to see opponents slumping over sucking oxygen late in games. Especially when you consider all the hard work players like Neal put into the offseason to prepare themselves for the war their bodies go through each season.
Speaking of that, a quick detour here about players bent over sucking wind, the topic of ‘fake cramps’ came up in the conversation:
"“We don’t let it bother us because we just expect it to happen when we play teams. We just try and let them fake it because at the end of the day they’ve got to get up eventually and we’ll be waiting to go even faster and do it over and over.”"
We see it every season but it doesn’t seem to bother Neal or any of the Syracuse players I’ve spoken with over the last several weeks on the topic of opponents slouching over to attempt to slow down the ‘Orange is the New Fast’ machine. To bring this full circle, Syracuse fans are hoping there isn’t any cramps in November on the Orange side of things, it’s time for this team to take the next leap in the Babers development stage, more wins.