Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers wins ACC Co-Coach of the Year from the Associated Press. When will this guy ever earn respect?
Finally Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers has earned a little recognition, albeit only half recognition.
"“Orange head football coach Dino Babers was voted the co-Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year by the Associated Press on Tuesday, Dec. 4. Babers, who led Syracuse to a 9-3 regular-season record and a berth in the Camping World Bowl, shared the award with Clemson’s Dabo Swinney”, per the Syracuse University press release."
For those curious, “this award was determined by a vote of 14 sports writers who regularly cover the ACC for newspapers or broadcast outlets.”
Reminder Syracuse was projected to finish last in the ACC Atlantic Division prior to the season starting. Not only did they NOT finish in last, but in fact they finished in second place only behind the Clemson Tigers.
Ironically enough Babers will share this distinction with the man who stole the official ACC Coach of the Year award from him a few weeks ago in Dabo Swinney.
The last several years of Syracuse vs Clemson football have been an interesting diatribe. It all started with Syracuse going down to Death Valley as a ritual animal sacrifice to the Clemson Crazies, losing 54-0 in 2016.
An embarrassing loss no doubt for this Syracuse program and one they wouldn’t forget. Fast forward a year later inside the lovely confines of the Carrier Dome, the Orange pulled off the impossible on a Friday night, October 13th 2017 (eerie isn’t?) by dropping the defending National Champion Clemson Tigers.
Many analysts considered the win by the Orange a mere fluke considering the home field advantage, the circumstances around the quarterback injury at Clemson, etc. So what did Syracuse do in 2018?
Go right back down to the scene of the crime and dominate the line of scrimmage vs an ACC power house in the Clemson Tigers for 58 minutes of a 60 minute game. Sadly the game didn’t end two minutes earlier, it ended after 60 minutes of play and Clemson escaped by the narrowest of margins and Clemson went on to an undefeated season and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.
But unlike 2017, Syracuse didn’t collapse like a used lawn chair. Following that defeat to Clemson Syracuse went 5-2 down the stretch and got to nine wins and are nationally ranked for the first time since 2001. But apparently that wasn’t good enough for the FULL ACC Coach of the Year award, but I digress.
We already went through all the reasons Dino initially got robbed of the ACC Coach of the Year honors, you can read that here.
Although Dino Babers was not the only member of the Syracuse family to receive some notoriety:
"“In addition to Babers’ honor, the Orange had six players voted to the AP’s All-ACC teams Tuesday. Placekicker Andre Szmyt (Vernon Hills, Ill.), safety Andre Cisco (Valley Stream, N.Y.) and punter Sterling Hofrichter (Valrico, Fla.) were first-team choices. Quarterback Eric Dungey (Lake Oswego, Ore.), defensive end Alton Robinson (Converse, Texas) and linebacker Ryan Guthrie (Cumming, Ga.) made the second team”, per the Syracuse University press release."