Syracuse Football: Dino Babers reveals gameplan at linebacker for 2019

Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers revealed his gameplan for his linebacking corps in 2019. Here is what it all means for the Orange.

It’s not an ideal situation for the Syracuse football squad. For three straight seasons, the Orange will be operating with an entirely new linebacking corps.

First Dino Babers had Zaire Franklin and Parris Bennett who were talented and relentless hard workers. Both went on to play in the NFL for varying lengths.

Then last season for the Orange, Dino operated with less talented ingredients in Kielan Whitner and Ryan Guthrie and both players had success in 2018 helping Syracuse finish with a 10-3 season.

Do you notice any trends? Dino has seemingly preferred playing veteran players at linebacker. At Spring Football Saturday, I asked Dino if that’s his preference? Or can a young guy step up to the plate and take that spot in 2019?

"“There’s always a chance for a young guy to come in and take one of those starting spots at linebacker. They just have to come in and learn the mental part of the game. When you get to a linebacking or quarterback position there are a lot of things that you need to know that some of the other positions on the team you don’t need to know. Some of those other positions a player can just come in and listen to a call and do what they’re supposed to do, instead of having to make a call and making sure 10 other guys know what they’re doing. At linebacker there’s a learning curve, I don’t think there’s zero chance that a young guy can come in and take the spot. But when a young guy comes in and has that attitude that a (Andre) Cisco or a (Kendall) Coleman has, then I think they’ll have an opportunity to make that move.”"

To provide some context on the backend of Dino’s answer: Andre Cisco was a freshman last season at safety for the Orange. He ended up coming in and surprisingly took one of the starting safeties jobs and ended up leading college football in interceptions.

While a few years back Kendall Coleman did the same thing as a freshman on the defensive line. He wasn’t expected to come and grab a starting spot, but that’s exactly what he did.

So, in other words, some of the new faces coming in like Lee Kpogba and Mikel Jones “could” steal one of (if not both) of the starting linebacker spots, but it won’t be given, it’ll be earned.

Although if history repeats itself on the age front there are two senior linebackers who make a ton of sense:

• Andrew Armstrong
  • 6-foot-2, 234 pounds
  • Played in all 13 games for the Orange last year. Andrew was mainly featured in the third down packages on defense. Armstrong was a solid player on special teams for one of the best overall units in the country. His career highlight so far was his interception vs NC State in primetime on Saturday night that sealed the win vs the Wolfpack in the Carrier Dome last season.

• Lakiem Williams
  • 6-foot, 233 pounds
  • Lakiem played in seven games last year in his first year with the Orange after transferring over from Butte College. This smells a lot like what happened to Ryan Guthrie last season. Guthrie transferred over from Ellsworth Community College and spent his junior year learning, then exploded as a senior. I think the same thing could happen for Lakiem Williams in his senior season.