One of our writers last year (Paul A. Esden Sr.) challenged Dino Babers to step up. Now Babers is ready to deliver a slice of humble pie.
Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers likes to use analogies when he’s talking to the media. So here’s another one, Babers is ready to deliver a slice of humble pie to one particular columnist who challenged him last season.
This writer if nothing else is straight forward and transparent, with that in mind let us look back at a portion of an article that I wrote one year ago:
"“I’m back! So I am not going to ease back into writing articles for inside the Loud House in a quiet way I am here demanding results from the 2018 Orange Squad. It is time for Dino to S— or get off the pot. In this humble writers opinion, it would be hard for him to sit as that seat should be RED HOT!!!!! Before we move forward let’s harken back to days of yesteryear … when men were men and the Syracuse Orange ruled the gridiron. It wasn’t that long ago (2004 to be exact) that we as a fan base and a community were spoiled by our squad.That is the year that we fired Paul Pasqualoni for having back to back 6-6 seasons which did not meet our vision of success. The past 4 seasons have yielded records of 3-9, 4-8, 4-8, and 4-8. Ironically that is the record that Dino will need to keep his job. It is baffling to me that there is not more discussion of Dino’s job being at risk. I do get the cool slogan ‘Orange Is The New Fast’ and the flashy offense and the video game numbers that have been put up over the past two seasons, but where are the results.”"
I am happy to report, as you all know, Dino and our Orange squad more that stepped up to the challenge.
In fact with the exception of one embarrassing day in the Bronx, this team was on the cusp of posting a 12-1 record. As this is an article regarding how I was wrong as it relates to the #FireDino and we produced more wins than almost the previous three seasons combined I will not spend too much time on the losses.
Suffice it to say that the reason we won as many games as we did is the reason that we lost these two as well. The Orange stood toe to toe with the eventual National Champions winning 58 out of the 60 minutes of the game. This would have been the crowning moment of the Orange arriving by beating Clemson two times in a row and this time in Death Valley, but somehow with the third-string quarterback in the game in the final drive we lacked defensive focus and the game slipped away.
As we look forward to the 2019 campaign and building on last year’s phenomenal success there are some areas of concern, big shoes to fill and questions that need answering:
- Can Tommy DeVito fill the shoes of what will one day go down as perhaps the greatest Orange quarterback of all time?
- Can the offense line, which lost three starters, protect Tommy who is more of a pocket passer than Eric was?
- Will the Orange find magic in a bottle and a new leading receiver?
- For the second year in a row can we entirely rebuild our linebacking core?
There’s a lot of questions, but also a lot of hope and promise:
- Tommy has shown flashes of brilliance.
- Unlike the last few years where the Cuse football squad had one of the toughest schedules in the NCAA this year’s schedule has the Orange in the middle of the pack with a 60 strength of schedule according to SouthernPigskin.com
As we sit here mere weeks until the season starts this writer will be eagerly looking forward to seeing these questions answer themselves. As I sit here holding my autographed Dino Babers football, with no more questions left if he’s our Coach of the future. #SorryDino.