Syracuse football selling out dome fulfills Dino Babers prophecy

Syracuse football selling out the dome fulfills a Dino Babers prophecy from years ago. Here’s a deep dive on that and what it means to this community.

Syracuse football is back in the Dome on Saturday and will host the No. 1 ranked Clemson Tigers in one of the most anticipated games of the 2019 College football season.

It’s Syracuse’s home opener as well as Clemson’s first road trip. Since these two programs have played each other close the last two years (one of which Syracuse won in 2017), this matchup drew the attention of the nation and the hometown fan base enough to sell out the game for only the ninth time in school history, according to Syracuse.com.

Just to put that in perspective, when these two ACC Atlantic Division teams face off they will be playing in front of 50,000+ fans in Syracuse NY. The Dome, which is affectionately nicknamed the  Loud House will be rocking for what feels like the first time in a long time.

For those who have never experienced a crowd of 40,000+ people in the Dome during a Syracuse football game as I have, I can tell you from experience it is deafening when the crowd gets behind the hometown team. You cannot hear the person next to you, the referee, the whistle, or even the sound of players battling on the field.

Your ears ring when the noise finally settles down because all you could hear before then is screaming, yelling, clapping, and may just barely the joggling of keys on third-down plays if you’re lucky. That’s what fans and Clemson can expect when they play in Syracuse on Saturday evening.

On the field, the experience must be just as bad if not worse. The visiting team cannot hear themselves think, let alone call the play or make adjustments at the line of scrimmage because they cannot hear what’s being said. This often can cause confusion and missed assignments and broken plays which fall right in to what the home team needs.

Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers warned us this moment would come in his opening day news conference, text courtesy of Cuse.com:

"“Close your eyes for me. Close your eyes and visualize this. You’re in the Carrier Dome. The house is filled. The feeling is electric. The noise is deafening. You have a defense that is relentless. You have a special teams that has been well-coached. You have an offense that will not huddle and you have a game that is faster than you’ve ever seen on turf. Open your eyes … That is going to be a reality. That is going to be Syracuse football. Thank you.” -Dino Babers"

Having a huge crowd is a huge advantage and one the Orange should have versus Clemson. There’s a reason the fans are often called the 12th man on the team. Inside the Loud House, it can be hard to hear in a hurry if the team is doing well, so best be aware of that if you are going to the game this weekend.

As previously mentioned this is officially the ninth time in school history the Orange have accomplished a sellout in the Dome.

The last time the Orange sold out the Dome was 21 years ago (1998) when Syracuse opened the season against Tennessee, according to Syracuse.com. That’s a long time ago!

To give you an idea, I was six at the time (you do the math!) and Donovan McNabb was the starter at quarterback for Syracuse football!

Syracuse University announced the crowd will be at least 49,057 people, according to Syracuse.com. Whether the game sets a Dome record is unknown. The record was set in 1980 when Syracuse opened the Dome for the first time for football versus Miami (Ohio) with a crowd of 50,564 fans.

Either way, the atmosphere should be electric even if the game isn’t as close as we’d like. Here’s hoping the hometown team has just enough to pull off the upset with a record-setting crowd in attendance!