Syracuse Football: Dino Babers ‘definitely’ wants outside hire (Brian Ward)

Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers reveals his post-Brian Ward plan. Here are all the details and what that means for the Orange.

Last week Syracuse football was embarrassed by Boston College at home, 58-27. The Eagles ran for 496 rushing yards which were the most the Orange has ever given up in a single game in program history. This resulted in Dino Babers firing his defensive coordinator Brian Ward.

Outside of a press release that was released in conjunction with the news, Babers hadn’t spoken publicly about the move until he made an appearance on Packer and Durham via the ACC Network:

"“It’s the first time I’ve ever done it. The firing just felt like something that needed to be done. Some people have asked, why do it now? I need to see something different. I needed to see if someone can come in and do it better.I feel like we have outstanding personnel I really do. By no means is this just a defensive thing. There are issues to clean up on offense and special teams as well. I feel like our best personnel on this roster is on defense and we need our best players to play well. When that doesn’t happen it makes it very difficult to win.”"

Don’t be shocked by Dino’s admission that he’s never had to fire someone before. His current gig with Syracuse is just the third head coaching opportunity of Babers’ career.

Dino has been a head coach since 2012, but only spent two years at Eastern Illinois, then spent another two years at Bowling Green before joining the Orange in 2016.

So with the coach in the midst of some new territory how will he approach this hiring process? Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com shared his opinion earlier this week on The Manchild Show with Boy Green:

"“I think he definitely wants to make an outside hire. Dino Babers obviously has a ton of connections, he’s been coaching for 30 plus years. Dino is going to be reaching out to his contacts and asking around. I don’t want to say beauty, because it’s a tough situation, but the beauty of firing Brian Ward when Syracuse did is you have time to make a decision and evaluate your options.”"

So who are some of the names Babers will consider?

Click here to view the top five candidates we were able to cook up, but don’t just take our word for it, here’s what Cam Mellor of Pro Football Focus had to say on the matter on The Score 1260:

"“Yeah, there are a couple to keep in mind. The plan from what I heard is to hire from the outside. A lot of buzz is around Bert Watts out of Fresno State. He had a really good year in 2018 and was top-5 in a bunch of key defensive analytics. While he’s taken a bit of a step back, they lost a ton of talent.If you want to stay in the ACC, perhaps you can lure Jay Bateman from UNC. He wants to shed the ‘co-defensive coordinator role’ he currently has and become a full-time DC.Although the guy I really like is David Reeves with UAB. If you haven’t followed college football, the Blazers had a couple of years off the map but they’re back. Reeves has really built up that defense and that program out there. They rank high not only in their own conference but in general in college football. Reeves is my favorite to enter the power-five this offseason.”"

Until then, Syracuse will lean on defensive ends coach Steve Stanard for the final three games of the 2019 season.

The Orange will take the road for its next two contests vs Duke and vs Louisville before finishing off the 2019 season at home vs Wake Forest.