Syracuse football has a new look now after hiring Sterlin Gilbert to lead the team’s offense. We will give you all the details.
Syracuse football is moving into the offseason off a disappointing 5-7 year. Already, head coach Dino Babers has made changes to his staff for the 2020 season.
The offense underperformed this year, and it was clear that the offensive coaching was a factor. To counter that issue, Syracuse has reportedly hired Sterlin Gilbert to become the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the news has yet to be confirmed by the University.
First, let’s take a look at Gilbert’s resume and his ties with coach Babers. To begin his coaching career, he primarily worked for high schools in Texas from 2003-2011 except for a one year stint as a graduate assistant with the University of Houston.
In 2012 his relationship with Dino Babers commenced.
Gilbert was named the offensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois when Babers was the head coach. Gilbert followed Babers to Bowling Green in 2014 but then went his own way. In total, the new Syracuse signal-caller has led five collegiate offenses since 2012.
His career has been marked by moving from job to job, but now Gilbert has an opportunity to settle in as the offensive coordinator in the ACC. Most recently, he held the post as the head coach of McNeese state, which went 7-5 in his only year with the squad. Gilbert also followed head coach Charlie Strong from USF to Texas, which are the two largest programs currently in Gilbert’s resume.
When it came time for Syracuse to make a change in offensive leadership, Syracuse looked no further than Babers’ past relationships. Gilbert joins his former head coach for the third time in his career.
Sterlin Gilbert brings with him a similar system to the one installed by coach Babers. However, the offense will change, and Syracuse understands that there needs to be an evolution to advance in a challenging conference. Following the team’s loss to Louisville, this season, Babers acknowledged that his offense needs to adapt.
"“We need to keep evolving to stay with those type of offenses. We need to keep evolving as an offense so it’s difficult for them to stay with us” (syracuse.com)."
‘Cuse football went from averaging 40 plus points in 2018 to only 28 points per game last season. When Dino took the reigns, he promised an offense that was faster than any other team on turf and would be electrifying. In 2018 we saw a glimpse of his vision and how successful it could be. But in 2019, the offense took too many steps back.
With Gilbert’s reunion in place, Syracuse is looking for that same success. Babers and Gilbert were both responsible for launching the career of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, so let’s see what they can do together at a power five school with Tommy DeVito.
One thing that Sterlin Gilbert brings that wasn’t on the Syracuse staff is a former quarterback.
That’s going to be so beneficial to DeVito to have a guy that can help him work on the finer points of his game. Additionally having a unique quarterback’s perspective and a pair of fresh eyes will help this Syracuse football team and coaching staff evolve their game and hopefully improve playcalling.