Syracuse Football: Dino Babers wants his team to put up fight at Clemson

No one is expecting Syracuse football to stun top-ranked Clemson, however, head coach Dino Babers wants his squad to hang tough with the Tigers.

Syracuse football will travel to No. 1 Clemson this Saturday for a noon Atlantic Coast Conference collision, and some Orange fans are fearing that the ‘Cuse may give up 100 points to the Tigers.

I think that’s taking it a tad far, however, Clemson did absolutely crush Georgia Tech last Saturday, 73-7, and to date so far this week odds-makers are anointing the Tigers as roughly a 45-point favorite against Syracuse football. That’s an almost unthinkable spread, by the way.

Personally, I believe that the Orange will cover that spread, only because by the late third quarter or early fourth quarter, Clemson likely will have pulled its starters if the Tigers own total control of this game.

Dealing with a host of injuries across the roster and undeniably poor play throughout the 2020 campaign, Syracuse football (1-4) enters its encounter at Clemson (5-0) having just fallen at home to FBS independent Liberty, in a battle where the ‘Cuse defense gave up more than 500 yards of offense to the undefeated Flames.

Orange fans are understandably frustrated with the team’s results at this juncture in the fall term, and some are calling for head coach Dino Babers to get fired. That, we pointed out in this column, isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.

Syracuse football will square off with the juggernaut that is Clemson on Saturday afternoon in Death Valley.

The Tigers have captured multiple national championships in recent stanzas and continue to dominate the ACC, however, Clemson has had some difficulty with the ‘Cuse of late.

As we all fondly remember, in 2017, Syracuse football shocked the Tigers at the Carrier Dome. A year later, the Orange, playing on the road, had Clemson on the ropes, but the Tigers managed a fourth-quarter comeback to prevail. A season ago, in 2019, Clemson smoked the ‘Cuse, 41-6, on the Hill.

Now, come Saturday, the Orange is going toe to toe with the No. 1 squad in the sport, away from Central New York, for the seventh time, according to cuse.com.

"“You get an opportunity to play the #1 ranked team in the country,” Babers said. “Whether you are injury-free or not, whether you are playing with all seniors or all freshman, you get an opportunity to compete. No one expects you to win outside the family, and to be able to compete in a situation like that, to measure up and see where you’re at – we’ll see.”"

Call me biased, since I went to Syracuse University, or a homer, because I bleed Orange, but I feel like the ‘Cuse is going to surprise some folks and not get blown out by the Tigers as badly as the prognosticators are projecting.