Our football guru provides some of his thoughts about Syracuse football following its week-two setback.
“It’s not their fault…They didn’t know,” said Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers.
This is a small piece of the masterful postgame speech that Babers gave to his team following its 2016 defeat of the then highly-touted and 16th ranked Virginia Tech Hokies squad.
I love Dino’s passion. And I really love his energy. It is something that, prior to his arrival, we had lacked in the Syracuse football coaching ranks for many years (Scott Shafer and Doug “Dream Job” Marrone had their positives, but the fact is, this level of energy was not one of them).
Since the beginning, I’ve deeply wanted to believe that this passion and spirit would be enough to compensate for some of, what appears to be, deficiencies that he brings to the table.
Are they enough?
I used to think so.
Now?
I don’t know.
I drive up from New Jersey for as many Syracuse football games as I can, and more and more I find myself leaving games completely baffled by play calling and roster management decisions I had just witnessed, decisions that seemingly are misaligned with the decisions I see so often made by coaches of programs that haven’t lost 11 of their last 13 games. I find myself asking more and more questions with each perplexing performance.
- How can we call it a fair QB battle when the known commodity gets 80% of the plays and the unknown commodity barely gets any?
- Why are we punting away the ball in must-score situations…or in some cases leaving timeouts on the table…in still competitive games in the 4th quarter?
- Why do we rely on the defense to make their 10th, 15th, or 20th big play of the day before we lean on the offense to make one?
- Why do we continue to allow the roster to hemorrhage talent at the tight end position rather than incorporate them into the passing game?
- Why has our recruiting completely stagnated? Why are so many recruits leaving so soon after arriving? Some before even playing a single game?
- Why do we continue to run such a limited passing offense? Huge swaths of the field are ignored. And as I mentioned above, tight ends in most offenses are thrown the ball from time to time, yet we have simply abandoned the position as a source of receptions.
- Why change punters in the middle of a game…especially in such a close and competitive game?
I could probably go on…and on…and on. I’m not kidding, I could…but I won’t.
The fact is, every week I find myself having more and more questions about how plays are called and how the team is managed. That’s not good. Usually, this many years into a coaching regime, you know more and more as you go.
I feel like each game I know less, and with each passing week, I feel less confident that this current situation has us set up for long-term success.
I felt more confident one year ago. Heck, I felt more confident one week ago. But so many seemingly bad decisions are repeated week, after week, after week.
I’ve rewritten this article about five times since returning from the long five-hour drive from campus after that horrible 2nd half against Rutgers on Saturday. Each time hoping to land on something that is sage and decisive, yet fair. Well, this is the best I can come up with right now.
Will this coaching staff lead the Syracuse football program to success moving forward?
It’s not my fault…but I don’t know.