I entered this Syracuse football season convinced that anything less than a 5-7 season would leave me truly questioning whether the current coaching staff was, ultimately, the best fit for the Orange program. We’ve seen lots of 4-win (or less) seasons. I needed to see 5.
That was my benchmark.
Sure, a 5-7 record now, as the program sits at 5-4, would mean a 3-game slide and feel like a gut punch, and in the end, I absolutely hope and expect for the team to win a 6th game (and a 7th?) and find itself Bowl eligible. But even if it doesn’t, I will not move the goalposts. I said 5. We are there. Indeed, head coach Dino Babers and this coaching staff led this team to 5 wins, and I will stand by my pre-season position.
I fully support Syracuse football boss Dino Babers remaining the coach moving forward.
Now, important note here — I never have and never would call for his dismissal. I’ve said before, and I will again — I’m a grown man with kids, and he is too. That’s not how I roll. But I would have been somewhat dubious as to his future if Syracuse football finished up this season with yet another 4-8 or worse record. And I would have expected to see some serious discussions about the future of the program in that situation.
I am thrilled that this isn’t the case.
That’s not to say I won’t absolutely continue to criticize, both here and on the Twittersphere, what often feels like avoidable mistakes around clock management and play calling when criticism is warranted. Dino and the coaching staff still are below par in these areas, and that fact cannot be pretended away by excitement over the season to date. Similarly, we can’t just ignore the fact that the team continues to lag badly in recruiting, mired in the 50’s or higher nationally. It’s something that needs to improve.
The decision to switch from Tommy DeVito to Garrett Shrader was gutsy and brave and I respect the heck out of Dino for making it.
When Dino Babers made the decision to switch from Tommy DeVito to Garrett Shrader at quarterback, it was shocking to me. But in hindsight, that was probably because all that I was seeing of the two players were in their short stints in games. The coaching staff was seeing so much more in practice. That decision was gutsy and it was brave and I respect the heck out of him for making it. But a decision as bold as this is a big reason why some of the brutally conservative play-calling from earlier in the season was just so darn frustrating. I think in this case, however, Dino had 34 big reasons to make the switch.
Indeed, running back Sean Tucker is a transcendent player (part of the reason I continue to shout from every rooftop that I can he absolutely deserves the 44). And he has the ability to find running lanes where lanes seemingly don’t exist, even against 8 or 9 man boxes. All he needs in support of that is ONE additional threat to keep the defense honest. Tommy DeVito’s passing game clearly wasn’t it. Nor, frankly, in isolation, is Shrader’s.
But Shrader’s legs? That’ll work. Just the threat that Shrader himself may be the one pulling down the ball and taking off forces the D to take just enough focus off of Tucker, and then he does the rest.
I have to think that Babers understood this too, and it was a huge part of the decision. It was a great one.
Now, is this a license for some massive multi-year extension? Of course not. I’ve said before and I will again, Syracuse football fans need to expect and demand more from their football program, and cannot be satisfied being the sad sacks at the bottom of the ACC. If next year is another step backward, then this goodwill will likely evaporate quickly. But it’s that “next year” that I have fully come out in support of at this point. Yes, I know, he almost certainly would have been getting that year anyway, but I certainly will be saved a lot of personal angst along the way.
Now, let’s see this team come out following the bye and finish strong. Let’s win at Louisville…let’s stay in that game (and steal one?) at NC State, and let’s finish the season strong with a home upset vs. the increasingly vulnerable Pitt Panthers.
Let’s go bowling and let’s win that too. Let’s leave the 2021 season with the wind in our sails, a huge slew of our key players returning in 2022 (one of them, hopefully, finally adorning the #44), ready to be even better and go even farther next year. Let’s see the recruiting improve, let’s see fewer players entering the portal.
A year like that next year would firmly establish in evidence that the Syracuse football program Dino is trying to build is finally emerging.
But for now, I’ll gladly take a year like this as proof that the program he envisions is even possible…because one month ago, I wasn’t there.