Syracuse Football 2016- The Dino Babers era begins

[bsj]

I LOVE this hire. This is a guy who has been a coordinator at some of the best power conferences in the country in Baylor, UCLA, and Texas A&M, and has completely turned two schools around as head coach in only two years each (Eastern Ilinois and Bowling Green).

Plus he runs one of the most explosive offenses in the country, something that is desperately needed in the Carrier Dome.

The ONLY concern I have is his recruiting base. Does he know the northeast?

 

[Youk of the Nation]

Great job by Coyle. Will be introduced at a press conference in Syracuse Monday at 10 am. This hire checks all the boxes. I like this hire more then the Scott frost idea. Previous head coaching experience, explosive offense, conference champion.

First time we've hired a coach with D-1 HC experience in forever. Pre-Ben.

We have tried to forge an identity as a defensive team and let's face it, we haven't had a dominant defense (or even a great one) in a long time. The last time we had a really good defense was Freeney's senior year and he was the guy everybody knew they had to game plan for. Point is Freeney was to he straw that stirred that defense, not our system.

Now we can refocus our identity as a fun (imagine that), offense-first team. My only concern is will we have the horses next year. We need playmakers, especially wide receivers. I hope Babers will bring in some wideouts and Mo Neal comes on board too. His system will work great in the Dome but Dino needs playmakers to make it work. I didn't think BG played overly great in the MAC Championship but they still put up numbers that have been fantasyland numbers at SU.

It's mind boggling to think that no coach has ever really used the Dome turf to their advantage the way Dino is about to.

I feel like we've finally entered the 21st Century.

 

[Youk of the Nation]

Getting some nice pub in national media too. Neuheisel was asked during halftime of SEC title game which P5 hiring would have the most impact he said Babers. Also said "Syracuse will throw the ball all over the yard"

 

[Youk of the Nation]

I LOVE this hire. This is a guy who has been a coordinator at some of the best power conferences in the country in Baylor, UCLA, and Texas A&M, and has completely turned two schools around as head coach in only two years each (Eastern Ilinois and Bowling Green).

Plus he runs one of the most explosive offenses in the country, something that is desperately needed in the Carrier Dome.

The ONLY concern I have is his recruiting base. Does he know the northeast?

I'll be interested if he can get any of his Bowling Green guys to come to Cuse. They have a big 6'4 3-star WR recruit that was offered by other MAC schools and Iowa. Could be a nice pickup for our offense. Would also love to see Dieter (#4) for Bowling Green transfer for his grad year at SU. Led the team with 89 catches for 957 yards this year. Bowling Green has 17 Wide Receivers listed on their roster – all sizes and shapes. We have 10. I would imagine that any player that can spell “pass” will be looked at for possible conversion to WR.

I think recruiting will be fine under HCDB. Although he wasn't really at BG long enough to make a full opinion on his recruiting. Offensive players should want to play in this offense though. Babers was recruiting coordinator at Baylor, and as a HC his teams have recruited heavily in Florida and PA. He is on the East Coast too so he should have some more recruiting ties in places where Syracuse may be interested in. The recruits will come. See Baylor. It's ridiculous what they are pulling down there. It can happen to is too.

He will have to bring a couple of assistants in with recruiting contacts in our prime recruiting areas or the first few years of recruiting classes are going to be filled with nobodies. HCDB's success with recruiting, in our basic recruiting area, will be predicated on who he brings in as assistants. If we are lucky, we might pick up a commit or 2 on the Offensive side. He will need assistants who can recruit the area. We also need a DC who is a respected coach and runs an aggressive/successful D.

If comparing Babers to Frost, of course Frost lands bigger recruits, he's at Oregon, Babers is at Bowling Green. Much, much easier to recruit to Team Nike than to a MAC team in the middle of nowhere. I'm not expecting top 10 classes, but somewhere in the 25-40 range would be ideal.

 

[Youk of the Nation]

One of the main questions facing Babers will be his ability to recruit in the East, and it's a legitimate question. He does not have much experience in this part of the country in a coaching career that started in 1984, save for year as an assistant at Pittsburgh.


The strength of Babers will lie in the relationships he can form with recruits and their parents, and he has both the personality and the drive to succeed as a recruiter. This is not your dad's football coach by any means. He can make people like him instantly, and that's a great trait on the recruiting trail.


Babers is more a philosopher than he is the typical football coach. He is a movie junkie, and the references he uses are plenty to his favorites. He is just as likely to call his staff out of meetings the week of the biggest game of the year to play pickup basketball, than he is to having them sleep in their offices all week grinding over game film.

http://www.scout.com/college/football/recruiting/story/1619729-syracuse-going-up-tempo-with-dino-babers

Jay Feely also loves it, apparently

 

[bsj]

He said that we'd see an offense faster than any we have ever seen on turf.

I've been waiting 20 years to hear a Syracuse coach say that.

 

[JimD]

Ugh ... AD Mark Coyle bolts SU for Minnesota after only 10 months on the job. I really hope Babers has the support he needs to continue the rebuilding. I guess he certainly has the motivation now, at least for one year.

 

[RedOctober3829]

John Ourand ‏@Ourand_SBJ 19s19 seconds ago
After 36 years in Bristol, John Wildhack is leaving ESPN to become Athletic Director of Syracuse, his alma mater. Full story coming in SBD.