Transcript: Dino Babers ACC Media Day Press Conference
Q. Going into this season with your No. 7, we have seen, obviously, some changes with the coaching staff and whatnot, and I know bringing in a new offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, just what you can say, they've already done to improve this team in your opinion and the leadership moving forward for Syracuse?
DINO BABERS: Right after you got through with "coordinator," I didn't hear the word that you said that was the whole key to the last part. Give it to me one more time.
Q. Just what bringing in Coach Anae and Coach Beck what they've done already in your opinion. What felt right to bring them into the program with and what you see on the offensive side that's going to provide good leadership moving forward?
DINO BABERS: First of all, I liked what they were doing over at Virginia. I looked at the numbers they were putting up. Coach Anae is someone that I have never worked with before, but we've walked the same path. He is a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii after I was. He played for BYU where I was playing at the University of Hawaii. That game came down to Hawaii versus BYU back in the day when I was there, who was going to represent the Western Athletic Conference. I know a lot of the people that he knows. He knows a lot of people that I know. I just felt that it felt like he was one of those guys if he ever became available, that I really think it would be a good fit because we really do kind of see things the exact same way.
Having the opportunity to bring Coach Beck along was just icing on the cake, and he has done a fabulous job for us. I think he is one of the bright minds in college football and one of the up-and-comers.
I don't want to miss out the two other new coaches we brought along. Michael Johnson, the wide receiver coach, was a player at Arizona State when I was a graduate assistant there back in the '80s with their Rose Bowl team in 1987. He is someone that I followed his career. He has been in the NFL. He has been in college football. He has really done a fantastic job with our wide receivers. I think that tripod of new coaching has really helped us on that side of the ball.
One of the things we really wanted to shore up from last year's football team was the special teams, and I would be remiss if I did not talk about the addition of Bob Ligashesky. Someone that we hired from Bowling Green State University. Before that he was at the University of Illinois. He's won a Super Bowl ring with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Handling our special teams.
We felt that with the coaches that we had on the staff and being able to bring those four coaches with their experience and to infuse them into what we have, we really feel like that we're on stable ground and we're ready to see if we can make one of those jumps or make one of those moves in the ACC Atlantic.
Q. Had a bit of a controversy last year. What went into the decision to bring Garrett this year?
DINO BABERS: Garrett is one of our team leaders. He is a guy that made us go. He is one of those guys that when you are seeing him out there play, like all three of the young men up on this stage, that there's no doubt that not only does he bleed orange, but he has the respect and the love of the people around him.
I think any time you have that type of leadership out of the quarterback position, it's always going to be someone that not only do you want to show, but you want other guys on your team to know that these are the guys that we're going to put out in front and these are the guys we want you to emulate.
Q. Last season in the Dome you guys played teams close. You lost to Wake Forest in overtime. Lost to Clemson by three. This year you've got really pivotal season-changing games at home against teams like Notre Dame and NC State. How do you take advantage of that home-field advantage and protect your turf and potentially change your season?
DINO BABERS: Didn't you say gold and black? Isn't that with the University of Purdue.
Q. I'm with Wake Forest.
DINO BABERS: I thought you were trying to get a fast one on me because we're playing Purdue in the Dome as well.
Q. No, sir.
DINO BABERS: I apologize. I think the biggest thing in answering your question is any time you get a team at home, you feel like you have an advantage. We think we have a strong Twelfth Man. We believe when we're at Dome with the noise that we can make in the Dome it gives us an advantage on offense, and it definitely gives us an advantage on defense.
When you give our defense an advantage, we feel like it should be something we should be able to take advantage of. Our home record is not what we would like based off of last season, and based off of how tough our schedule is. We must do a much, much better job at home, but we feel like the effort has been put in. We feel like we're doing the correct things, crossing Ts and dotting the Is, and we're looking forward to playing that home schedule in the Dome this year.
Q. Happy birthday.
DINO BABERS: Happy belated birthday. Thank you very much. What else? Where else would you want to spend your birthday except right here with the media here at North Carolina representing the ACC? It's awesome.
Q. In your six years you've struggled in November and December, 6-18. Why have you guys struggled late in the season, and would it be -- how much better would it be if you guys were better than you were in the beginning of the season?
DINO BABERS: When people start talking about scheduling, struggling late, I wouldn't go there. What I would go there is look at the opponents that we've played.
It seems like our schedules are backended, and that's okay. You are going to end up playing everybody, but when you acquire some injuries or you acquire when the transfer portal came up, and all of a sudden people were transferring in the middle of the season, that can affect your depth. When you don't have a lot of depth, that can change the outcome of the games later on.
We have worked hard on that. We think we have a really stable foundation right now. These leaders behind me have done a fantastic job in the offseason in growing up the young people, the underbelly of this football team.
We think that we have the type of team now that can go deep into November and do some of the things that we think we needed to be doing in some of those other years.
Q. Wanted to ask you about Sean Tucker coming off of such a great season. Obviously, a record-breaking season at Syracuse. What makes him such a special talent, and how can he elevate his game this year?
DINO BABERS: I'm going to answer that two ways. First of all, Sean is relentless. He works out all the time, and this year he was actually a member of the track team and ran with the track team. While he was running with the track team, he never missed a football practice during spring practice. When the rest of the team went home over Christmas, I'm going into the office because I'm not going anywhere, and I see him working out by himself. The track team is gone. The football team is gone. Here he is still on campus working out.
I'm not making this stuff up. This is stuff that just happened in 2021. Now, all that being said, I stood behind him in spring and watched every one of his runs live. Without hesitation I'll tell everybody in the room that I believe he is better. I'm saying that being modest that he is not the same. He is actually better than last year.
I'm really excited to see what he can do in 2022.
Q. Kind of talked about it already the new faces on the offensive side of the ball. Year three of the 3-3-5 defense, though, where do you think that unit is at? How do you think it's progressed since you've changed that in 2020, and have you recruited to that system successfully to this point?
DINO BABERS: Let's start from the back end because you asked a whole bunch of questions. Yes, we've recruited that to 3-3-5, and we feel like we're heading in the right direction as far as the depth and the personnel that we're trying to go.
When we initially went in and had the COVID stop, it was very difficult to put that brand new defense in based off of the limitations that we had with contact and how we could meet and so forth.
I think that this year -- and you'll get an opportunity to ask our defensive captain, Mikel, I really believe these guys know the system. I really believe that they're all speaking the same language, and they can all pass the language test that defense is moving around, it's fast, it's quick, and I think we have a lot more depth. We're young at the front end. There's no doubt about it. Everything behind those young kids, they're frosty guys that know exactly what's going on.
Q. Dino, we look at the fact that we have divisions here in the ACC for one more season, and then we'll switch to that 3-5-5 model. What is it about the model that you like and the fact that Syracuse will have BC, who you already play, Pitt who you already play, but you'll have Florida State as a permanent as well. Just what you think about that model moving forward?
DINO BABERS: I think that's a similar model when I was in the Big 12 -- when we were in the Big 12 early and we had divisions when I was at Texas A&M. We were in the same division as Oklahoma. Same division as Texas. Same division as Texas Tech. We had a drought where you really have to play some good football to get out of that division. That's when I was at Texas A&M, and I went to Baylor, and we started that same way with Baylor being in the division with Texas A&M and the people I talked about. Then we went to that model where we could play everybody. That was one of the big turnarounds with the Baylor schedule.
I could still remember when I was a coach at a school other than Baylor that they used to run this thing on the ticker on ESPN. It used to say, schools that have not gone to a bowl game. I still remember seeing Vanderbilt and Baylor on the bottom all the time. Next thing you know I was at Baylor after ULA, and they used to run "Baylor" across that ticker.
When we finally went to a bowl game at Baylor, I'll never forget it, I want to talk to ESPN about it. The year we went to a bowl game and they stopped running off that Baylor had never gone to a bowl game, they stopped doing the ticker. You have never seen the ticker since.
The last two schools I remember is Vanderbilt and Baylor, and then they never did it again. Point being is this, that schedule, being able to play everybody, I thought really helped Baylor in that turnaround that they were doing. We love being a part of the Atlantic, and we make no bones about it.
I think it's going to be a lot better for a lot of people when they get an opportunity to play everybody in the league and not just a select few.
Q. Robert Anae's offenses at Virginia were sensational on third down. He had slot receivers like Billy Kemp, always getting the ball to them to extend drives, and he presided last year over Brendan Armstrong's record rush per game pass season. You were second be in rushing, 14th in passing. What impact will he have on your passing game?
DINO BABERS: I think he has already had a drastic effect on our passing game. I think he has had a fabulous effect on our offensive personnel. These young men watch TV as well. They've been able to see what that offense can do. When you bring in an offensive coordinator like that with his credentials, we know what he can do, so it's a matter of getting the pegs in the right spot and making sure those guys are giving them their best performance and getting the effort that needs to be given in order to win football games. I think those guys have gone out and did that in the spring. I think they carried it over in their voluntary workouts during the summer, and now we're really excited to see what we can do in fall camp.
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