Six Things Babers Said at his National Signing Day Press Conference

Syracuse's head coach discussed the Orange's haul during his virtual National Signing Day press conference.

1. Virtual Recruiting

"When I think about my staff, I'm really proud about the job they did during a pandemic year.," Babers said. "So much of this was done on Zoom and virtual tours. I want to say that we have four guys who didn't make it to campus. Five guys who have never met the coaches. There's a huge number of people operating on faith that really believe we are headed in the right direction and they want to be a part of what we're doing. It's really, really exciting. When you think about, because of the pandemic rule, that these 19 guys, these 19 freshmen, get to tie in with the six freshmen were playing at Notre Dame on the defensive side along the offensive kids that are playing on offense. I really believe when this class combined it's going to be the best freshmen class Syracuse has had in a long time."

More from Dino on virtual recruiting. 

"I think the biggest thing is you got to spend a lot more time with the prospects and the parents. Being on a Zoom call and seeing the parents and the prospects right there together more than once, and see how they interact with mom and dad and how the mom and dad interacted with them. I think it really gives you a peak in the window so to speak on what type of person he is. Not only around his elders but how he's treated by his mom and dad, which I thought was really interesting."

2. Don't Compare Lamson to Dungey

"I don't want to put that tag on somebody," Babers said. "So many times these guys come in here and they have that tag on them of somebody previous. I don't want to do that to this young man at all. I think he's a very, very good prospect. He comes from the same school as Ian Book, which I thought was kind of interesting considering the type of game he had against us in the last game. But one of the things that jumps out to me is his leadership skills and that he actually started playing high school football on defense. The last quarterback I had that did that is the guy playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Jimmy Garoppolo. He actually started at linebacker in high school and then went to quarterback. I like those guys that play both sides of the ball. I like those guys that have an edge to them. There's no doubt that Justin fits those last two categories."

3. Did Marlowe Wax Pave the Way for Josh Hough?

"Josh is that bigger back, that I keep saying we're trying to get our backs a little bigger, get a bigger back," Babers said. "We thought we had our big back last year. Marlowe (Wax) came in and told us that he really had a desire to play linebacker. One thing I'm going to really do is if a kid really believes that's where he's going to be at, I'm definitely going to start him over there. We moved Marlowe to defense and he had a heck of a freshman year over there. We're really excited that we did it and we're excited that he's happy. It still kind of leaves that big back thing open for Josh. Hopefully Josh can come in here and fill those roles. I like some bigger backs. In short yardage situations we've had some difficulties. When you get that bigger backs and single block those guys and tell him, 'OK go get it,' sometimes those Franco Harris' have a way of going and getting those tough yards where you may not be so easy to get with a smaller back."

4. Big Offensive Line Haul

"When you look at it, these guys are big guys," Babers said. "When you watch them on tape, they can bend and they can really. move. The key is making sure we still have the physicality that we want. We've got to work hard in getting that group, the o-line group, the d-line group, the entire football team but really those big cats, to make sure they're as physical as can be because that's the key to the football game." 

5. Why Only One Player from Florida?

"With the pandemic, and there was no traveling, you had a lot more time to watch tape," Babers said. "A lot more time to build relationships with not only players but parents. Because of the pandemic situation, I think it allowed you to branch out a little bit further than you normally did. The Florida thing I think was just a happening, but I'm proud about the footprint. When you have the academics that Syracuse University has, it always allows you to become national almost international. And when you think about our Canadians and our Germans, I guess we are international so to speak. But the academics are so strong. That S carries. Everybody knows who Syracuse University is from an academic standpoint. So I think when the parents look at it and break it down and hit the internet and they start checking the majors, they realize a degree from here really speaks. I think that more than maybe a lot of other things allows us to branch out all across the United States."

6. Depth in the Secondary is the Model for the Entire Roster

"It's very exciting. It's going to be a situation where guys have to compete," Babers said. "Competition does nothing but make people better. Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. The more competition you can breed at a position, the better that position is going to be. Whether that's DB, whether that's quarterback, whether that's o-line, d-line, running backs, linebackers. We want it to get deep. We want it to get thick so that if we ever have a situation where we have massive injuries like we had this year, that you can find a way to survive it without moving people around. So we're trying to build the numbers like I've always said. I'm excited. I think we're really plugging some holes. If guys come in and do what we feel we've evaluated that they can do, and we did a decent job last year with the evaluations. If we hit the way we did last year this year, I think everybody's going to be really excited about the base and the foundation we're giving this football team."