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Dino Babers remembered when he played at Hawaii and how he and his teammates never had a losing season, but also never made a bowl game in five seasons. Now as the head coach at Syracuse, he sees making a bowl game as a successful season.

After a 28-13 win over Pittsburgh at Yankee Stadium, the 5-5 Orange have an opportunity to make back-to-back bowl games under the same head coach for the first time since 1999. Standing in the way of this feat is Georgia Tech, a team with the same record as SU that has wins over Miami and North Carolina.

“The bottom part of success is getting these guys to a bowl game,” Babers said at his weekly press conference. “They give up their summers, they go through broken bones, torn ligaments, surgeries. If we can find a way to get into a bowl, to me, that’s a good thing.”

Here are more takeaways from Babers’ presser today:

Adapting offense?

During the postgame press conference in the Bronx, Babers said Syracuse’s change to a wildcat, wishbone, run-only offense was not due to quarterback Garrett Shrader’s availability. He said the change came about due to a desire for more physicality. According to Babers, he and the rest of the offensive staff barely slept trying to reinvent the offense.

“Our eyes are not so clear,” Babers said, referring to he and his offensive coaches. “But it didn’t matter how fresh we were. The only thing that matters is that the players are fresh.”

Today, though, Babers said the Orange will always play toward the personnel they have. He added that he has to see who the team will have to face the Yellow Jackets. But Babers said there is a point where radically changing the offensive game plan isn’t fair to the rest of the team.

“We’re basing these things off of guys who are healthy, not somebody we’re expecting,” Babers said. “And so it could change based on how our health changes.”

He spent good chunks of the press conference praising the offense for adapting to the scheme. During the postgame press conference, Babers said it took time for players to completely buy in, but by kickoff time the players were ready. He compared tight end Dan Villari’s performance, where he tallied a team-best 154 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown, to a game from Babers’ college days. When the three top quarterbacks got injured, a Hawaii free safety had to be the signal caller in a win over a ranked Arizona State team.

As for the wide receivers, who for the first time in the Dino Babers era did not make a single reception against the Panthers, Babers said the unit bought in “100%.” He always calls the wide receivers “his babies,” but noted they are different from other offensive positions. Babers said he was proud of how they performed their role, specifically Damien Alford.

“We could not have pulled off what we did Saturday night without the wideouts,” Babers said. “Those perimeter blocks are key in what we were doing.”

Quarterback health

Last week, Babers opened the press conference by saying he didn’t have word on the health of Shrader or backup Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, who started against Boston College. He said the doctors meet with them later on Mondays. As always, Babers didn’t want to share much about the specifics of the two quarterbacks’ injuries.

But he said he was told Shrader was a “maybe” and Del Rio-Wilson was a “no.” Not even an hour before kickoff on Saturday, Shrader got announced as the starter after coming out of the first base dugout with his helmet and jersey in his hands.

In terms of the other healthy quarterbacks on the depth chart — Braden Davis and Luke MacPhail — Babers said they are more than capable of throwing the football, but said the Orange didn’t have to based off the game plan.

Babers on Georgia Tech

Although the Yellow Jackets have higher quality wins than Syracuse does, Saturday’s game might be their last chance to secure a spot in the postseason. Georgia Tech’s last game of the year is always against Georgia, the No. 1 team in the country.

Babers said his focus is on the team he coaches, and not his opponent’s schedule. Still, he was quick to praise his Saturday foe, lauding quarterback Haynes King as well as the running back duo of Jamal Haynes and Dontae Smith. The Yellow Jackets have the fourth-best scoring offense in the ACC and also have former SU tight end Luke Benson on the roster.

Benson is in his second season with the Yellow Jackets after transferring from SU following the 2021 season. This year, Benson has seven catches for 74 receiving yards, including one catch for 12 yards in the Yellow Jackets’ 42-21 loss at Clemson.

“It’s another one of those deals where we got a guy with a Syracuse degree down there playing football for them, and we’re happy for him,” Babers said. “But hopefully we’ll find a way to score one more point, coming out with the W.”

Published on November 13, 2023 at 1:01 pm

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