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He was the coach who never added up.

He was the coach who, when introduced in 2016, promised an aerial attack that wouldn’t huddle. The same coach who, five years later, ditched that two hours before a nonconference game in favor of a run-focused look.

He was the coach who spurned a regional recruiting approach for a national one — something that has never led to sustained success at Syracuse. The coach who somehow got talked out of recruiting the talent-rich Washington, D.C.-Baltimore corridor, and ignored New York and New Jersey high school coaches despite possessing a charming personality that resonated with so many who met him.

He was the coach who led a 2018 team destined for last in the Atlantic Coast Conference to 10 wins, and a preseason top 25 team the next year to just 5-7. The coach who notched some of SU’s biggest wins this century, yet finished 20-45 in conference play.

And he was the coach who received a questionable contract extension that didn’t add up. That was John Wildhack’s determination in firing Dino Babers after eight seasons with the Orange. Babers had another year on his contract. The math just wasn’t there for eight to become nine.

“We can be a winning program,” Wildhack said Monday after firing a coach who had lost more ACC games than all but one team over the course of his eight-year tenure.

Babers was the coach who had the chance to lead his team for one final game, but opted not to for unknown reasons, even with bowl eligibility on the line. He could not be reached for comment by The Daily Orange.

When he arrived at SU in December 2015, Babers promised a fast-paced, spread offense central New York had never seen before. He went 4-8 each of his first two seasons, but his offense was exciting. Then the breakthrough in 2018: 10 wins, 40 points per game and a No. 15 ranking to end the season. He earned a long-term extension after the season and his earnings jumped to $3.5 million by 2019.

But Babers never lived up to it. He didn’t build around blue-chip quarterback recruit Tommy DeVito like he needed to, and his offense bottomed out as the ACC’s worst unit in 2020. Two years after leading the Orange to their best season since 2001, he found himself on the hot seat.

In the end, it became crystal clear SU couldn’t recruit the athletes the spread offense system necessitates. Babers struggled to overcome that.

With Garrett Shrader and Sean Tucker, Babers had the chance to rebuild in 2021. SU’s offense changed dramatically — its passing attack was the worst of Babers’ tenure, but the running game improved.

That year showed Babers’ willingness to adapt, but he also lost his identity as a coach. There was no more “Orange is the new fast,” even after Robert Anae and Jason Beck arrived last year with an “Air Raid” approach. Babers’ tenure ended without a healthy quarterback who could throw more than 10 yards downfield.

Anybody who met Babers would tell you how much they liked him as a person. High school coaches described him as energetic, charismatic and personable. When he walked into a room, you knew it. His smile, laugh and voice could connect, inspire and humor — sometimes all at the same time. He ran a clean program, with almost no public off-the-field incidents over eight years, and Wildhack praised the players’ academic success under Babers.

That should’ve helped on the recruiting trail. But in each of the last four seasons, SU was either last or second-to-last in 247Sports’ ACC team talent composite rankings, which measures the amount of talent on a roster.

Syracuse has always been — and will continue to be — a tough place to recruit, given its geography and climate, but there have been ways around that. Paul Pasqualoni, George DeLeone and others grinded to build a northeast recruiting base for SU that focused on recruiting in a five-to-six hour radius of the campus. Doug Marrone emulated that approach and made progress over his four years.

Babers, a West Coast native, came to SU with minimal local recruiting ties. He opted for a more national approach, and there was frustration within SU’s athletic department that he hadn’t built a larger presence around the northeast, according to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman.

Wildhack realizes SU’s four most successful coaches — Ben Schwartzwalder, Dick MacPherson, Pasqualoni and Marrone — were northeast natives, and that will play a role in this decision.

“Sometimes history can be a really good teacher,” Wildhack said.

Babers landed key players through the transfer portal, but also chastised it — and NIL’s — impacts on his program. Because Syracuse lags behind in those critical areas, its depth, Babers said, “is gone.” And that, combined with an annual injury bug, sent any resemblance of November success out the window. Babers finished 7-22 in the sport’s most important month.

Now Wildhack must make another difficult decision. This isn’t the time for a flashy hire. The next coach needs to have northeast recruiting connections and a compatible offense, and be comfortable building a program that is one of the toughest jobs in Power 5.

Babers proved where Syracuse can go. He had asked fans before his first season to believe without evidence, but the evidence he did provide quickly faded, just as his offense and recruiting success did.

Now, so too has his tenure — an experiment that never added up for Syracuse.

Connor Smith is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at csmith49@syr.edu or on Twitter @csmith17_.

Published on November 20, 2023 at 9:40 pm