Former players describe Babers era as culture-oriented, but inconsistent
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Former Syracuse defensive back Carl Jones wasn’t surprised when he heard Dino Babers — the man who ran SU football for eight years — had been fired.
Jones was part of Babers’ first recruiting class, playing under him from 2016-19. He wasn’t “super tight” with Babers, who was more of an offensive-minded coach, but Jones said he never had issues with him. Still, Jones said he knew Babers’ firing was imminent.
“You can kind of see the writing on the wall over the past year or so I would say. But I mean, (it’s) definitely unfortunate,” Jones said. “And I don’t want to see another man lose his job. But I wasn’t honestly shocked.”
Jones wasn’t alone. Some of Babers’ former players described the head coach as a man who formed relationships with his players and got them to buy in. Though, they all said Babers’ dismissal was inevitable due to lackluster results. On Tuesday, Syracuse hired Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown Tuesday as its 31st head coach in program history.
When Babers took over for former head coach Scott Shafer, fired by then-Athletic Director Mark Coyle before the final game of the 2015 season, he wanted to establish a new culture. Former defensive tackle Steven Clark said that Shafer had a more “hard-nosed” culture, one that led to the Orange wanting to be the more physical team against some of the top opponents in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Shafer was a rigorous recruiter who sought elite talent despite Syracuse lacking national appeal for top-end recruits.
Babers wanted a family environment. The “Ohana” that Babers patented during his tenure with Syracuse was going to drive the program.
“Babers was just more of like, ‘Let’s see what we have to work with and try to out class and out coach the other team,’” Clark said. He felt that the shift worked, and the combination of Shafer’s recruits and Babers’ coaching style came together well, leading to 2018 — Babers’ most successful season at SU.
Former offensive lineman Evan Adams remembered the transition period between Shafer and Babers as a “confusing time.” He didn’t know whether his teammates would leave, but Coyle told them to stick with Babers.
Adams stayed with Syracuse and noticed an immediate change in the staff’s approach. Babers and Assistant Athletics Director for Athletic Performance Sean Edinger, who has followed Babers since the two were at Eastern Illinois in 2012-13, preached a mantra of consistency. Adams said they forced players to be “consistently good and not occasionally great.”
But the most notable difference came through the spread offense that Babers learned under Art Briles at Baylor.
In his opening press conference, Babers asked those in attendance to close their eyes and visualize a full-capacity Dome with an offense that would “not huddle.” He said the Orange were going to be “the new fast.”
“Coach Babers loves tempo,” Adams said. “We went from (a) typical pro style offense where you huddle and it’s very concise and somewhat slowed down to constant bombardment. Tempo is a very hard thing to pick up. It’s a very fast pace offense.”
The adjustment period took over two years where the Orange averaged 27 and 25 points per game in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Both seasons ended with a 4-8 record, but Babers had the chance to build his own core of players around a mixture of Shafer recruits like quarterback Eric Dungey.
There were bumps along the way — giving up 62 points to a Lamar Jackson-led Louisville team and losing 54-0 on Nov. 6, 2016, to eventual national champion Clemson. But 2016 also saw results like a 31-17 home victory against No. 17 Virginia Tech on Oct. 15.
After the win over the Hokies, fans and players caught a first glimpse of Babers’ postgame speeches.
“The Virginia Tech one in 2016 was a huge moment where we’re like, ‘Alright, we’re building something and we can turn this thing around,’’’ Jones said.
The following year at the Dome, the Orange knocked off No. 2 Clemson 27-24 on Oct. 13, 2017. Nearly two years after Babers said Orange would be the new fast, his team had three passing touchdowns, including a 66-yard strike from Dungey to wide receiver Ervin Philips.
“I came to Syracuse because I wanted to play in one of the toughest divisions in college football,” Babers said after the 2017 win over Clemson. “I wanted to play in games that mattered.”
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While Syracuse didn’t win another game that year — an early sign of Babers’ late season struggles — both Adams and Jones said they finally found success in Babers’ system. In 2018, efforts culminated into a 10-3 record.
SU maintained the health of its starters that season, avoiding a November collapse. Nearly half of Babers’ total wins in November came during 2018. The Orange picked up a ranked win over No. 22 NC State and beat Florida State for the first time since 1966. They capped off the double-digit win season with a victory in the Camping World Bowl over No. 16 West Virginia, where Dungey threw for 303 yards and SU’s offense scored 34 points.
“We were really darn talented,” Jones said. “Having Andre Cisco who was a freshman All-American, both of our offensive and defensive lines had guys — Kendall Coleman, Alton Robinson. Then you have Jamal Custis, who got a little cup of coffee. We just had guys.”
Then came 2019.
While Adams described the season as a transition year, Jones still doesn’t know why the Orange went 5-7, which featured back-to-back blowout losses to Maryland and No. 1 Clemson followed by a four-game losing streak. Dungey was gone and replaced by Tommy DeVito, a four-star quarterback who didn’t live up to expectations.
“I don’t have an explanation for it. I honestly don’t,” Jones said. “We just didn’t execute.”
Following the disappointing 2019 campaign, Syracuse had a one-win season in a COVID-19-shortened 2020. But Adams said the lackluster campaigns provided playing time for SU’s younger players like Cisco, Matthew Bergeron and Garrett Williams to showcase their abilities. In 2020, SU added recruits like Marlowe Wax and Sean Tucker.
On the sidelines, Syracuse continued to struggle with maintaining assistant coaches, something multiple players told The Daily Orange hindered Babers’ chances of fully installing systems on offense and defense. He cycled through five offensive coordinators, four defensive coordinators and a myriad of position coaches.
“That much turnover in critical roles … that’s a lot because those defensive and offensive coordinators are recruiting kids that fit their system,” former receiver Marcus Coleman said.
Babers had the opportunity to rebuild the program again for the last four seasons of his tenure. SU used the transfer portal to its advantage, picking up starting quarterback Garrett Shrader from Mississippi State on Dec. 19, 2020. Babers brought in position coaches Robert Anae and Jason Beck after they were let go at Virginia. Defensive coordinator Tony White installed the 3-3-5 defense, a way to help Syracuse’s smaller players find success against high-end ACC talent.
But early-season injuries continued to haunt Babers. His November record grew worse. In 2021, the Orange had three chances to make a bowl game and lost all three. In 2022, they became bowl-eligible despite a five-game losing streak, eventually losing in the Pinstripe Bowl. In 2023, Babers was let go with SU still one win away from bowl qualification.
“If you’re not winning, if you’re not winning as many games as a school might like, you’re gonna get fired,” Adams said. “This is just a result of his game. That’s the nature of football.”
Director of Athletics John Wildhack met with Babers before the start of the 2023 season. He told Babers the benchmark for his eighth year was 7-5. Wildhack said he met with Babers once again after the 41-3 loss to then-No. 4 Florida State in week seven to reaffirm that seven wins was still the goal.
Once that became unattainable, Wildhack said, it was time to move on. Wildhack gave Babers the option to coach the final week of the regular season and Saturday’s game against Wake Forest, which Babers declined to do.
One of Syracuse’s struggles Babers identified was its depth, saying before the Oct. 26 loss to Virginia Tech that its depth “gets bought away.” Wildhack said that SU’s next head coach needs to identify talent within a “four-and-a-half-hour radius.” Minimizing the recruiting misses, he said, is one way to create more depth.
The narrative from 2021-23 was the same for Babers: a good start padded with nonconference wins before getting dismantled in October and November by ACC opponents. Babers finished with a 41-55 overall record, going just 20-45 against conference teams. Wildhack said in his press conference how Babers’ final three years were doomed by late-season losses.
Isaiah Johnson and Shrader both said that after Babers was fired, the head coach personally called them and other upperclassmen on the team. His message was that he wanted them to win and earn bowl eligibility. After the Orange’s 35-31 win over Wake Forest, Babers tweeted that “Grandpa watched every snap.”
A teary-eyed Shrader talked in his final regular season postgame press conference about how he came to Syracuse simply because of Babers. “No one in this facility is here without (Babers),” Shrader said. Babers coached 20 players who eventually found a steady sport on an NFL roster. There were little off-field scandals or issues. Players bought in.
Babers just couldn’t shake the costly trends that came to define his tenure with Syracuse.
“It makes sense. We’ve been plateauing around this 6-6, mediocre turnout at the end of the year. We constantly lose in conference. We only get bowl eligible by beating teams outside of the ACC,” Coleman said.
