This upcoming season will mark Syracuse Orange football head coach Dino Babers’ third with the program.
In both of his first two, his teams went 4-8 but pulled out some major upsets in both seasons. Most notably last season’s 27-24 win in the Carrier Dome against then No.2 Clemson.
Of course, after that game, they did go on to lose their last 5.
Babers himself is a very enthusiastic and likable guy. A fan favorite amongst Orange fans. Just look at him here in this postgame interview after that aforementioned Clemson upset.
But, you can argue that pretty much anytime a coach goes 4-8 in his first 2 seasons (or anytime quite frankly) the question needs to be asked:
Does he need to have a winning season this year to keep himself off the hot seat?
Honestly, I believe the answer for Babers is definitely no! What I think is it really comes down to is Syracuse’s ability to recruit. Babers didn’t exactly inherit a 5-star hotbed. But the only way Syracuse will ever (at least come close to) achieving that anytime soon is by sticking with Babers.
It’s gonna take a little bit of time to turn around a program that hasn’t been relevant for decades. However, make no mistake of the fact that this is going to be a very important season for Dino Babers.
I mean simply, the better he does, the better recruiting will be. While their jerseys are really sick and they play in a criminally underrated venue, you don’t want to keep going 4-8 every year.
A big part of the Orange achieving their first winning season and bowl appearance since 2013 will be the play of soon-to-be senior quarterback Eric Dungey.
The dual-threat field general put up 2,495 yards with 14 TDs through the air and added 595 on the ground with 9 more TDs. He led the team in all 4 categories.
Syracuse will open their season in Derek Jeter’s hometown of Kalamazoo to face Western Michigan. Their first conference matchup will come 2 weeks later against Florida State in the Carrier Dome.
The image used in this article is courtesy of orangefizz.net