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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2016

Dino Babers

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH BABERS: Obviously we were excited about how the game started, disappointed how it finished. University of South Florida has not only outstanding athletes but a very good coaching staff. We need to find a way to get a win.

Questions.

Q. To talk on UConn, what you've seen on film from them offensively and defensively, your takeaways on this first road game for Syracuse.
COACH BABERS: Offensively everything goes through their quarterback. I believe he's throwing around a 75%, 77% clip of completions. Very low on the interception ratio. He's someone that can extend plays with his legs. He's not afraid to run the football at all.

From a defensive standpoint, they have a very stout defense. They play a lot of coverages, 30 front, they have some outstanding personnel in their D-line, very aggressive linebackers that will come downhill and hit you, with a secondary that stays back there and doesn't get beat.

It's a very sound system. When you go through the coaching staff, they have a lot of knowledge on the coaching staff, coaches that have been around a long time. They know exactly what they're doing.

Q. As far as offensively for you, I know you wanted to see more out of the running game in the first couple weeks, what can you say about Dontae Strickland about that carry, how he's progressing at this point?
COACH BABERS: It was good to see the running game finally get going. I was happy for Dontae that that could happen. I was always happy for the football team and the offensive line to kind of get that monkey off their back a little bit.

I really think that Connecticut's defense is going to be a lot better than the University of South Florida. I think they have stouter people up there. From a score standpoint, you might say, Why in the heck are you going to say that, coach? I really think this defense is something to be reckoned with and we're going to have our hands full.

Q. As far as your defense is concerned, how much of the troubles have been injury related versus things you expected were going to be problems this year because of what you saw in pre-season or the adjustment to the scheme?
COACH BABERS: It's all of those things. I mean, it's being three games old in the scheme. It's players getting used to coaches, coaches getting used to players. It's players being moved up or down on the depth chart. Players being in and being out, based off of injuries. I mean, that's all part of football. It's all tied into the things that have been going on.

Q. On Saturday against USF, it looked like you were running a lot more four wide receiver sets than previous games. Is that a USF game plan or will we expect more of that as the season goes on?
COACH BABERS: It was more of a USF game plan. It's that we try to break down the defense, look at their personnel with our personnel, try to find a set that's the most explosive set that we can operate from.

Q. Handful of guys banged up with Jason and Omari... Any idea which of those guys won't be able to play this weekend?
COACH BABERS: I don't know yet. We haven't gotten the final calls on all those guys. We probably won't hear till the end of the week sometime.

Q. UConn runs some sets with a bunch of tight ends, I expect something the defense may not have practiced much in camp. How many alterations do you have to make to simulate that with the scout team?
COACH BABERS: All we'll do, if we run out of tight ends, we'll use extra offensive linemen as tight ends for the blocking part of it. If it was a pass play, we'll take an extra offensive lineman out and put a wide receiver in there as the tight end.

Q. I'm curious about the matchup in the sense that you just played a team that you moved the ball well, but tested you with a great offense. You're going to play a team this week that seems to have a less potent offense but a much more solid defense. Is this a fair reading of what's coming up?
COACH BABERS: If you're talking about what happens in the past, I think it's a fair reading. You never know what's going to happen in a football game. You never know what might all of a sudden click for another team or another. But if you're reading the past history of both teams, I think it's fair.

Q. When you go into a game with a team that has not been explosive on offense but has been very solid on defense, do you plan any differently in terms of taking the field goal on the fourth-and-one inside the 10 as opposed to when you think it's going to be a high-scoring game and you gamble on short yard? Does your philosophy change at all based on how you think the opponent is going to be?
COACH BABERS: No. I think you got to stay true to who you are.

Q. Talk about the three keys you need to win this week. Very good UConn team. You almost beat Navy. Played a tough Virginia squad last week. What do you have to do to have a win on the road?
COACH BABERS: I think first of all anytime you're going into someone else's place, there's a very good chance they could get out on you early. You have to be able to weather the storm. You have to be able to take their best punch and then be able to work yourself back in the game. I think that's number one.

There's going to be turnovers in the game. We have to find a way to win the turnover battle. It's obviously going to give us extra possessions which is going to give us a heck of an opportunity to win.

My next thing is I would want to win the kicking game. If we win the kicking game, that means with those other things I just said, we should be somewhere in the game in the fourth quarter and give us a chance to win.

Q. What do you like with your team so far in the first three weeks?
COACH BABERS: I think the biggest thing I like is the effort they give on the football field. They're not always right, but their effort has always been supreme. As long as we're getting that effort and we're consistently trying to work on the little things to get better, I think we have a chance to be really, really good at the end of the road.

Q. Can you comment on what Amba has meant to your offense, how good he's been.
COACH BABERS: It's really interesting because when I was at Bowling Green last year, we played Maryland, I didn't really remember Amba in the game. Then we had to go back and watch tape. We saw some clips of him in the game. When he wanted to come over here and work on his master's degree at Syracuse, we gave him that opportunity to do that.

Amba has been outstanding. He's been a pleasant surprise. Obviously we had no idea he'd be able to do the things that he's done so far. But it doesn't surprise me with the work ethic that he put in when he started here, coming in the summer, working with Eric Dungey, the way he goes about his work in practice. I'm happy for him. I'm tickled for him, and it couldn't happen to a better individual.

Q. Effectively you obviously ran an eye-opening number of plays last week. What is the next step in the evolution of the offense to translate the number of plays into more points?
COACH BABERS: Well, I think you're exactly right. It's really cute that we ran that many plays, but it's not really cute that we scored that many points.

I think it comes down to the game is all about points, it's not about plays. It's not about statistics, it's about points. We got to find a way to get more points on the board. Once we start getting points on the board, I think that would help everything, not only offensively but defensively and special teams as well.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you for being with us this week.

COACH BABERS: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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