	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 19, 2016

Dino Babers

Greensboro, North Carolina

COACH BABERS: Just really excited about the game from last week. Obviously it was a fantastic game. Virginia Tech was a fantastic team. It worked out for us but it was a tough match. It was a tough, physical game. We've got a lot of guys in the training room and we're just happy to come out on the right side of it.

Coach Addazio and Boston College, fine football team. Outstanding defense, I believe the No. 4 total defense in the country. Opportunistic offense. Tough, physical team. Home coming down there and they are coming off of a bye.

So I'm sure they are going to be extremely motivated and fresh and hopefully we can try to find a way to put a consistent performance together and not go back to where we just came from, and go out and keep getting better from the game that we put on tape or the game we played from last Saturday.

Q. To take a look at this team like you said, you don't want to go backwards, you want to be able to build off of something like this. What were your biggest take aways from this game against Virginia Tech, offense, defense and special teams, what you saw from your team that maybe you didn't see before?
COACH BABERS: Well, first of all, I thought we had a complete game on offense and a complete game on defense. I thought it was the very first game where we matched the physicality of the other football team.

I'm not saying we out-hit them but I know we at least got a draw, and that was exciting to see that the kids stepped up to meet the physical challenge of the opponent and Virginia Tech is a very physical football team.

To have an opportunity to go out early and then of course Virginia Tech has got competitors, for them to bring that game back to 17-17 and make a game of it again, and then for our guys to dig deep and find something to finally get that thing pushed backup to a two-touchdown lead and hold on for the win at home in front of our fans, it was really, really big.

Any time you take over a new program, there's going to always be that game that everyone goes back to that turns the program and hopefully three, four, five years down the road, people will point back to this game.

Q. And when you look and see where the guys that have obviously stepped up for you in your first season at Syracuse, De'Jon Wilson as well as Amba Etta-Tawo; to have graduate transfers come on so quickly and be able to understand what you want to do defensively and offensively, what can you say about these two gentlemen and what they have meant to the team and how they have been able to kind of just click right away?
COACH BABERS: You know, first of all, both of those young men, they wanted to come here and they also wanted to extend their education, because we have one-year graduate programs here at Syracuse.

But when we get into a situation with a graduate transfer, we want them to be a very, very good athlete that can help us win football games, there's no doubt about that. But we also want them to be quality people.

Both of the young men you just mentioned are not only good football players but they have been embraced by our football team. They are part of our orange family. And to see Wilson go out there and get a sack on his very first play as the backup defensive end starting for his first game to get a sack.

And the things that Amba has been able to do since the beginning of this season, with only being able to work with our quarterback for five months, starting in the summertime, has just been amazing.

But they have done amazing things on the football field but they are two quality young men off the football field.

Q. Can you comment on the secondary rushers, is that the big challenge?
COACH BABERS: I think the entire challenge for our entire football team is Coach Addazio has a fabulous team. These guys have an opportunity to go bowling. They are hungry. They know a lot about this program with him and Coach P being over there.

That defense is a total defense. I don't think it's just edge rushers and secondary guys. The linebackers are outstanding and the scheme is difficult. You put that with an offense at BC that's very opportunistic and a very, very solid kicking game and of course they have got home coming so it's going to be rocking and rolling over there.

It's going to be loud and crazy. We've got a tough situation. We're going into a tough situation and hopefully we can keep our heads and find a way to keep it close so we can have a chance to win it in the fourth quarter.

Q. How much feedback have you gotten on your postgame speech from Saturday?
COACH BABERS: I've gotten a lot of feedback from my postgame talk.

Q. Can you give us some details about the feedback that you've gotten?
COACH BABERS: Yeah, I can. You know, the one thing I want to say is that that stuff happens a lot and I'm sure I'm not the only coach that does it but it happens a lot. It's something that we do when we win a football game. We don't do it when we lose a football game.

But the main thing I don't want to lose is that that was a hard-fought battle between two really good football teams. One football team that had the pleasure of being ranked and that game meant a lot to those kids, and I think that's what the feedback and the energy from that tape or that video that everybody, they get that charge, they get that good feeling when they watch it is the clear and pure energy that those kids had after that game, because they are all committed.

They are totally bought in, and that pureness is what's keeping that video going, which is what's keeping that clips going. And that's exciting. That's college football. That's the difference between college football and pro football, is that they are invested and yet they don't have a lot of investments to be invested with it.

Q. It's also brought a lot more eyes on your football program, as well, so I'm sure that's a good thing, too.
COACH BABERS: Yes, ma'am. I would concur with that.

Q. I'm sure through the years you've been a part of a lot of big wins, emotional wins. I'm curious, what have you learned through past experiences about how to handle the days after that, the week after that; is there anything that you do differently now to try and build off it than maybe you wouldn't have five years ago, ten years ago, yada, yada.
COACH BABERS: First of all, five and ten years ago, you're talking to coordinators and assistant coaches and that's really led by the head coach.

But as a head coach after big wins like that, I think the big thing is you have to embrace the energy. You can't -- the young men are going to be slapped on the back. They are going to be talked about how good their job was. All of a sudden what they are doing is important again, and that's okay.

That's okay to get the limelight, so to speak. But now when you come back to practice, you need to go back to work and you need to grab your lunchpail, put your hardhat on and go back to work and remember why that moment in time happened where a bunch of young men got together and played a really, really good football game. And because of that, they had this moment in time and if we want to have more moments in time like that, it comes back to hard work on the practice field to give us an opportunity in the game.

Q. I know looking at a weather report four days ahead of a game is always a risky thing to do, and looks like you could have some rain on Chestnut Hill, some winds above 20 miles per hour now. Curious as you go back, scouting Wake Forest a little bit, what can you learn from the way your team handled those conditions and maybe try and do a little bit differently if you are in such a situation again?
COACH BABERS: Well, first of all, I think those conditions were different. I've been in rain games before. I've been in wind games before. That was a hurricane. Now we were on the outskirts of it but the wind and rain were unusual. Those were unusual circumstances.

I think the preparation that is we made will be fine. I would expect us to be better, much better than the situation we had in Wake Forest in the same condition.

Q. I'm doing a story on the chain crews that work football games. Have you explained the mind-set in having a very different part of your team spend time around the way you guys were going to work the football dating back all the way to last spring?
COACH BABERS: I want to say, I think you're the first person I've ever heard that's doing a story on a chain crew.

You know the chain crew is totally controlled by the officials. They are not controlled by the head coach. I like those guys around because I want them to feel a part of the team because they are a part of the team. But they don't give us an advantage or give us a disadvantage. Those guys are at the complete control of the officials, and the officials tell them when to move and when not to move.

I want to read your article. It will be interesting what you're going to write about.

Q. Does it give you an advantage that the chain crew will know the type of offense you'll be running?
COACH BABERS: I think the biggest thing I wanted them to know is that you guys need to be in shape because there's going to be a lot of plays and there's going to be chunk plays and I don't want one of those guys pulling a hamstring and going down and all of a sudden I have a 12-year-old, 13-year-old, somebody's son on there that's not as mobile as a full-blown adult. I just want them to know what they are getting into against us.

But I do appreciate those guys. Those guys do do a heck of a job for us.

Q. When you look at the quarterback play of Eric last week, what did he perhaps do better last week that he can build upon for this week?
COACH BABERS: Obviously Eric had a fantastic game. He was our offensive player of the game and I thought he really managed the offense well. He had a situation where he got injured, he had to come off the football field and then go back on the football field and play it a little dinged up.

And I just think that warrior mentality of him being out there and not being 100 percent really rallied the rest of the offense around him to turn in -- will probably turn in their top performance of the year so far.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297