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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 1, 2017

Dino Babers

Greensboro, North Carolina

DINO BABERS: Well, we've got obviously a big task in front of us. We've got Florida State at their place. They're a fantastic football team. Coach Jimbo, one of the top coaches in the country, and to go to have an opportunity to play at their place is going to be a difficult task because they're a very, very talented football team. I know that obviously they're playing their freshman quarterback, but there's nothing wrong with their defense. They've got a championship defense, and you take 10 points away and you're probably talking about a team with one loss to Alabama that's ranked in the top four. So we know they're talented, and we know we've got our hands full.

Q. In talking with Kayton Samuels last night, he mentioned he feels the program has shifted from a culture where players were held accountable by coaches to where they hold each other accountable. I wonder if you thought that was kind of a fair description of what you're trying to create and whether that was something you felt you needed to change when you came in?
DINO BABERS: You know, I think that one thing that you always want to do with your culture is you want to make sure that the young men are -- feel like they have a link or a responsibility to one another. Their peers are the strongest influence on young men of 18 to 22 years of age, and I think for him to say something like that and for it to be true is truly exactly what you're looking for when you talk about a culture and getting young men to play for one another around them in a family situation.

Q. I know a lot of it is baked into everything you do, so asking you how you do that would probably take hours, but are there one or two examples that you can recall this year that might not have happened the previous year?
DINO BABERS: I'm not quite sure what you're asking for, the change in the culture? Is that what you're referring to?

Q. Are there a couple like, I guess, anecdotes where you saw that this season?
DINO BABERS: You know, I think one of the places I saw it was last year in the game when we played Pittsburgh and we lost to Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, and that was the last game of the year, and when I dismissed the coaches and dismissed the senior class and just spoke to the 2017 football team, so to speak, in 2016 and talked about the things that we did wrong as a coaching staff and as a family in 2016 that if we want to have success in 2017 we need to correct, and I think that the leaders of this football team, the seniors along with juniors like Slayton are the individuals that are leading this team, and I think they're exactly right that I think that the culture is changing.

Q. Senior offensive linemen Jamar McGloster has been a vet on an otherwise pretty young O-line. How have you seen him progress the past two years and how does he fit into the rest of the offense?
DINO BABERS: You know, Moo doesn't say much with his words, but he does say a lot with actions. You're talking about someone that was a basketball player in high school that wanted late in his high school career wanted to become a football player, got an opportunity to come to Syracuse University and has really continued to develop since then. I think he's made great strides in the weight room with our strength and development department and then the things that he does on the football field. I think that he is one of the leaders on our football team, our elder statesman, so to speak, on the offensive line, and somebody that we're going to need in the month of November if we're going to have the success that we're looking for.

Q. On Eric Dungey taking fewer risks on deep balls downfield, is that because teams are extending that ball a little better and how effective have you seen Eric on the deep ball this year?
DINO BABERS: One thing you're going to do if you're going to be the quarterback of Syracuse University is you're going to throw the deep ball and you're going to throw the deep ball well. I think he has thrown that ball well, and he will continue to throw that football. We're not -- we're going to take our shots vertically down the football field. We're going to touch every part of the football field, and if you're going to be a quarterback for us, you may have a curve and you may have a slider but you're going to have to throw a fastball and a deep ball, as well. I like the way Eric throws the deep ball, and I think he'll keep throwing them.

Q. About the early signing in December and how teams are approaching it, is it your expectation all the kids that are committed to you will be signing?
DINO BABERS: You know, some of that has to do -- yeah, I think that all the guys that are committed to us that are in good academic standing are going to be signing. With the new rules if you sign someone that does not qualify, you're not allowed to get that scholarship back. I think it ties into the young men that are qualified that are ready to go, I think they will sign, and for the young men that still need to do a little bit more work, you need to wait on them to make sure they get that work done so you don't penalize your family by not being able to replace the scholarship because they don't qualify.

Q. If someone said, Coach, I want to take some more visits, how would you approach that?
DINO BABERS: That would be an individual case based off of that person and how many other people we would like to come to Syracuse University who's already made up their mind and they're not looking around trying to decide.

Q. I believe last week was the first time you had been held under 20 points this year. How much of that was Miami's defense and how much are you looking to improve on when you get ready for the Florida State defense?
DINO BABERS: First of all, I think any time a football team wins a game, you should give them their dues, so I think the Miami defense had a lot to do with that. When you think about four turnovers and the opportunities to score points and those four turnovers happening very early in series or drive calls, I think that had something to do with it, as well. We've got to find a way to not turn the ball over like that if we want to score more in the 20s, and then we also need to find a way to not put our defense in those situations if we want to keep that part of the point total down, as well.

Q. I know you have sort of addressed things in the past on this anyway, but we've seen some head coaching jobs already come available. Syracuse fans seem to be terrified that your name will get brought up in some of those as a potential replacement. Wondering how you professionally sort of handle the inevitable buzz that comes along with being a hot name in the coaching carousel, and how do you kind of assuage fans, fears, keep that stuff out of the locker room and focus on the season as it goes along?
DINO BABERS: You know, two things that I really try to live by is, one, I only talk about the job that I have. I only have one job. There's not two of them. I only have one job. So I'm only going to talk about the job at Syracuse and the job I'm trying to do for them. And then secondly, when it comes to contracts and stuff like that, I don't talk about that stuff during the season. That's what I kind of try to live by, and that's how I answer the question.

Q. Do you feel like the way that this gets handled by individual coaches' programs, the media, all of that stuff, how frustrating can it be as a coach to kind of deal with the fact that you don't really have a whole lot of control over where your name gets mentioned and what people have to say about what your future might be?
DINO BABERS: Again, I'll just answer it like this: The only thing that I'm concerned about is trying to find a way to score more points against Florida State and try to find a way for them to score less points against us.

Q. One of your former players Jimmy Garoppolo is getting a chance to be the starter in San Francisco. I'm wondering why he fit your system so well, and how do you think he'll do now that he's getting a shot?
DINO BABERS: Well, I think that Jimmy is an outstanding quarterback, and not only is he one of the best quarterbacks I've ever had, but after sitting four years behind Tom Brady and working with Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches of all time and being in that system and everybody getting a sneak peek of what he can possibly do when Brady was underneath the suspension for Deflate Gate, I think that he's going to do fantastic out in San Francisco. I think that he's a good-looking guy, dark hair. I know his ancestry; he's going to tan up very well in that California sun, and I think that you're going to have two bookends. You're going to have Brady, one of the best-looking cats on the East Coast doing a fantastic job, and you're going to have Garoppolo on the West Coast with his tan doing a fantastic job. Waiting to see somebody in the middle states pop up to see if they can balance this thing out. I think he's going to be outstanding.

Q. From a skill set I heard you talk about his accuracy and maybe his quick release. Where do those come from? Is that taught or innate with him?
DINO BABERS: Well, first of all, I think that his release probably has something to do with him technically. I know he had a young quarterback coach by the name of Christensen. I would like to think when he came to Eastern Illinois, Roy Wittke was his first coach for his first two years, and then we got an opportunity to help him his last two years, and I'm sure that Belichick and the quarterback coach up there had something to do with it, as well.

Now, from his accuracy, the young man has always been accurate. I've told people a thousand times he's the most accurate quarterback I've ever seen, and if I'm not mistaken, San Francisco 49ers are in the West Coast offense, and their big deal is about fast release and accuracy. So in that offense I think it's ideal for him, and I think he'll do a fantastic job.

Q. Auden Tate, FSU's big receiver, gets a lot of attention because of his height and what he can do in the red zone, but Jimbo Fisher said he's become a complete receiver. What have you seen from Auden Tate, and what kind of challenges does he present?
DINO BABERS: You know, all kinds of challenges. I agree with Jimbo. I think he's more complete. He's more than just a jump-ball guy in the red zone. He's a big target. When you get big wide receivers against smaller DBs, they can just shield their bodies and make plays. It's almost like a big brother playing ball with a little brother out on Thanksgiving. The big brother is having fun, the little brother is trying, but it doesn't really make a difference. That's what he looks like sometimes, like he's a man among boys, and I think he's a fantastic player.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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