BAD BOY MOWERS PINSTRIPE BOWL: MINNESOTA VS. SYRACUSE

December 29, 2022

Dino Babers

LeQuint Allen

Marlowe Wax

Yankee Stadium

Syracuse Orange

Press Conference

Minnesota-28, Syracuse-20

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a brief opening statement from Coach, and then we'll take questions from the players and dismiss them to see their family and then take questions for coach. Coach, you want to start us off?

DINO BABERS: First of all, I would like to take my hat off to Coach Fleck and the Minnesota Gophers. That was an excellent game. Congratulate them on the win.

We're disappointed in the outcome, but I do believe that the young men did play a very, very hard game. There was fantastic effort out there. I didn't think there was anybody giving up, and we felt like we had a chance to win it all the way down to the end. That's about all I got right now.

THE MODERATOR: Ready for questions.

Q. Marlowe, linebacking core was pretty slim today. It was just you and Kadin and Leon. How do you guys feel like you held up? I'm pretty sure you were playing a different system today too, so what was that like?

MARLOWE WAX: Really Coach Monroe wanted to attack Minnesota differently, just because how we were down with linebackers and also D-line. So really we just wanted the guys to step up. Which they did. I seen Kadin Bailey make a lot of plays. I can't wait to see what he is going to do next week.

Q. LeQuint, how did you prepare for this game, especially knowing that Sean Tucker wasn't going to play? What was your mentality coming in? How do you feel you can evaluate your game after your performance today?

LEQUINT ALLEN: I prepared with film, practice, going out there every day and working hard. And walk-throughs, still running, you know, and just doing it.

Q. This is for Marlowe. You're from Baltimore, like Ibrahim is. Can you describe what it was like competing against him and the kind of career he has had, especially after what happened last year to him?

MARLOWE WAX: Yeah, definitely hats off to him because he has definitely been through a lot. So I'm happy to see that he is still doing good things.

But we definitely played against each other in high school. He got the best of me. But it was definitely nice again to play against him. So like I keep saying, he is a great back. One of the best backs in the nation. I'm just ready to see what he is going to do at the next level.

Q. LeQuint, just looking back on this game for you, just what it means for you to build off of for 2023 and being the lead back as you move forward at Syracuse?

LEQUINT ALLEN: Have a hell of an offseason. Get bigger, faster, stronger, you know, and build along with the team so we come back stronger.

Q. LeQuint, being from South Jersey, coming back home, friends and family, how does it feel to play back in New York City in your backyard?

LEQUINT ALLEN: It felt great, you know? It felt like I was home. I had a couple of family members come up and support me and the team. So it felt great.

Q. This is for Marlowe. How does this feel to be able to turn it around after not going to a bowl game since 2018? I know the loss stings, but can you kind of put into perspective this season for you guys?

MARLOWE WAX: Oh, yeah, 100% the loss definitely does hurt, but we have to remember that we did some great things this year. A lot of people didn't have us going to a bowl game, so I just -- just giving thanks to the team and Coach Babers and all the other coaching staff because we really did come together and do some great things this year.

Q. LeQuint, Coach had a lot of good things to say about you yesterday before the game. Said there was a player that he often tells you you remind him of, an older guy. Just wondering -- he said you would have to tell us who that is, and who is that?

LEQUINT ALLEN: Marcus Allen.

Q. What does he say you remind him of Marcus?

LEQUINT ALLEN: The play style, you know. Not only the play style, but the person he is.

Q. Marlowe, looking at this game, knowing that there were so many guys that were going to be out either from the transfer portal or getting ready for the NFL or injury, who were some of the leaders besides yourself that you really felt like were loud in practice and led through the game here today despite the loss?

MARLOWE WAX: Oh, yes, definitely guys on defensive side. Caleb, Justin Barron, Alijah Clark. We just -- the people that played mostly during the season. We just wanted to come together and have those young guys follow us and just be ready for game day because it's definitely big when you get to play your first game as a bowl game.

Q. LeQuint, can you talk a little bit about how you think the offense did in the passing game and then how you felt you did as a receiver and how Shrader was tonight?

LEQUINT ALLEN: I think the offense did well. You know, we made a couple of mistakes, but that's all right. I feel like I did okay at receiver. You know, it's still some things to clean up, and there are still some things to clean up on the offensive side too. I think we played well.

Q. LeQuint, did Sean kind of have a message to you or a conversation with you going into the game today maybe before the game about --

LEQUINT ALLEN: Yeah, Sean came up to me and said, "You ready?" (Laughing.) He just had me hyped when he said that. I went out there with a chip on my shoulder.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We're going to dismiss the players. We'll start with questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, what's one thing that you want to improve on upon next season that you say, hey, this is top priority moving into next season? What area of the game that you want to see the most improvement going into next season?

DINO BABERS: We play an aggressive style. We play an aggressive style on offense. We play an aggressive style on against defense.

I think the thing we need to improve on, there's no doubt about it, is our special teams and our penalties. Both of those showed up in this game, it showed up in the first game, and it showed up in the last game.

I'm positive about a lot of things, but then there are certain things that it's hard to be really positive about, so we need to clean those things up.

Q. Tried for a fourth and three early in the game, but then ended up punting on a fourth and one later. Just curious about some of the play-calling there on those fourth downs.

DINO BABERS: Fourth and three, we figured if we could score 31 points, we're going to win the game because they can't score -- we don't believe they can score 31 points against us. So that early in the game we wanted to have opportunities where we could be aggressive.

The second time around we felt like, based off the score and the time on the clock, that we could play this a different way and we should get another opportunity to get the ball back and have an opportunity to go for seven the first time, six with a touchdown, and then go for the two-point conversion to tie it up later on.

Q. Dino, 7-6 on the season. Just reflecting on it right now, what you value from the season overall and what you take with you as you step forward for 2023?

DINO BABERS: I think the -- the two hardest things to do in football is turn a team that has never won -- I'm talking about the guys that had not had a winning season -- to get them over the hump. That's a hard thing. That's very hard to do, and we've done that, so it should be easier next year.

The toughest thing to do is -- the second toughest thing to do is take a team that's won, like, ten games like we did one year and then come back and bring that thing back another time because you don't win just because you did it one year. You've got to do it every year.

So I think this team is still hungry. We're not average. We're above that, but I think that they're still hungry and still want to go after it.

I think that we've got a lot of talent coming back, and we had a lot of talent that was moving on to the pros, which is great, but with our injury situation and the people that we had injured and with the extra years that they're getting back with those injuries and if they recover from their injuries, we will have an opportunity to be very good next year.

So we're excited about some of those young guys getting beat up by their little brothers -- I mean by their big brothers and growing up. But when they come back next year, they won't be little brothers at D-line. And you put that D-line with some linebackers and some back-end guys, and I think we're going to have what we want on that side of the ball.

We've got to do a better job in the kicking game. There's no doubt about that. We've got to do a better job with penalties. And we've got to get some connections with those receivers, but I think we have explosive receivers. We've just got to make sure that we can get the ball to them.

Q. Coach, the unsportsmanlike penalty called on Alijah Clark there at the end, what did you see from the vantage point? It was on the other side of the field, and what did the ref say?

DINO BABERS: I knew you were going to ask that question, and this is something I don't like saying. I didn't see it. I was looking over there. It was the perfect angle for me not to see. I have no clue what happened.

Now, guys told me what they saw upstairs, but I didn't get a chance to visually see it, and I'm not making that up. I wish I could go to bed with a vision of what happened, but I've got to wait until I see the tape.

Q. Coach, Garrett Shrader has had more offensive coordinators in his four, five years of college football than anyone that I know of in college football. How has his game taken that next step this year?

DINO BABERS: Where are you at in this room (laughing)?

Q. Back left.

DINO BABERS: I think it's hard, but I think the best thing that -- we did the best thing that we could do for Shrader, and that is his -- the guy that he works the most with, his quarterback coach, is the next offensive coordinator, so he gets an opportunity to have something continue as the same thing.

So he has an opportunity to continue to get better. I think that's important for his growth, and as a player he should be extremely excited about that.

Q. What impressed you about LeQuint Allen's preparation for this game, and what impressed you about his game today?

DINO BABERS: You guys, LeQuint has -- the way LeQuint played today, we saw him playing like that in August. We saw him play like that when he was New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year. He has always been that way.

He got mad. He was on four special teams, and he got mad that I pulled him off of the four special teams he was on because this game he was going to be the starting tailback, and he kept saying, Coach, I can do all four.

I said, I know you can do all four.

He said, Good.

I said, No, not good. You're not going to be the starting tailback and do all those special teams.

But, trust me, he wants to, but he is just one of those guys that he is extremely valuable. He can run the football. He can throw the football. He can catch the football, but more importantly than that, he plays the game the right way. His spirit, his heart, his energy. He does not give up, okay? There's no Q in him. I don't say that word, Q-U-I-T. I don't say it, but that word is not in his vocabulary.

You get a whole bunch of guys like him, you're going to be smiling a whole bunch of times when the game is over.

Q. Coach, the long kick return that set up Minnesota's last touchdown drive, from your perspective, what went wrong there?

DINO BABERS: I have to see it on the tape. The first thing is we've got to get a better kick, and we have the ability to kick that ball out. We have to have an opportunity to kick that ball out.

Anytime there's a long kickoff return, I'm sure you're going to go back and somebody is going to get out of their lane, somebody is going to miss a tackle, somebody is going to be within three yards and not accelerate and make the tackle and let him get into a crease, and that normally is what happens.

When you think about -- I don't want to talk about the negatives, but you talk about the one pick-6 for a touchdown and the kickoff return, which is basically another touchdown, the defense only gave up 14 points truly.

And, you know, that's how you don't win football games when you dominate in all the statistics, is with kicking game and turnovers for points.

Q. How did you feel the field conditions affected the game today?

DINO BABERS: You know what, if it was snowing, okay, you could ask. If it was raining, you could say the same thing. We both played on the same field. I thought the field was okay for December in New York City.

I mean, I'm not complaining about that field. If it was a little glassy, both teams played on it. Both teams had to operate on it. I'm completely okay with the field.

The field did not determine the winner of the game. The team that played the best and made the least amount of mistakes won the game, so I thought the field was fine.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Thanks, everybody.

DINO BABERS: Thank you.