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Dino Babers doesn’t get nervous before training camp. Even though he woke up at 4 a.m. today, Babers didn’t think about football or anything else for that matter. Instead, he turned on his TV and watched “The Equalizer” starring Denzel Washington. He used this to pass the time before his first press conference of the 2023 season, a day before training camp was to begin.

Babers comes into his eighth training camp at Syracuse with a 36-49 overall record and two bowl game appearances, the most recent being last season’s 28-20 loss to Minnesota in the Pinstripe Bowl. 2022 was Babers’ second winning season with the program. This season, SU is projected to finish 10th in the ACC per the conference’s preseason media poll.

The Orange have both a new offensive and defensive coordinator — Jason Beck and Rocky Long, respectively. Beck was the quarterbacks coach for the Orange last year and has experience working with quarterback Garrett Shrader, who returns for his third season with Syracuse. Long, meanwhile, comes from New Mexico where he served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Before that, he coached San Diego State from 2011-19.

While his coaching staff took July off, Babers said there was “100% voluntary participation” among players taking part in summer practices.

“They did a fantastic job over the summer bringing themselves together,” Babers said. “…and now it’s time for these coaches to join in.”

Here are some takeaways from Babers’ opening press conference for the 2023 season:

‘The strongest offensive staff we’ve had’

When talking about his offensive coaching staff for 2023, Babers highlighted that each of the position group coaches has had experience being an offensive coordinator elsewhere. Because of this experience, Babers said he believes this is most likely “the strongest offensive staff we’ve had” during his tenure with Syracuse.

Beck, who will remain as the Orange’s quarterbacks coach, was the offensive coordinator for the Simon Fraser Red Leafs of Division II in 2012. Running backs coach Mike Lynch served as SU’s co-offensive coordinator from 2016-17 and then as the sole offensive coordinator from 2018-19.

Before coming to SU in 2022, wide receivers coach Michael Johnson has experience managing an NFL offense, serving as OC for the San Francisco 49ers in 2010. New tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile led Rutgers’s offense for the past three seasons and new offensive line coach Steve Farmer has nine years experience of being an offensive coordinator.

“Everybody in that room has been an offensive coordinator before,” Babers said. “So everybody’s on board, everybody understands what the role of the offensive coordinator is and everybody’s there to support the coaching that’s going on.”

Depth, NIL and the transfer portal

Depth has remained a key talking point and concern for the Orange year in and year out, especially as the season wears on. As injuries start to pile up, the lack of depth becomes exposed. Babers has a 6-20 record in November and went 1-3 during that month last season as Syracuse started to miss defensive leaders like Garrett Williams and Stefon Thompson.

Babers pointed to the changing rules as part of the Orange’s struggles with depth. He said that if name, image and likeness and the transfer portal weren’t present, then Syracuse’s depth “would be fine.” In December 2022, SU lost starting defensive backs Ja’Had Carter and Duce Chestnut to Ohio State and LSU, respectively.

“The way the rules are now, it’s going to be difficult for schools like us to have fantastic depth,” Babers said. “It’s not an excuse, it’s a reality. OK. So now you’ve got to find another way to do it.”

While Babers explained that it’s challenging for Syracuse to deal with NIL and the transfer portal, he didn’t specify what steps he and his coaching staff would take to address the issue.

Still, Babers was asked about players that the Orange got in the portal this offseason, including quarterback Braden Davis and David Wohlabaugh Jr. Davis came to SU from South Carolina, while Wohlabaugh Jr., son of former Syracuse All-American guard Dave Wohlabaugh, transferred from Kentucky. Babers described Wohlabaugh Jr. as “mobile” and said Davis has a “fantastic chance.”

Babers on new DC Rocky Long

The first person that came to Babers mind when talking about the Orange’s new defensive coordinator was Jim Boeheim.

“He is extremely knowledgeable and he’s extremely quick with his answers,” Babers said of Long. “You ask him a question, you get an answer…It’s direct, surgical and there’s not a whole bunch of flip flops.”

The 73-year-old Long not only has over half a century of coaching experience at the collegiate level, but he is also the creator of the 3-3-5 defense. Former Syracuse defensive coordinator Tony White used the 3-3-5 with the Orange and learned the scheme from Long himself when the two were together at New Mexico and San Diego State.

Long’s most recent stint with New Mexico comes over a decade after coaching the Lobos from 1998-2008. He led them to five bowl games in 11 seasons. When he coached San Diego State from 2011-19, he took the Aztecs to bowl games in every season and won three Mountain West Conference championships.

A note on Garrett Shrader

At the end of the press conference, Babers mentioned there would be players not on the field tomorrow due to injuries. But he didn’t specify who wouldn’t be present at the first day of training camp.

Babers said that Shrader would be “put on a pitch count” for tomorrow’s practice, though. The Orange sidelined Shrader for the spring practices in March after a procedure on his right elbow.

“There’s going to be times where he’ll be going through practice and all of a sudden, boom. He’ll be out of practice,” Babers said.

The head coach noted that throughout training camp, he and the coaching staff will gradually build up the pitch count for Shrader.

Published on August 1, 2023 at 5:42 pm

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