Syracuse Football: Is Dino Babers really so daring?

Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers talked a good game before the season started. But he hasn’t really backed up his words this season.

They say 99.9% of coaches in football opt to punt in lieu of going for it. Syracuse football head coach, Dino Babers, has pounded his chest as the .1%.

Obviously with that has come a ton of criticism from fans and the media alike. There’s pros and cons to being a revolutionary. Being the .1% will make you a favorite among the fan base with your aggressive mindset. But with that comes the danger of the result of your actions.

When you go for it and make it, fans cherish you. While when you go for it and miss, you have to face the criticism. So when a coach comes out and says I’m different, he puts himself on a pedestal.

So the point of this piece is to analyze this daring philosophy of the Orange head coach. He decided to punt nine times in their game against the Irish. For a coach that claims to go against the grain, he certainly isn’t cashing checks his mouth wrote in the offseason.

Don’t get me wrong, punting is okay, but don’t say you’re a rebel and then make excuses after the game. The Orange had multiple opportunities in a game that certainly got away from them in the fourth quarter. Although it was much closer in actuality.

Do the Orange win if a few things change? I won’t reach that far, but the fact of the matter is the Orange coulda, shoulda, woulda, went for it when they were near midfield a handful of times. And they just didn’t.

Again the reason Babers is receiving extraordinary criticism is because he said I don’t care if we lose by five or we lose by 30. He brought this, “we play to win the game” mentality. It’s been attractive to Orange fans early on in this honeymoon period, but fans are eventually going to reach a point where promises won’t be enough. Results and production is what moves the meter in this business and fans have high expectations for Babers.