During the Syracuse vs West Virginia bowl game all we heard from the announcers was about Will Grier not playing QB for WVU. I won’t argue it was a factor, but let’s not forget Syracuse was without an All-ACC defensive lineman Alton Robinson and another on their two-deep Mckinley Williams.
If you are discounting the bowl win or Syracuse’s astonishing 10-3 season then you haven’t followed the Syracuse program since Dino Babers arrival 3 years ago.
Babers inherited a program that had won 7 combined games in 2014 and 2015. Syracuse hadn’t won more than 8 games since 2001. He was playing in a division that had 2 teams win national titles since 2013 and have two other Heisman Trophy winners. It was apparent early though Dino Babers had something working at Syracuse from the moment he arrived.
Even during his back to back 4-8 years there was a 2016 win over a Virginia Tech team that won 10 games. In 2017 there was a win over a Clemson team that went to the playoffs.
These wins were not flukes. I think most of us felt Babers was building, and we all liked Eric Dungey at QB, but no one saw this season coming – not in a schedule that had Clemson and Notre Dame on it.
The ACC standard for program rebuilding has been Duke’s David Cutcliffe. It probably still is considering how bad Duke was and for so long, but Babers is in that conversation now as doing one of the more remarkable ACC rebuilding jobs in the last 20 years.
How sustainable is this at Syracuse? With Babers at the helm I don’t see why Syracuse can’t be a 7-10 win perennial bowl team. Eric Dungey will be gone, but I think what Babers has going at Syracuse is bigger than one player. He’s changing the culture at Syracuse. They believe they can compete against anyone. Just ask Clemson – in the ACC no-one has played the Tigers better the last two years than Syracuse.
Beyond 10 wins will depend on if Babers can start consistently putting together top 30 classes. I wouldn’t bet against him. He’s already accomplished more at Syracuse in 3 years than many thought possible.
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