Babers tough on team during bye week
Syracuse went into its bye off consecutive losses to Clemson and Pittsburgh on the road, both grueling close games, so coach Dino Babers had to really think about how he would handle the Orange during the break.
“We had an opportunity to be hard or be nice,” Babers said Monday morning during his weekly press conference. “I decided to be hard on them.”
Syracuse (4-2 overall, 1-2 ACC) lost to Clemson 27-24 and Pittsburgh 44-37 in overtime heading into the bye week. The Orange, which hosts North Carolina (1-4, 1-2) on Saturday, held a fourth quarter lead against both the Tigers and Panthers.
Babers changed Syracuse’s practice schedule last week by moving the afternoon practices to early morning. It was not a disciplinary move, he said. It was more out of communicating to his players that hard work is always necessary.
“The practice was short, but it wasn’t easy,” Babers said.
Babers, who was hired in 2015, is widely known as a players’ coach but also a coach who is demanding. The Orange’s four wins this season matches what he won in 2016 and 2017. Syracuse finished 4-8 in each of those seasons.
The early wakeup calls for practice during the bye week served as a message that although Syracuse is only a few possessions away from being unbeaten, the Orange still has much to prove.
“If we were more of a veteran group and we had three or four winning seasons behind us, we might’ve gone about it a different way,” Babers said. “We’re not that. The thing that is important is they understand how hard winning is and what they’re willing to sacrifice.”
The week off also helped make available two important players for Syracuse against North Carolina.
Senior tight end Ravian Pierce and redshirt senior defensive back Antwan Cordy returned to practice after suffering from injuries. Pierce has missed the last three games because of an upper-body injury while Cordy played through an arm injury before missing most of the loss at Pittsburgh.