Dino Babers rebuilt Syracuse once. With program at a low point, he’ll have to do it again - syracuse.com

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Syracuse, N.Y. — Dino Babers arrived here nearly five years ago at one of the football program’s low points, tasked with razing a losing program and rebuilding it into a winner.

He now has to do it again.

He asked for faith before, knowing it would take time to remake a roster and train and teach the players he inherited the skills needed to obtain success.

The early returns seemed promising: victories against ranked opponents, including a program-shifting win against No. 2 Clemson three years ago. It all set the stage for a staccato of wins in 2018, when SU won 10 games and decided to reward Babers with a long-term contract extension.

Since then, SU football is 6-11 and staring at a fourth losing season in five years after a woeful, 38-21 loss to Liberty on Saturday at the Carrier Dome dropped the team to 1-4, the lowest point the SU program has hit under Babers. For the second week in a row, SU was outmanned by a school it easily dispatched the year before, and unlike other head-shaking losses of the past, this year does not show as many signs of hope.

“We all understand that what we just saw is not good enough," Babers said.

Year 5 suddenly feels like Year 1 again. Freshmen and first-year players dot the lineup. New coaches are trying to figure out what they’ve got in personnel. The difference between then and now: A forlorn fan base is questioning whether Babers can repeat the process and rebuild a sustained winner.

It’s not happening this year. Not after Saturday’s loss, and not with this patchwork roster. Frustrations are boiling over, resulting in senseless penalties and embarrassing sideline behavior. It’s gotten so bad, Babers can do little but point to the same thing he sold us on back in 2016.

"I’d tell them, hey, we got a lot of young people playing, and it’s going to have to get better.

"But that same fan base saw guys beat Virginia Tech when they weren’t supposed to be very good. That same fan base saw what we did with Clemson when we weren’t supposed to be very good, and that same fan base saw us 6 minutes, 45 seconds away from winning the conference.

“I expect them to have faith, and I expect them to know we’re going to right it, and right now we’ve got a bunch of young guys playing and a bunch of old guys hurt, and that’s the way it’s going to be until we start getting some cats back and guys start getting better.”

Unlike those early years of the Babers' tenure, it doesn’t feel like SU is capable of pulling off one of those season-defining upsets right now. The charisma that captured minds and dared this town to stop thinking it could be nothing more than a doormat in the ACC has subsided. There hasn’t been a rousing, viral video from the postgame locker room in two years. Instead, it’s Liberty dancing to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys thinking it’s the kings of New York.

It’s likely Babers recognizes this season for what it has become: Injuries and opt-outs have brought his roster size down to a level unfit for the ACC in the one year it has to play more conference games than any other. In a year we were all just supposed to be thankful for games being played, turning the page to the next can’t come soon enough.

Babers is openly talking about the importance of having some seniors return next season and taking advantage of the extra year of eligibility the NCAA is affording because of the coronavirus. It’s looking as though the NCAA’s archaic transfer rule will finally change next year, too, allowing the coaching staff to mine the transfer market without worrying about whether a waiver to play right away will be denied.

If SU is to correct course, next year, with a chance to field the largest roster of players in nearly 30 years, is the time to do it. The next two months will help shape who will be around for it.

Babers, sensing how this loss could crush morale the rest of the way, called out the veterans on his team to step their game up and take some of the pressure off the young players thrust into action sooner than expected. He called out the freshmen — some by name — on their mistakes. And he called out himself, owning the playcall on the third play of the game when quarterback Rex Culpepper took a deep shot downfield on 3rd-and-2 when SU appeared to be asserting itself on the ground.

“Everyone else has to play better,” Babers said. "We don’t expect a new guy to play better. You expect the veterans to settle them down and those guys play better. Is it frustrating? Yeah. Do I want to do better? There’s no doubt.

“But I’ve been in this business 39 years. I know what happens to young guys, and the best thing that happens to freshmen and redshirt freshmen is they turn into sophomores, and hopefully somebody gets to take advantage of them.”

Babers inherited a young group such as that in 2016 that served as the foundation for the high-water mark two years later. He walked into a situation with a ready-made quarterback, a highly recruited running back, a cupboard of offensive linemen, an NFL-caliber defensive tackle and an NFL punter.

He might have those type of players stocked on his roster right now. Maybe more are coming next year. The surefire difference-makers he expected to have this season, though, are mostly gone, leaving him with little recourse but to pin our hopes on the future.

That’s what he did four years ago. Now, Babers is responsible for the present that can unlock or unwind that future.

On the outside, there’s never been more division on how this will end. He can’t afford to let those doubts creep into his program.

“I don’t see a divide in these guys at all,” Babers said. “They understand that if we go, we go together, we lose, we lose together, and if we start to split, we have no future.”

More Syracuse football:

Best and worst from Syracuse football’s 38-21 loss to Liberty

Scheduling Liberty has turned into a nightmare (instant takeaways)

Syracuse football box score vs. Liberty

You Grade the Orange: Rate Syracuse football performance vs. Liberty

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Nate Mink anytime: 315-430-8253 | Email | Twitter

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Dino Babers rebuilt Syracuse once. With program at a low point, he’ll have to do it again - syracuse.com
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