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Head coach Dino Babers loves describing his Syracuse team with movie references. 

When he announced the 2017 recruiting class, Babers compared headliner Tommy DeVito to Denzel Washington in “Glory.” He’s repeatedly quoted “Dumb and Dumber” and likened his offense to “Ford v Ferrari,” a 2019 drama about race cars. 

But after Saturday’s 38-21 home loss to Liberty (5-0), Babers’ team is as broken and hopeless as Bruce Wayne staring up into the infinite prison abyss in “The Dark Knight Rises.” Its upcoming matchup with No. 1 Clemson is as lopsided as Rocky Balboa versus Clubber Lang. His tenure at Syracuse is as up-and-down as a Quentin Tarantino film.

Yes, Hugh Freeze is a formidable coach, and the Flames’ dual-threat QB transferred from Auburn. Yes, they were favored by 3.5 points. But there’s no way around it: Saturday was a new low for Babers’ Syracuse program.

“We need to go back, and we need to look at ourselves,” Babers said after the loss. “There’s certain things that we’re still not doing well, we’re not getting better.” 

The main reason for the stagnation is injuries, which are exasperated by a stunning lack of depth. But even a junior varsity squad without its best player and starting quarterback doesn’t excuse a catastrophic loss to Liberty.

When Syracuse scheduled a three-game series with Liberty in 2018, the only plausible outcome was three Orange blowout victories. Liberty was a program searching for an identity like the evangelical Notre Dame, which fully joined the FBS last year. LU had never beaten an Atlantic Coast Conference team before beating Syracuse, and the Flames entered the season with just one win over a Power Five opponent. 

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The Orange defense, featuring underclassmen at every non-line position, didn’t show any resistance against the run, shedding nearly five times the amount of rushing yards at halftime and 338 yards in total. The Flames — the same team that recorded -4 rushing yards versus Syracuse in a 24-0 blowout last year — scored three unanswered touchdowns. The game was only competitive for a fleeting moment in the first half. 

Now, SU’s staring down the barrel of a 1-10 season, something it’s only done once since the NCAA’s founding. 

Babers said he didn’t see a divide in his players in the postgame locker room, but it’s clear that frustrations are bubbling over both within and outside of the team. Wide receiver Taj Harris let an easy touchdown slip through his hands and was seen showing his middle finger to the camera. A shocked group of former Syracuse players lamented the loss as “embarrassing” on social media. 

 

The only other embarrassing moment since 2016 that even compares to the Liberty loss is Scott Shafer lighting up a victory cigar after his Middle Tennessee State team upset the Orange in the Dome. But even that was more flukey than getting run out of the building by the Flames. Last year’s 63-20 loss to a Maryland team that finished 1-8 in the Big Ten erased the high hopes SU had coming off a 10-win season, but that was more shocking than humiliating.

“I’d tell (the fans), ‘Hey, we’ve got a lot of young people playing. And it’s going to have to get better,’” Babers said. “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 to Clemson when we weren’t supposed to be very good. And that same fanbase saw us 6:45 from winning the conference … And I expect them to know that we’re going to right it.” 

 

Though there’s no other way but up, there’s also no clear avenue for improvement this year. Syracuse is inexperienced and physically underdeveloped for ACC football at linebacker and in the secondary. Its wide receivers consistently drop would-be touchdowns and chunk plays, and its offensive line struggles to open up running lanes or provide clean pockets. It’s unclear whether reinforcements are coming. 

SU is dead last in offensive predicted points added, a statistic that measures play outcomes. Only UMass has a worse offense in the FBS, per success rate. The Orange’s 19.6 points per game would be by far the lowest in the Babers era and the worst since 2014. Only eight teams average fewer points per game this year than SU.

“There’s a lot of hope, but what we preach is faith,” receiver Anthony Queeley said after the Liberty loss. “That’s what everybody falls behind, and everybody supports it. That’s how we’re staying positive throughout this.”

Graphic from collegefootballdata.com

But falling to rock-bottom doesn’t mean Babers should be on the hot seat. The circumstances surrounding the pandemic season afford him unprecedented leniency. Injuries and opt outs have affected seemingly half of SU’s expected contributors from preseason, from Andre Cisco and DeVito to starting running backs Jarveon Howard and Abdul Adams. 

Since he took over the job in 2016, Babers has urged faith, both for his team and for its fans. He defines it as belief without evidence, and he’s continued to harp on it throughout this season. And with such a lack of any reason for optimism, it’s never resonated more.

Danny Emerman is a senior staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at dremerma@syr.edu or on Twitter @DannyEmerman.

 

Published on October 18, 2020 at 9:53 pm