Dino Babers did an interview with NewsChannel9 on Thursday and in it he talked about his desire to stay at Syracuse. Babers was essentially asked if Syracuse was a destination job, would he stay here for the long haul. Something that SU fans, rightly or not, have been worried about since he took the job. Babers had an answer that should make SU fans happy.
“I¬†felt that my other opportunities, if I was successful at them, would lead me to move again. And one thing I’m really tired of doing is moving.”
This has to be an encouraging sign. And of course, coaches have stretched the truth about staying at jobs before.¬†But that doesn’t mean that every coach is lying when they say they want to stay at the job they’ve got.
In fact, I believe Babers in this case, and it has been something I have thought ever since Babers was hired in December. Think about it this way– Babers is 54 years old, he has moved around a lot since becoming a coach at the college level. He has made 15 stops since 1984. That’s quite a few. And now he has a Power-5 head coaching job. To me, it makes all the sense in the world that he would be want to stay in Syracuse now for the long haul rather than pick up and move again.
Babers wants to settle down and make his mark on a community and a program, and now he has a chance to do that.
Another point that this brings up is what was the other job. Is it possible that Babers was offered the UCF job before Scott Frost took it? Absolutely. UCF would certainly fit the description of “move again if successful” but being in the AAC was also a step up from Bowling Green, think of it as a step between the MAC and a Power-5 job.
But instead Babers got his Power-5 job. And a job he never has to move from if he does a good job. If he does well and puts a winner on the field, the ACC is a conference that is held in good regard around the country. It’s a conference that you can accomplish all of your goals in, and Dino Babers saw that before he took the job.
Posted By: Seth Goldberg
