Dino Babers discusses Death Valley, defensive backups ahead of No. 5 Clemson
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Head coach Dino Babers stood in a jacket given to him by the late SU great Floyd Little with an undefeated record, the 14th-best team in the country and bowl eligibility already clinched. Fresh off of a win against then-No. 15 NC State, Syracuse’s first win over a ranked opponent since 2018, Babers discussed going to No. 5 Clemson, where he’s never won.
“This is the third time that we’ve been this deep over three decades,” Babers said to his team on Sunday. “So it’s rare, you should cherish it, you should understand this moment and not let it just go past you.”
Clemson now stands as the biggest challenge this Syracuse team has faced. It’s a matchup between two of the nine remaining undefeated teams in Division I football, and the first meeting between the two since Andre Szmyt missed a game-tying, 48-yard field goal with 38 seconds left last year. The Orange haven’t beaten Clemson since 2017, when they were at home and on their way to a 4-8 season.
Preparing for Clemson
Babers said that Tigers quarterback DJ Uiagalelei has improved since the beginning of the season, and Clemson’s offense has “dramatically” upgraded with him. The junior has 17 touchdowns compared to just two interceptions and is averaging 237.9 passing yards per game so far.
“Clemson is a championship team. Those guys aren’t going to give up,” Babers said.
But for the first time in five weeks, Syracuse will be playing on the road, facing a Clemson team in front of a stadium that holds 81,500 fans. Babers said the offense has been used to operating in the near-silent JMA Wireless Dome while opposing offenses have heard the loud stadium erupt — decibel levels reached about 121 dB against NC State.
“This will be the first opportunity for our offense to operate the way other people’s offenses operate at the JMA,” Babers said.
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The second level of defensive players
Throughout Syracuse’s win over NC State, Syracuse saw Garrett Williams, Mikel Jones, Duce Chestnut and Leon Lowery exit at various points, leaving an already depleted defensive unit without its top stars. But Babers said during the week leading up to the NC State matchup that Syracuse ran through a ton of defensive models throughout practice. It allowed players like Austin Roon, Jatius Geer and Jason Simmons to get “real game-type experience” prior to the game.
“Us going deeper in the depth chart in practices, getting people ready, working overtime to get a lot of people ready really helped us in some of those situations with those guys stepping up,” Babers said.
Williams and Lowery permanently exited the game after their respective injuries, and Babers announced at the outset of the press conference that he wouldn’t address any injury questions. Chestnut and Jones came back as the Orange held the Wolfpack to a season-low nine points in the game.
Garrett Shrader mitigating interceptions
Babers said a good quarterback is someone that has a 2-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio. Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader, through six games, has a four-to-one ratio. Shrader made it until midway through the Virginia game without an interception, and he followed that up with a perfect completion percentage against Wagner heading into the bye week. NC State entered Saturday’s game with the most interceptions of any ACC school, which tested Syracuse’s newly-installed balanced offense.
Shrader coughed up two interceptions and said the Orange left about 21 points on the board against the Wolfpack. But on his first interception, a throw to the back of the endzone into double coverage intended for Damien Alford, Shrader was just a hair in front of the line of scrimmage. Babers called the “extremely lucky” something that was built on the preparation that Shrader puts into each week.
“This is not a situation where I think that he’d go out and throw interceptions,” Babers said. “I think it’s just the opposite. It’s unusual for him to go out and throw an interception.”
Clemson’s defense has forced six interceptions and has broken up 43 passes this season, allowing 255.7 passing yards per game. But Babers isn’t worried about Shrader going out and throwing interceptions.
