Babers: "Coach Doeren Does An Outstanding Job"

Syracuse head coach Dino Babers fielded questions from the media on the upcoming game against NC State.

Opening Statement...
Well, we're really excited about coming off obviously that victory with North Carolina. It was a fantastic game and it was something that we really needed. But now we've got a very, very stern test with NC State. Fantastic football team. Coach Doeren does an outstanding job. Defensively, extremely solid. Offensively, probably the best quarterback in the league, and we know we've got our hands full.

It's going to be a night game at our place. It should be loud at our place. But we understand that we have a very, very big task.

As far as quarterbacks, Eric Dungey has been a leader for a long time and Tommy DeVito is stepping up this season. What do you like about each of those guys and what makes each of them special and an integral part of this team?
Well, what I like about both of those young men is that they are unselfish players. I mean, those guys have a great relationship.

Obviously there's only one starting quarterback to a football team, but I've never seen a relationship any closer than those two. Tommy asks Dungey all kinds of questions and Dungey is always helping Tommy, so that's the thing I love both about them.

From an individual standpoint, I wouldn't separate one from the other. I think they are both really good quarterbacks and they are capable of leading this football team.

You're one step away from being Bowl eligible. What can you say about staying the process and coming in as a coach with a plan, seeing a plan come to fruition, just kind of where you think things are at in that planning at this point.
Well, I think that we are really close to one of our first goals but I don't think we're there yet. We look at it as two football seasons, our first half we finished 4-2. Our second half, we're 1-0, and we're taking it one game at a time.

And I don't think we can get ahead of ourselves. I think that's some of the things that we've been doing up here and we don't -- we're desperately trying and clawing and fighting not to do that this year. We've got NC State. That's the only thing we're worried about and if we can win that game, that would be really cool and then we would have another game the next week.

A number of guys from your 2017 recruiting class shined last week. What have you seen from that class?
We're always trying to work with the underbelly of our team, and I think that's one of the disadvantages that we've had for a long time in this conference is that we really felt like our 22 starters were good enough that we could win games, but as the season progressed, that our backups weren't good enough to come in to help replace our starters when our starters got injury or banged up.

We've really been working hard for the last two and a half years to build up the underbelly and really continue to develop those young men in practice, even though we have weekly games against opponents, we're always carving out things in our practice schedule for the underbelly to try to work on techniques and fundamentals to help the culture and develop the overall -- to help the overall development of our football team.

Do you feel like you've accomplished that with these redshirt freshmen and sophomores?
We're going to have to see. We've got some freshmen that are making some plays; that I think the proof is in the pudding on that one.

Curious what you've seen from Ifeatu so far this year and what's stuck out about him specifically in the last week when he's seen more of a role on defense?
Ife's been doing a fantastic job in practice. He's been working hard on his development. I thought he was a young man that came into camp really fighting for a job and doing some good things, but obviously the two starters, Scoop and Frederick, were just really, really good players, and he just had to wait his time. We got some guys banged up and he's gotten an opportunity, and like some of the other freshmen around here, he's really taken advantage of his opportunity.

Everybody on the team is happy for him. He's happy and everyone else is happy for him because we know how hard he worked. Couldn't be more proud of, you know, performance that he put in when he came into the game, and North Carolina just kept going after him because they knew he was a freshmen. Yet he kept making plays for the family.

Really proud of that and hope that it continues in the future.

I had a question about Tommy DeVito and the deep ball. Curious when you were evaluating him, and even seeing him now in practice and in games, what do you think allows him to maybe do well in that department? What makes him a good deep ball thrower?
You know, I wouldn't -- I mean, he's thrown some deep balls. I think he's had some opportunity to throw some deep balls just based off of some of the coverages that people have been playing against us.

I wouldn't necessarily say that he's a fantastic deep ball thrower and that's the only thing he does well. I think he throws the ball extremely well. I think Eric throws the ball extremely well deep. So I wouldn't think that he's just a deep ball thrower. You might be cutting him a little bit short. I think he has a lot more than that.

Sure. That's not what I meant at all. But I guess another question here, you mentioned the cornerbacks. Did you have a gauge for where Chris and scoop are? Do you expect either of them to play this weekend?
You know what, we haven't had a no that they are not going to be in the game. Obviously they are banged up a little bit. We're just going to have to wait and see how they feel at the end of the week.

On Monday, you said that you didn't want to share too much about what you were planning to do at quarterback. I'm curious, kind of how you approached the last couple days with those guys and do you feel like everyone internally, there's at least an understanding of what the plan is for Saturday?
You know, I think that everyone internally doesn't have to necessarily know what the plan is for Saturday, but I think the major guys that it involved the most, I think they have an understanding how it's going to be.