Syracuse Fires Head Coach Dino Babers After Eight Seasons

On the morning of November 19th, Syracuse announced that Dino Babers had been dismissed as the head coach of Syracuse football. This comes after Syracuse dropped to 1-6 in ACC play and 5-6 on the year after losing to Georgia Tech on the road by a final score of 31-22. Babers had been the head coach for eight seasons.

Babers’ best season of his Syracuse coaching career came in 2018, when he led the Orange to a 10 win-season. However, that 10-win season was followed up by two straight seasons of being under .500 and missing the opportunity to play in a bowl game, as Syracuse was 5-7 in 2019 and went 1-10 in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Syracuse has been consistently around the .500 mark over the past three seasons, but many of their troubles come when they face ACC opponents. Under Dino Babers, Syracuse had an ACC record of 20-45 and an overall record of 59-64 .

Last season, Syracuse started out 6-0 before losing 6 out of their last 7, including a loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Pinstripe Bowl to end with a final record of 7-6.

Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack believed that if two of Syracuse’s games had resulted in wins instead of losses, Babers would still be the head coach.

“Look at November,” Wildhack said. “We haven’t had success. Boston College was a very winnable game; didn’t win it. Saturday night (A 31-22 loss to Georgia Tech) was a very winnable game; didn’t win it. You win those two, we’re not here today having this conversation.”

In terms of searching for a new head coach, Wildhack said that they don’t need a connection to the Syracuse area but would prefer someone from the Northeast region.

“I’m not sure it’s got to be direct connection to the 315”, Wildhack said. “I think experience in the Northeast either as a player, as a coach, as an assistant coach I think is important.”

Tight end’s coach Nunzio Campanile was named interim head coach for Syracuse the final game of their regular season, and will look to lead Syracuse to a win over Wake Forest to improve to 6-6 and become bowl-game eligible.