Syracuse Head Coach Dino Babers Discusses Florida State Matchup, Playing a Top Quarterback

The Orange come into Tallahassee with a tough challenge in front of them as they look to snap a two-game losing streak.

The Florida State Seminoles are officially 5-0 after last week’s 39-17 win over the Virginia Tech Hokies in the first sold-out home game of the season. This week, the Seminoles will once again play in a sold-out Doak Campbell Stadium against the Syracuse Orange.

The Orange, who are coming off a devastating loss to UNC, enter the game 4-2 and are winless in ACC play. In last year’s matchup, FSU had a huge win on the road in Syracuse, winning the game 38-3.

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While the two teams have only matched up 15 times dating back to 1966, FSU has the significant edge, winning 13 of the matchups, as well as holding a perfect record at home.

Syracuse head coach Dino Babers had some words regarding the matchup in his weekly press conference on Monday.

“Looking forward to going down to Tallahassee. 79,560 seats, number four in the country, Mike Norvell’s Seminoles, and we know we’re gonna have our hands full," Babers said in his opening statement. "It’s a fantastic football team on tape, and it’s most likely the best one we’ve seen so far this year, although the one we just played was extremely good." 

While the Orange have faced strong conference opponents in Clemson and UNC, Babers was very adamant that FSU has the best quarterback on their schedule. Having played the Seminoles three times since quarterback Jordan Travis arrived in Tallahassee, Babers has seen enough of Travis to know he is a talented player.

“He will be the best quarterback that we play, and it’s really hard for me to say that, but he has all the attributes of the former, the young man at North Carolina (Drake Maye). His desire to win is amazing, you can see it in his play. And then when you think back to a guy that started at Louisville, and then transferred somewhere else, did not start off with success, and now he’s at the top of his game, he knows what it’s like to be at the bottom, and he’s back at the top. I think the difference of knowing those feelings is what keeps him driven to the style and level of play he plays at," Babers said.

Babers continued by saying that despite Travis’ continued success against Syracuse, he could not help but watch the FSU quarterback along his journey to the top.

“He’s one of those wild guys. I’m not gonna enjoy watching him play, but when you get done, he’s one of those guys that you do turn on the TV to watch because he plays at an extremely high level," Babers added.

Before Jared Verse was a breakout star defensive end at FSU, he was trying to break through at Albany, where Babers and the Orange first got a glimpse of the talented All-American player. In the game, Verse nearly made a major play in an attempt to tackle running back Sean Tucker. While the play still lives in Babers’ head on repeat, he couldn’t help but voice his happiness for Verse, who got his first two sacks of the season against Virginia Tech.

“I’m happy for him, I like that guy. He’s a good young man and he’s gonna be great in the pros," Babers said.

While he has experience with Verse, the rest of FSU’s defensive line makes that side of the ball a huge challenge for the Syracuse offense, and Babers knows the experience FSU possesses is a danger to his team.

“All those guys are good, I believe the other defensive end was the ACC Rookie Player of the Year. So you’ve got the ACC Rookie Player of the Year on one side and you’ve got Verse on the other side, and we all know about Verse. Their defensive line is really really good, they’ve been coached by the same guy for a very very long time, their one and three techniques are sound, their mike linebacker’s fast. If you look at their defense, I might be wrong, I wanna say nine out of the 11 are juniors or seniors or graduate seniors. It’s a very very experienced defense with a lot of NFL players in it, some NFL players who passed up the NFL to come back and win a national championship. They’re on a course, they’re focused, and they’re doing a great job as a team.” Babers said.

As coach Babers prepares his squad to play in front of their biggest crowd this season, with Purdue being the next largest at just over 61,000 seats, and North Carolina at 50,000, Babers knows the fans at this game will be a distraction to his team.

“North Carolina wasn’t that noisy. We always have the speakers and the things that we can turn on, and we have music at practice, and our guys have to practice with distractions because you do get distractions when you go to loud stadiums, and Florida State will be loud.”

Florida State and Syracuse will face off Saturday at noon in front of the second consecutive sold-out crowd at Doak Campbell Stadium this season. The game will honor the 1993 Seminole team, as it is the 20th anniversary of their national championship season. 

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