Dino Babers addressed the media at his weekly press conference on Monday, ahead of Syracuse’s (1-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast) matchup with Connecticut (2-1, 0-1 American Athletic) at 1 p.m. in East Harford, Connecticut on Saturday.

Babers gave no updates on injured players, including safety Kielan Whitner and center Jason Emerich, who did not dress for the loss to South Florida. He said that information would come later in the week.

Here are three things he did say.

‘I’ve been down a little bit’

When Babers was asked about how he keeps his players upbeat despite a 1-2 start to the season — the two losses coming by sizeable amounts — he responded by expressing his own feelings.

“I have not been up in spirit,” he said. “I’ve been down a little bit. I really have.”

John Williams | Contributing Photographer

Syracuse’s players don’t realize how close they are to making the transition, Babers said. “All they do is, ‘Hey we’re 1-2. Yada yada yada.’ And look at themselves not in a good light.”

Babers said he doesn’t think the team is as bad as the Louisville game as that he sees it as good as the first quarter against South Florida in which the Orange jumped out to a 17-0 lead.

Eric Dungey “probably would have scored” with a better throw from Moe Neal

With 20 seconds left in the first half and down 28-17, Syracuse faced a 3rd-and-5 at South Florida’s 40-yard line. Quarterback Eric Dungey tossed the ball to running back Moe Neal, who then launched it downfield to Dungey. The quarterback turned receiver had to jump in the air and only tipped the ball with his hand before being hit hard.

Babers said after the game that he would call the play again and elaborated on Monday that it could have resulted in a touchdown if Neal’s throw had been sharper.

“The ball was in the air a little bit longer than it has been in practice,” Babers said. “If the air would’ve been taken out of the ball and it would’ve been a little bit more of a line and he caught the ball — based off of his running skills and speed — he probably would have scored and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Defensive mistakes a result of old habits

Syracuse’s defense has been heavily exploited by the likes of Louisville and South Florida. Even Colgate drove down the field for a touchdown on its first drive of the season (with the help of a running into the kicker penalty).

SU has allowed 649.5 yards per game against FBS teams, good for last in the country. The next closest is Texas Tech, which allows 612 yards per game to FBS teams, and only three teams allow 600 or more yards per game.

The Tampa 2 defense that the Orange runs is designed to limit big plays, but Syracuse has consistently given up long touchdown plays in the last two games.

“It has to do with habits,” Babers said. “…There’s stretches where guys are doing it exactly right and then all of sudden they have a flashback. And they you say ‘Hey, you did it right three times in a row. Why did you do it wrong the fourth time?’ And it’s like ‘Coach, I don’t know.’ Well that ‘I don’t know’ is that they’re used to doing it a certain way and we got to get them out of the old way.”

Published on September 19, 2016 at 12:59 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus