Babers downplays showdown with Notre Dame
This has been a special season for No. 12 Syracuse, one that will be highlighted Saturday at Yankee Stadium against unbeaten and No. 3 ranked Notre Dame.
That kind of buildup is enough to make a team unaccustomed to such big games to play out of character. Syracuse coach Dino Babers is cautious of that with his team’s preparation this week.
The game pitting the Orange, 8-2 with a four-game winning streak, and the Fighting Irish is Syracuse’s biggest game since 2001 when No. 14 Syracuse traveled to No. 1 Miami (Fla.) and lost 59-0.
Babers is downplaying the matchup with Notre Dame, calling it a “freebie” because the game does not count against the Orange’s standing in the ACC. Syracuse is 5-2 in the Coastal Division behind Clemson, which is 7-0 in league games including a win over the Orange.
“We’re 4-0 playing the second part of our season,” Babers said. “We have a nonconference opponent we are playing, and it doesn’t affect our conference standings, but it does affect our overall record.
“I look at this one a little bit differently than our conference.”
Babers was equally cautious when the Orange prepared to play Clemson earlier this season.
“Win or lose,” Babers said before the 27-23 loss to the Tigers on Sept. 27, “it only counts as one game. If you make it more than that, you start to get ahead of yourself, and that’s when you get in trouble.”
The game against Notre Dame will be nationally televised on NBC and it will have major bowl implications.
“We’ve played on TV before,” Babers said. “The stage is no different than playing in Clemson’s stadium or playing in some of the other stadiums we’ve played in.”
The Orange will have the opportunity to not only knock Notre Dame out of the College Football Playoff picture, but also put Baber’s program more on the national map.
Babers is feeding off the underdog approach as 9-point underdogs, saying that Notre Dame does not have a weakness, despite the fact that starting quarterback Ian Book didn’t play last week against Florida State because of a rib injury. Book is expected to play Saturday.
“They’re solid,” Babers said. “They’re extremely solid. They’re good with whichever quarterback plays. Their defense is doing really, really well. The players that they’re playing with on defense are really, really good. They’re really, really long. They have a really, really good scheme. So it’s the main reason why I’m sure that a lot of teams had a lot of difficulty scoring points on those guys.”
