Postgame Quotes: Syracuse

Syracuse Head Coach Dino Babers
Opening Statement …
"This is an opportunity before going into a bye week which is extremely important. We've got a lot of healing to do. The first eight games without the bye have been rough. It's been physical. Last two opponents were extremely physical."

"Hats off to Coach Addazio, Boston College. That was a physical football game, and they played a heck of a game, a game all the way into the fourth quarter, and hopefully -- I think it was an exciting game."

"Again, before I stop, just for our football team to be able to play in weather like that where three weeks ago we weren't that good in it, and now to come back and play half a game in weather like that and the way they played the game, I'm really excited about it, really excited about how they played."

"We had mistakes. We weren't perfect. But we're human, and we're excited to be at .500 again."

Q. With Eric's interception in the first quarter on the first drive, that hit on the sideline, what did you see went down on the sideline? Did you say anything to Eric afterward?
"Yeah, I told him that his job is to get the guy down, not to hit him like a middle linebacker because he needs to preserve himself. He did a great job in stopping the touchdown. That's what he's supposed to do, and then after that he needs to protect himself. When you get in scuffles like that, somebody steps on your hand or something like -- it's like a baseball pitcher; you don't go in there and start throwing punches and break your hand. He didn't throw a punch, I'm just giving you an analogy."

"But he needs to just get the guy out of bounds and then play the next play, so that's all I told him."

Q. You had 16 penalties, but I think nine or ten of them were false starts. What went into that?
"We're going to have to go back and check the tape. I think that some of it we have to see because that's very uncharacteristic for you to have that many false starts without there being a reason. So we will go back and check the tape."

"But they called them on us, so I'm sure we must have did it. I'm assuming."

Q. Was there a thought of you calling time out, getting the guys together, just asking them to focus on the game? It seems things got out of hand in the second and third quarter.
"Absolutely thought about it, almost did it, and then I paused and stopped and said, if this becomes a fourth-quarter game and I have to call a time-out and I have to come into this meeting, you guys talk about me killing a time-out when I could have used that time out to win the game, and I said, you know what, I'd better not call it. But I'll tell you what, in between series, I sure did get myself around to where they could feel me and made sure that they settled down."

Q. 1:50 left in the game and you guys got that first down. Talk about the character that shows to put the game away when you had to.
"It's big, it really is. Those are difficult times. The box is loaded. They know we're not going to throw the ball, we're not going to throw the ball, and that is a top-five, top-six ranked defense against the run, and for us to be able to get that 1st down with the box being that heavy with as young as we are on the offensive line and the injuries that we've had, I think that was really big."

Q. Which was the better catch, Amba or Steve?
"They were both good, but Amba's was like, wow. That was a wow. They were both really good, though."

Q. Steve has gotten a lot of those the last two weeks and he had his biggest game this week. What's opened up the last couple weeks for him to get more looks?
"Again, it all comes down to the coverages. Any time you can see that Amba is drawing more coverages, which is singling up more guys on the other side, that's just how football goes. I think that a little bit of it has to do with Amba, and a little bit has to do with Ish making more plays."

Q. I'm not sure if you saw it or not, but on the Dungey interception, it looked like BC jumped offside, which is why he threw that pass deep into double coverage. Did that look offside to you or did you talk to him about that at all?
"It looked like it was offsides to me, and I did talk to him about it. I said, hey, I thought the guy was offsides. You can't worry about it. I know that goes down as an interception on your record, but last time I checked, you got five or six touchdowns off that same thing this year. You've got to take the good with the bad."

Q. Going back to that early skirmish on the sideline, did you talk to Eric about what triggered his reaction there? Was there anything that got him that upset?
"I saw the play, so my conversation with him is private, but I saw the play, okay. I can't talk about it. I'm going to get fined. I saw the play. I talked to him about it."

Q. Amba now ranked second for single-game receiving yards for SU, so where does he rank for you in terms of guys you've coached?
"He's up there. I've coached over 30 wide receivers in the National Football League, so there is a lot of them, but he's definitely in the top 10."

Q. What were some of the biggest challenges in the second quarter with the elements, and what did you learn about your team?
"Now, when you say second quarter, you mean second quarter, not second half?"

Q. Second quarter when it was pouring.
"Yeah, the second quarter was tricky. The water was really coming down. Fabulous question. We made a mistake. I'm not going to tell you what the mistake was, you've got to figure it out. I thought we made a mistake that that quarter as coaches, and I told the players that. I said, we're not going to make that mistake again. You can't push the elements when it starts to rain that hard. There's certain things you can do and there's certain things it's just not smart to do, and we had to pick and choose when we wanted to do some of those things that were a little bit more dangerous, but it was definitely more challenging. That's a great question."

Q. Eric has taken a bunch of hits the last few weeks. I think today it was 32 or 37. What have you seen from him, his ability to play through that, and how impressive did you think he was today compared to other games this year?
"The thing I'm proud about, I'm proud about a lot of things with him today, but I think he handled the weather a lot better than he did versus -- that other game, and I don't want to mention it in this press conference. He's a big-handed guy. He's throwing the ball around. You could see some of those other passes coming from the other side maybe weren't as crisp, weren't as accurate, and then think about some of the deep throws. Yeah, some of them were kind of flat, but we left a lot of meat on the bone. There was some -- we'd have come up with some more catches down the field, a lot more people -- it could have been a different type of game. I thought he threw the ball extremely well, and you look at his incompletions, what his incompletions were and what plays they were on, I mean, he could have had -- with a little bit of help, he could have had a heck of a game."

Q. Is there anything mechanically different or anything -- played differently in regard to the weather?
"There's certain things he needs to do. He's got to keep his feet underneath him. It's quarterback stuff, but he's getting better with that stuff all the time. He's come a long way from when we first saw him."

Q. I think down in the red zone, there were three drops, zero points, and then two drives where you gave up a field goal. What schematically is kind of working down there?
"You're talking about our defense playing so well?"

Q. Yeah.
"Again, Boston College is a certain style of offense. They want to do certain things, and then based off of what quarterback is in the game, there's some tendencies that you have to take advantage of, and I thought that Coach Ward and the defensive coaches did a nice job of taking advantage of those tendencies and just playing the numbers. If they want to do something else, they may have a better chance of, successful, but they may be using people that they normally don't use, and that's their option."

"But I thought we played -- we tried to take away their strengths, and for the most part we did. I had no idea that quarterback was that fast, though. When he got out there, he didn't look like we could run him down. He was really moving."

Q. You're 4-4 and in position for a bowl game. How much improvement do you want to see from the offensive line with Clemson and Florida State on the schedule? How much do you want to form a balanced attack so they can't flood the middle with six defensive backs, seven defensive backs and just try to go after Dungey?
"I would like to be balanced today, I would like to be balanced yesterday. We're always shooting for balance."

"Now, when it's difficult to run the football, you just can't keep slamming your head against the wall and expecting that thing to loosen up a little bit. Sometimes we've got to use the pass to help us run the football. But in this situation, they were so heavy in the box that it was -- it would be a little foolish not to throw the ball as much as we did, and as what happens, a lot of times with two-part question, the guy up here normally forgets the second part of the question, so ask me again the second part that I didn't answer."

Q. The second part is the offensive line, how do you improve that going forward when you have Clemson, Florida State, and need at least two wins to be bowl eligible?
"We've got to find a way. We need a slingshot and a rock. I'm not even sure who we play against."

Q. It's Clemson.
"I'm sorry, I've been so locked in on these guys, and now we've got a bye coming up. But obviously that team is extremely talented. Their athletes are outstanding. The coaching staff is unbelievable. I wish somebody would add up how many coaches they have and how many coaches we have and do a flow chart or something like that on that. But we're going to try to find a way to run the football and try to find a way to move the football."

"When you're playing teams like that, the most important thing is to try to get a 1st down before you punt the doggone thing. You just don't want a whole bunch of three-and-outs, and usually you have to try to do what they're not giving you, so we have to get in that game and just see what from a structure standpoint they're going to allow us to do and then we've got to try to take advantage of that. I hope I answered your question."

SYRACUSE PLAYER QUOTES
Q. How did you make that one-handed catch? That was incredible?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "You know, it's something that we practiced early in the week. A lot of guys like to hold your hand now, so Coach just said fight through it, and I just held my hand up, and it just stuck to the ball."

Q. Eric had his own struggles at the beginning of the game, as you guys did as a team, the interception, the play on the sideline, the fumbled snap. How did you think he responded to that later in the game?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "Eric is the man. Even if he messes up he's going to bounce bag, he's going to fight back. He's never going to stop fighting. That just shows you the greatness of this team; even when facing some adversity, we always fight back, try to find a way to make it happen."

Q. Right after that fumble you guys were talking on the sideline. What were you guys talking about?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "Saying the game is not over. It's not over until the clock ticks zero, so there's a lot of football to be played, just keep your head up and worry about the next play."

Q. You became the fourth player in program history to reach a thousand yards in a season. How does it feel to do that your first year at Syracuse?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "I mean, it feels good. It's good to be named among those greats. But at the end of the day, I'm just happy we got the win. I'm just happy for the guys, happy for the team, the coaches. They put in a lot of work, so I'm just happy that we came out on top."

Q. Wake Forest you guys really struggled with the weather. I know this wasn't exactly the same, but how did that game maybe help prepare you guys for this, and what do you think allowed you to maybe play a little better in the elements?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "I mean, yeah, we've been here before. We've played in elements, like you said, just going back to focusing on the ball and just doing what we can do best."

Q. What were some of the biggest challenges in the second quarter for you guys? What was it like playing out there, and what did you learn about yourselves as far as kind of handling the elements today?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "They challenged us. They brought a lot of pressure. They play man outside, so they challenged us so win, and that's what we had to do to come out on top. I felt like we could have done better with it, but we did enough to come out on top."

Q. What has changed over these last three weeks since going down to Wake Forest and not coming away with a victory and now leaving here 4-4 heading into a bye week?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "Can you repeat that, please?"

Q. What has changed over the last three weeks, now 4-4 heading into a bye week, just the whole outlook on this football team?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "Right now confidence is at a high right now, just we're trying to keep that going, keep this movement going strong, so right now a lot of guys were feeling good right now, just got to keep on working hard, don't get complacent, just keep on going."

Q. How good does it feel having -- being in the hunt for a whole game? You're 4-4, have four games left. How does it feel just being relevant now in the ACC bowl tournament?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "I mean, it feels good. Like you said, we have another game next week, so it's going to take every game at a time. Hopefully at the end of the season we're looking at at least six wins, bowl eligible."

Q. Eric, on your interception, it looked from the box like BC jumped offsides; is that what you saw?
ERIC DUNGEY: "Yeah, they did. I mean, I thought it was a free play, so I was trying to give my guy a chance, and they didn't call it."

Q. Then on the tackle, you get flagged for the 15; is that just frustration for the missed --
ERIC DUNGEY: "Well, it wasn't frustration. I was trying to finish the tackle. I get tackled all the time, so when I get a chance to tackle, I was trying to tackle him. Some guy is standing over me talking smack, and I just tried to get him off me, and then one thing led to another."

Q. Amba, in your first year at Syracuse, what do you think is the most important aspect of you being so successful?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "This guy right here, man. You know, he gives me opportunities, he throws the ball down the field. You couldn't ask for much more than that."

Q. Eric, this is the closest the team has been to a bowl game in three years, which is kind of crazy. Is that something that you guys think about and realize, or how much is a bowl game in your minds and kind of your talks, a matter of focus?
ERIC DUNGEY: "I mean, our focus is just winning each game. Obviously bowl game is what we're shooting for right now, but we go out there, we want to win every game. It's like every other team, but we've really got to focus. This team is becoming something special."

Q. I know 4-4, it's still early in this process, but how has the feeling shifted in the last couple weeks? Has it ever really felt like this since you've been in the program?
ERIC DUNGEY: "Since I've been in the program, not really. I mean, I think people are really starting to buy in. Everyone who was kind of on the outside of the team is starting to buy in."

Q. I understand it's natural, you get recruited by different coaches. Where do you see those people buying in? Is it in practice, in the locker room?
ERIC DUNGEY: "Yeah, just in practice. It takes the scout guys that really needed to give us good looks to do our job, right, so it really just comes down to the bare minimum."

Q. Eric, just the second quarter obviously it was pouring, pretty rough out there. What were some of the biggest challenges for you personally, and what did you guys learn about yourself a couple weeks ago at Wake in the elements that played a role in it, and what do you think the difference was today?
ERIC DUNGEY: "Yeah, at Wake, I think I just let the weather get to me too much. I mean, I'm from Oregon; it rains all the time, so I've played in the rain hundreds of times. I just went out there today just trying to do my job. The receivers were doing a great job catching the ball. It's not easy to catch the ball in the rain, especially when it's coming down like that, so they did a great job catching the ball."

Q. Eric, after the first quarter pick and what ensued, how fired up were you after that?
ERIC DUNGEY: "Fired up? I mean, not really. My teammates got my back. That's kind of what got me fired up. Everyone was running over there trying to help me out. But I wasn't really fired up. I'm obviously frustrated; throwing an interception is one of the worst things."

Q. Were you anxious to get the ball back?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "Yeah, I'm always anxious to get the ball back, but I guess a little more."

Q. After the fumble in the first quarter it looked like you were sitting on the sideline with your head down talking to Coach Lewis. What's going through your mind at that time, and how much different of a feeling is it when in the fourth quarter you're able to get that final 1st down?
AMBA ETTA-TAWO: "Yeah, just kind of frustration. We need to understand we don't always do a good job. We practice wet ball drill all the time, just kind of pulled out early, getting my hands out there. But the team did a good job responding, and the defense did a great job all game."

Q. Did either of you guys try to take control of the huddle and figure out, okay, let's settle down and play smart and not just runs like chickens with our heads cut off?
ERIC DUNGEY: "I don't know what a huddle is, but I did try to talk to the guys and try to calm them down. But they're young; it's a big part of the game. But those are penalties that shoot ourselves in the foot. I really felt like we could go down and score every time, just the penalties killed us. We've all got things to fix, and that's the thing about it, you can fix the little things and look what could have been."

Q. There were a lot of false starts, I think nine or ten. Was it something that BC was doing with its front, something with the weather? What kind of -- was there a theme at all?
ERIC DUNGEY: "I'm not sure. You know, I'm just back there trying to calm everybody down. I'm not sure what was going through their heads. That's a question for them, but I've got faith that they're going to get it right."

Q. Eric, what did you see on Amba's catch there, and what does a guy like that -- obviously I know he's sitting right next to you, but what does a guy like that do for your game just in general?
ERIC DUNGEY: "I mean, he's brought so much spark and energy to this team. Ever since he got here, ever since he was about to commit -- not commit, come here, but I was happy. I saw him, and throwing with him for the first time, he's a good guy, just off the field, too."

Q. What did you see on that catch?
ERIC DUNGEY: "Oh, the catch? I missed him the first time. So I owed him. But he made a great catch. Guy holding his arm like all season, he's always getting held, but he did a great job, and then he just used that speed."

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