What Syracuse Head Coach Dino Babers had to say about NC State in his Weekly Press Conference

Syracuse Head Football Coach Dino Babers spoke with the media for his weekly press conference leading up to Saturday’s Top-20 matchup against #15 NC State, and he had the following things to say about the Wolfpack. You can also watch the press conference in full above.

“I thought deserved [earning a ranking in Top-20 at #18]. Now we have to go out and prove we deserve the faith everyone is putting in us.”

“I’d say that’s a long time ago [on this being the first Top-20 matchup at Syracuse since 1998]. That’s a lot of excitement. That’s a strange statistic.”

“We are excited about the opportunity to play NC State. Coach Doeren does a fabulous job. He’s an individual I really like. I like how he’s run his programs in the past. He’s a guy that’s worked his way up. His recent job before NC State was Northern Illinois, in the MAC, a team I played when I was at Bowling Green State. Have a lot of respect for him, and like the way he does things.”

“One thing I will be telling the team this week, and I have told them, is that you’re playing a football team. This isn’t a bunch of individuals. They are also playing a football team, not a bunch of individuals. It’s going to be a fantastic test.”

“I think you’re right on [referring to NC State being a physical football team]. This is 15 rounds, heavyweight. There’s going to be some slugs going out there. There’s going to be some shots. You’re going to get hit really really hard. How you handle that is going to affect the game. It’s going to be everybody that’s out there on the football field. It will be a physical contest.”

“We have to prepare for both of them [Devin Leary & Jack Chambers], and we have to assume he’s [Leary] going to play. Anybody with that type of moxy, anybody who has been around as long as that kid has, if he’s got the opportunity to step on the football field, he’s going to do it. It makes us have more work. It makes us have more work in a normal week. We didn’t get to take advantage of having an extra week off, because now we have to go do research on the other young man as well. But the way we are preparing, is we expect him [Leary] to be out there on the opening snap.”

“A lot of their guys have played a lot of games. A lot of our guys have played a lot of games…and they know each other. And the only thing we don’t know is how much they’ve improved in the past 12 months, and the only thing they don’t know, is how much we’ve improved in the past 12 months. We do have a very good understanding of each other.”