Syracuse dismissed head football coach Dino Babers on Sunday morning, the school announced. The news was first reported by ESPN's Pete Thamel.

Babers was in his eighth season as head coach and had compiled a 41-55 record. Syracuse had just two winning seasons under him, but did win 10 games in 2018.

That was fast.

The eight year Dino Babers era, guiding Syracuse football through the pitfalls of trying to compete for ACC championships, is suddenly over.

It seems like just yesterday, December 7, 2015, the day Babers was introduced with his "belief without evidence" plea, and asking those on hand in the football auditorium to do the following:

"Close your eyes for me. Close your eyes and visualize this. You’re in the (Carrier) Dome. The house is filled. The feeling is electric. The noise is deafening. You have a defense that is relentless. You have a special teams that has been well-coached. You have an offense that will not huddle and you have a game that is faster than you’ve ever seen on turf. Open your eyes … That is going to be a reality. That is going to be Syracuse football."

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We know how the last eight seasons have turned out. Upsets of Virginia Tech (2016) and Clemson (2017) put Babers and the program on the map. The 10 wins and bowl victory in 2018 season earned a handsome contract extension, but other than the fast starts the last two seasons, the polish had worn off with Babers' rhetoric because the overall results on the field have shown a program struck in mediocrity, or worse (20-45 ACC record) since 2019.

Coaches are fired for one main reason, not winning enough games. That subsequently becomes bad for a business competing for entertainment dollars. The Dome renovations continue in 2024 with the long-awaited installation of individual seating, and the condensing of capacity. That means some season ticket holders will keep their seats, some will be moved, and there's plenty of inventory to sell to new customers and single game buyers.

One fact was apparent to the university if Babers was retained. Even if the Orange finished 6-6 by beating Wake Forest Saturday and won a subsequent minor bowl game, there was plenty of concern about apathy among the fan base. A ninth season as head coach would have made it hard to sell tickets to the segment of loyal customers who have loudly clamored for a coaching change, or to those that jump on the bandwagon of winning teams, not uneven performances week-in, week-out.

Moving forward, no doubt athletic director John Wildhack has his choice in mind, and with the early recruiting signing period only a month away, he will act soon to make arguably the most important personnel move of his seven year tenure.

We wish all the best to Dino Babers. He represented the university and program in a classy manner, brought a family atmosphere to his players and staff, sent elite players onto NFL careers and had that one glorious 2018 season. He also made many curious in-game strategic decisions over eight seasons that baffled Orange Nation, and more recently had his ups and downs with roster management in the world of the transfer portal. In the end, Babers simply did not win enough football games making this the right time for a program reboot.

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