Late in Friday night’s game against Clemson, Syracuse head coach Dino Babers had a decision to make.
Syracuse had the ball on fourth-and-1 from the Clemson 30-yard line with 43 seconds remaining in the game, down by three points. Instead of potentially going for it, Babers opted to try a 48-yard field goal with kicker Andre Szmyt, who became the Orange’s all-time leading scorer earlier in the game.
The rest is history as Szmyt missed short left, and the Tigers held on to win 17-14.
During his postgame press conference, Babers defended his decision to kick the field goal instead of going for it.
“We’re thinking about it, but the big thing is you’re kicking to play in overtime,” Babers said. “If you go fourth-and-1, I want to go. But if you go and you don’t make it, it’s crazy. What a game. You don’t want to end it on that, you want to play more. Once again, I felt like we had momentum based off of what was going on. If I knew what the outcome was, I might’ve done something else. But I never anticipated that.”
You can watch Baber’s full comments on the loss to Clemson and more in his postgame presser below:
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