Former Art Briles assistant Dino Babers discusses his time at Baylor

Dino Babers started as Syracuse’s head football coach last season. He was an assistant at Baylor from 2008 to 2011, then he moved to become the head coach at Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green. Babers’ reputation for a prolific, fast-paced offense similar to Art Briles’ helped him land the head job at Syracuse.

As part of an interview profile with Babers, SB Nation’s Richard Johnson asked about Baylor. These appear to be Babers’ most extensive public comments on Baylor since Briles’ firing last May. Part of Babers’ response:

What I’ll say is I only know, I can only talk about what I know, and that was 2008 to 2011. Had one guy do bad; kicked him off the team. Which is what you’re supposed to do, right? And that’s what we did.

Babers’ time as an offensive assistant coincided with most of defensive lineman Tevin Elliott’s time on the roster. Four months after Babers left, police charged Elliot with two counts of sexual assault. He was kicked off the team and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Then I left and became a head coach, and I can’t, and it wouldn’t be fair, ‘cause I could be saying one thing, and it could be totally different, and then I’m on print going ... I can talk about from 2008 to 2011.

Tevin Elliot was there. Heard he did bad, heard he got kicked off the team. And I became a head coach. And that’s not, how do I say this? That’s not to cover me. It’s just what happened.

I’m military. Boom, boom, next. There are certain things that you don’t get second chances for. I got four daughters. I’m down with that.

The events and reporting most frequently associated with Baylor’s sexual assault scandal occurred mostly after Babers left for Eastern Illinois.

In remarks reported last summer by Syracuse.com, Babers declined to comment in detail on the Baylor scandal or Briles:

“I don’t even want to talk about that stuff right now,” Babers said. “Obviously it’s very explosive and it’s very newsworthy, but I just want to honor what we’re doing right here [at Fort Drum] and honor our military. It’s very personal, and I just don’t want to bring it into the press.”

Babers also told SB Nation it was difficult at the time to leave Briles’ program:

He says, ‘Two things are gonna happen: You’re gonna take the opportunity and you’re gonna succeed, and you’re gonna take the opportunity and you’re gonna fail. If you take the opportunity and you fail,’ he says, ‘You’re gonna become a Big 12 coach again. You’re gonna be a Power 5 coach somewhere again. It may not be at Baylor, but there’s no doubt that you’ll become a Power 5 coach again.’

He says, ‘The question to me is not whether you go or not; the question is whether you bet on yourself.’ And those were the last words that kept ringing in my ear.

Briles has a fairly extensive coaching tree. In addition to Babers, former Baylor assistant Philip Montgomery is the head coach at Tulsa. A handful of former Briles staffers have scattered as assistants now that Matt Rhule has replaced him permanently at Baylor. Those include his son, Kendal, the former Baylor offensive coordinator who now holds the same job under Lane Kiffin at FAU.