Dino Babers didn’t think he would ever become a head coach. In the course of 27 years, Babers was an assistant at 12 different schools, teaching six different positions. His dream of being the leading man was dwindling with every snap.

“I always lived my life from a very young age to be a head football coach,” Babers said. “It was something that I always worked and strived to be. But after I left UCLA, I kind of gave up on that. I kind of said, ‘I’m getting too old, this is obviously not going to happen for me.’”

It wasn’t until before the 2012 season that Babers finally got the call that would thrust him into a head coaching position. Bob Spoo was retiring after 25 years as the Eastern Illinois head coach, and the school wanted to interview Babers as a replacement. Babers had been on the staff for Spoo’s first season as head coach in 1987 and welcomed the consideration.

Last season, he inherited an EIU team that endured two consecutive 2-9 seasons. In his first season, the Panthers finished 7-5 and won the Ohio Valley Conference with a 6-1 in-conference record. A year later, Eastern Illinois is 3-0 and ranked eighth in the Sports Network Football Championship Subdivision poll, while boasting the division’s most high-powered offense.

“This blessing just kind of came upon me,” Babers said. “I decided I had to do it. When they offered me the job, the crazy thing is I had to take a major pay cut. This is the only time I didn’t tell my wife I was going to take a job. I took the job on faith, and said that this was going to work out.”

After leaving UCLA in 2007, Babers was hired to be the wide receivers coach at Baylor. It was there that Babers experienced a moment that rejuvenated his career.

Babers was involved in a life-threatening car crash, one that he said made him rethink his life.

“After that, everything in my life changed, from a spiritual standpoint, and everything else,” Babers said. “I just decided that I wasn’t going to settle. I wasn’t going to settle in my spiritual life, I wasn’t going to settle in my marriage, and I wasn’t going to settle on the football field.”

Though now Babers said the team is brimming with confidence, that wasn’t the case when he first arrived.

“I thought it was a situation where we’d have to go into a rebuilding stage, and rebuild the foundation of this program,” Babers said. “But once I got inside the program, what I found was splintered personalities. I found people that didn’t have faith in themselves, they didn’t really believe in what they were doing. I felt all I had to do was change their belief.”

When he first came in, he said, many people speculated that he would need to make a quarterback change. Jimmy Garoppolo was coming off an abysmal year.

But Babers said he knew Garoppolo, now a senior, would be starting behind center the moment he saw him throw.

“I can’t tell you why he thought that as soon as he saw me,” Garoppolo said. “Obviously I did something right. I think he made the right decision. I’ve had success in the program that’s he’s brought in with the Baylor offense. I love the system that he brought in.”

Garoppolo immediately became statistically the best quarterback in the OVC. He passed for 3,823 yards and 31 touchdowns. In just three games this season he already has 14 touchdowns, matching his freshman total. He’s averaged 427 yards of passing per game.

His primary target is Erik Lora, a redshirt senior. Lora led the team in receptions in 2010 with 50. After sitting out 2011, he collected 136 catches in 2012, hauling in 12 touchdowns. Lora credits Babers as the catalyst for regrouping a program that had gotten complacent under Spoo.

“We just went through kind of a rough patch,” Lora said. “The team and the program were kind of on the left foot. When coach Babers came in here he really brought some order back. Babers is in your face and tells you how he wants it done. He brought a real sense of urgency.”

On Saturday, the Panthers will travel to play at Northern Illinois. Last season the Huskies earned a Bowl Championship Series bowl berth out of the Mid-American Conference. And though now Babers said he hopes to set the foundation for the next 25 years, much like Spoo did before him, he’s open to one day having the opportunity to compete for a BCS bowl himself.

“After my accident, I’m led a different way. He tells me where to go,” Babers said, referencing his connection with God. “He tells me who to coach. And if he wants me to stay here, I’ll stay. And if he opens another opportunity to go somewhere else, then that’s his will. I’m following him.”

Published on September 20, 2013 at 2:20 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3