A full list of every movie Dino Babers referenced during Thursday’s press conference

It’s been well documented that Syracuse Orange head football coach Dino Babers loves his movies. He didn’t disappoint during his press conference today with the references. Let’s run through them all now.

First of all, Babers was asked what his current favorite Netflix movie or show was. He responded with “All-American,” the TV series which is loosely based around the high school career of former New York Giants linebacker Spencer Paysinger. Babers said he actually recruited Paysinger while he was at Beverly Hills High School, so he has a clear connection there. And we’re just getting started.

Babers was then asked about the challenges in preparing his team for the upcoming season. He said it was like “Heartbreak Ridge,” Clint Eastwood’s movie from 1986, stating that this is gonna be an “adjust and improvise type of situation.” So we’re two movie/show references down. And there’s still 38 minutes left in the press conference.

I then came with a question on the additional challenge of learning a new system with new offensive and defensive coordinators for the upcoming season. Towards the end of his answer, Babers acknowledged that players and coaches are happy right now, but then he comes in with a quote from “Road House,” which really seemed to please ESPN’s David Hale.

“We’ll be nice, we’ll be nice, until it’s time not to be nice,” said Babers.

A few minutes later, Babers took a question from Syracuse.com’s Stephen Bailey. But before answering his question, Babers commented on Bailey’s facial hair, stating that his beard reminded him of an “earlier Hercules movie” and that he had that “strength coming” to him. It’s up for debate which rendition of Hercules Babers is referring to here, but I’m guessing it’s not the 2014 version with Dwayne Johnson.

Babers next fielded a question about the impact of having fewer fans in the Carrier Dome — I mean the STADIUM — due to the coronavirus restrictions. He immediately responded by saying that his team and the fans are like the 300 from the movie “300.” Babers noted that they are trying to keep the entire army out because “we have them wedged into that small area and we can make a lot of noise.”

So I’d like to introduce everyone to the next SU football promotion: where every fan dresses like a Spartan and yells “THIS IS SPARTA” from the top of their lungs. Sure would be better than jingling some keys on a third down.

So we’ve got four movie/show references in. Usually Babers doesn’t get that much time to slide in all of the pop culture references he wants in a given press conference, but something tells me he needed to let these loose after a long quarantine period. And we’re not done yet.

Babers later took a question from Syracuse.com and ESPN Syracuse’s Brent Axe. But before Axe could start his question, Babers immediately proclaimed, “I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of the day!” Now I could be wrong about the movie reference, as my film database is not nearly as large as Babers’s is (shocking, I know). But maybe the more educated of you could enlighten me.

Finally, Babers wrapped up his references with a nod to “Ford v Ferrari.” He simply stated, “We would like our quarterbacks to run our offense the way that driver (Christian Bale’s character, Ken Miles) drove the Ford. And the way that he knew that car is the way that we would love for our quarterbacks to know the offense.” A nice simple analogy to complete our pop culture lesson for the day.

And so with possibly six references today, that does it for another edition of “Dino at the movies.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find a Blockbuster so I can catch up on all the films that Babers knows.