Syracuse, N.Y. — Rocky Long has been in the coaching business a long time.
And, like anyone might in their job after nearly 50 years, he said he’s tired of one aspect of it.
“Coach (Dino Babers) knows this as well as anybody that’s been a head coach: You get tired of being a head coach,” Long said. “But there are things that head coaches have to do that take you away from coaching football, and it takes a lot of your time.
“So I was tired of being a head coach, and I wanted to be an assistant again, and I was lucky coach needed a guy.”
It was Long’s first time speaking publicly about his decision to join the Syracuse football staff as defensive coordinator under Babers this offseason, one he said has “worked out great.”
The comment came during Long’s appearance on the Dino Babers Show on the Syracuse Sports Network from Learfield on Thursday night. The show is hosted by Matt Park.
Long spoke on the show longer — about 10 minutes — than the other coordinators and assistants typically do. He joined first while Babers was also still at the microphone, and then had his own segment 1-on-1 with Park.
The 73-year-old coach joined Syracuse’s staff in December after the departure of three-year DC Tony White.
Long had been serving at his alma mater, New Mexico State, as defensive coordinator the same three-year span White was leading SU’s defense (2020-22). Before that, Long spent 11 seasons at San Diego State, nine of which he was head coach.
He has several other head coaching stints, too, a fact Babers has brought up often when talking about the value of having Long on staff.
Long is known for popularizing the 3-3-5 system that White brought to Syracuse. Long said Thursday it’s a “huge advantage” that the Orange defense was already using the system before he arrived, as he hasn’t had to spend as much time teaching positional assignments.
He also gave a bit of insight into why the 3-3-5 came to be thanks to his coaching peer Joe Lee Dunn.
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