San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is crediting Syracuse football coach Dino Babers with getting him to Super Bowl LIV.

Jimmy G will be chasing his third Super Bowl ring on Sunday, but his first as a starting QB, when the 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs for the NFL championship. Garoppolo won two rings with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, and then was traded to the 49ers in 2017; he led San Francisco to a 13-3 record this season, the team’s best since 2011.

“I wouldn’t be here without Dino Babers," Garoppolo told media on Thursday. "Everything he did for me in my last two years of college bringing in the Baylor offense and all that stuff. It changed my college career indefinitely, I can’t thank him enough and he’s a great man.”

Babers coached Garoppolo for two seasons at Eastern Illinois, during which the team went 19-7 — a vast improvement from 4-18 in Garoppolo’s first two college football seasons — and the quarterback passed for nearly 9,000 yards. He threw 53 touchdowns and just nine interceptions during his senior season en route to winning the Walter Peyton Award, the Heisman Trophy of FCS football.

“I’ve told people a thousand times he’s the most accurate quarterback I’ve ever seen,” Babers, the head coach at SU since 2016, told syracuse.com in 2017. "And if I’m not mistaken, the San Francisco 49ers are in the West Coast offense, and their big deal is about fast release and accuracy. So in that offense I think it’s ideal for him, and I think he’ll do a fantastic job.”

Garoppolo and the 49ers will take on the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54 on Sunday, Feb. 2.