Editor’s note: Syracuse football has six wins in its last 19 games. Facing the struggles of the present, The Daily Orange took a look back at some of hard times of the past in part two of this series.

Greg Robinson stood in front of a Syracuse backdrop for the last time. His usual SU attire was replaced by a brown, plaid button-down shirt and on the podium in front of him lay a piece of paper with the synopsis of a children’s book.

“I’m going to read a little story. It’s called ‘The Little Engine That Could,’” Robinson said. It was a metaphor for his time as the Syracuse head football coach.

Two weeks earlier, Robinson was fired four years into his five-year contract with the Orange. Two games were left in the season at the time, but he finished out the year. Now, he was addressing the media for the last time.

“Well, you know what? I still think I can,” he said, appearing to tear up. “I do.”

Robinson was supposed to revitalize a declining Syracuse team, but instead guided it to rock bottom. With his first season came the worst record in Syracuse history and it hardly got better.

In his four years, spanning from 2005 to 2008, the Orange went 10-37 and 3-25 in the Big East. The five wins from his first two seasons have been vacated because of NCAA violations. Robinson oversaw the only two double-digit losing seasons in SU history and the lowest attendance in decades.

He arrived to usher in a new era of SU football, but left behind a program in pieces instead.

“Greg Robinson did everything he could to try to win football games,” former Syracuse linebacker Jake Flaherty said.

Paul Pasqualoni was the head coach for the 14 years prior to Robinson. His teams finished with a losing record just once and regularly competed in the Top 25.

Coming off three straight years without a winning season, then-Chancellor Nancy Cantor said Pasqualoni’s job was safe. But when SU lost 51-14 to Georgia Tech in the Champs Sports Bowl, newly appointed athletic director Daryl Gross, just weeks into his new job, fired Pasqualoni.

Gross set out to find a defensive-minded head coach and found that in Robinson, a defensive coordinator with two Super Bowl rings and four Rose Bowl championships.

“At the end of the day, Greg Robinson is the perfect choice for Syracuse University,” Gross said in a press conference announcing his hiring.

Robinson brought a West Coast offense, new defensive schemes and a wave of excitement with him to Syracuse. Ticket sales rose and his first game attracted 45,418 fans to the Carrier Dome — the largest home opening crowd since 1999.

But Robinson didn’t live up to the hype. His first year ended with a 1-10 record. The Orange was third worst in nation in offensive yards and fourth worst in offensive touchdowns.

After the season, Robinson said he’d critique every aspect of the team. “I’m going to do whatever I need to do to keep our program going in the direction it needs to go,” he said.

Robinson’s second season was his best. Syracuse snapped an 11-game losing streak that spanned 371 days. It won three games in a row and had bowl aspirations five weeks into the season. As the season carried on, the Orange didn’t win games, and those hopes dissipated.

“We definitely have to win these fans back over,” former defensive end Jameel McClain said after the season. “Everybody knows it. We lost the games and put ourselves in this position. We have to win to get them back.”

When the team lost the first two games of the 2007 season, Daryl Gross told The Daily Orange, “You just need to be patient with it.” Colleagues had told him it takes five years to rebuild a football program.

After another loss dropped SU to its worst start since 1986, its biggest win under Robinson finally came. The Orange shocked then-No. 18 Louisville on the road. Gross walked into the locker room with his arm around Robinson and the team celebrated.

Syracuse would win just one more game that season.

“I think my record can show that I’m a good football coach,” Robinson said after a 41-10 drubbing from South Florida, which dropped his personal record to 7-26. “Do I make every decision that’s perfect? I can’t tell you that.”

At the end of the year, Gross announced Robinson would be back for another season. The condition was that Robinson needed to make significant progress.

By the start of 2008, Robinson was on his third offensive coordinator in four years. Students sold T-shirts, which said, “Greg Robinson Farewell Tour” and high school coaches were telling players not to go to Syracuse due to speculation about a turbulent head coach situation.

Only 27,549 fans came to SU’s loss to Pittsburgh on Sept. 27 — the smallest Carrier Dome crowd in 22 years.

The significant progress that Gross had hoped for and demanded never came. On Nov. 16, 2008, Robinson was fired with two games still left in the season — his year highlighted by an embarrassing 42-28 loss to Akron and punctuated at the end with a 30-10 loss at No. 16 Cincinnati.

Three days after the final game, Robinson stood in the Iocolano-Petty Football Complex wondering what could have been.

Maybe if he had pushed administration to keep SU’s offer to Colt Brennan, the quarterback would’ve set a Division I record for touchdown passes at Syracuse instead of Hawaii.

Maybe if Robinson’s team didn’t have to face the eighth-toughest schedule without future NFL wide receivers Mike Williams and Taj Smith the on-field product would’ve been good enough for Robinson to keep his job.

“I’d like that last year. It’s just a work in progress,” Robinson said at his farewell press conference. “… It’s right there. I think I can. I do. I can show you.”

In four years, all Robinson showed was an inability to win games. And regardless of what he thought he could do, in reality, he nose-dived the Orange into its worst period in history.

Published on October 27, 2015 at 12:04 am

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus