Greg Robinson is a nice guy. Seriously, he seems like a really nice guy. And so, you can imagine that he likes to be fair and kind and get kittens out of trees whenever possible.
But kindness works in football the same way it worked at the Double Deuce. But the Deuce had Dalton, a professional bouncer with a Zen philosophy who was recruited from the tough bars of New York City to come work at some hicktown dive and ultimately challenge the local robber baron over what is right through a series of tough lessons and tough roundhouse kicks to the face and groin.
We have Greg Robinson. Sadly, those two characters don't even out. Dalton wants you to be nice, but only until it's time to not be nice. And for Syracuse football, the time to not be nice was this off-season when Greg Robinson should have been coaching like his job was on the line (as it was) instead of trying to do what's fair and the kind thing to do.
We already know he based his opening weekend running back on seniority instead of actual performance. As for the QB position, we never had any reason to doubt Andrew Robinson as the starter. He was clearly the best player on the field and the best option for the Orange. Everyone said as much. Well, turns out that wasn't the case (or at least isn't with the help of some revisionist history) and Greg actually decided to rest the weight of the entire program on a quarterback he knew wasn't ready to handle it.
Truth is, if one day I have a son and he plays football and the head coach of his Pop Warner team is Greg Robinson (which is extremely possible at this point), I will be delighted. I know he'll have fun and enjoy the easy-going environment. I will not, however, expect them to be all that good. At least, at that level, having fun and being fair is all that matters.
But kindness works in football the same way it worked at the Double Deuce. But the Deuce had Dalton, a professional bouncer with a Zen philosophy who was recruited from the tough bars of New York City to come work at some hicktown dive and ultimately challenge the local robber baron over what is right through a series of tough lessons and tough roundhouse kicks to the face and groin.
We have Greg Robinson. Sadly, those two characters don't even out. Dalton wants you to be nice, but only until it's time to not be nice. And for Syracuse football, the time to not be nice was this off-season when Greg Robinson should have been coaching like his job was on the line (as it was) instead of trying to do what's fair and the kind thing to do.
We already know he based his opening weekend running back on seniority instead of actual performance. As for the QB position, we never had any reason to doubt Andrew Robinson as the starter. He was clearly the best player on the field and the best option for the Orange. Everyone said as much. Well, turns out that wasn't the case (or at least isn't with the help of some revisionist history) and Greg actually decided to rest the weight of the entire program on a quarterback he knew wasn't ready to handle it. "At the end of training camp I sat Andrew down and I sat Cam down. I told Andrew, ‘You haven’t been consistently playing the way you used to play all through camp.’ He was working hard and trying to do all the right things, but he really wasn’t as effective as he had been throwing the football. I told him, ‘Cam has had an excellent camp and I have to recognize that.’ He was quick to admit to that and say how proud he was to see Cam’s development. Then I sat Cam down and said, ‘Cam, you’ve had a great camp. Many days out here you’ve outplayed Andrew. But I feel like I owe it to Andrew for all that Andrew has been through, through all last season and how he fought through the adversity, that he deserves to go out in that first game and play.’ After the first game, I reviewed it and felt that Andrew really hadn’t improved. Andrew was still off and with that in mind, I felt it was the right thing to do to go to Cam. He fought through it and took his game to a level where I felt he deserved to be the starter this week. I was really proud of the way that he played."Exhibit #235969 as to why Greg Robinson is cut out to be a wonderful Little League head coach but a horrible College Head Coach.
Truth is, if one day I have a son and he plays football and the head coach of his Pop Warner team is Greg Robinson (which is extremely possible at this point), I will be delighted. I know he'll have fun and enjoy the easy-going environment. I will not, however, expect them to be all that good. At least, at that level, having fun and being fair is all that matters.