Other than his stern words at the end of last season, DOCTOR Daryl Gross really has never publicly acknowledged the fact that Greg Robinson is not suited for the profession of Syracuse football coach. Having seemingly run out of options on ways to stay quiet, Gross finally let loose the dogs of war. About f**king time. "It isn't working out," Gross said of Robinson. "It's very disappointing ... He has some work to do out in front of him."What Gross doesn't seem to understand, and what Greg Robinson knows in his heart of hearts, is that win #9 is right around the corner. It may take us another year to turn the corner, but it's coming...eventually...at some point...
"We got so many good things going on here," Gross said. "The 800-pound gorilla is football. You and I both know we've been very fair to Coach Robinson. Everyone wanted the guy's head last year. I said I didn't want Syracuse to become one of those three-years-and-out schools. I said, 'Let's calm down and [if needed] we'll get the first pick of the draft [of coaching candidates] next year.' That's where we are."
"He isn't going to do anything right now," Robinson, referring to Gross, said Monday night. "I know that. But let me tell you something, we just need to win. We're capable of winning. People don't know it."Success has never come gradually to anyone at anytime in the history of mankind. It always just comes out of nowhere and you go from worst to first in an instant. This is fact. This is science.
"When it happens, it doesn't gradually happen," Robinson said of success. "It explodes. We're all battling our ass off. I'm really excited about it."
So where did all of this come from? Why did Ivan Maisel reach out to Gross only at this moment to capture these soundbites? Oh wait, Maisel didn't reach out to Gross...Gross reached out to him!:
Gross, who came to Syracuse from the USC athletic department in December 2004, has been stung by recent coast-to-coast criticism, including on ESPN's College GameDay, of the program's decline under his watch. He made an unsolicited phone call to ESPN.com to defend himself, citing the university's success in non-revenue sports, ranging from the 2008 NCAA men's lacrosse championship to an Orange field hockey program currently ranked third in the nation.He called up ESPN in order to tell them how great of a job he is doing? Jesus, is your ego that fragile? I'd rather you talked openly about how poor of a job Robinson is doing because that's the truth and not just because a news outlet questions the job that you're doing personally. As much as Robinson deserves it, that's the very definition of throwing someone under the bus.
Gross is right, Robinson deserves to be fired and has not done anything to sway us otherwise. But to absolve himself of all blame is incorrect. Greg Robinson happened on your watch, sir. Greg Robinson is only here because you hired him. He's only still here because you wouldn't fire him when you had the chance. You take some of the "credit" for all of this as well.