In his final press conference at Syracuse University, outoging head coach Greg Robinson read The Little Engine That Could.
No, I am not shitting you. He then used the pivotal line "I think I can" to illustrate his point, which was...he thinks he still can. I can't be the only person thinking of The Puppy Who Lost It's Way from Billy Madison, can I?
Greg went out pretty much the way you knew he would. Full of kind words for everyone, rambling and brimming with enough denial to choke a whale. He went out of his way to talk about why he always sees the glass half full, a charming notion in theory but unbelievably grating in practice. He was ready to go with excuses-a-plenty for why he was here today (scheduling, injuries, bad breaks). And of course, he was confident in the fact that, if given just one more year, he would have had this whole thing figured out:
"It isn't what I didn't get done. It's that it's not finished."
Greg's going down with his A material, folks. Seriously, read that quote again. WHAT?
It's not finished. We can always go back to a play or this or that. No. It's just not finished. It's not finished. I'd like that last year. I'd like that last year. It's just a work in progress. I really do. It's right there. I think I can. I do. I can show you.
No thanks, Greg. We're good.
Greg drops an interesting note about Colt Brennan. You know, the guy who threw 3,534,592 touchdown passes at Hawai'i? As we know, there was a time when he was considering Syracuse to play at. The word was that Cantor shot it down given his backround. Greg mentioned that one of his big regrets was not pushing harder to get Colt.
Greg ALMOST got into what we've long waited to hear...his feelings on the state of the program when it was given to him. It's long been guessed that Robinson feels like SU football was in bad shape thanks to Paul Pasqualoni when he took over. He stopped short of going into it, but something tells me he'll be more forthcoming when he's away from Syracuse:
"It's different. I think the infrastructure built in here right now is very strong. I'm not saying it wasn't. See, the moment that I do something ... that's putting something on Paul. You know something? Un-uh. I'm not into that. I'm not into that."
Greg didn't leave without sending us off with a couple final Gregisms to add to the list. One was a new twist on an old favorite and the other was just really creepy.
On his son, Dominic:
That's gonne be hard for Laura and I...in that he has embraced this community...and, uh, he's really fightin' the fight right now."
On whether or not he will coach again:
I'm gonna coach football...are you kidding me? If it has to be...you know, that darn Joe Casamento (head coach of CBA), I'ma tell you what...you tell him I'm breathing down his throat."
Ew.
Donnie Webb wraps up the presser as well. If you have Orange Access, you can watch it on SUAthletics. You can also read the full transcript here.
Goodbye Greggers. I will miss your Gregisms. I will miss your enthusiasm for the job. And I will miss your aw shucks-i-tude. That's about it, though. Good luck with all that throat-breathing.