It ended quietly. No pleas for the future. No rationalizing a two-win season. No blaming youth and inexperience.

No worries.

Greg Robinson sounded about as cool and collected as he has in the past three weeks after Syracuse’s 52-31 loss at the hand of Cincinnati Saturday night, deflecting very few questions about himself and the future of the program.

Maybe he knows something we don’t.

As we reach day three of Job Watch ’07, the more and more time that elapses without an official announcement from Director of Athletics Daryl Gross likely means Robinson, he of the 7-28 record in three years at Syracuse, will be back for a fourth season in 2008.

At print time Monday night, 12 coaches had already been canned or resigned since the season ended. Texas A&M actually already named its replacement for embattled Dennis Franchione on Monday, Houston Texans defensive coordinator Mike Sherman. The average record in 2007 of the departed? 5-7.

Two of Robinson’s seven career wins have come against lowly Buffalo. In fact, Robinson’s record against BCS schools is 3-27, the three wins being Illinois and Connecticut in 2006 and Louisville in 2007.

This season, Syracuse ranked 118th in rushing offense out of 119 Division I-A teams, 116th in scoring offense, 118th in sacks allowed, 110th in total defense and 118th in sacks. In 2005, Robinson’s first season, the Orange ranked higher in all of those categories.

Gross refused comment after the game Saturday night and maintained through a Syracuse athletics spokeswoman that he will re-evaluate the program in the coming days and make a decision on Robinson’s future.

There are more than a few factors involved here. The biggest, perhaps, is money.

Syracuse University has never embarked on a contract buyout as substantial as Robinson’s would be. The 56-year-old coach is the highest-paid employee at SU and is due a salary of $1 million for the next two seasons. Throw in the money it would take to fire the majority of his staff and the buyout figure could reach as high as $3 million. (Of course, we’ll never know the exact figure because Syracuse is a private institution that does not have to reveal contract details.)

Now take that approximate $3 million and add in the money it would take to hire a new coaching staff. If Gross were to choose a head coach that is currently employed by another school, he needs to pay that buyout as well. For example, one name that has been bandied about among national writers, former Syracuse assistant and current Central Florida head coach, George O’Leary, has a $5 million buyout, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Forget about that.

All of this is not to say that it is a sad day if money is holding the university back from making a decision it would normally make under other circumstances. It didn’t hold a financially strapped Georgia Tech athletic department from firing Chan Gailey, who was scheduled to make $1 million per year for another four seasons.

But it appears as though Gross is willing to accept that Robinson fell victim to a poor group of upperclassmen – all of whom were recruited before Robinson stepped on campus – forcing younger players into the lineup. And the rash of injuries that Syracuse faced in 2007 is also something Gross will likely point to in support of Robinson.

Maybe the foregone conclusion of Gross keeping Robinson is the athletic director realizing the job market doesn’t exactly favor Syracuse right now. Look at the positions that are currently and are expected to be open: Michigan, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, UCLA and Mississippi. And the talent pool that’s out there isn’t exactly overwhelming.

Needless to say, it’s hard to think Gross could find a replacement that would do worse than Robinson has. Syracuse’s teams haven’t just mired in mediocrity under Robinson. They’ve become worse.

Has Gross really made up his mind? That we cannot be sure of. The man who helped hire Pete Carroll at Southern California, abruptly fired former Syracuse head coach Paul Pasqualoni after a crushing bowl loss to Georgia Tech in 2004 and brought big names like Luke Jensen and Gary Gait to coach non-revenue sports at SU, holds his coaching evaluation process near and dear to his heart.

He’s never publicly supported Robinson. But it looks as though the money issues and Gross’ desire to afford Robinson more time to infuse his own talent and schemes will be the deciding factors in a fourth season.

But then again, those are all just excuses, much like the past three seasons at Syracuse.

Matt Gelb is the sports editor at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. He can be reached at magelb@gmail.com.

Published on November 26, 2007 at 12:00 pm