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The Daily OrangeFB | Diamond: With writing on the wall, Orange still playing hard for Robinson
By Jared Diamond
Posted: 11/3/08, 4:23 AM EST Section: Sports
This football team made a statement Saturday night. Not on the field by somehow beating Louisville, but in how the players reacted afterward.
Lost in all the euphoric joy in the press room, Greg Robinson's giddy and playful press conference (even by his standards), and the general goodwill an upset victory creates, was the honest appreciation the Orange had for its head coach.
Say what you want about the quality of this football team. It is not very high. That has been well-documented and publicized. But despite all the losing, the speculation surrounding Robinson's job security and the increasing discomfort about how and when the seemingly inevitable firing happens, Syracuse has not given up on Greg Robinson. This win proves it.
Don't believe me? Just listen to what players had to say:
• Senior tailback Curtis Brinkley: "Most importantly, I'm happy for my coach. After the win, I gave him a big hug, and he deserves this win just as much as we do."
• Senior safety Bruce Williams: "We're going to believe in Coach Robinson and believe in our team. That's our motto right now."
• Junior quarterback Cameron Dantley: "To know that emotionally, (all the players) feel about this team just like everyone else does - they feel about this team so much from the coaches all the way to the players and everyone on the staff."
Maybe they were spewing a bunch of canned responses or they were still caught in the moment of a wholly unexpected Big East victory, but I believed them. Color me stupidly gullible or na've, but when enough players tell heartfelt stories about greeting their head coach in the locker room or how happy they were for Robinson picking up his second-career conference win at home, it sticks.
Contrast the current situation bogging down this program with what happened at Washington last week. On Oct. 27, athletic director Scott Woodward announced his decision to fire Tyrone Willingham midseason, at least partially because the players were starting to quit on a head coach they knew was a lame duck.
Lost in all the euphoric joy in the press room, Greg Robinson's giddy and playful press conference (even by his standards), and the general goodwill an upset victory creates, was the honest appreciation the Orange had for its head coach.
Say what you want about the quality of this football team. It is not very high. That has been well-documented and publicized. But despite all the losing, the speculation surrounding Robinson's job security and the increasing discomfort about how and when the seemingly inevitable firing happens, Syracuse has not given up on Greg Robinson. This win proves it.
Don't believe me? Just listen to what players had to say:
• Senior tailback Curtis Brinkley: "Most importantly, I'm happy for my coach. After the win, I gave him a big hug, and he deserves this win just as much as we do."
• Senior safety Bruce Williams: "We're going to believe in Coach Robinson and believe in our team. That's our motto right now."
• Junior quarterback Cameron Dantley: "To know that emotionally, (all the players) feel about this team just like everyone else does - they feel about this team so much from the coaches all the way to the players and everyone on the staff."
Maybe they were spewing a bunch of canned responses or they were still caught in the moment of a wholly unexpected Big East victory, but I believed them. Color me stupidly gullible or na've, but when enough players tell heartfelt stories about greeting their head coach in the locker room or how happy they were for Robinson picking up his second-career conference win at home, it sticks.
Contrast the current situation bogging down this program with what happened at Washington last week. On Oct. 27, athletic director Scott Woodward announced his decision to fire Tyrone Willingham midseason, at least partially because the players were starting to quit on a head coach they knew was a lame duck.
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