His fate sealed, Greg Robinson pulled his captains aside Sunday to break the news. He would be fired at the end of the season, Robinson said. It wasn’t out of the blue, but it still felt out of place.

‘It’s still surprising to hear those words come out of your coach’s mouth,’ said senior captain Jake Flaherty. ‘But as leaders of this team, and as older guys on the team, it’s our job to hold it together and serve as good examples.’

Robinson will be fired at the end of the season, Syracuse officials announced Sunday. His teams plunged to the depths of Division I-A football and his career record stands at 9-36.

For the players, the announcement wasn’t a surprise. They understood the score. They understood their coach’s troubles. And they understood the reasons for Robinson’s departure, a reminder of their on-field disappointments. ‘Looking back,’ Flaherty said, ‘there are things that the players could have done better these last couple years.’

Robinson learned of his firing Sunday morning. He told the captains right before the team gathered in the auditorium at the Iocolano-Petty Football Wing. Afternoon practice was canceled.

‘You can tell some people might have thought that it was going to happen,’ said quarterback Cameron Dantley.

Questions about the head coach surrounded the team all season. The uncertainty about his future was always there. The players had to deal with that all year.

‘It’s definitely tough for us to answer questions about what was going on with our own football coach, cause we know how much he cares about us,’ Dantley said. ‘We know what the situation is.’

Now, the members of the team no longer have to grapple with Robinson’s future. But they do have to grapple with their responsibility for it.

Dantley and Andrew Robinson rotated at quarterback Saturday. Both struggled – Dantley threw for 38 yards, Robinson 13 – as Connecticut thrashed the Orange, 39-14. Double-digit losses have become typical under Greg Robinson’s tenure.

‘I’m sure people are going to pick it apart,’ Andrew Robinson said, ‘and try to come up with some explanation or reason why we haven’t won the way we should have the past couple years and everything like that. But I haven’t really, to be honest with you, thought about that right now. It’s something I’m sure I’m going to reflect on once the season’s over.’

But the two quarterbacks have another year of eligibility. For a player like senior Curtis Brinkley, Robinson is the only college coach he will know.

‘I really can’t say how I’d characterize (the reaction of) the team,’ said Brinkley, who cracked 1,000 yards rushing Saturday. ‘But as far as myself, you know Coach Robinson means a lot to me. And his family also means a lot to me. For me to know that he’s not going to be here coaching … by no means is he a bad coach. Coach Robinson is a great coach, a good guy, and like I said earlier, it’s hard for me to stomach it.’

Brinkley added, ‘I know after Syracuse, when he leaves and I leave, he’s always going to be my No. 1 coach. I know I’m going to be a big part of his life, until death do us part.’

But players like Jake Flaherty understand their SU legacies will be linked to Robinson. It’s too late to change that, even if they wish it had turned out differently. Flaherty, the team’s starting middle linebacker the last two seasons, led the team in tackles in Saturday’s game. He missed tackles, too.

‘I went in there and watched the film of the game yesterday, and there were some plays that I could have been better on, obviously,’ Flaherty said. ‘I’d be shocked to see if everyone wasn’t thinking that.’

Flaherty, Brinkley and the two quarterbacks spoke with the media after Robinson’s press conference Sunday. They stood in the auditorium where Robinson announced his firing to the team.

As the players walked out, former All-American tight end Chris Gedney said a few words to them. He stopped Flaherty, and tried to explain how this had happened to him with the Arizona Cardinals when Vince Tobin was fired in 2000. The team would need Flaherty’s leadership for these last two games, Gedney said.

The season isn’t over, even if Sunday may have been an early funeral for Robinson’s career. Robinson harped on that. The players did, too. The team travels to Notre Dame Saturday.

‘We’re going to go there and kick some ass,’ Flaherty said. ‘We’re going to play our asses off.’

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Published on November 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm