Syracuse is a 1-10 football team.

It’s not a 1-10 program.

The distinction is important to make. True, the 2005 Orange was one of the worst in college football. But don’t get discouraged about the football program: Give head coach Greg Robinson time.

There’s an understood grace period when a new coach takes over a team three seasons removed from a winning season. How long it lasts is debatable, but it should at least be a season. The 1-10 result shouldn’t be judged.

It’s naive to think this is unique to SU. Difficult first seasons aren’t exactly foreign to new head coaches.

Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, now an institution in the Hawkeye State after three 10-win seasons in four years, finished 1-10 in his first season in Iowa City. Ferentz took over a program that, like Syracuse, was replacing a prolific coach – Hayden Fry – whose performance leveled off toward the end of his 19-year tenure at Iowa.

Robinson’s heard from coaches who experienced similar situations. Mack Brown, Robinson’s former boss at Texas who has the Longhorns one win away from the national championship game, was 1-10 in his first season at North Carolina. Brown even went 1-10 in his second season but eventually led the Tar Heels to six consecutive bowl appearances and two 10-win seasons.

The common denominator was they both needed time to recruit their own players. They also needed to install their own systems.

‘(Coaches have) been calling,’ Robinson said. ‘These are friends. I didn’t like hearing these things three weeks ago but I do now.’

Consider Pete Carroll at Southern California, the school from which Syracuse plucked athletic director Daryl Gross. The Trojans started 1-4 and eventually finished a mediocre 6-6, including a loss in the unheralded Las Vegas Bowl. Carroll did this with more talent than SU featured this season, including eventual Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer.

There’s no need to explain where USC is now.

‘I really don’t worry; all I can do is drive forward and keep analyzing and keep critiquing but that’s it,’ Robinson said. ‘I’m not going to deviate real quick. I’ve been through enough of all this that I can see it going and doing the things you’re talking about – analyzing and critiquing and evaluating. If no change is necessary and all we need to do is to get more talent, then I’ll do that.’

Syracuse’s personnel simply doesn’t fit Robinson’s vision. And it’s no knock on former SU coach Paul Pasqualoni, one of the best college football coaches of the 1990s. But the systems are just so different, and in a way, so are the philosophies.

Consider the pedigrees. Robinson is a cool Southern California transplant in the Pete Carroll mold of saying the right things and acting like one of the guys. Pasqualoni is a Northeasterner in the Joe Paterno-mode of being the taciturn disciplinarian.

While the results haven’t been what fans expected when optimism was soaring during the summer, the program’s direction is still on path. Last winter’s recruiting push for area talents Lavar Lobdell and Bruce Williams is an example. Commitments from this year’s high school seniors – headed by Baltimore-area quarterback Andrew Robinson – are collecting steam despite SU’s poor performances.

‘I can’t do it as fast as I wanted to do it,’ Robinson said after losing to South Florida on Nov. 12. ‘I think (recruits) believe in what we’re doing, they know where we are trying to go and a number of them are on board. I’d like to believe they see an opportunity for them to help us.’

The transition of coaches can happen overnight; the transition of players can’t.

Let Robinson recruit, install his system and cultivate an attitude. And if the Orange doesn’t show improvement next season or the season after, then by all means criticize the move.

But if Robinson is the right man for the job – and a few months ago, that was sentiment – then give him time to prove it.

Zach Berman is an assistant copy editor at The Daily Orange where his columns appear occasionally. E-mail him at zberman@syr.edu.

Published on November 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm