This one is now on Daryl Gross.

Yesterday, he retained Greg Robinson – which can be interpreted as admirable loyalty, the type of patience seldom seen in athletic administrators but has produced a fair number of success stories. Or it can simply be viewed as outright lunacy, an athletic director unable to admit he made a mistake when the guy he brought in has won just seven games in three seasons.

That will sort itself out next season. But Gross’ announcement Wednesday was also an important move for him. He could have claimed a mulligan and used his get-out-of-jail-free card. If he said, ‘Enough is enough. Let’s see what the next guy will do,’ no one would have complained. It’s common practice to blame the coach, with either an athletic director or general manager. Look at all the quick-triggered firings as evidence.

Gross took a different route. A harder route. He is saying, ‘Be patient.’ Or maybe he just wants to say, ‘I was right all along.’ Whatever it is, the result is another year of Robinson. And now Gross’ reputation – one pristine after hiring Pete Carroll and Tim Floyd at Southern California and a handful of noteworthy hires at SU – should reside with Robinson’s.

‘That’s not the issue,’ Gross said when asked whether his perception with the fans hinges on Robinson’s success. ‘I don’t get into defending myself. My resume speaks for itself.’

That resume, heavy on football, is the reason he’s here in the first place. Gross offers much to the athletic department that the common fan doesn’t necessarily see, but his task was to fix what fans do see: football. He was from USC, he had experience in scouting and coaching. And never forget he hired Carroll.

He was supposed to find someone who would fix the program – the Syracuse version of Carroll.

When he arrived in 2004, it was already announced that Paul Pasqualoni would return in 2005. Then Syracuse was embarrassed by Georgia Tech in the Champs Sports Bowl with Gross parading the sideline. He made the change – his first major move as athletic director – and his reasoning seems ironic considering Wednesday’s announcement.

‘Obviously, there has been some success here, but as of late, it hasn’t been on a consistent basis,’ Gross said upon firing Pasqualoni.

Those inconsistencies were two straight 6-6 seasons. Robinson has won seven games in three seasons (Gross, by the way, was a psychology major – not a math major). Yet it’s a different tune when Gross discusses Robinson.

‘No decision is made in a vacuum,’ Gross said. ‘Things weren’t going well at the end of the Pasqualoni tenure, and that’s the way things go. But what happens is now we’re in a new tenure and recruiting picks back up – I think people would admit that – and you got to overcome the initial transitions of what happens there and take those bumps and bruises.’

Gross admitted the team should have won more, but he kept mentioning talent evaluation and patience as reasons not to pull the plug. Pasqualoni was at Syracuse for 14 years. Robinson finished his third.

Gross’ decision is even more curious considering his track record since arriving at Syracuse.

There is a common misperception that the athletic director is the football director. That is not the case, which is why football should not be the sole barometer for an athletic director. But since Gross arrived in December 2004, there have been seven coaching changes. The reasons for the previous coaches leaving have been different – retirement, job change or career change – but what is indisputable is that Gross quickly put his own stamp on the department. Seven new coaches in three years is not coincidence.

‘You see what coaches I’ve brought in in the past,’ Gross said. ‘It’s not just football.’

On top of his success in hiring coaches – with so far the exception of Robinson – the athletic department is in a better position than when Gross arrived. From marketing to broadcasting to new media, there have been initiatives that have enhanced the athletic program.

But there’s no fooling anyone. Athletic directors are judged by major sports. As much as swimming fans might protest, 40,000 fans don’t fill the Carrier Dome to watch swimming. The problem is, 40,000 haven’t been filling the Dome to watch football recently, either.

That is why there is even a question right now. The program is in the worst shape it has been in for a long time, and fewer and fewer fans are noticing.

‘When I watched Notre Dame this year when they were 1-9, all the sudden I look in the stands on television and it was packed, it was full,’ Gross said. ‘They’re there anyway. I think that’s important.’

Gross wants fans to take his approach. Ever the optimist, his answer is stay on course, stay loyal to the man he thought would fix it in the first place.

To that end, there is precedent. The No. 1 team in the country, Missouri, could have fired Gary Pinkel at different points of his previous six years in Columbia, yet the athletic department stayed loyal. Now he’s a game away from playing for the national championship.

‘You have to have solutions. You don’t just make moves because you’re unhappy,’ Gross said. ‘That’s not the right way to approach things.’

So this is his solution – another year for his defining hire to prove Gross still has magic in the hat that produced Pete Carroll.

He better hope it’s the right decision. If it’s not, he might not make the next one.

Zach Berman is the featured sports columnist at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear weekly. He can be reached at zberman@syr.edu.

Published on November 28, 2007 at 12:00 pm