Greg Robinson generally shuns hitting during practice.

The Syracuse head coach would rather avoid the risk of his players getting hurt and missing game action.

There’s a flip side to that strategy. When the Orange defense entered its season opener Saturday at Northwestern, it had gotten few chances to actually work on tackling during summer camp.

The rustiness showed. Syracuse’s defenders repeatedly whiffed during the second half of Saturday’s 30-10 defeat, allowing the Wildcats’ offense to take control of the game.

‘We had a number of missed tackles,’ Robinson said during his Tuesday press conference. ‘These missed tackles were situations when we had three or four people around the football making contact. But sometimes, they made contact with each other as opposed to make contact with the ball-carrier.’

Robinson also speculated his tacklers were over-excited about their first game and were ‘trying too hard.’

Many of SU’s tackling woes came against Northwestern tailback Tyrell Sutton, who terrorized the Orange to the tune of 185 all purpose yards.

Sutton and the rest of Northwestern’s offensive weapons repeatedly got past the first and second levels of the Syracuse defense. Hence why two of SU’s top three tacklers were its safeties, senior A.J. Brown (11) and sophomore Randy McKinnon (8).

‘We made some mental errors,’ said linebacker Mike Mele, who had seven tackles. ‘Technique wasn’t that great, tackling. We just got to improve.’

But how exactly does the Orange fix its tackling deficiencies before Saturday’s home opener against Akron?

One thing’s for sure. Robinson won’t deviate from his practice philosophy.

‘I just don’t know you can go live enough,’ Robinson said. ‘Maybe that’s just my paranoia of getting too many people get banged up during camp … I think that film really is something that can help our players.’

He better hope so. Akron’s offense, though a far cry from Northwestern, showed some flashes in its opening day loss, 38-17, at Wisconsin. In particular, Zips quarterback Chris Jacquemain went 22-for-36 for 227 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

For now, Robinson’s confident the defense’s performance against Northwestern was a hiccup.

‘We will be (a good tackling team),’ Robinson said. ‘I know we will.’

Tailback talk

Once again, Robinson endured more questions about his team’s crowded running back corps.

And once again, Robinson played coy, refusing to divulge any information about how Syracuse will handle its tailback situation Saturday.

For now, indications are Curtis Brinkley, Delone Carter and Doug Hogue will once again split the load almost evenly.

‘The running back situation will take care of itself,’ Robinson said. ‘ … One thing I will say is this: the one concern I didn’t have was at the running back position. I thought we had productivity. If it isn’t broke then why try to fix it?’

That sort of talk likely won’t satisfy any of the three tailbacks. After Saturday’s defeat, Carter expressed his frustration with the situation, saying the coaching staff would eventually have to make a decision on who would play more.

Brinkley seemed to echo those concerns Tuesday.

‘Obviously, in a perfect world, it’d be this person is the starter, and we play him until he gets tired, but honestly I really don’t even care no more,’ Brinkley said. ‘It’s frustrating, to be honest with you. But I can’t deal with it. That’s not my say.’

In other personnel news, Robinson refused to discuss whether he’d consider starting sophomore Jonathan Meldrum at tackle against Akron. Starting right tackle Corey Chavers was burned multiple times during the Orange’s opening day loss.

Opening day festivities

Syracuse will honor several of its athletes during Saturday’s game. At the end of the first quarter, Orange basketball head coach Jim Boeheim and women’s soccer coach Phil Wheddon will be honored for their accomplishments in the Olympics. Both won gold, Boeheim as an assistant on the U.S. men’s basketball team and Wheddon as goalkeeper’s coach on the U.S. women’s soccer squad.

At halftime, SU will honor the 2008 men’s lacrosse national championship team. The team’s championship banner will be unveiled.

jsclayto@syr.edu

Published on September 2, 2008 at 12:00 pm