CINCINNATI – Syracuse’s season was over long before the seconds melted away at Nippert Stadium Saturday and Greg Robinson ran off the field in his blue Syracuse polo for the final time.

Sure, in a literal sense, the Orange’s year ended Saturday. There will be no more Syracuse football in 2008. Another corps of seniors donned Syracuse jerseys for a final time, their college careers dragging to an unceremonious end. And, of course, Robinson watched the final 60 minutes of his Orange coaching career erode away, soured by the 30-10 beating Syracuse received by the BCS-bound Bearcats.

But this season was over long ago. It’s seemed oh-so-obvious for some time exactly how this season would play out. Syracuse would sputter along, maybe even win a game here or there. Robinson would eventually lose a job he probably should have lost a year ago.

Syracuse has been stuck in the football form of purgatory the last two weeks – playing meaningless games for a lame-duck coach. You could argue they’ve been doing so for an entire season. The Notre Dame win two weeks ago won’t have any lingering lift on this program, just like Saturday’s loss will be quickly forgotten.

In that sense, Saturday’s thrashing was much more a beginning than it was an end. A chance for the Orange to shift out of the neutral gear it’s been stuck in since Robinson was retained last November.

That’s the good news. But with any coaching change comes uncertainty. The stakes are even higher for Syracuse, a football team mired in chaos the past few years with seemingly no easy way back to prominence.

Never in recent memory has Syracuse been so without direction, so lost at sea without a paddle or an idea where to go. There have been lean years, sure. But nothing as barren as this. There is no direction. No infrastructure, it seems, for success.

All that needs to change in 12 weeks. In that time, a new head coach will be plucked to begin this reclamation project. A whole new coaching staff will be hired. Some semblance of a recruiting class will need to be salvaged to form the base for SU’s eventual revival. Some current players will transfer or leave. Others will be convinced to stay.

And all this will happen in a few months. It took four years for Syracuse to sink this low. And the pieces for its revival have to be gathered in a matter of months?

That’s the situation Syracuse faces. In the meantime, SU football in its current form descends into uncertainty.

The coaches will probably be all gone. Offensive coordinator Mitch Browning seemed consigned to that fact following Saturday’s loss. ‘I start looking for a job tomorrow,’ Browning said.

Players will face decisions, too. Whether to stick with a program in transition or transfer. In junior defensive tackle Art Jones’ case, he will examine in the coming weeks whether to forego his senior season and enter the NFL Draft. His future will depend a lot on the decisions ahead. ‘Once I talk to the coach, we’ll talk and we’ll figure things out,’ Jones said.

Everywhere, there are personnel issues that need to be addressed in the coming months. There is no clear-cut choice as to who will quarterback this team next year. No outright favorite to account for the production of outgoing tailback Curtis Brinkley. There are depth and talent issues at defensive line, linebacker and wide receiver.

These leaks will need to be addressed. But before that, Director of Athletics Daryl Gross must figure out who will succeed Robinson. It won’t be Lane Kiffin – he was introduced as Tennessee’s head coach Monday. Minnesota Vikings quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers, a former Syracuse assistant, got an endorsement from SU legend Donovan McNabb Monday. That should put him on the map. There are others out there, Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly among them.

These are minor developments. But a decision on who Syracuse’s next head coach will be doesn’t appear imminent.

Gross would be well-advised to move fast. A lot of issues have to be addressed before this program can get back on track. Problems that, with the season over and Robinson truly out of the way, can finally start to be solved.

That’s the good news. But any optimism should be tempered. There’s too much to fix, and no time for error. It will be an interesting 12 weeks. Pivotal decisions will be made. The future of the Orange program – immediate and perhaps long-term – will be determined, even if we won’t know the results for a few years.

Regardless, Syracuse football will find a new direction. Whether that direction leads to a revival or another era of despair remains to be seen.

John Clayton is the sports editor of The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. He can be reached at jsclayto@syr.edu.

Published on December 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm