With a fan base desperate for change and a failing head coach still at the helm, the players of the Syracuse football team are stuck in the middle. They are in limbo between the future and the present, even if they only want to deal with the latter.

Despite his 8-34 record as a head coach and little visible improvement, Greg Robinson continues to run the Orange (1-6, 0-3 Big East). The team’s fans continue to call for his head. Meanwhile, reports and rumors involving Daryl Gross, the Syracuse director of athletics, taking action against Robinson continue to float around on message boards, talk radio stations and even The New York Times.

Caught up in this mess, the Syracuse players say they only want to focus on the remaining five games on the schedule, starting with Louisville (5-2, 1-1 Big East) at the Carrier Dome 7 p.m. Saturday. The players have built a trench and dug in, refusing to admit that the cacophony affects them. Sports psychology experts say that isn’t necessarily the case.

‘We don’t have any decision-making or any influence on any of that that goes on,’ wide receiver Lavar Lobdell said. ‘We leave that to Coach Robinson and Dr. Gross. That’s their realm and we just leave it up to them.’

But shutting things out can be difficult for young athletes, said Steven Frierman, a sports psychologist and professor at Hofstra University.

‘The bigger the media attention, the harder it is,’ Frierman said. ‘Especially, remember, they’re kids. They’re not 30 years old, where they can disassociate themselves from the media sometimes. This might be new to them. And they have a lot of pressure.’

Which, of course, is what Greg Robinson said he didn’t want to happen when this season started.

Robinson begged reporters in August not to make the discussion about him. Focus on the team, he said. Focus on this season, not the future, he said.

His wish has not come true. Too much has happened, at Syracuse and across the country. Clemson fired their head coach already this season. This past week, Tyrone Willingham agreed to step down at Washington following the season. Both coaches had better winning percentages than Robinson.

The Orange has lost six games this year and won only one, a single digit victory over a Division I-AA opponent. The statistics are even uglier. There are 119 teams in Division I-A football. Syracuse runs the 105th-ranked defense and the 110th-ranked offense. The defense collapsed against Pittsburgh. The offense collapsed against West Virginia. And everything fell apart against South Florida two weeks ago.

Those are just the on-field issues.

Off the field, things keep tunneling downward, a bizarre downhill spiral:

Three games into the season, Robinson and Gross were criticized on ESPN’s College Gameday, one week after Penn State eviscerated the Orange, 55-10. ESPN commentator Lee Corso blamed Gross for firing former head coach Paul Pasqualoni and triggering the program’s freefall.

An unsolicited Gross called ESPN.com a few days later to explain his feelings toward Robinson. ‘It isn’t working out,’ Gross told ESPN’s Ivan Maisel. ‘It’s very disappointing … He has some work to do out in front of him.’

A group of football alums, led by former standout fullback Rob Konrad, wrote a letter to Gross in early October about solutions for the swooning program. The group endorsed Florida assistant Steve Addazio as the next Orange head coach.

Last Wednesday, the athletic department denied a New York Times report that said Syracuse had hired a consulting firm to search for Robinson’s replacement. The report said the firm had contacted Randy Edsall – SU alum and current head coach at Connecticut – about taking the job next year. Gross said the report was untrue.

While this swirls around the team, the players insist they don’t listen. ‘We try not to really pay attention to the media or the newspaper or the clippings or whatever, what have you,’ Lobdell said. ‘We just pay attention to what we can control and what really affects us. Hearsay or what have you, it has no effect on this team.’

‘Yeah, don’t believe it,’ said Curt Lox, a sports psychologist and associate dean at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. ‘Of course they pay attention.’

How could they not? It’s only human nature. If Robinson were to go, the majority of the coaching staff would depart with him. And coaches and players have a special relationship. ‘These people are surrogate parents for these guys,’ Lox said.

‘They’re really tight with these people,’ Lox added. ‘And they care very much about them.’

Which only makes the current situation tougher.

Dan Vaughan, a freshman linebacker from prep powerhouse Pittsburgh Central Catholic, said he chose Syracuse over schools like Pitt because of the atmosphere. This is a close-knit unit, Vaughan said. A family atmosphere.

But it’s not a winning atmosphere. That is the problem. There are five games left in the season now. Perhaps five games left in Greg Robinson’s Syracuse career. Perhaps fewer than that.

For players like Delone Carter, it’s best to concentrate on the present. Carter, a sophomore running back, knows Robinson’s commitment to his players. Robinson would send text messages to Carter during the summer – Keep bullying yourself – while the player rehabbed his dislocated hip.

There’s little use worrying about what it will be like if Robinson leaves.

‘We don’t have time to worry about that,’ Carter said. ‘That’s a different situation. We have to worry about this season and how we want to be remembered in this season.’

ramccull@syr.edu

Published on October 30, 2008 at 12:00 pm