This football team made a statement Saturday night. Not on the field by somehow beating Louisville, but in how the players reacted afterward.

Lost in all the euphoric joy in the press room, Greg Robinson’s giddy and playful press conference (even by his standards), and the general goodwill an upset victory creates, was the honest appreciation the Orange had for its head coach.

Say what you want about the quality of this football team. It is not very high. That has been well-documented and publicized. But despite all the losing, the speculation surrounding Robinson’s job security and the increasing discomfort about how and when the seemingly inevitable firing happens, Syracuse has not given up on Greg Robinson. This win proves it.

Don’t believe me? Just listen to what players had to say:

Senior tailback Curtis Brinkley: ‘Most importantly, I’m happy for my coach. After the win, I gave him a big hug, and he deserves this win just as much as we do.’

Senior safety Bruce Williams: ‘We’re going to believe in Coach Robinson and believe in our team. That’s our motto right now.’

Junior quarterback Cameron Dantley: ‘To know that emotionally, (all the players) feel about this team just like everyone else does – they feel about this team so much from the coaches all the way to the players and everyone on the staff.’

Maybe they were spewing a bunch of canned responses or they were still caught in the moment of a wholly unexpected Big East victory, but I believed them. Color me stupidly gullible or na’ve, but when enough players tell heartfelt stories about greeting their head coach in the locker room or how happy they were for Robinson picking up his second-career conference win at home, it sticks.

Contrast the current situation bogging down this program with what happened at Washington last week. On Oct. 27, athletic director Scott Woodward announced his decision to fire Tyrone Willingham midseason, at least partially because the players were starting to quit on a head coach they knew was a lame duck.

Woodward may have had good reason to worry about the team. In early October, three weeks before the firing, Arizona tailback Nic Grigsby openly and bluntly offered his opinion on the Huskies.

‘(Tight end) A.J. Simmons and me were saying these guys are looking sick,’ Grigsby told The Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen after a game against Washington. ‘I looked over there and they were not talking to each other, not doing nothing. We sensed they were quitting already.’

And it would not have been totally unreasonable to expect Syracuse’s players to do the same. Even though all season long, they have maintained they are above the rumors, that they don’t concern themselves with gossip and hearsay and things they can’t control, these guys are not stupid.

They know Robinson is still on the hottest seat imaginable, regardless of one victory. They know about The New York Times story reporting Syracuse has hired a consulting firm to start looking for Robinson’s replacement. They know if the Orange had not beaten the Cardinals Saturday and became ineligible for a bowl game for the fourth-straight season, the axe may very well have come down today.

This team could have rolled over and died this week, knowing the end was near. We all would have understood, or at least would not have been surprised. Instead, the Orange went out and played as well – and as hard – as it has all season.

Players that stopped caring don’t play their first game against a Division I opponent of the season without allowing any sacks. They don’t full-out dive for passes, like Williams did to make his clinching interception in the contest’s final minute. And they certainly don’t risk their bodies by leaping from four yards out over a scrum into the end zone. Like Brinkley did in his second quarter touchdown in an otherwise meaningless November game.

Of course, it ultimately will not matter. Barring a miracle, Robinson will be replaced at the end of the season, as he should be. By all accounts, the process has already started. But this team made a strong statement about its character this weekend.

Syracuse will play for its coach until the bitter end, whenever it comes, and that’s one thing that can make Syracuse fans proud.

Jared Diamond is a staff writer for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. He can be reached at jediamon@syr.edu.

Published on November 2, 2008 at 12:00 pm