The Carrier Dome fans were rooting for first downs.

When Andrew Robinson hit tight end Jawad Nesheiwat for a 7-yard slant pass with 12:30 left in the second quarter, the fans went crazy. A loud, prolonged, sarcastic standing ovation, in fact.

And then when Syracuse trailed by 10 points in the third quarter, the team acted like it had won the national championship. Andrew Robinson ran up and down the sidelines, congratulating everyone in sight. A Syracuse rushing touchdown, who’da thunk it?

Seven minutes later, Rashard Mendenhall blew by Dowayne Davis for 50 yards, and a 34-10 Illinois lead. It was all over.

But that’s a victory in the Greg Robinson regime – SU was actually still in the game during the third quarter.

That’s unacceptable.

The man who was supposed to at least bring defensive stability has shown nothing this year. It’s been three years, and the SU defense still doesn’t know how to defend an option. There have been blown assignments, missed tackles, late hits and premature celebrations.

And all of this against Illinois? Illinois, a team with the same record in the last three years as Syracuse coming into Saturday’s game. Illinois, a team with a coach, Ron Zook, who has underachieved since becoming a college head coach.

He outsmarted Greg Robinson. After the season, it’s time for Robinson to go.

Calling for the coach’s head after only three games is bold. But as far as I’m concerned, with the personnel and strategy Robinson’s using, there’s not much he can do for the rest of this season that could change my mind. Maybe a win against a bowl-bound team, but that seems far-fetched now. If he beats Miami (Ohio), Buffalo and Connecticut? Not enough.

‘You know what? I’m not even going to answer that,’ Robinson said Saturday, when asked what he’d say to his critics that think he should be fired.

Saturday was the game Robinson needed to win. Being blown out by Illinois, a team that Syracuse beat handily in 2006, on the road, is a sign that this version of Robinson’s Orange is far worse than last year’s and maybe even more incompetent than in 2005.

That’s right. At least in 2005, Syracuse had a defense. And in 2005, Syracuse had one win – a luxury that shouldn’t yet be taken for granted in 2007.

Syracuse has been outscored 118-32 in three games. The team is allowing 453 yards of offense per game. It has one rushing touchdown. It hasn’t had a first down in the first quarter for two weeks in a row. At one point, it went 97-plus minutes without a score.

After the most recent debacle, Robinson actually threw his own players under the bus, questioning whether the missed tackles can be blamed on the lack of talent. But the fact that it has actually gotten to this point demonstrates a failure of the coaching staff.

All I asked for before this season was tangible improvement from 2006 – not even in the number of wins. You see, Zook’s team improved. It’s his recruits who are making a difference now. And they turned a 10-point loss last season into a 21-point win this year. Syracuse’s offense and defense took one step forward in 2006 and now five steps back in 2007.

Greg Robinson is now 5-21 in 26 games. That’s the second-worst winning percentage for a Syracuse coach in history. Only Jordan C. Wells, who guided the 1892 Orangemen to a 0-8-1 record, has a worse clip. No coach in Syracuse history has had three consecutive losing seasons.

But here’s the number Director of Athletics Daryl Gross really needs to pay attention to: 34,188. That was the paid attendance for Saturday’s game, the second lowest in the last 20 years at the Carrier Dome. If Gross fired former coach Paul Pasqualoni because the school lost its fan base and revenue, he has no reason to not pull the trigger on Robinson.

And while money could be a factor in whether or not Gross, with the approval of Chancellor Nancy Cantor, will sever ties with Robinson, they both cannot ignore the irrelevancy surrounding this program.

Syracuse is a running national joke.

You’ve got announcers during the Pittsburgh-Michigan State game on ESPN saying Syracuse might be the worst team in Division I-A. You’ve got a Syracuse graduate, Sean McDonough, saying on national television that no recruit in the country would wear the all-orange uniforms Syracuse has floundered in.

Robinson was asked how long he could consider this team a work in progress.

‘Those are things you people (the media) can answer,’ Robinson said. ‘It’s not for me to really answer, it’s for me to work and get it better. I have to do what I have to do.’

Well, thanks for letting me answer, Greg. But your time is up.

Matt Gelb is the sports editor of The Daily Orange where his columns appear occasionally. He can be reached at magelb@gmail.com.

Published on September 16, 2007 at 12:00 pm