from the most email from a former Cuse player:
"head coach is more of a political figure than a DC... has to deal with more personalities and more power... he couldn't do both
in his first year the first 5 games of the season we had one of the top 25 defenses in the country... until the horrific offense finally caught up to us and defense started to get warn (sic) out... he prepares very well and his gameplans work"
Sounds like Robinson is a one-trick pony, but it doesn't really matter for us as long as it's only on the defensive side of the ball.
A friend of mine (who played DE under Robinson at Syracuse) and I have been trading emails today because we're likely going to hire GRob and the 'Cuse is apparently taking a close look at Shafer (ironic, huh).
Anyway, his views on Robinson as DC are quite favorable. He thinks GR is "brilliant" as a defensive strategist but didn't have good qualities as an HC (namely: delegating authority, setting a strong organizational structure for a program). He attributes a lot of their defensive lapses to a lack of quality athletes at SU. In regards to the hire, he thinks a lot may have to do with RR's problems against SU. He said they usually played WVU pretty well early in the games but eventually WVU's athletes would take over becasue the Orange just didn't have the kind of guys they could put out there for 60 minutes to match up against a team like WVU. In many ways, it's the most sincere form of flattery for Rodriguez to get a guy he has X-and-O'd from across the field. He has game experience against GRob so I would imagine he thought pretty highly of the guy's ability to scheme.
I'm stil getting some more anecdotal information from him, but I think it's pretty positive when a former player (who played for him for 5 years and only went to one bowl game) has glowing reviews on the hire.
Again, he stresses the difference between Robinson the HC and DC. We're not asking him to revive a program, but we're asking him to give some direction to a defense that routinely was outcoached. I think Robinson might be able to provide the kind of balance our defense needs and could be a good hire. He definitely doesn't have the star power of a Will Muschamp or Charlie Strong, but he may very well be a guy who can coax fundamentally strong play and good results...
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